Packing up your photography business and moving to a new city can feel like starting over from scratch, but it doesn’t have to be a disaster. Pat Miller brings in relocation expert Meredith Ryncarz, relocation strategist and founder of The Restart Specialist, to reveal the real secrets behind rebuilding your client base, adjusting your pricing, and thriving as the new kid in town even in saturated markets.

Episode Highlights 🎤💡:

(04:23) - Reframing Fear into Opportunity

(08:06) - Starting from Zero in a New City

(17:10) - Understanding Local Buying Behavior

Connect with Pat Miller ⬇

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Connect with Meredith Ryncarz ⬇

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I'm Pat Miller, and this is the Professional Photographer podcast. This episode is for you. If you've received the news that you need to move your photography studio. Things are going so well here and in that new town. Look at all the people that already do what I do, and I don't know what to charge, and I need to pack all my stuff. I'm never going to be able to make it in whatever town. Okay, take a breath. Get all that out. Now we're going to listen to Meredith. Meredith Rincarz is our guest today, and she knows how to help people move their photography studio from one place to another. How does she know she's done it? I think she said eight times in 14 years. That is a lot of moves. Yes, you can move from one place to another. Yes, you can figure out how much to charge.

Yes.

Yes, you can compete in this new city, even if it feels oversaturated. How do we get all those answers? Well, we asked Meredith and I did, and she's standing by. We'll talk to her next. Meredith, welcome to the show. How are you today?

I'm good. How are you, Pat?

I'm doing great. I'm excited to have this conversation. We've never had a talk like this one on the show before. But before we learn from you, everyone needs to know all about you. Tell them who you are and what you do.

Okay. I am a wedding and a portrait photographer based out of Savannah, Georgia, currently, and I have been a official photographer for 17 years now.

Congrats on the success. 17 years. That's quite a long time. That's gotta feel great to build a brand and make it work that well. But you've had some challenges because you've had to move all over the place, and that's what we get to learn from you today. The challenge and the opportunity when you need to move around the country. So with all of your moves, you've kind of become a pro at this, haven't you?

Little bit.

How many have there been over the years?

Oh, gosh, I think we're at 8 or 9 right now. We may have one more in us in a couple of years.

Something that you may know a little bit in advance, like, hey, we may need to pull up stakes and move from one place to the other, and. And 8 moves over 17 years and still being a success. I'm sure there's a lot that you've learned, and I can't wait to dig into it. But we talk about it's tough enough to run the business Seems kind of overwhelming, too. But if someone has faced the same challenge that you've had to face all of those times, like, guess what? We need to move. What's the first thing they should do? Where do they begin? As they try and process moving their studio from one town to another?

I would say the first thing to do is not burn it all to the ground. Keep your. Yeah. Keep your. Your news silent. Move in silence for a little bit before you're ready to announce, versus kind of, you know, I've seen and done the. Let's, you know, blow it all up and build it all again. And my recommendation would be slow down at first.

And when you get that news at first, it can be really overwhelming. It sounds like move and silence came from experience. Can you shed a little bit more light on that about how you learned to, like, let your emotions happen and then go out and tell the world?

Yes. So one of our moves was supposed to be to Duke University, and that did not happen. We were ready to move, move in that direction. We were told that's where we were going. And then six months beforehand, it was, oh, nope, we changed your mind. You're not going there now. You have to figure it out. And you might be in Utah or you might be in Maryland, or you might be in Alabama. And so some of the work that I had done to announce and prepare kind of got literally imploded within a day.

Wow. And it's hard enough to move, but then you go out and tell people that you're moving and then you're not moving. That just sounds like a bunch of emotions. I don't want to.

There's a lot of emotions. Yeah. All right.

It starts with practicality, or doesn't start with practicality, that we have to think about a space and identifying where we're going to be in the new city. And as we think about all that stuff, we start to worry. So when someone says you have to move and the worry feelings start coming your way, how do you address them? How do you deal with that worry? That I'll never be able to make money again?

Yeah. Well, that's. I'll be honest, that's a mindset that we as photographers, as business owners, we deal with every single day, just in different capacities. And so when we're actually looking at moving a business, it's not a death sentence on. On your. On your business. It's actually a gift in a way. And that's how I've started to look at it initially. Not at first. Um, but it is definitely a. A gift to get to start over. Um, most times that you're moving, people don't know who you are. You are the new kid on the block, and there's power in that. Um, there can be fear in that. But if you look at it as an opportunity and a positive thing, then you're really going to be able to be successful in it. Even though it sounds really, really scary

to start with, when you look at it that way, it kind of lightens the load. It makes me think, wait a minute, I've got some stuff in this market I wish I didn't have to do anymore.

Right.

I'll just not do it when I go to the new place. Is it like shedding a skin in that way?

Yeah, a little bit. It's looking for the positive aspect of things. When, you know, maybe your location. I'll use my example. Right now we have hurricanes, and that can really put a damper on weddings fast. So maybe, you know, if you're dealing with something like that every single year, and now you're moving to a place that doesn't have that, okay, that's a big bonus. Maybe it's really, really cold half the year, and now you're moving somewhere else that's warm and sunny and, you know, like Florida. And now you've got that opportunity that you didn't have before.

When you go to the new place, I would imagine you pull up the town and you Google it and think, oh, my gosh, there's a million photographers already doing what I'm doing, and it feels oversaturated. Do your people tell you that as well?

Yep. Everybody that I talk to, oh, my gosh, it's so saturated in my market. Guess what? It is saturated everywhere. I. I mean, unless you go live on the South Pole, it may be even there, it's saturated. I don't know.

So you go there and you see everyone is doing what you're doing already. Is that an opportunity to switch up your specialty or vertical? Or is it just another invitation to become a market of one and do what you do in a unique way?

I think you can look at it both ways. I think you can look at it as, okay, here is an opportunity for me to move into this market and try something I've never done before. Expand into X, Y and Z. Um, but it's also knowing that you come in with your unique skill set, your unique view on things. As a wedding photographer, as a portrait photographer, I am the only person that can do what I can do. Yes, I push a button, Yes, I edit, but I have a unique backstory that informs how I work with clients. It informs how I view my clients and how I treat them. And so that's a superpower that nobody else on this planet has. And I think we often forget that when we're looking at moving or something that we see as catastrophic to our business.

People here may know you as a wedding photographer, but when you go to the new place, nobody knows you from anybody.

Nope.

And you may think you're a big deal in Milwaukee, but you moved to Austin and now you're a nobody. How do you talk people through the concept that you're starting at zero as far as awareness is concerned?

That's a really careful line that you have to walk. Because our egos as artists get in the way. And they do. We all have them. And when we move into a new location, the tendency is to start to think, okay, I was really killing it in Milwaukee or wherever, and now I am coming to this location and, man, I'm a hotshot and I'm gonna know, bring this way of doing things to this new city. And sometimes we start talking about how amazing that last city was, and, hey, we did this this way. You're at a networking event, you're talking to someone, and you're like, yeah, we did this this way over here. And this is how we should do it here. And that's a quick way to, like, shut things down. And so coming into a new location, you have to remember internally, okay, I've got this. I know how to handle this. I. I am competent at what I do, but I don't need to show that on the outside. Instead, I can come in, I can serve in a way that is helpful without saying, oh, well, this is the way we should do it. And that's a fine line that we have to walk. But there's also that superpower of you are the new kid on the block. And everybody wants to know, what's that new kid doing? Are they. Are they trustworthy? Are they good? What do they do? So that's that kind of duality of don't come in egotistically, knowing it all. But also you have that shiny newness to you as well.

And when you show up and hang out with other photographers, they've already got relationships. So what kind of warning signs or traps can we get pulled into if we're the over eager, connect with everybody, please, like me kind of person. When you show up in the new

city, yeah, it's easy to not Just with other photographers, but with any other vendor, you know, chamber of commerce, anything, there's always the clicks and the groups that already exist and you are the new person. And so you don't know necessarily the interpersonal workings of a town that you're moving into, who has beef with who. And there's a quick psychological thing that everyone does. Oh, you're the new person. Well, let me pull you into my, like, group of people and tell you all the bad things that business owner over here did, and I want you to kind of support me in that. And sometimes you end up being caught between two businesses that you really need to be Switzerland on and just say, you know what, that's on you. Like, I want to support everybody here and just kind of stay neutral because you are the new person. You could be walking into some things that you really don't want to be in the middle of.

I love that you said Switzerland. I say that all the time. If you're acting like Switzerland, in your experience, how long are you neutral? Is this a six month thing, a multi year thing, or you'll just know when you can start engaging other people

as long as you can. I've been here, oh, gosh, this is the longest we've lived anywhere, ever. And I've been here for seven years now. And I still, there are conversations that happen and I just kind of go, okay, okay. And I just kind of file it in the back of my brain and if it's something that can protect my business, okay, I keep that in mind. But I try to stay out of things where I can because things get messy in a small town.

It's interesting you said that because as the new person, you have clear eyes on all of these relationships and what is and what is not going on in the market. Do you think we understand the dynamics that we're dealing with on an everyday basis and some of the quirks of our market? The way that a new person might come in and say, what are you all doing it this way for? Is there an advantage of perspective?

There's always an advantage of perspective, but I'm not the only one that has that advantage. We all, whether we're moving a business or not, we have that advantage of perspective. Sometimes we just get so used to just go, like just going, we get up, we do our routine, we do our thing no matter who we are. And I think that sometimes it really helps us to ask outside of our routine, hey, what? You know, I want some eyes on this. And I think that that's Something we forget internally and externally.

A lot of times we talked about oversaturation and feeling like there's no opportunity in a new marketplace. But when you show up, how do you evaluate what may exist there? That didn't exist in Milwaukee, but now I could go do this. How do you size up where the money is?

I think you have to start first before even looking for the money of what do I do? What do I not do? And it's really easy to go, okay, here's the bright, shiny. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I know what I'm good at. I know what I'm not good at. I am not good at newborn photography. There might be a space in the market for that. I have. There's money for that. I have no business doing it. Like, I know what is good and not good. And that's what you have to start with, is that part. Then if there's still a niche area or. Or a section where you can move into. Okay, now let me look at what do I need to know about it? Because oftentimes we launch something or we jump into something, and it takes 10 times more effort than we realize. And now we're spread so thin that the thing that we're really good at, that we could be marketing in this new area, we're spreads within. We can't function and we can't actually run our business,

which would be a tragedy because you're a specialist in that. One reason, because you have a bunch of talent and you've made a great business doing that. And you get distracted by a bright, shiny object.

As they say, everything is new and exciting because you are the new person. You know, you could be saying yes to so many things, and sometimes that yes is not the right yes for you.

This is practical, but really important. If my wife Abby and I move from Milwaukee to San Francisco, the pricing would be different. How do we learn what we can charge in a new town?

Great, Great question. I know what my cost of doing businesses. That's. That's first. Then I start to look around the market. Okay, who do I see that's doing something similar to what I do? What am I looking at? Their rates. It. Does that make sense? I say that because I moved into a market at one point and we had the opportunity to go and talk with some vendors that were in that market. And I laid out my pricing. It was not a photographer, it was actually a planner. And I laid out my pricing. I said, you know, this is what we do where we're at. I just kind of want to see what you're seeing in this market. And what she told me was my pricing was ridiculous. It was too much for where I was moving to. It was out of line, and I could have just folded and said, okay, this is. That's fine. I'll lower my prices. I'll cut them in half. No problem. But the reality is, she was working in a pricing tier that was actually not my clientele. And so I was asking the wrong person. And luckily, I continued to do my research and go, okay, wait, there is a market that will support that price and actually support a higher price. And so what I do whenever we move is I actually look and reassess and go, is this the time to raise my pricing? Because I'm moving into a market that doesn't know me, that isn't used to this pricing. Can I actually raise it and support it?

That'd be a great result. To move from one town to another and get a raise. That would be. That would be great along those lines. And you don't have to use the town names because we want to protect the innocent. But as we've gone from one town to another, this town I moved to was really known for this. And this town had a bunch of crazy people. Like, can you talk about how your towns and your moves have varied when you've gone from one place to another?

Yeah. They all have a cultural way of purchasing. Maybe not cultural, but regional way of dealing with money, how they talk about money. There are certain markets that they will tell you this is their budget, and actually, in reality, it's half of that. And so you have to really understand the buying psychology of different areas. You have to understand the. That some places, the way you show up and how you present yourself matters more than other places. And it's really just looking at the people around you, going into a coffee shop and seeing, okay, how do people show up? How do they talk to each other, how do they interact? I'll use a town that I've never lived in, but that I've done work in. And up north in Grand Rapids, it was the most welcoming town I had ever been in. Laid back, wonderful people, just absolutely fantastic. And in just being there for less than a week, I could start to pick up on, okay, this is where the values are. This is where the market that, if I were to move into that town, I would need to be in. So you start to have to look like a detective.

Sure. And that observational stuff will definitely come in Handy. And it will aid with the next question. Give us the real thing here. How long is it going to take us to kind of get our feet under us and have business somewhat normal again after a move?

So there is a. At least for weddings, I feel like a 6 month and 18 month rule for portrait photography. I think it's a little bit shorter and I'll kind of address both. So with weddings there's the cycle of getting engaged, planning the wedding. So you've got six months of before and as you get into the market where you really have to be tip of tongue. You, you have to meet with people, get to know them, really listen. That Pareto principle, 80, 20 listen 80% more than you. You know the 20 that you should be talking so that you understand where you're moving to and you can start to become a local in that six month time frame. Then there's the 18 month of. It takes 18 months to fully 100% feel the force of all of that work that you have started to put in to play. So you're going to need some marketing capital and some money that's saved aside to be able to support that kind of six month dip and then that 18 month climb to being back to where you were potentially in the other place. And sometimes that 18 months will actually surpass where you were in the place before because we got comfortable what we were doing and now we've moved somewhere else and now we're really hustling and we see that sweat equity is coming into play with portraits, with headshots, with branding, all of that. I think there's less of a time frame for that because it's more immediacy and you have the ability to go to chambers of commerce, buy local type of things and really grow that business faster than that 18 month rule.

Yeah. In our rush to move from one city to another, things can get overlooked. Things that are really important to make the business work and oh, I forgot to do the thing. Does anything come to mind that you find people tripping up on when they move from place to place, one place to another?

Yeah. One of them I would say is announcing something on social media before you've let your clients know that. Our current clients. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that would be like, like one of the top five, I would say where you want to go ahead and let all of your current clients know, hey, we're announcing this. No worries, you've already paid for XYZ session. We're still here. This is when we're moving. You can also Add in the but we'll be back or six degrees of separation of we're moving there. Do you have anyone as amazing as you in this city? And there have been times they've connected me to people that have really just been such a blessing to be able to know them and get to know them and be a support system for us as business owners. I would say secondarily not changing your SEO when you should. Keeping an old phone number that is from your last place, when you really need a new number because you start to look kind of like maybe you're a scam. I don't know.

Oh, yeah, I hadn't considered that. Is that something you do when you move every time, always get the local number?

I have not necessarily always done that because we were in a military town, so local number didn't matter as much.

Yeah.

But I have found that culturally and as we have more and more scams on the, you know, Internet and email and all of that, that a local number really is going to matter more and more.

Sure. Let's end the episode with a piece of advice that maybe you wish you knew the first time that you moved, but now you want to make sure everybody knows. Does anything come to mind?

The bad will follow you, even if you don't think it will. If you're a bad business owner in one location and you move frequently, you. You need to play your, your cards right. You need to do the right thing. And I say that because I've seen military spouse business owners who have moved from one duty station and done something and gone, ah, it doesn't really matter. I can burn that bridge. I'm gonna go over here. Well, give you six months to two years and it'll follow you. So do the right thing no matter where you're at.

That's an awesome piece of advice. Even if you're never gonna move. That's an awesome piece of advice. The bad will follow you. We need a T shirt when you're speaking to. Come on. The bad will follow you. That's great. Beyond this podcast, you actually help people make these moves. Tell us about the restart specialist.

Yeah, so the restart specialist is a separate company from my portrait Weddings. And we have content on the website on how to move a business. We have some YouTube videos and things like that. And that really was born out of somebody telling me that I could not move my business and I had no business being a business owner. So that's how it was born.

Yeah. And how do we get it? Where do we find it.

So it'[email protected] and you can find it on Instagram as well. We do not have a TikTok though.

No dancing.

No dancing.

I'm really glad that we did this episode because there is going to be a PPA member that goes on YouTube and says I need to move, I need help. And this podcast will come up and then they'll ultimately be able to connect with you. Meredith, thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

Absolutely glad to be here.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Professional Photographer podcast. Now help us out. Tell us what Meredith said that made you go, oh wow, I never thought of it that way. Or oh, the bad will follow me. I'll never forget that. Whatever it is, leave a comment and let us know and tell us what you liked about the episode. That way we know what kinds of shows to do more more of. Also, it really helps us out if you click like and subscribe. Like helps the show meet more people and subscribe makes sure that our show shows up in your feed. So if you'd be willing to do that, we'd really appreciate it. The other thing is, you're a member of ppa, right? Well, if you're not yet a member, you're truly missing out. PPA offers incredible resources like equipment, insurance, top notch education and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA. You belong here. Discover more about [email protected] that's PPA.com I'm Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community and the host of the show. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you right here next time. Take care.