248 - Building a Business to Create Your Ideal Lifestyle - An Interview with Rachel Greiman
On today’s episode of the podcast I speak with Rachel Greiman, Founder + CEO of Green Chair Stories, about her P&L statement and how she started her own copywriting business.
A copywriter for photographers, Rachel started a family photography business in 2014 and from there, she started helping other photographers with their copy and formalized her process in 2016.
In 2020, Rachel hired a second writer for her team which helped her workload at the same time she had a baby.
Offering a productized service, Rachel offers website copy for photographers with a standard 5 pages of copy – home, about, contact, and usually experience and pricing. Every project starts with a call on a Monday. Coming into this call, the writer has already interviewed 2-3 of your past clients, they’ve looked at all of your social media captions, they’ve read your reviews, they know why you’ve come to us, and the team has reviewed the 40 question questionnaire. After this meeting Rachel’s writers write the first draft by Thursday night and Rachel reviews them on Friday by end of the day and deliver it by the following Monday. They have five business days to edit with the writer (one writer takes on only one project per week).
Every 6 – 12 months Rachel’s company raises their rates as the industry prices raise, typically attracting clients that are shooting $5,000 weddings for example. Rachel recommends DIYing if you are a newer photographer, and she sells a DIY guide and an email template guide, bringing in an average of $3,000 a month. A lot of this is coming from podcast press, Google rankings from photographer template guides, social media inquiries and it’s just not time for them to pay for Rachel’s service, or her ~2,000 person email list.
When doing her monthly financial review, Rachel likes to look at her income and figure out why it’s low or high that month and what she did differently and what the expenses are and how it’s impacting profit margin to make sure that she’s appropriately spending. YTD Rachel is at $219,000 for 8.5 months, coming in just below her $26,000/month goal.
Reviewing the numbers, February and March were pretty high due to peak photography season. These clients typically booked in December and pay 50% up front and 50% later unless they’ve asked for a four-part payment plan. Slightly down in August, it’s a slower month due to it being photography season and Rachel slowing down that month for the sake of her and her team.
Rachel is very focused on having $10,000 profit months. 10% of revenue is donated, and Rachel pays herself about $7,000 a month, the highest it’s been in her 8 year business. The donation money comes out of Rachel’s $7,000 because as an S Corp, Rachel makes her donation through herself to get an itemized deduction since only C Corps can get business deductions for charitable donations.
Rachel separates her contractor payments from expenses to get a better visual, however contractor costs are also expenses. TYD it breaks down to about $45,000 in expenses, $85,000 to contractors, and $85,000 in profit. Rachel charges $4,500 for a website and the contractor gets $2,100. The opportunity to make more is if they write an additional page or edit another writer’s work. Rachel also has an hourly VA and a monthly Pinterest manager.
Rachel pays her contractors through Zelle since she has an accountant. Braden recommends Gusto for when you run your own payroll.
While Rachel could make more money by taking on more of her own clients (she had 5 this year), with a two year old and a four year old at home, for the sake of her work-life balance and ability to create the output she desires as well as the longevity of the business being able to run without her being so hands on, she chooses to make the amount that she’s making because it works for her and her family. She focuses on selling high-quality products that are in demand and is not looking to just grow a buck. Her current goal is to work less and maintain the revenue.
One of Rachel’s monthly expenses is cookies. She sends Levain cookies as a client gift because cookies hold a special memory for her growing up. Rachel also pays for each of her clients to take the Enneagram assessment.
Get in Touch with Our Guest
Rachel Greiman, Founder + CEO of Green Chair Stories
Follow Rachel on Instagram @GreenChairStories
Check out her website for eight years’ worth of free blog content and advice greenchairstories.com/
