The Say Less Podcast

006 - [SERIES] The First Year Files: Beginner Business Building

• Grace Cacho & Alex Taylor • Episode 6

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0:00 | 28:03

In this episode, Alex and Grace share their honest experiences and practical steps for entrepreneurs, especially creatives and photographers, to get their business off the ground professionally without the overwhelm. They emphasize that confidence and legitimacy come from solid systems, not just a pretty logo or a flashy website.

In this episode:

  • Why confidence in your business starts with a legal foundation, not branding (and the common mistakes to avoid)
  • The importance of choosing the right business structure: sole proprietorship, DBA, or LLC, and when to upgrade
  • How to register your business name, secure your EIN, and the importance of a business bank account
  • The pros and cons of using Gmail versus a custom business email
  • Tips for creating cohesive branding that sounds good when spoken aloud and how it impacts client perception
  • Why you don’t need a massive branding budget in year one—simple is enough to start
  • Critical contracts and insurance every small business owner must prioritize
  • The value of systems—client workflows, website focus, and doing the front-end work before building a large online presence

Resources & Links:

  • Law Tog – Reputable legal templates for photographers and creatives
  • The Legal Page – Affordable contracts for creative entrepreneurs
  • LegalZoom – Easy legal registration for small businesses

Note: Remember, this episode is all about building a reliable foundation—your confidence as a creator depends on your system, not just your aesthetic. Start simple, stay consistent, and grow from there!

Send us burning questions, topic ideas, and things you’re loving about the podcast!

Connect with Alex & Grace:

Education:

Must-Have Systems

Arisa Haus Creative Marketing Agency

Grace & Andrew Cacho provide clarity to businesses and personal brands by means of Brand Message Clarity, Audits, Brand Strategy, Content Creation, Photo & Video, Web Design, and Social Media Management.

SPEAKER_00

We are talking to the woman who's pricing things in her notes app, testing out a logo at midnight, Googling business structures while reheating your copy for the third time, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're wondering, am I even doing this the right way? So today we're slowing it down. This is the first file in the first year files, and we're starting where most people don't want to start, the unglamorous grown-up stuff, the part where you make it official, the part where you build something steady before you try to make it look impressive, because confidence doesn't come from a pretty logo. It comes from knowing that your business is built on something solid. So let's get into today's episode. I wanted to start a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. So I asked Alex to join me, and I said, stay less, I'm in. Welcome to the Stay Less podcast, where we actually say a lot more about motherhood, creativity, photography, business ownership, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01

We're your hosts, Alex and Grace, and this is a space for creative women building something meaningful. Whether you're raising babies, raising your rates, or just trying to figure out your next move.

SPEAKER_00

We talk about all the real stuff. What's working, what's not, what we're unlearning, what nobody tells you about building a business that has to fit inside a real life. The pivot, the pressure, the sustainability, and all of the seasons. If you've ever felt like you're creating in the margins of your time, your energy, or your confidence, you're not alone here. So stay left. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm so excited to get started with this series. Grace and I have been talking about starting your business for the first time. Just where do you even begin? Um, Grace is doing coaching calls, which I think is amazing. We're gonna talk about that a lot on another episode. But we want to help photographers that are getting started with their business and not even specifically photographers, but small business owners, creative entrepreneurs, specifically those of you that are moms and you're sitting in the middle of the night, you're nursing your baby, and you're Googling, do I need an LLC? Do I need a DBA? Do I need a solo crop? Like, what am I doing? You're putting in a chat GPT. Um, I need a logo, which I don't recommend chat GPT logos. This is not an embarrassment for chat GPTs. I know, I know, but maybe, maybe Canva is a good place to start. We'll get into it. But yeah, I want to clear it up. I want to start our first year files with making everything official and making it not only look legitimate, but be legitimate. You don't have to be flashy or expensive, but you do need to be solid. And Grace and I want to get started by telling you how to kind of get things in place before you start taking on clients. So before we started this, we were kind of joking about what we first did when we first started taking clients. I I honestly wish I had this like magic story of I had a vision and a dream and I sat down and I planned my business. No, it wasn't like that at all. It was like, hey, will you take pictures of me? And I was like, sure. And they Venmo'd me $50 or a Chewy's gift card for a margarita. And that was how it began for me. That was how it began. My gosh. Totally not fancy. It was like seriously just duct tape together. Um, and then after a while, I was like, this is great. Like, this is what I want to do. Um, and I actually started working a little harder on um getting more official. But when you're starting a creative business, and especially as a mom, you kind of start with this delusion of me, what I think people do wrong, correct me if I'm wrong, Grace. What I think people do wrong is they start with the branding and they throw it out there. And they start with their Instagram and their Facebook and they've created that logo on Canva that's super cute, but they don't have any experience and there's nothing to back it up. So, okay, now that you've made it all cute, you have clients reaching out, and now what? And then what do you do? Yeah. And then what are you gonna do? Because you don't have anything ready. So before you post and before you book, and before you start shooting, and you start putting your business cards that you're gonna regret, before you name your business after your maiden name at me, at me, before you use your paid name and your business name, I want step one to be to decide your business structure. So I believe my best practices, like opinion, is to start with a solo prop, so a sole proprietorship or an LLC. Yeah. I started my business with a DBA. How did you start yours?

SPEAKER_00

Same. We DBA. Well, actually, no. I mean, so I did sole proprietorship. Um, and like my husband, he does like web and graphic design too. So we because I was doing photography and like took it a little more seriously, we we eventually created an LLC. I really underneath that. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it's always been the same, like I've always had the same name for like just literally my name. Yeah. But yeah, just DBA. I think that's a great, great.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's a great start, especially because um an LLC will give you liability protection. It does give you that peace of mind. I started mine with a DBA and just like general liability insurance. So I think either way is a good start. And I just want to remind our listeners here, this is not, we are not lawyers. This is not legal advice. This is like simple our experience and our opinions. And we are just wanting to share with you kind of the mistakes that we made so that you can potentially not make the same. So just remember that you don't have to overcomplicate it. You can start simple and you can upgrade later. So if you want to start with a solo prop DBA and maybe general liability insurance, which is required by most wedding venues. So that's for the photographers that are listening to this. Start simple and you can upgrade later. So step one will be deciding your business structure and going that way. This is not a paid ad, but legal zoom is a great option. I don't know if anyone's used Legal Zoom. If you don't want to take the time to sit with a lawyer, which can be pricey, uh, LegalZoom and websites like that are a good place to start. We'll put that in the show notes. Yeah, show notes, LegalZoom. Honestly, we need to like link all these things. But like I said, we're not, we don't, we're not giving legal advice. We're just giving y'all true experience of what we have used that we love. We're gonna start talking about workflows and different platforms that we use, and it's all just our opinion of what we've used and what we've loved. Yeah. So after you decide your business structure and get settled in with that, starting simple and not overcomplicating it, you need to register your business name. So if you want to use your own name, that's totally fine. One of my bestie photographers decided on honey wild photography, which I literally think is the cutest thing in the world. She decided not to use her name and went for a cutesy name. And I love it. So use a brand name, use your name, check if it's available in your state, secure it, and apply for an EIN. That's what you will use from your social security in order to do your taxes. So don't at me for this. But I genuinely think you can't claim to be like a full-time photographer until you're a taxpaying photographer. Agree or disagree? Agree. I'm like, I have 10 years of experience and I have seven years of the scam that is taxes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I think uh going back to like LLC2, for anybody that like has zero knowledge about what any of that means because you've never done business ever in your life. Um honestly, the biggest difference is like keeping your personal assets separate from your business assets. So obviously, like in the very beginning of your business, you're gonna be reinvesting a lot back into your business, like upgrading gear or like even just paying for like Adobe subscription, Lightroom, whatever, like taking care of your gear, gallery delivery services, like all the little fees that come with that or big ones. But when you go to do your taxes, like Alex was talking about, you can write off a lot of that stuff. Right. And it just keeps everything a little bit more in order. Like she was saying, you have a lot more protection over like your personal monies, even though it's probably feeling like it's all your personal monies at the beginning. No, it does.

SPEAKER_01

It feels like you're investing like all your own personal time and money and all the investments and all the things. But yeah, definitely um do your research. In the beginning, for me to start, the DBA was the right thing. For Grace, an LLC was like right for her and her husband because they honestly have like built this empire of the two of them together. So with me, it was like, I just like need something to be official and professional. So if you're not sure where to start, I recommend a DBA and working your way up from there. But yeah, an LLC is honestly where I'm at now and where you're going to grow. And it's a little bit more of a heavy cost up front, but worth it if you're planning on making an entire career. So I know this sounds like kind of boring, but hopefully it's helpful. Hopefully it's helpful. Some of this is gonna be a little boring, and we'll try to keep it a little bit spicy in the middle so it's not too boring. But after you do those things, it is part of it. After you do those things, you want to do your most what I think is the most grown up, which is open a separate business bank account. Um I didn't do this for years. I don't know if you did this immediately either. I had like no money to go into it. I thought I wasn't making any money. So I was like, sure, let me just put that $50 in there. Like there was just no reason for me to do that in the beginning. I wish that I did. I wish that I did. Like when it's now that it's all said and done. It feels a little dramatic, but if only you're making $500 a month, it is worth it. Yeah. So after you establish your business, after you um get the license in place, you get your EIN, your tax number, and like all your stuff, your business name, get all that founded. Um, the bank account is certainly necessary. Even if you're not able to pay yourself yet, um, you do want to keep all that separate for tax purposes. I really have had a horrible time with taxes. I had a horrible time in the beginning. It's gotten a lot better, but I promise this will help you in the future. Um, with that, make sure to look into your local business license requirements if you need anything like that. Check if you need a sales tax permit in your state. And um, I know I already mentioned this, but check in on basic liability insurance. I know I said this, but most venues do require vendors to have their own like liability insurance at this phase. Do venues ask you for that, Evergrace? Um, I usually just get day of. Day of, okay. Yeah. That's interesting. I didn't know that existed. Yeah. Okay. So day of like liability insurance. I have like I pay yearly. I think it's like literally $80 a year. But it only doesn't, just to be clear for our listeners, it doesn't cover like my equipment. I have a separate set of insurance that covers my equipment and my gear. Yeah. This is like only like general liability insurance, which would be like if I was setting up a light and a reception and it like fell on someone's head. Which is like probably like a horrible example, but I can't really think of anything else that like I guess I'd be liable for. Like if I cause damage or harm personally with me or my equipment, then that's kind of what you need it for. So it makes more sense for the caterers and like the DJ and stuff like that. But I totally understand. Yeah. I totally understand. The last thing I want to say in this part is please, please, please, before you book anyone, have a contract. Get a contract in place. We love it. Not a DM contracts, not a DM agreement, not a verbal promise, not a hey, just so you know I'm not giving your money back. A contract. This is the moment once you have the contracts in place that your hobby becomes a business. We're gonna take it to a more professional level. And even if you think you don't need one, I promise you need one.

SPEAKER_00

Do not have Chat GPT write you a contract.

SPEAKER_01

Emphasis. If you hear nothing else from this podcast, do not use Chat GPT for your logo or for your contract. We will link some great places like the Law Tog, places like that that can offer up more professional things for you. Because getting everything off ChatGPT is cute. Use it for your Instagram caption if you must, not your logo, and not your business professional. Please for the love. Thank you. And that's that. And that's that. Okay, so that's kind of the boring part. Do you feel like I covered everything, Grace, of like getting started professionally? I want to move past some of the boring and kind of go into um what gets everyone excited, which is like more so the branding. Yes. More so the branding and yes, the client-facing things, like what the client sees. And I do want to say, like, this is what gets people excited, like creating the logo and working on like your business presence. But I promise you, all the stuff that we talked about that I keep saying was boring. Obviously, you know it's important, regardless of it being boring. That is all about your client experience, which is more important than having a cute logo. Having like styled images is not as important as when you finally have a client having your systems in place of I am professional. I'm cute and I have a cute logo, but I'm professional. Here's a contract for my services. Here's like everything that I have backed up. You are going to have to fire your taxes. So make sure that all these things are done. Okay. Now I'm really done. I'm really done. I'm moving on from it. But I just wanted to make sure everyone noticed that we didn't start with the looking professional. We wanted to start with being professional. Yeah. So we're going to talk on another episode about securing a website. It's a little bit hard without having any experience, in my opinion, as a photographer or creative entrepreneur, without having that experience, you can't really have a website. You're kind of just throwing up empty copy and you don't have any images. You haven't really decided on your direction. Prior to shooting weddings, I was shooting senior images. I was shooting family photos. That wasn't my heartbeat. That wasn't my passion. But I didn't know until I get started. So if I would have built an entire website of I'm a professional portrait photographer and here's my portfolio of senior images, and I continued to book them, I would have been like burnt out so quickly. I'd have been like, this is not what I was meant to be doing. And it wasn't until I started focusing on weddings that I decided this is what I want to do. And now my website is set up as I'm a wedding photographer and pushing wedding photography because that's what I do. Anywho, um, definitely start by after you've got your name registered, like we talked about in part one, working on getting your domain name and a professional email. So this is a hot take. And honestly, Grace, I want your feedback. What do you think about having a Gmail for client communication? Well, I just changed mine.

SPEAKER_00

And you know, it took me like two weeks to figure out how to do it because Google business is so complex now. I was talking to Andrew and I was like, can you believe we just used to like use Google to search stuff? And now it's like this whole huge like business conglomerate, whatever. Yes. And it's just crazy. So yeah, my my email now is I have hello at gracecacho.com and then I also have a grace at gracecotcha.com. And you can put like a bunch of different aliases. So like what's another one? Like I really want to do presets. So like presets at gracecacho.com. Like if people have questions or like need to troubleshoot.

SPEAKER_01

Support or help at yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So you can do a lot of different things with that. I think having a an at your domain name is super, super professional.

SPEAKER_01

So here's like my hot take.

SPEAKER_00

But that's not everybody, I mean, not everybody can do that. I didn't have to pay for it.

SPEAKER_01

I love Gmail, and I'm not recommending it, but I love Gmail. So mine is astonephotography.com, which as you know will be changing this summer. But right currently, it's Astone teaser, small teaser. Right now it's astonephotography.com, but it forwards to my Gmail. And I no one knows, and like I use like the alias email, so it to and from hello at astonephotography.com, but it forwards to my Gmail. I have a business Gmail, but I just prefer the app and the usability of Gmail. So whatever you feel comfortable with, I don't think you should have a Gmail email client facing your business now. So make it more professional. But if Gmail floats your boat like it floats mine, then continue on and forward your email there. Cause that's what I do. So after that, I do recommend finally getting yourself started on social media, which I do think this is everyone's favorite part. They're like ready to get on social media, ready to announce to their friends and followers of this is what they're doing now, but keep it consistent with your domain. So, for example, mine is A Stone Photography. My Instagram is astonephoto.design. I do design work on the side, as most of you know. My sweet friend that is Honey Wild Photography, she has her honeywildphotography.com. She is at honey wild photography on Instagram. She sticks with her business name and it's cohesive and it's professional and it's memorable and it's easy to find. When you're deciding these kinds of things, I want you to think about how it sounds when you're telling someone out loud. Yeah. Not so much how it looks, but how it sounds. For example, me, Miss A Stone photography. When people ask about my business, they say, is it Aston? Well, how do you pronounce this? Is it Aston? Which is A Stone. Looking back 10 years ago, I should have done a dot space capital S A Stone, which was my name, which now it's Alex Taylor's. So I just want you to think about how it sounds when you're saying it out loud and not only what it looks like or anything like that. But just to remember when you're doing your branding, when you're working on your branding, if this isn't your forte and you're looking for someone to help, you do not need a $5,000 package in year one. You simply do not need to hire the super, super professional branding consultant to start this for you. I recommend using something like Upwork or your freelance friend that you know. And like if it's not your forte to make it yourself, definitely finding someone that can make it for you. But you do not need the $5,000 brand package. What you make in the beginning may not serve you down the road. But just start with a clean font, a simple logo, even a text-based one. Get a couple cons consistent colors. Grace over here is my neutral girly. She's always got the, she's got the browns and blacks and an occasional rust color on lock. On lock. But you know me. I'm like miss, I'm a rainbow unicorn. I'm like, I want pink and blue and orange. And I'll throw in my logo, it's black and white. But yes, you want a clean font, a simple logo, even just text-based is totally fine. A couple of consistent colors and then clarity on who you serve. And this may change, this may change over time, but start where you're feeling like your passion may lie and go from there. But your clarity is going to convert more than your aesthetics. Yes, yes, yes. If you need any help with that, try to like define this sentence. I help blank by doing blank. So where's your heartbeat? Like I said, mine is like with weddings. Yeah. I help brides on their most important day. That is the most, that's the most important to me. That's what I love. Is like being a part of brides most important days, grooms too, obviously. But you know, yeah, just like I'm a girly girl through and through.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, I think we'll kind of get into this on another episode too. But like at the beginning, when you're shooting a lot of different stuff, like probably doing a lot of free shoots, just to like get your feet wet. Like, obviously, you're learning how to pose people and like learning how to work with people like on the fly in general, but pay attention to like what you look forward to most as you're going into it. Cause you might be surprised like how early on you're like, wow, I really love doing couples. It's a lot easier to pose them, or I really like doing seniors. They just have a lot more fun and they like, you know, whatever. So what like pay attention to what you like most and start to like lean into that because that could be the direction that you're supposed to go for now.

SPEAKER_01

Right. No, that's literally so smart. I want to go on the record while we're recording this podcast to say I'm breastfeeding Jack during it. So yeah, just a little like side note. That's what we're doing. We're we're having a nursing session while we record. Honestly, like it makes me feel less stressed because I'm like, you're right here in my arms and I don't have to think about what you're doing, which it's nice, but just mom's doing the things, which is what this whole podcast is about. Okay, I'm getting ready to wrap this up. And I want to go through the list of the order that makes sense for making yourself actually professional and being professional. So looking professional comes after being professional. So here's the steps. For those of you that are note takers, Grace and I be wearing out the notes in our phone. If that's you, get them out. Get them out. I'm like, it's like when you're in church, you're like, the pastor's like, get your Bible, get your highlighter ready, highlight the verse. Here it comes. Get your note ready. Here's the correct order. I've done it backwards. People can do this backwards all the time. You can change your vision over and over.

SPEAKER_00

This, not our legal advice, but our professional hours and weeks and potentially months of months flailing.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, here is our opinion. Decide your structure. So LLC, solo prop, DBA, start there. Number two, register your name. Pick the name and then register it. Stick general, choose your own name, choose something cutesy. Don't say Alex Taylor Senior Photography. You might change your mind. Pick something simple and something that resonates with you and register it. Number three, get your EIN in any state needed. If there's the sales tax permit, all of that kind of stuff, get that done. Your EIN's your tax number that'll go with your Social Security. Boring, boring, boring. One, two, and three, boring. Number four, open your bank account and get some dollar dollar bills. Start putting your money in there and pay yourself. After that, secure your domain and your email. So you already have your name. So keep it simple. A Stone Photography is my business name. Astonephotography.com. We got it. Secure the email, forward it to your Gmail. If that makes you happy, if that floats your boat, if that crumbles your cookie. Number six, lock in your social handles. Keep it consistent. This is simple. It's all coming together. And then work on your brand visuals. This is number seven. Create your simple brand visuals. Do not make it number one. Get one through six done. Please. We're begging you. We love you. We want to help you.

SPEAKER_00

And I think with a lot of the like you're talking about doing all of the structure at the beginning. Also, when you do do do do, when you do do when you do your branding, all of your client-facing marketing things, you'll have a lot more language around it, probably when you kind of like know who you want to serve. So your marketing stuff is actually going to come a lot easier if you do all of the front-loaded structure building.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. No, that totally makes sense. And then the last thing is working on your contracts. So get those drafted. If you are not a lawyer, if you're listening to this and you're not a lawyer, which actually, if you're listening to this and you are a lawyer, will you message us? Because that would be surprising and I would love to know. But you're not a lawyer. So if you need to buy your contracts, if you need to purchase them on, we can help you with reputable places to get them from, which is not chat GPT. Yeah. I'm going to take a shot every time we say chat GPT. Take a shot. Or don't use chat. Or just don't use it. Yeah. Use it for your Instagram. Don't use it for your business.

SPEAKER_00

The Law Tog, because I think that's what you've used. And then I use uh the legal page. I'm going to put both of those in it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00

I think the Law Tog hat, I mean, she's been around for a lot longer. So she has she has a lot more stuff. I think the legal page is more geared towards like creative service-based providers.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, perfect. So if they're just different. Yeah, the law Tog is like specifically photographers.

SPEAKER_00

No, yeah, that's great. So legal page is great too. In the show notes with the links to those.

SPEAKER_01

Link them both. So those are the eight steps that we're recommending to look professional and be professional and not have to stress whenever you do start bringing the clients in, which is what we want you to do. We want you to find the people, but let's get the systems in place.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

After you're done with that, we'll start working on the portfolio and the website. Okay. We're not building a real life, real life choking on milk. Goodness. Goodness. We aren't building a 12-page website with no clients yet. Got it, people? Oh gosh. And just to wrap it up, I want to talk about a couple things not to do. Here's what we're not doing. We're not spending thousands on branding before booking clients. We're not building a massive website with no actual work to show. And we're not going to wait until everything's perfect to call yourself a business. We're just going to get the business stuff in place and we're going to start. We're going to start gaining the experience, but making sure that we have the professional back-end stuff done too. You're allowed to grow. I want Jack wants to be heard, but I want to be heard too. We're fighting for attention. You're allowed to grow publicly and you're allowed to look simple in year one and say, this is the beginning. The legitimacy of your business is really about the systems that you have in place. It's not about all the aesthetics. So just keep that in mind. You have you have our permission to start simple and not stress about making it seem like you have this luxury, giant multi-hundred thousand dollar business that hasn't started yet. Start simple. Don't stress yourself out. Yeah. But if you're in month zero to three, that's your checklist. It's not glamorous. I doubt this podcast is going to go viral. We feel like it's important with sprinkling in some business advice, some stuff that we've been through. We want it to be heard for people that are starting out in month zero to three of this is what you need to do to start. Start treating your business like a real business, and then other people will too. Once that foundation is solid, you can start from there and build creatively on top of it without feeling like it might collapse all over you. But like Grace said, we have a bunch coming in this series, and I'm so excited. We're gonna start talking about building a portfolio. We're recording about client workflows, we're gonna build, we're gonna speak on pricing and pricing your business for sustainability and not burnout. We have a lot coming in the first year files, and I'm excited to get into it. But before you can work, you gotta work. Before the work, you gotta do the work. Do your homework before you're doing your work. And that's my thoughts on it. I love it. Yay, until the next episode.

SPEAKER_00

I'll catch you on the flippity flip.

SPEAKER_01

Yay!