Conversations with Steven Melamed

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Melamed.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I spent the first half of my life in the mental health field. I have a BS in psychology and worked for a company that provided services for people that had developmental disabilities and mental illness. I worked for them since I moved to NC in 1997 through 2008. I was the Director of Services and had over 100 staff under me, including 12 managers and three regional supervisors. It was a big, stressful job and I became burnt out. I really needed a change in my life. Having recently gotten back into photography, I decided to take a part-time job at Picture People. I had never heard of them before and didn’t have children of my own.

When I found out it was mostly taking pictures of kids, I was freaked out. At this point, I had very little experience being around children and no real experience taking pictures of people at all. But I took the job anyway. I worked there for about five months and the manager decided to leave and they offered me the job managing the store. I accepted and quit my job in mental health to manage eight people in a mall-based photography studio. They came close to matching my salary, but not quite, so I took a pay cut. But, the job was less stressful and I was out of mental health. After about two years of that, I was feeling like I was stuck and going nowhere. I wanted to get out but had no idea what I would do. I didn’t want to go back to mental health and didn’t want to work for a large corporation anymore either. Then, Picture people was bought out by an investment company and they decided to close the three studios in our area.

I had been thinking about going into business for myself but wanted a partner. I just thought it would be easier and fun to have someone to share the tasks with. Ideally, someone that would do all of things that I either didn’t like or wasn’t good at. Jen was a manager at the Cary location and was on my shortlist for the position. I remember getting told the studio was closing on a Friday, Saturday morning Jen called me up and asked what I was going to do. I said I think this would be a good time to go into business for myself. Some type of photography business, maybe portraits, high school seniors might be fun and artsy to do. I asked her what her plans were and she said I plan on going into business with you if you’re willing to let me. Sunday, we met at my house and started planning. We decided to take as many of the customers as we could and also thought about the preschools. We started talking about it and came up with lots of ideas to make the preschools work. I started doing research into online hosting and sales of pictures and we developed a business plan around it. We put in long hours, 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. It was already March and the school photo season was starting. We had to make ourselves into a legitimate, capable and reliable-looking business before the schools found out that Picture People was closed and they signed with a different photographer. We had no time to waste at all. Needed a name, license, insurance, logo, website, pricelist, equipment, etc. I had a few thousand dollars saved and we blew through all of it. We convinced 4 or 5 of the schools to sign with us and the business grew from there. My house has an in-law suite attached to it and we decided to renovate it and make it into a studio so we could do portraits with families as well.

We had a solid business plan that centered around the schools. They were a solid base income and they stayed with us, which gave us a dependable base income that we could add to every year. We marketed to those parents to come to the studio for family pictures and special events, like Santa. We had a reasonable price list that gave us enough money to survive but was fair and competitive. That was back in 2011; today, we have over 40 schools and two teams of photographers. We added an outside garden area to do pictures in as well. We do primarily children, families and pets. I love taking pictures of kids; they are so rewarding. They give you the most honest smiles and laughter and make my job so enjoyable. Jen and I are still partners; we are a perfect match. We have very few disagreements and compliment each other. She does all of the things I hate to do. Scheduling and set design, talking to the customers, clothing, selling and posing. I do the technical stuff, cameras and lights and take care of the business stuff, accounting and budgeting. We do a good job of staying out of each other’s tasks and can cover each other for vacations and family emergencies.

Our days during the school season, which is spring and fall, is Monday through Friday, going to a school in the morning and working till lunch. Then coming back to the studio and editing pictures, returning phone calls and emails. Sometimes we have evening sessions and also Saturday sessions. During the off-season, we work on business plans and education, trying to get better at what we do. Outside of my business, I play guitar and sing. Sometimes in public. Music has always been a passion of mine. Also, my girlfriend moved in with me this past April, making my life complete and perfect in every way.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In the beginning, we took very little money for ourselves. Most of it was put back into the business. We needed better gear and all of the expenses that came up! So that was hard. We had to get by on a very modest income for the first few years. COVID has also been a challenge. The schools shut down and when they reopened, they didn’t allow anyone in. Some still don’t. We have taken advantage of all of the loans and grants we could get to make it through this time. But, even as we are still not able to take pictures in 75% of our schools, we have added a bunch of new schools, about three months of work a year! So, we are hopeful in the fall, we will be back up and running at 120%!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I think the main thing about us is that we truly enjoy what we do. We have fun with our customers and they have fun with us. That makes for good pictures and a wonderful experience for them. Most people don’t like getting their own pictures taken and having your children photographed is very stressful for parents. They are very worried about the kids behaving and not getting dirty. We make everyone one relaxed. Take the time to make sure the kids are comfortable with us before we start and that way, we get really great pictures of them.

Parents keep coming back to us because of the lack of stress. We take a hard situation and make it easy and enjoyable for them. At least that’s the goal. On the school side, we have a simple motto. Taking care of the school and the kids is the job of the staff and the administration. Taking care of the pictures and the parents buying pictures is ours. We take as much work out of the school’s hands as possible and deal directly with the parents; We handle all of the problems and concerns, so they can focus on their job. The parents are happy because they get great customer service and awesome pictures, the school is happy because they don’t have the stress of dealing with any of it.

Any big plans?
Our long-term goal is to add more teams of school photographers. Having three teams would allow Jen and me to just supervise and work on the portrait shoots. I could easily do that into my retirement.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: jandsphoto.net