Toronto Beauty Group

As 2014 closes out and 2015 is literally just a couple of days away I thought this would be a good time to share with everyone the changes I have in store for my wedding business!  Which in just a few short years has really taken off and I couldn't be happier or more proud about that fact.  It's so funny to think that originally I started doing weddings as a "side thing" to my fashion and commercial work and it just sort of took off and ended up becoming more my focus..especially these past couple of years.

I think one of my strengths and a big reason I've seen such growth in a few short years is b/c of my anal, organizational, business personality when it comes to things like emailing, scheduling, following up on things etc.  A lot of artists just don't have this as a strength and I'll openly admit I'm a bit crazy about it all lol.

So being that this is a strength of mine and with me getting solidly booked every weekend it only made sense to expand my business and develop a team to work with me and that I can outsource on weddings on their own.  I've been doing this for a couple of years now under Jessica Jean Myers & Associates and overall I've seen growth but like usual I want more lol!

I realized the only way to make "my team" busier was actually to take my name out of the mix...had to put my ego aside on this one but the thing is people of course only wanted to hire me so getting them to use my team has not always been the easiest even though I know I only bring on artists that I feel do work that is comparable to quality and talent as my own.

With that idea and a A LOT of brainstorming of names I came up with Toronto Beauty Group - I actually came up with the name during a bus ride in Nicaragua during my Central America backpacking adventure!  I wanted something that wasn't too fluffy or frilly b/c that's not my clientele or me but I wanted it to be self explanatory as to what it was but still sound professional and classy. Such a simple name really but I think it's strong and I'm surprised actually it wasn't taken lol!


With the name decided I've taken the past couple of weeks to change up my site a bit, buy new domains and email addresses and add Bios for my team.  I even got new business cards and made a new Instagram Account just for the Wedding Business.  I really want to separate it from myself and really build something that is it's own entity so that I can outsource weddings to my team more and build the business that way.

This year the company closed out at just under 100 weddings (98 to be exact) and next year I'm really hoping to smash that and do at least 100 weddings!  I did notice this year the weddings were definitely bigger than previous years which is also a good thing!

I'm always looking for new and talented Makeup & Hair artists or assistants to add to my roster so any artists that have experience in Bridal and have a style they would classify as "Soft, Romantic, Natural" should definitely reach out to me.

With engagement season in full effect I'm really excited to see what this year has in store for the business...I'm already starting to book into 2016 so that's exciting!

Never Use Print100.com

So this is just a little rant of mine. I figure I write a blog this is what they are for sometimes lol. Plus I just want to warn ppl of this company b/c they DO NOT stand behind their 100% satisfaction guarantee offer that they have and that pisses me off even more.

So recently I ordered some new business cards. I went w/ this company Print100.com that had been suggested to me by another MUA. I had ordered business cards from them before and I was relatively happy so I wanted to go w/ them again. They are a Hong Kong company w/ really affordable rates, free FedEx and a money back (or reprint) guarantee so I thought how can I go wrong.

Well anyway, I ordered my cards and this time I even ordered a heavier stock paper so I was expecting a decent card. That was not the case at all. In fact my card w/ lighter and flimsier then the last set of cards I got from them! I don't know if they have changed their paper quality since the last time I ordered from them or something but I was not happy. I mean these cards just feel cheap so in all honesty I can't even really hand them out to anyone. My friend did a great job in designing them but the paper quality is just crap.

I figured that since they had a money back or reprint guarantee this wasn't really that big of a deal but guess what they reneged on their guarantee even though it is clearly stated on the website as such - NOT COOL AT ALL! So anyway, I thought I would just take this opportunity to put them on blast and say NEVER USE print100.com They DO NOT stand behind their GUARANTEES!

Btw here's the design my friend came up w/ for me. I like it. It's very simple and sleek.

Front

Back

Portfolio Printing

So yesterday I met up w/ the wonderful and talented Sian Melton in Toronto's beautiful Distillery District to print pics for my portfolio. First off what a perfect and gorgeous day yesterday. We started w/ some yummy lunch at Cafe Uno...my treat for her taking the time to help a computer reject like me print stuff. Great to catch up and gossip ;) w/ other artists about work, life and all that jazz.

Got my pics printed...lots of double pagers so it ended up being like 18 new pages for my book. On a positive note they look fabulous and on a negative note I NEED a bigger portfolio lol...not really that negative but I don't have the money right now to get one from House of Portfolios like I want :(

If you're in Toronto I highly recommend Pikto for your printing needs. You can rent a computer station for an hr to print your pics and make sure they are sized right and all that (if your pic order is over $25 the hr is free..reg $15/hr for station 1). See when I first started I was naive and I was getting 9X12 which I could actually print from the downstairs computers which were easy to use. Now I know better and I'm printing the professional size pics 11X14 but unfortunately the easy to use computers don't offer that size...damn them! So it's either bribe my computer savy friends w/ lunch and have them help me or pay almost $20/print to have pikto do it...btw if you print it yourself using the computers upstairs it's $4.75/print AND you get the pics that day...can't beat that!

Unfortunately for Sian she saved her pics wrong on her CD so she couldn't print yesterday...this sucks for her but actually works out better for me. I have like 3 editorials that I'm getting in pdf format next wk so I can just go w/ her again and she can help me again (maybe this time I can actually learn how to do it on my own so I don't need to harass my overly generous friends lol). Now the big problem is where the hell am I going to fit them in my book!?! Right now I have 40 pgs but I think in the next portfolio I'm going to move it up to 60 pgs...or I could start separating my Beauty from Editorial work...we'll see.

Next on my to do list - meet w/ agencies and get a new business card (kind of waiting on this one till I know about the agency thing so I could put them on the card ;) )

P.S. Someone commented about Todd wearing the same pants for all the shoots lol! Trust me this is an on-going joke between he and I regarding his "uniform". Just so everyone knows he has several camouflage cargo pants...it's not the same pair lol. As many of you may have noticed he really likes to get on the ground a lot when he shoots so you know he has to keep it practical and comfortable.