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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Jenny Lefcourt: Success on the Web and Advice to Other Entrepreneurs

Jenny’s business goal is to make Bella Pictures the #1 choice for couples who are choosing wedding photography. Bella Pictures is an innovative wedding photography service that makes beautiful and personal wedding photography accessible to all couples. It is revolutionizing wedding photography and offers options that set it apart from all others in our field:

  • Beautiful and personal photography, providing the couple with unsurpassed service and quality at an exceptional value
  • Bella Pictures photographers, led by celebrity photojournalist Bob Davis, are handpicked for their ability to document weddings with a fresh, creative and insightful eye ensuring beautiful and personal photographs that tell the unique story of the day.
  • Bella Pictures offers straightforward pricing with no hidden costs. Packages range from $1,200-$4,800.
  • Couples can own their digital negatives from day one.
  • Bella Pictures offers a satisfaction guarantee.
  • All deposits are fully refundable until 30 days before the wedding.
  • Bella Pictures has back-up photographers on standby in case of photographer illness, accident or other extraordinary circumstances.
  • Photos can be viewed and ordered online in less than 30 days post wedding.
  • Personalization options include: DVD montages (downloadable onto an iPod!), custom wedding albums.

Jenny is currently heading the business development efforts at Bella Pictures. Her responsibility includes educating the wedding industry about Bella Pictures and what an incredible service it is for couples; as well as creating partnerships with the best providers in the wedding industry.

Success on the Web

For Jenny, the formula for success on the Web is simple: create true value for the customer. Or as Jenny puts it, offer something that will elicit “customer amazement.” Web customers are very educated and savvy, and you need to be very focused on the customer you are serving and have a service or product that will blow them away.

With various successful online ventures under her belt, Jenny finds that the most difficult part in starting a new business is simply starting — having an idea and moving it forward when the smartest way to move forward is not yet completely clear. “There are a lot of people with great ideas out there that don’t make them happen because they don’t know where to begin,” Jenny said.

She overcomes the startup anxieties by working on the business and following many paths even if she does not believe they will all become fruitful. In fact, Jenny believes that she has been successful because she is not afraid to make mistakes and because she is customer obsessed. She talks to as many people as she can, based on their input and her gut feelings she makes decisions to keep moving forward. This usually gets the business to a place where a real plan can be developed.

Finding the right business partner is another important factor that contributed to Jenny’s success. In fact, Jenny believes that “finding the right business partners is just about as important as finding the right spouse!” She is very careful when choosing partners and looks for rational, smart, hard-working, dedicated partners. “The less ego a partner has,” Jenny believes, “the better as sometimes ego can keep very bright people from doing what is right for the business.”

In marketing a web business, Jenny feels that it is important to think about who your customer is and where they are going for their information—that is where you want to be. If customers are searching for your type of product on search engines, focus your energy on search engine optimization and/or buying keywords on Google. Secondly, make sure you track where your customers are coming from to know what is working and what is not so that you can refine your marketing plan and make it most effective. Lastly, referrals are gold. Treat your customers like gold and they will market for you (having a referral plan for your customers is also a good idea.) “At Bella Pictures,” Jenny said, “we get a lot of business from referrals and we do everything we can to foster it.”

Advice to Women Entrepreneurs

While pushing to make Bella Pictures a household name, she works very hard on balancing her work, family and personal interests. She carves out time for each and tries to make the most of whatever she is doing. If she is spending time with her two kids, she tries to not think about work, answer her cell phone or check her email. When at work, she is very focused and efficient, as she no longer has the luxury to do it any other way. She feels her personal interests have to get the short stick for now but if something is important to her, she puts it on the calendar and makes it happen.

Jenny advises other women entrepreneurs to “focus on a short-term milestone for your idea and make that happen instead of trying to figure out every milestone at once. Getting bogged down in all the unknowns will intimidate you and cause you not to move forward. Also, talk with people. Most people will give their time to help others and advice from someone with your industry’s knowledge can go a long way.”

Jenny encourages people to take one step, and another and another (even if one may be wrong!) because that is the only chance you have to make your dream happen. She also knows that there are always hard decisions that get made in business but if you stay focused on the customer, your decisions will be easier and the right ones for your business.

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