WE NEED SMALL BUSINESSES...


...more now than ever before. Lucky for us, COVID-19 pushed small business owners and entrepreneurs to test our creative limits and find new ways to reach and satisfy the needs of our clients. Sit-down restaurants adopted the curbside food-to-go model. Industry leaders turned to Zoom to educate their followers and talk about their brands on a large scale. For many, hobbies turned into professions. People were investing in themselves - finally taking the chance they've been afraid of. We were all laid off from work without a guarantee of having our jobs back, so why not go "all in?"


And now here we are. My Instagram is full of creative individuals who broke through their own barriers and started baking for a living, designing websites full time, and just creating, creating, creating. It's a lot of fun to watch the progress of some of my friends and internet-based colleagues. Since they've been so immersed in their products and services, I've noticed they haven't had much time to put together a library of images they can pull from when talking about themselves and what they offer.


This is where I jump in.


As a small business owner myself, I understand the importance of having imagery to present to my existing or future clients. While most of my work is shown in a photo medium, it's still important to be able to show my face every once in a while. I'm a firm believer in being able to see and get to know a person before working with them. I like to shake hands - even though I'm refraining for the time being. Thanks, Coronavirus. It's important to be able to interact with your fellow humans and develop a personal relationship with face-to-face contact. That's why I'm giving away three free branding sessions, complete with a usage license.


Zachary Lucy Photography will help you create the professional image you want to present through your website, email newsletters, and social media platforms. Together we'll create a plan to discover your online identity by meeting at coffee shops, local breweries, or online through Zoom or FaceTime calls. These meetings will culminate in a photo session that will include your workspace or office, a highlight of your products and/or services, and professional portraits or headshots for your website or however else you would like to use them. We'll get to know each other pretty well through this experience and create the foundation of a new business relationship that has us looking forward to future projects.


These free sessions will be announced monthly and will be awarded in March, April, and May. The first giveaway will be announced Friday, February 12, 2021, and a small business owner will be selected on Sunday, February 28, 2021. There aren't many requirements for this giveaway so I'll just list them in bullet points:

  • Must be a small business owner with a product or a service
  • Photo Experience location must be within a 100-mile radius of Fargo, North Dakota
  • Contact through the website on the Contact page and tell me about yourself, your company, and how Branding Imagery would help you succeed
  • Please include links to your website, Facebook Business page, and Instagram


That's it. That's all there is to it. I'm so excited to get to know a lot of small business owners in the local communities and work on some really cool, unique projects. When you fill out the Contact page, be sure to put some time and thought into it. The small businesses selected over the course of the next three months will be done through review, not by random.


Until we meet, stay healthy and continue creating!


-Z.