About Cindy Baxter

Cindy's journey from the depths of low-end photography to becoming a super successful professional children's photographer and upscale studio owner is an inspiring story of hard work, persistence and creative triumph.

She started her photography business in 1989 in the spare room of her tiny apartment located in a small rural West Virginia community of only 4,800. At 25 years old with no college education she knew very little about photography and absolutely nothing about how to run a successful business. In 1992, she quit her banking job and went full time in a commercial location. She plugged away day and night just trying to make a decent living, but the struggle was hard and in 1994 - after only 5 years in business she became a statistic - she was bankrupt.

Unwilling to give up, she picked herself up, brushed herself off and decided to move forward. She realized that if she was going to continue with her photography career she would have to learn "the business side" of the photography business. She joined the Professional Photographers of America as well as her state and tri-state photography organizations and went on a four year mission to learn everything she could about building a successful photography business. She was obsessed with learning about sales, marketing and business management. She tirelessly studied with some of the country's leading photographers as well as other experts outside the photography industry. Her thinking was that it really didn't matter how good she became as a photographer she if she couldn't get people in the door.

In 1998 she discovered children's theme set photography. Although theme portraiture had been around for years in some form or another, at the time it was a new concept for her. She thought how easy it would be to make a living by "building a set, dropping in a kid, get a few smiles and make a few bucks." At that time Cindy didn't begin developing her own style of children's theme portraiture because she was passionate about it - she did it because she saw it as a way to make a living in the business she loved.

She had no idea the impact that her set designs and marketing strategies would have on her business, her life and her career.

In her first year of promoting her newly designed theme sets, she developed six two to three day "Limited Event" promotions. These initial campaigns generated a total of $54,000 in sales. Back in 1997 she was only doing $125,000 in annual sales so her set promotions alone accounted for nearly one third of her total annual revenue - and she did it in only 17 days! This convinced her that her innovative and unique set designs could be her ticket to success.

As she continued generating a great living with her "Limited Edition" set design photography, she became increasingly passionate about it. She realized that the key to gaining a sustainable competitive advantage was to create realistic scenes using top quality backgrounds, apparel, props and foliages. As she developed more elaborate and elegant sets, her revenues soared.

By 2003, in the same small town in rural West Virginia, her annual sales were easily exceeding $500,000 per year. The entire industry began taking notice.

As a result, Cindy has become one of the country’s leading children’s portrait artists. Her clients have traveled to West Virginias from all over the country to have Cindy photograph their children. When asked if her work is expensive she'll always explain that what she does is surprisingly affordable. Her clients proudly say that the price doesn't matter... "it's so worth it".

Her photographic expertise and creativity have earned her numerous state, tri-state and national awards. In 2000 she became the first woman to earn the coveted “West Virginia Photographer of the Year” title. She has held the PPA’s Photographer of the Year award 4 years consecutively, earning two gold and one platinum award. In 2006 Cindy was presented with one of the PPA’s highest achievements, the Platinum Award of Excellence”. Her other awards to date include 19 PPA Loan Collection Prints, 14 Fuji Masterpiece Awards and 4 Kodak Gallery Awards, most of which spotlight her artistically designed children’s theme sets.

Cindy believes that to be successful in today's highly competitive portrait photography market it's essential that you "set yourself apart" by providing personal photographic artworks that people simply can't get just anywhere. She is convinced that quality and realism are two factors that as a photographer, will set you apart from the competition and generate high-end sales.

She's learned that running a successful photography business is like cooking with a recipe. If you leave out just one ingredient, you most likely won't like the results.

Ask anyone who knows Cindy personally and they will tell you that she has a true passion for the art and business of photography. What drives her now is helping others learn and prosper in this business.

After hearing many sad, heart-wrenching stories from other photographers she put together a Set Design Series Manual and made it available to photographers everywhere. Her motivation was to help others in the business benefit from her children's set designs. As she puts it, "no one knows about the heartache and struggles associated with turning a passion into a business better than me".

Since it's release in 2005, more than 500 photographers across North America purchased Cindy's original Set Design Series manual. She loves hearing about the successes many photographers have had using the manual, and it touches her heart when she's told her that her manual had been instrumental in saving a business and a career.

In a continuing effort to help others set their business apart from the competition, she has developed and is offering two comprehensive programs. Each is designed to provide the training, resources and support needed to help others learn and capitalize on her distinctive style of children's set design photography.

For those already in the business wanting to incorporate Cindy's set deigns, and/or for aspiring photographers looking for a great way to get started, Cindy is offering an exclusive license program that provides training, set packages, marketing materials, product samples and fulfillment resources. For details and availability complete and submit the license information request form.

Cindy is also offering a retail photography studio franchise which operates under the Cindy Baxter Masterpiece Studio trademark. The franchise is offered in select states and areas. Additional information is available at www.cindybaxterstudios.com/franchise.