There's a moment that happens when a potential client is considering hiring you.
They've heard your name somewhere, or found you through a recommendation, or stumbled across your Instagram. They're interested. They want to know more. And so they do what everyone does. They go and look you up.
They visit your website. They scroll your Instagram. They click on your LinkedIn. And in about three seconds, before they've read a single word of your copy or looked at a single testimonial, they've already formed an impression of you. Of how established you are. Of whether you look like someone they can trust with their business, their brand, their home or their mindset.
That impression is built almost entirely on your images.
I work with coaches, virtual assistants, designers, home organisers and service based business owners across Kent, Essex and London. And the thing I hear more than almost anything else is this. I know my images aren't great but I haven't got around to sorting it yet.
I understand it completely. You're busy. You're good at what you do and your clients love you. Sorting your photos feels like a nice to have rather than a need to have.
But here's what I want you to consider. Every day that passes with images that don't reflect how good you actually are is a day that potential clients are making a decision about you based on something that isn't true.
The selfie problem
Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with showing up authentically on social media. Casual, in the moment, real. That kind of content has its place and I'd never tell you to stop posting it.
But there's a difference between a casual Instagram story and the image that sits at the top of your website. The one next to your about page copy. The one that appears when someone googles you. The one that a potential client screenshots and sends to their partner saying "I'm thinking of working with this person, what do you think?"
That image needs to do serious work. And a selfie taken in your car or a photo cropped from a friend's birthday party, however lovely you look in it, simply cannot do that work.
You've spent years building your expertise. You've invested in training, in tools, in your business. Your images should reflect that investment. They should show someone who is established, credible and absolutely worth every penny of what you charge.
What credibility actually looks like in a photograph
It's not about looking corporate or stiff or overly polished. The coaches and VAs and designers I photograph in Kent, Essex and London are warm, approachable, human people and their images should feel that way too.
Credibility in a photograph looks like someone who is comfortable in their own skin. Someone photographed with intention, in a space that reflects their brand, with light that flatters them and a composition that says this person knows what they're doing.
It looks like consistency. The same quality of image across your website, your social media and your LinkedIn profile so that wherever a potential client finds you, they get the same clear confident impression of who you are.
And crucially it looks like you. Not a version of you from five years ago. Not a version of you that was captured accidentally at someone else's event. You, right now, in your element, doing what you do best.
The confidence shift nobody talks about
Here's something I've noticed after years of photographing service based business owners and I think it's the most important thing in this post.
Getting new brand images doesn't just change how other people see you. It changes how you see yourself.
I've watched it happen so many times. Someone arrives at a shoot feeling slightly awkward and unsure, convinced they're not very photogenic, worried they'll hate the results. And then they see the images. And something shifts.
Suddenly they're posting on Instagram without overthinking it because they have something beautiful to share. They're updating their website because they're finally proud of how it looks. They're pitching for bigger clients and charging higher prices because the gap between how good they are and how good they look has finally closed.
That confidence is not a small thing. For a service based business owner whose personal brand is the business, it's everything.
Why now is exactly the right time
If you're a coach, a VA, a designer, a home organiser or any kind of service based business owner in Kent, Essex or London and you've been putting this off, I want to gently say that there is no better time than right now.
Not when the website is finished. Not when you've lost the weight or changed your hair or finally feel ready. Right now, as you are, with the business you have built and the expertise you've spent years developing.
Your potential clients are out there looking for someone like you today. What they find when they look you up will either make them think yes, this is exactly who I need or it will make them keep scrolling.
You get to decide which one.
What a shoot with me really looks like
I know that for a lot of service based business owners the idea of a brand shoot feels slightly terrifying. Standing in front of a camera, not knowing what to do with your hands, worrying about whether you'll look stiff or awkward or unlike yourself.
I want to reassure you that it genuinely isn't like that.
I work from a beautiful location house and I always start with a conversation before I even pick up the camera. I want to know about your business, your clients, what you want people to feel when they find you. We create a mood board together so you know exactly what we're going for before the day. And then we just spend a few hours making something really lovely together.
Most people tell me afterwards that they wish they'd done it sooner. Not just because of the images but because of how it felt to finally be seen properly.
For the coaches, VAs, designers and organisers of Kent, Essex and London
There is so much brilliant service based business talent in this part of the world. People who are genuinely transforming their clients' businesses and lives, doing extraordinary work with real skill and care.
And so many of them are still hiding behind outdated images that don't come close to showing how good they actually are.
If that's you, I'd love to help change that. Whether you're based in Canterbury, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Chelmsford, Colchester, Brentwood or anywhere across London, I'd genuinely love to have a conversation about what we could create together.
Not a hard sell. Just a chat.
I photograph service based business owners, coaches, VAs, designers and creatives across Kent, Essex and London. To find out more about working together, visit www.anysomething.co.uk or email me at hello@anysomething.co.uk
