Today we’d like to introduce you to a local business TheCreativeStudioMN and the owner behind the local business Sadia Ali who is a Creative Director as well.
Hi Sadia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a Founder I saw a missing need in the market for media campaigns for brands such as solopreneurs, Small Businesses, and Nonprofits who didn’t have a lot of money in their Marketing budget. Decided to act on my innate creative talent to make space for the missing market piece for people to come and get packages to look professional brand or business wise.
The business started with the owner freelancing years ago, until it grew into the business it is today. It started with photography in an old shared studio in the twin cities Minneapolis area years ago and then moved to the Saint Paul metro area which was another semi co- studio until it became thecreativestudiomn owner’s main studio. That grew the business into offering more packages such as media company campaign packages to small businesses after seeing the need of the market especially in minority and women-owned business struggles.
As time went by business grew by adding studio shoot rentals to it where other photographers and freelancers can utilize studio space as well for their own work. The last package studio added before opening the new studio location was the marketing material package which the studio designed and printed all marketing materials for small businesses, nonprofits, and solopreneurs.
The studio opened a new second location which was a more daylight studio to include new packages as well which was content creation studio rentals and event space rentals as well. Studio recently added rental items such as furniture and photo booths as well. Currently, the studio is slowly adding more electronic rentals such as camera gears. Studio also has a contract team (majority-minority) that works with clients per project on shoot and design packages. The studio plans on expanding to grow more in the future in the direction that best suits the market and business.
The studio currently works with small to midsize small business markets that don’t have a huge budget for their marketing, but still want to look professional. Studio also educates clients on the marketing materials needed for their industry and offers “Creative Consulting”. The owner also serves as a creative director and oversees all projects, studio houses and approves it.
Studio also offers creative consulting and business consulting for small business owners who are struggling on their journey to business ownership. Studio meets with clients individually weekly or bi-weekly depending on the sessions clients sign up for; All consultation is done by the creative director.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a minority woman who is trying to thrive in any area is a struggle itself let alone building a business with lots of obstacles on the way. The journey has not been smooth at all. Every journey one decides to take will have ups and downs in it; it’s all about sticking to the journey through the ups and down. The bad in the journey will teach you lessons to grow and pick up skill sets you really need in your journey. Building any business from scratch, especially as a minority who doesn’t have a safety net isn’t easy at all. Growth needs consistency, resources, and leadership. All those are challenges that one can not get it right every time, so you have to take the wins and losses and keep moving forward.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Creative Studio MN?
Our business is a multi-studio that currently houses three sections of service. The studio has a media section (TCSMN Media), design section (TCSMN Design Center), and event section (TCSMN Event Space). The media section handles all photo video for business campaigns. The studio has a design center which handles all marketing material for small businesses, nonprofits, and solopreneurs. The last is the event space section which handles all event space rentals including studio rentals and equipment rentals. Studio also pushes to work with women-owned and minority businesses who are struggling in the market to market their products efficiently, so they can compete for clients.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson learned as a founder is that don’t be hard on yourself. Do the best you can that day and call it a day. Another important lesson is the organization of your business. Have everything scheduled out in your business from having a seven-day schedule, to having what day marketing gets done for business or what day inventory or equipment buying needs to be reviewed. Having things organized in your business goes a long way. Also to add to it update software and systems as you grow every three months as well as your policy and procedures. Remember your business is a baby you need to tend to.
Pricing:
- Individual studio shoot rental photography $45 per hour
- Group video studio shoot rental videography $125 per hour
- Event Pricing Per Event Seasonally $100 -$125 per hour
- Event Full day 12hours rental Plus Cleaning $1450
- Campaign Packages ranges per project $500-1500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thecreativestudiomn.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thecreativestudiomn
Image Credits
TheCreativeStudioMN
