Sometimes, people come through our doors with a vision, a dream, and a plan. All they need is someone to help them lay down the first brick.
Valentina has a passion for capturing beautiful moments through a lens. A simple click of the shutter button on her camera as she captures a precious moment brings immense joy to Valentina, and this even radiates through her work.
Valentina knew she had the talent and determination to make it as a successful small business photographer. She was already building her business when she found out the wonderful news that she was expecting a beautiful baby. Though exciting, she couldn’t help but feel a little more pressure to get her photography business up and running. She decided to look for a little extra help to make sure her plans were in place when her baby came.
Valentina visited our Outagamie office where she was introduced to our Wisconsin Works (W-2) program. Since she was becoming a mom soon, she qualified for the Wisconsin Works program which helps with many things like family planning, family support and finding childcare. Now that Valentina’s family plans were situated, it was time to focus on her own future.
Our programs often come together, crisscrossing their services to help our people achieve their dreams fully and accomplish their goals. When Valentina talked about her photography business dream, Breah, her W-2 case manager, knew our Foodshare Employment Training program could help fill in the holes she still had to help her plan for her business. She connected Valentina to our FSET case manager, Sarah, who quickly got her enrolled and helped get Valentina’s business vision into motion.
Enrolling in FSET gave Valentina resources to small business planning. Sarah was able to refer Valentina to great business and photography courses on Alison.com, as well as connect her to other local resources for networking her business. Valentina now had the bricks she needed, and all she had to do was lay them down and build. She started networking the other local photographers, found a business plan that worked for her, and even finely tuned her photography skills that would give her a unique edge on the competition. With each passing day, Valentina was practicing, getting her name out there, and building an incredible future for herself and little family.
Today, Valentina is absolutely thriving! She has officially launched her photography business as “Valentina Nicole’s Studio” and has been accepting new clients ever since. She loves shooting maternity photos, family photos and has recently gotten into wedding photography. Valentina continues to thrive and looks forward to expanding her business and carry out her beautiful artistic vision.
Valentina would like to tell future participants that, “being overwhelmed is okay, but asking for help and being patient is the best you can do for yourself. FSC is here to help.”
Congratulations, Valentina! You are so talented and wish you the most success for your business!
