Sisters' business the picture of success

Siblings Erin Vann and Trisha Newton, both formerly Eldridges, have turned their love for all things creative into an interesting sister act of their own with their custom clothing and portrait photography business, eNVy Babies & KIds, 122 S. Main.

The sisters said they have always been close, which can prove to be an asset as they spend long hours nurturing a growing business that opened one year ago in September.

"We're only two and a half years apart and we've always been close," Vann said. "Closer probably now than ever."

Vann said people always ask her how they work so well together, because they tend to spend more time with each other than anyone else.

"People say, 'I could never work with my sister,' but it works for us," Vann said. "We have different personalities, but they work well together."

Both sisters agreed that Vann is probably the more outgoing of the two, but Newton is the woman who handles the details.

"She's more outgoing and laid back. I'm more worrisome and quiet," Newton said. "When I'm worried about something, she's says 'no big deal.'"

"It works well for us," Vann said.

Vann added that they are currently rethinking their store, which opened more with a focus on items for babies. In the past year, the two have learned to adjust to the local business climate and are concentrating more on custom clothing and their popular photography business.

"We started our photography in May of 2009. That's when I took my son's first pictures and posted them online on Facebook," Vann said. "I'd say the Fall of 2009 is when we really gave ourselves a name. We really had no intent of ever doing this, but it kind of fell in our laps and we really like doing it."

Newton said the business started all because the sisters had taken pictures of Vann's two-year-old son with an ordinary, amateur digital camera because they couldn't afford to hire a professional photographer.

"We knew what we liked," Newton said. "We had visions of what we wanted, but no photographers anywhere did what we liked. So we thought we'd just take it into our own hands."

They said after posting the photos on Facebook, they received numerous requests to take photos for friends.

"We slowly started doing photos for family and friends and would post them," Vann said. "Finally, we just said, 'I guess we need to make a business.'"

Both sisters were working full-time jobs at Union State Bank when they decided to start doing photography on the side. They continued with their blooming photography business for about two years.

"It got to be too much," Newton said.

Vann, a mother of one and step-mother of two and Newton, a mother of two with another on the way, said they would be gone most every night and would stay up till the wee hours of the morning editing photos.

"We came up with the idea of the store, so we saved our money and left our day jobs," Vann said. "So here we are, a year later."

"We are in the process of rethinking our business right now," Vann said. "Retail in this town is hard."

She said that flexibility in business is important.

"You learn what works and what doesn't," Vann said. "You're constantly making changes and with a creative mind, your mind doesn't stop."

The sisters said they are focusing a lot more on online sales now.

"We are getting ready to launch a new website and blog that we designed, eNVycreativeonline.com," Newton said.

Newton said the site will offer a lot of the custom T-shirts, onesies and of course, their photography.

The two said they have never really advertised, but "stay very busy with our photos."

"We've always liked computers," Newton said. "We have cards we made for our parents when I was in sixth grade. We've been messing with graphics stuff for years. Before I did photography, I used to mess with my kids' pictures."

The two, who have never taken a photography class, said they are entirely self-taught. The sisters rely on the creative juices they were born with to create images that have built a strong return clientele.

Neither sister has forgotten what it's like to not be able to afford a professional photographer and target business from middle class to lower middle class families. The two even offer a package that covers the first year of a baby's life, from maternity to newborn to six months old to the child's first birthday. Each session includes an 11x14 print, a copyright-free disc so the customer may make as many prints as they please from an outside photo processor and the sisters also allow the $500 fee to be paid in installments over the course of a year.

The sisters also have sessions for those needing senior portraits.

They also offer the option of single sessions for $150 for 30 minutes, $200 for one hour and one or two-day packages ranging from $300 to $400. They also sell custom graduation invitations, photo collages and more.

"There are a lot of great photographers in this town," Newton said. "We try to keep it creative and never do our photo shoots the same. That is the most challenging part of our job, finding new locations or new places, or making it look different than the person we did before."

"Even though they may not even know each other," Vann added.

They said because they are both mothers, customers seem to be more relaxed with them as they handle their babies doing shoots, which both agreed is a big part of their photo business.

Both understand how hard it is to be working mothers too, and accommodate each other as family needs arise.

"We've got our schedules, and if I don't want to work, she (Vann) will just fill in and I do the same for her," Newton said.

The sisters also said they get great support from their husbands, Tarrell Vann and Josh Newton.

"Our husbands want to work for us," Vann said. "I said 'Are you kidding me?'"

"They'd rather do what we do than what they do," Newton laughed.

The sisters said they travel as far as Kansas City and Blue Valley, Mo. for photo shoots, but usually stay a little closer to home. They said it is a lot of work and have shot 16 sessions in the past week.