Building a photography business that pays you consistently is something a lot of photographers dream about but struggle to execute. Baby plan memberships are one of the most talked-about strategies for making that happen. In Episode 171 of The Motherhood Anthology Podcast, Hayley, a motherhood and family photographer from North Carolina, talks about what it actually looks like to build a baby plan from scratch.
Hayley came to photography the way many of us did: a Canon Rebel on the baby registry, a church community that noticed her eye, and a slow realization that this was something more than a hobby. Four kids later, she is running a growing motherhood photography business from home, staying up until two and three in the morning to make it work, and learning as she goes.
Why Baby Plans Made Sense
When Hayley made the decision to transition out of weddings, she knew she had to replace that income with something sustainable. One-off sessions weren’t going to get her there. A $350 session was never going to replace a $3,500 wedding, and she needed a model that would create reliable recurring income without requiring her to be booked every single weekend away from her kids.
Baby plan memberships were the answer she kept coming back to, an idea she first encountered through the TMA podcast. But she’s quick to point out that the first year was not a success story. Her first client was a close friend, her pricing wasn’t quite right yet, and bookings were slow. It took two full years of refining the structure before things started to shift.
The breakthrough came when she stopped thinking of the baby plan as an add-on and restructured her entire pricing model around it. She intentionally made her single sessions less inclusive so that the membership became the obvious choice for families who wanted real value.
She also leaned into the practical case for the baby plan when pitching it to clients: “I’ll get an inquiry from a mom who just wants a maternity session and I’ll say, well, here’s why you should want more – because you’re going to have this baby, you’re going to want to document more than just your bump. Your baby’s going to be born, they’re going to be itty bitty, and then three weeks later your baby’s going to be huge, and you’re going to be so sad that you didn’t get the newborn session.”
The payment structure is handled entirely through Pixie Set, which Hayley uses to automate invoicing and payment reminders throughout the year. She offers flexible payment timelines depending on where a client is in their pregnancy, and she takes a grace-first approach when life gets in the way.
From Zero to Five: What the Growth Actually Looked Like
Going into this year, Hayley had one session on the books: a single one-off family session in May. Then February arrived and something shifted. By April, she had booked five baby plan memberships in three months, and April became her biggest revenue month yet.
That trajectory isn’t accidental, but it also isn’t the result of a dramatic overnight pivot. It’s the result of patience, incremental refinement, and a willingness to trust the process even when her revenue graph was sitting flat at zero. “You have to be so, so patient,” she says. “Photography is a marathon. You can’t rush into it because you’re going to skip steps.”
Part of what Hayley attributes the spring surge to is simply the rhythm of the year: after the holiday spending season, families tend to pull back in January, and then money starts moving again in spring. Knowing that pattern doesn’t make the slow season easier, but it does make it survivable.
The advice she’d give to any photographer sitting in the early, quiet phase of building a baby plan is simple: build it brick by brick, not floor by floor. Give yourself permission to let it grow slowly. The income will come, and so will the clients – but only if you stay in it long enough to find your footing.
The Community That Keeps You From Reinventing the Wheel
Hayley first encountered TMA about nine years ago through Instagram hashtags, long before she realized it was an entire education community. When she eventually found the podcast and then the Facebook group, something clicked. She didn’t have to figure everything out alone.
“I can learn through other photographers talking about their business instead of working out all the kinks on my own,” she said. The baby plan concept itself came directly from TMA content – not just the idea, but the structure, the mindset around pricing, and the confidence to keep going when bookings were slow.
What she keeps coming back to is the access. Email templates, Canva templates, marketing suites, and live coaching calls are one thing – but being able to ask a question in the community and have fifteen people jump in to help is something different altogether. Educators who hand you a workbook and disappear are everywhere. Mentors who show up month after month to answer questions are not.
That combination of an education that’s actually implemented, a community that’s genuinely invested, and the patience to let things build is what turned Hayley’s baby plan from a good idea into a cornerstone of her business.
Listen and Learn More
Hayley’s story is one of the most honest, grounded conversations we’ve had about baby plans – what they look like when they’re new, what it takes to stick with them, and what’s possible when you do. You can hear the full conversation in Episode 171 of The Motherhood Anthology podcast, available wherever you listen.
Find Hayley at hayleyjaynephoto.com or on Instagram at @hayleyjaynephoto.
If baby plan memberships are something you’ve been curious about, grab the free TMA Baby Plan Guide. This guide walks you through how to turn one-time clients into year-long relationships by documenting every milestone of baby’s first year.
Ready to build a business that reflects your own creative voice? The Motherhood Anthology membership gives you access to expert mentors, live coaching, monthly marketing suites, and a private community of photographers who are invested in your success. Learn more and join at themotherhoodanthology.com.
The Motherhood Anthology is a community and educational resource for photographers who want a profitable and sustainable business they love. With 15+ expert mentors and 7+ years of proven content, TMA helps portrait photographers build confident, thriving businesses through monthly education, mentorship, and a supportive community of 700+ members.
