2024 Women to Watch
This year we showcase over 80 South Australian women to watch throughout the year. From business, to careers, arts to science. This year’s selected women highlight the depth and diversity of the women in our state and also the vast array of opportunities to develop a business or career in South Australia. Find our more about our inaugural Women to Watch initiative here.
I have administrative skills across a variety of industry sectors including education and legal, agriculture, and allied health. I have worked for international airlines, a politician and various small businesses and organisations. After many years in administrative and finance roles, a love of photography and the need to organise my own photo collection has led me to become the founder of Your Photos Filed. My business is all about telling my clients’ stories through photos – organising and preserving their precious photos and creating timeless Story Books; the perfect way to preserve and share the most precious memories of their lives in a beautifully curated and printed photo book.
As founder of Your Photos Filed, I bring my knowledge, skills and an empathic nature to help my clients organise, curate, backup and share their precious photo collection, whether it be their digital images, or printed photos – or a combination of both. My clients can feel safe in the knowledge that their photos and memories are in safe hands. Throughout the organising process, and throughout the creation of Story Books, every photo and memory is treated with sensitivity and respect.
I value the relationship with clients as a small business owner and and strive to deliver excellent customer service at all times.
// Favourite inspirational quote
“To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are” Tim Minchin
// Let’s get to know you
For many years I have been passionate about photography – not only taking beautiful pictures but also displaying them in a manner of ways using a variety of mediums. With the onset of digital photography, which coincided with the raising of my two daughters, I took more photos and videos than ever before. After some time, I realised I had photos scattered everywhere – existing on phones, external hard drives, USBs and my DSLR camera. I found it hard to find a particular image, and was worried that my photos were not backed up and secure. Wanting to fix this, I undertook the necessary training; not only learning how to organise my digital photo collection with Adobe Lightroom Classic, but also my printed photos. With an interest in photography, and years of administrative experience, I found I had an aptitude for this sort of work.
I decided to start Your Photos Filed so that I could help others organise their photos. I joined the US based association, The Photo Managers, and became a certified member. I had my first digital organising client three years ago and have slowly been building up my business ever since. My particular passion is creating Story Books – telling my clients’ stories through the creation of beautiful and unique, high quality books using photos and memorabilia.
// What is your goal or intention for the year ahead? And how are you going to achieve it?
I have two goals for my business this year.
My first goal is to increase the amount of Story Book work that I am currently doing. To this end, I have engaged external marketing assistance to help achieve this goal. Part of the plan is to increase my digital marketing presence; get back on track with social media posts and quarterly newsletters. I will also implement Facebook ads and possibly Linkedin ads, too. In addition to digital marketing, and with the help of my mentor, I will look at other ways of marketing these books – perhaps by making contact with organisations such as retirement centres.
My second goal is to streamline my processes and workflows – particularly around digital organising. I need to ensure I am charging correctly for the services I provide and to use a consistent process with each project I work on. This not only relates to digital organising, but also other service offerings of my business. To help with this, I am currently working on an online course offered by a digital photo organiser based in the US. I am hoping this course will help with my project management skills – particularly with regards to digital organising. I also plan to look into CRMs as I am currently doing this part of my business manually, using Excel and Word.
// What makes you a Woman to Watch for 2024?
The services that I offer require trust from my clients, as I am dealing with their most precious and treasured memories. I therefore approach each project with sensitivity and care.
I believe this is what makes my service unique; not only the offering of niche services such as photo organising and photo book design, but also the fact that I am the person who is delivering the service. I relate well to my clients and build trust with them throughout the organising process, or throughout the creation of their Story Book.
I am passionate about photos and the stories behind them, and to turn this into a business by helping others tell their stories is truly wonderful.
// If you could share one takeaway from your business or career journey, what would it be?
Don’t give up! I sometimes wonder if all the hard work is worth it, particularly when I’m not necessarily making a profit from my business. However, I know that what I do is very niche and I know that it may take some time to get where I need to go. I realise that every business journey is different, and another takeaway is not to compare myself to other photo organisers or small business owners who appear to be very successful after a shorter period of time. If I stick to it and don’t give up, my time will come because I know there is a market for the services I am offering.
// What would you like to see for the future of South Australian women and girls?
I think it’s important to keep women in business in South Australia connected. This is done reasonably well with the various networks that are currently in place (such as SA Woman), and hopefully these networks will continue to grow stronger as time goes on.
I would love to see more grants available for women; smaller monetary grants that would enable them to do things like attend conferences or up skill. And also to continue to remove barriers such as childcare, to allow more SA women to have careers and become financially independent.
Get in touch with Simone:
LinkedIn: Simone Larwood
Website: www.yourphotosfiled.com.au
Check out all of the incredible Women to Watch for 2024 here as their profiles are uploaded throughout the year.
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