A self-taught photographer with no business background, newly-divorced Kelly Billington saw an opportunity to transform hospital portraiture, offering parents of newborns beautiful, natural images instead of what she saw as “standard shots.” She secured her first Bella Baby Photography hospital contract in 2006 and from that time on the business has grown exponentially, as more and more hospitals across the nation have signed up.
Two years later, Kevin Kenneflick took over her interest in the business, launching at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. While several partners have their own controlling interest, it’s Kenneflick who now operates – no pun intended – Bella Baby at hospitals across the tristate area. White Plains Hospital, he told the Westfair Business Journal, was the third contract he ever landed and Bella Baby has now been present there for 16 years, while the firm’s services are also offered at the Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla and Greenwich Hospital.
“We are on the floor seven days a week,” he said.
Like many great entrepreneurial concepts, the idea behind Bella Baby and its services is essentially a simple one. Photographers provide families of newborns with a 15-minute photo session during the hospital stay that captures “natural moments” with the new “bundle of joy.” Families can register ahead for the session, which is free of charge. A digital slideshow is then available that same day for families to review and share. An additional service, Bella Baby Life Sessions, with photographers visiting the home or a favored location, can follow the family as it grows and develops through the years.
Hiring photographers is an intensive process, Kenneflick added:
“We network through various sources and utilize Indeed, but we hire only 1% of our applicants. Not only do you have to have the skills and portfolio, but you have to understand the sensitive nature of our work.”
To ensure the in-hospital process is not intrusive, Kenneflick said his photographers are “great communicators on the floor. Once nurses see the quality of our work and the care in which we do it, they want their moms to have this special moment.” The mothers want it, too, he added, noting that “90% of our photographed moms say it was the best part of their time at the hospital.”
What makes it so?
“People are always surprised at what we create in a hospital room in 15 minutes. It takes great skill. I would say that this is the most challenging photography job I have ever seen. We build trust and understand the individuality of each family. We create their baby’s first photo shoot that is unique to them.”
The proof is in the numbers: Bella Baby photographs 50,000 families in the region annually, with many families paying for follow-up photographs. “Eighty to 90% of our galleries sell,” Kenneflick said. And while the photography sales themselves might be no more than a sheet of prints for $35, more significant revenue comes from parents who chose to decorate their nurseries with Bella Baby’s distinctively wrapped canvases, or the purchase of subsequent photography sessions in the home – photography packages that can run $1,000 and up. Some families, he said, also buy additional pictures and products as gifts to thank loved ones who had helped along their journey of creating new life.
“And on the boring side,” added the self-effacing Kenneflick, “we operate on Slack (the cloud-based team communication platform) and are fully automated with our organizational communications via Monday.com (the applications and project-management software platform)” – summing up a highly successful business that frankly sounds anything but boring.
