Want to stop competing against every other photographer?


Kick the DIY habit & level up your photography business with our strategic design & branding program.


You know your business could be out of this world. So why isn't it yet?

Er, Houston, we have a problem. You can feel it. You're on the edge of owning the business of your dreams.

But you don't know how to pull it all together:

  • You are tired of competing on pricing, despite all your skill, talent and experience. 
  • You are wondering why new photographers with no experience seem to be doing better than you.
  • You take any old job that comes along and can't escape the "generalist" black hole
  • You're free falling into the gravitational pull of ineffective workshops, ebooks, DIY seminars route.
  • You have no ideas how to navigate an iPhone obsessed marketplace that places a low value on professional photography.
  • Your packaging and website are pretty, but don't seem to get noticed.
  • Despite your best intentions and talents, you feel stuck in first gear.

Stay on this course and you'll soon free-fall into oblivion.

How do we know? That was us a few years ago.
But we took the steps and made the surprisingly affordable investment in our own future. 

What if you...

1. Had the power to strategically define and market exactly what you do best to clients who want what you're selling and will pay you what you're really worth?

2. Could do this without spending countless hours fumbling around in the dark, taking endless online tutorials on topics from web design, to social media strategy, to come up with something that you know isn't quite working?


Imagine instead...

  • You are no longer competing on price and can charge what you're worth
  • Your branding and website stands out from the crowd
  • You have a predictable, lucrative line up of ideal clients all year round
  • You have a streamlined signature system in place that delights every client and frees you up to do what you love
  • You can pick and choose your schedule to fit your lifestyle
  • You have a marketing dream team working behind the scenes 

That's where 16 Hoops comes in.
We are a full-service strategic design firm for photographers.

What does that mean for your business?


How do we know?

That was us just a few years ago. We knew there was a better way.

We created 16 Hoops "The Strategic Designers for Photographers" as the DIY alternative. We make things for you, and have accountability baked in.

We re-boot, re-brand and transform your business so you are no longer competing on price and have a steady pipeline of ideal, high paying clients.


How does it all work?

First we do a Business Flyby where we unearth your current status and find out where you are, and where you want to go. Based on our discoveries, we offer up actionable advice and one, some, or all of the blocks in our program. Program blocks include:

  • Positioning: Unearth your unique POV and dominate your market with it
  • Marketing: Targeted digital messaging & advertising strategies that will have perfect clients banging down your door 
  • Branding: Re-imagine or re-invent current branding - this goes way beyond a logo
  • Systems: The secret key to every amazing business success is it's proprietary ecosystem
  • Website: a new modern website that is landing business for you 24/7 rather than just sitting pretty
  • Copywriting: laser focused copy that will set you and your business worlds apart

Unlike the swanked out Madison Avenue firms, we have designed a surprisingly affordable proven system just for photographers. 

With our approach, we start from ground zero and walk your business through every laser focused logical step it needs and get rid of ones that are holding you back.

Don't worry, we are not going to turn your business into something you don't recognize or don't like. We are going to work with you, your personality, your lifestyle, to create the business of your dreams. 

We might be mission control, but YOU are the pilot. 


16 Hoops works exclusively with photographers who are ready to level up their businesses. 



Anyone can just answer the phone and let whoever is on the other side define the work. Claim your market with a digital & inbound plan that gets those perfect clients banging down your door.



A brand that perfectly expresses your expertise to your ideal client. This has almost nothing to do with a logo and everything to do with the  unearthing your own authentic style in a way that connects deeply with your core audience.



Be a specialist. Expertise is the DNA of any great business. It's hard to find, it's uniquely you, and it's impossible to duplicate. Specialists don’t get bored. They get better.



Signature Systems

If you want to delight every client and remove yourself from the day to day management of your business (maybe even sell it someday), you need a system.  We question everything - down to what pen you are using. 



Words matter. Every single comma, and letter should be chatting up your ideal client and asking for their business the second they land on your page. Your images don't speak for themselves. 



Your website is a living, breathing organism, and it's the best salesperson on your team. Done well, a website is like a magic funnel leading to your ideal client. Free yourself from templates and DIY and instead build a modern, honest online haven for your clients to explore and connect.


The 16 Hoops program may not be for you if....


You are not ready or willing to make the hard decisions and investment required to grow your business.


You view branding & marketing as a cost rather than an outcome based investment.


You are happy with the status quo and you are fine making the same amount of income next year as you did this year.


You are not ready or willing to trust the advice of an outside expert who may offer up the occasional kick in the pants to take your business to the next level.


You are not ready or willing to delegate and collaborate on certain aspects of your business.


You are happy staying up til midnight endlessly tweaking your website & design templates

Take our no-strings-attached 1-minute
survey to see if 16 Hoops is right for you.

If we are a fit, we guarantee this will be a game-changer for your business. Together, let's unearth and build the business you were always meant to have.


You might be asking yourself...

Do I need this? My business isn't that bad. Couldn't I just do this myself?
How's that workin' for ya? Wink. If you have read this far, you know deep down something is not working and you are still competing on price. To level up and conquer that next world, you need a support team and someone to hold you accountable. It's human nature to fall into a habit that's not catastrophic: just chugging along on impulse engines. 16 Hoops has a plan made just for your photography business. Together, we can smash through the next level.

I've never hired a design firm, won't it be too expensive?
Here's the thing: Do you really want change, or do you just "think" you want change? How you feel about your business does literally have a value. You care about your business and you deserve nothing less than a business that is profitable, makes you proud, and connects on every level with your ideal high paying customer. And if you are not invested, you won't do the hard work required. You should expect big things. Accept no less. 

A re-boot is hard work. But that is 100% why you should do it.

Taking this leap with 16 Hoops will make you and your business stand out. Average companies don't do this hard work and they never will. You are not average, because if you were you wouldn't be reading this.

We have a plan, and we will hold you accountable. That makes all the difference.

We have a dream and a process that will work for you and your business. So much so, that if at anytime our program is not working for you, we can part ways at the end of any module and you get to take any goodies with you. No matter what, we'll send you off cheerfully and with genuine best wishes for your success


Jillian Curran
Lumina, Boston



I have worked with many other successful business’ on their strategies, image, PR, and marketing and had a rather ‘big head’ when it came to my own personal business. I have come to the strong realization that you only do yourself a disservice by doing everything yourself with minimal help and input from friends and family. 

Having 16 Hoops look at my business and assess where it is, where it needed to go, how to get there, and the key points to take it there provided clarity, new clients, and simplification - along with more time at home and less work at ‘the office’.  

16 Hoops helped me define my target client and discover a niche in  the photography industry that works with my strengths, passions and geographic market/area. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Profit, Profit, Profit. There are a couple of the ‘keys’ to this and Geneve & 16 Hoops has them! If you value your time on the job and off the job, I would highly recommend 16 Hoops.


Jen Dean
Jen Dean Photography


When I first saw the new website I was teary. I had this emotional reaction to my own portraits. Geneve and the 16 Hoops team had pulled my own words and thoughts and created this amazing emotional place. I feel like finally my work is presented to you in the way it always should have been. 



Geneve Hoffman, Ringleader at 16 Hoops

Geneve Hoffman, Ringleader at 16 Hoops

Meet the Team

Our Continuing Mission...

To explore strange new worlds.
To seek out new life and new civilizations.
To boldly go where no photographer has gone before.


Hi! I'm Geneve Hoffman, Ringleader (get it, hoops?) at 16 Hoops, and I'm on a quest.

Here is my story, in a nutshell: As a successful photographer with 13+ years under my belt, I hit a wall in 2012.

For some reason even though I had achieved financial success - I was able to take vacations, had savings, had my work published 6 books, had countless magazine features, and met many of my career goals on paper - I was very unsatisfied. 

I knew deep down that my business was all over the place. I knew that despite all my years of experience, I was still competing on price and not coming anywhere near my potential.

I had hit an unexpected low point just when I should be feeling the opposite.

Why? I am a curious investigative designer by nature, so quietly, I started on a quest. A quest to dig deep into myself, my business, and the industry as a whole to first diagnose, then hopefully fix the problem.

I started a 200 member photographer group here in Maine and began to understand that my pain was everyone's pain. Photographers were struggling. Again, why? 

Around the same time, I also was approached by several colleagues to teach them what I know, and out of that I quietly launched the Lumina Brand of portrait studios (which became the seed for the 16 Hoops concept).

In the Fall of 2013, I had an epiphany. And then, after seeing three successful launches through of the Lumina Studio concept around New England, I realized the wall that some photographers, my self included, were hitting was...themselves.

DIY will only get you so far.

The key to knock down what is holding you back from reaching that next level is to ask for help from an outside expert. Other businesses and industries know this, and now we do too.

Outside experts will keep you accountable and provide the necessary support you need to reach new heights.

I took my own advice, re-formulated my Lumina concept into a program, hired two consultants, 2 designers, 3 web designers, and a copy editor....and almost 24 months later, "16 Hoops, A Strategic Design Firm for Photographers" was born.

So now, I'm on a quest for you too. My wildest dream for you...

  • to be able to pick and choose only your most ideal clients
  • to command higher and higher prices in the process
  • to achieve complete financial freedom doing only what you are best at and love doing

I know you are thinking: sounds like a lot of hard work. Yes, because if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. But you are not everyone. 

Together, let's take the leap. 


Stop taking small steps and take the giant leap.


Whoa. Simmer down hoops. 
Not quite ready yet? That's OK.

Deciding to level up your business is a process.
Here are some ways you can start learning on your own.

Here are some great articles to start with:


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