U of O Entrepreneurs: Andy and Finn’s ‘CaptureOttawa’

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A SEASONAL PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS ORIENTED AROUND STUDENTS

When most people think of starting a business, they often assume it requires an established skillset. For Andy Lian, however, starting his business CaptureOttawa was an opportunity to learn skills he felt would be useful to him later in life. 

Lian, a full time, third-year student in the joint honours political science and Juris Doctor program started CaptureOttawa in January 2023 with his friend and photographer, Finn Baikie. 

“I’ve always wanted to start a service-type business because I feel like that’s where I want to go in the future,” Lian said. “I wanted to go into videography and cinematography because I knew I had the skill set from my previous experiences. I just wanted to try to find something I could start with. It helped that I have a really good friend who is awesome at photography. The business would not have been possible without him.”

CaptureOttawa is a seasonal business that primarily targets graduating students who may want photographs taken on their big day. They also cover weddings and other landmark celebrations but don’t limit themselves to large events. The business also does portrait photography and LinkedIn headshots. For Lian, CaptureOttawa isn’t literally about taking pictures around Ottawa, but capturing the people of Ottawa who, to him, are the essence of the city- and his business. 

The business is divided into two parts. While Baikie is responsible for creating the products (photography and cinematography), Lian is in charge of the client acquisition, sales generation and human resources aspects of the business. This system has enabled them both obtain the maximal benefits they desired from the business.

“The main thing I wanted out of this was learning skills. I want to run a similar business model in the future. I’m trying to gather as much information and develop as many connections as possible. I’m investing in skills that matter for me down the line, and I feel like gaining experience in sales and lead acquisition will serve me well at the end of day,” Lian said.

Despite his stance on using business as a personal development strategy, Lian admits that jumping into business was not easy for him. While he read some books before he started out, he did most of his learning on the job. He has had to manage full time school and running a business: this has required him to constantly adapt. 

When the Fulcrum spoke with him, he admitted he was scaling back his involvement in the seasonal business so he could focus on his studies. According to him, the only way he could give his best during business peak season was by focusing on his school work now. 

“The two things that have helped me manage my commitments so far are developing good habits and not multitasking. I don’t think multitasking is good for you in the sense that you have to make sure you’re mentally there in business. It requires focused work. To get the best quality in school and work, it’s okay to put some things on the backburner sometimes. Dig your heels in and concentrate on one thing. As for habits, I would say develop a habit out of reaching out to people. It saves you so much in the long run.” 

Lian has learnt other lessons from his journey as an entrepreneur. Over the summer, he attempted to scale up the business without much success. He shared with the Fulcrum the lessons he learnt from the experience during the interview.

“We tried scaling up the business over the summer. We had been having a lot of success and got a ton of clients so we wanted to take things to the next level. The idea was to train people to assist Finn on the product side of things,” Lian recalled. 

“It didn’t work out. Looking back, the training document I made was too long. It was 50 pages. It was also really technical. I feel I could have made it more accessible: broken it down into video training modules that were five minutes each. I learnt not to be emotional about it. I can try again in the future and learn from my mistakes.” 

Notwithstanding, Lian encourages anyone who is considering starting a business to just go for it. 

“You have to get started. You will learn on the job. For me, business is 1 per cent thinking, 99 per cent doing. You learn how to deal with people, you learn how to specialize. You’re gonna mess up. You’re gonna make mistakes. When you do, learn from it and move forward. If you are considering having a partner, make sure they complement you in terms of skill set.”

The duo are not planning to re-attempt expansion in the near future but are focusing on their current client base. One of those clients is a municipal electoral board wanting to use their cinematography expertise in filming parts of their promotions campaign. They are content working with their current clients while gearing up for the next set of graduations coming up.   

• Fejiro is in her third year of International development and globalization with a minor in Economics. Fejiro is serving as a staff writer for the 2024-25 publishing year.

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