Bella Pictures Reviews

Pros

Opportunity, growth, could be fun.

Cons

C-level execs did not appreciate the staff.

Pros

able to make own schedule and work from home
3 weeks vacation after 2 yrs
on-going weekly sales training calls

Cons

low base salary compared to competition
manager turnover very high
impossible to get answers or help from managers because it is always someone new
unrealistic monthly goals and quotas
expected and encouraged to lie to clients in ortder to get a booking
weekly conf calls are sometimes unorganized
the sales support staff/ admins do not like to be overloaded with work and will fail to address tasks, help requests on a timely basis.
always on-call 24/7, expected to contact clients same-day even if it is a day off
Inside Sales has no idea what they are doing and gives the outside sales team leads that are useless and time wasters, but yet ISS is never deemed at fault for their mistakes
redundant reporting within Salesforce, takes time away from conducting client follow-ups or pre-selling
upper-management is very disorganized and they make drastic changes to how business is sought every other week
too much emphasis is placed in phone selling and closing the deal without ever meeting client face-to-face
no annual employee reviews
full-time employees do not receive anuual salary raises
the only sales consultant making any $$$ are the top 2 and even they do not meet the monthly sales quotas

Pros

Flexible, great team, excellent benefits

Cons

Constant change with management and work environment

Advice to Senior Management

Management has definitely improved- keep up the good work, Bella is going far!

Pros

Working from home (even though you are pretty much expected to work 24/7), meeting some great people.

Cons

Expected to work 24/7, even when on "vacation," being given a monthly goal and being told your numbers are not good enough even when exceeding that goal every single month, zero communication, lack of response when needing assistance, they believe that there is one selling mold/approach for every area of the country- obvious to anyone with half a brain that this is not the case, outline and process changing every other month, expectations to "act" or stretch the truth in order to close a sale, quality of photography not all it's cracked up to be, the list goes on and on.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your stuff straight, get organized, communicate and have realistic expectations. Don't tell your employees to "own their business" and then interject and screw up a good thing. Some helpful pointers in an effort to spruce up employees' own way of getting the job done would work just fine. Your way does not work for everyone.

Pros

One of the Bella core values is Win, Win, Win. We are encouraged to look for ways that benefits everyone -- the customer, the company, and the individual. Finding creative ways to create a win for everyone fosters a good atmosphere to work in! Bella also is really good at encouraging a healthy work/life balance.

Cons

It's a fast paced start-up. Change is the norm, which is great if you can roll with it or even thrive in it, but if you are adverse to change, it isn't the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Bella has a talented leadership team. I think that occasionally they are so close to what's going on in the company (planning, fundraising, company performance) that they forget to communicate this with the troops.

Pros

Co workers were dedicated to the cause. In addition, the concept of Bella Pictures is a viable and worthwhile business model to explore.

Cons

Management team is poor at best (except for CFO who is a smart and fair individaul). Unfortunately, the president and other execs are some of the most unprepared individuals for their roles. It is hard to imagine that the board has not taken action yet against the principle players. Lack of communication and leadership run high in this company. Such a great concept and yet poor execution will lead to their downfall.

Advice to Senior Management

I think I summed it up in my "cons", but I would say the lack of communication, leadership and ability to treat their team members with respect ranks them as one of the worst management teams I can recall. Management is clueless. For the sake of the general employee base at Bella Pictures I would ask that they take a long hard look at their own skill set and make the right decision to step down and allow a new group of forward thinking managers to step in. Do the right thing Mitch & Co!

Pros

The only Pro to this position was that you work from home.

Cons

I was hired by Bella under the impression that I was going to have the ability to spend more time at home with my daughter ( I told them that, and they said this was a great position for mom's). I was also told I would receive one weekend off a month and two days off a week all other weeks of the month. Because this offer seemed pretty fair, I left my long-time career for this position( and took a huge pay cut) Once I started my position-I was told that I could no longer have one weekend off a month, but that I was able to take two days off a week- but was required to put in 3 to 5 hours of work on my days off.

I was up front with management, and told them I was going to keep my daughter home with me during the day. And they "seemed" fine with that. One month after I began my position, I found myself working 7 days a week/12-14 hour days. I expressed my concern about feeling over worked, tired and under- paid. I also explained that these were not the terms I was hired under. I have been in sales for over 10 years, and understand that your success depends on how hard you work. But I have never been worked to the bone like this before. Management assured me that it was simply because I was new and not used to their process, and that it would get easier. Two days later, they let several people in my city go, and one consultant's entire client list was dumpped on my lap, and I was told to deal with both her clients and mine. My work load doubled two days after I told management I was over worked and under paid! The manager then suggested I put my daughter in daycare in order to better manage my work load.

What I do with my daughter is my business- not their's. I have never left a position on bad terms in my life, but as soon as she said that, I quit on the spot.

I left a lucrative career, where I had established myself, because I wanted to be there for my daughter more.
Take the advice of everyone on this site. It is all true.

Also, I worked a full month with the company and made several sales within that month. When I left, they refused to pay me my commission.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees like human beings, and maybe you will see a reduction in your employee turn-around.

Pros

The clients you meet are wonderful (in most cases). Overall Bella had great photographers and used to be easy to sell couples.

Cons

The past year management has really pulled back on the value of packages and pushed a lot of really great people out of the organization. This makes it really hard to sell. Employees need to sell something that they believe in - it's hard to do at Bella.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at top management and make changes. The huge decline in sales is not a result of the sales team, it's top management and all of the poor choices of change. If it were because of the sales team, the entire country wouldn't be failing.

Pros

Flexibility, started as independent contractor and had a full time position created for me. Benefits start immediatey on day 1. 3 weeks PTO and access to many health plans. Benefits etc through a HR company,. Good expense reimbursement when I started. Work from home except for sales appointments.

Cons

Ended up working 7 days a week. Even when I would schedule a day off, my boss would still call me. Clients were calling. All calls came into my personal cell phone. Company kept changing policies, cut pay, made product more difficult to sell. Huge turnover. No longer hiring "employees", only independent contractors. Cut meeting expense reimbursement. When I was there, I was paid per mile driven roundtrip plus any drinks for clients. In some cases, my expenses would be over 60.00 as I had meetings far away. They have now capped meeting rimbursement at 10.00 per meeting regardless of how far the meeting may be. Would not have worked out for me if I was still there. I actually had to have them change a process they had in place when I was working for them. They tried to not pay mileage if you went to a meeting and your appt did not show up. For some reason, it was your fault they did not show up. Well I have to cite Caliornia Labor Code to show them they could not do this. Policy was quickly changed. Also, I gave one weeks notice so I was suppose to have my final paycheck in my hands on my last day. They did not get it to me and instead had to pay me an additional three days of pay to avoid California Waiting Penalty. These people don't know what they are doing.

Quality of product-I was very excited to start working for this company. My sales were excellent from the beginning and they created a full time salary position for me. I thought I had my dream job. Well aside from working 7 days a week, 12-14 hours per day(from home), the complaints from my clients started coming in after some weddings were completed. This is ultimately why I left the company. I was not selling a quality product and I did not want to be responsible for runing someone's wedding day. When I tried to make suggestions on how to improve, I was told I needed to just "trust the process".

This company has too much turnover. They don't give new photography consultants enough time to truly learn the business. Management is constantly changing monthly promotions making the salesperson look like a fool. Promotion starts out one way at the beginning of the month but if business is slow, they add an additional promotion.

Do not go to work for this company, you will be sold a bill of goods that won't materialize.

Advice to Senior Management

Their employees truly need their days off and to not be bothered. They need to improve on the quality of their product and listen to the outside sales team as the sales team is the one actually meeting with the clients and getting all the feedback. The business model is good but needs a lot of help to make it really work. Stop constantly changing procedures, policies, etc. Take into account the negative reviews on the internet. Help your salespeople by giving them an amazing and well priced product to sell. Truly cover meeting expenses.

Pros

As a consultant, you work from home and have a flexible schedule during the day, as most appts. occur during evenings or weekends. As a part time employee, it can be a great supplemental income with minimal work. If you are great at selling, you can have more responsibility such as creating partnerships with local venues. They have great benefits for full time employees: full healthcare and 3 weeks PTO.

Cons

Senior management that has no clue how to effectively manage people or turn around a suffering market, you get the feeling the company is trying to screw you out of whatever they can (ie promises are not upheld, pay is cut), recruiters highly overestimate your earnings which I realized is what their business plan is based on leading to an entirely different problem that the way they've structured the company just does not work so there has been a trend to downsize and consolidate which means as a FT consultant get pay cuts and take on even more work. My biggest issue with Bella was the complete lack of respect for working hours. I was literally working 7 days a week, sometimes 14 hour days trying to complete their paperwork and following up with clients while being paid $23,000/yr plus commissions. In the end, I figured out my yearly pay was $35,000 when I was promised bw 50,000-60,000 upon hire. I could sell ice to an eskimo, so the problem was definitely not my ability or commitment to sell. Nearly every month there would be some issue with my paycheck (expenses or commissions wrong/missing). You just get the feeling that they don't really care about the people on the bottom and try to sneak past you whatever they can. I've heard that if you work in the corporate office though that it's a cool environment. My final gripe is their inflexibility with schedules. Yes, this is an evening and weekend job, but sometimes there are important events on weekends, like your best friend's wedding. I was told that I was passed over for a promotion because I was not available every weekend throughout the year. We need to be reasonable people!

Advice to Senior Management

Have realistic expectations of employees' schedules, invest in quality consultants by paying them a decent salary so you can avoid turnover and actually have people who know what they're doing, invest in motivational management with skills for overcoming obstacles, and be honest.