I was a broke single mum – now I own TWO homes thanks to my clever career hack, one has 12 rooms | The Sun

GETTING pregnant at the age of 17 is not an easy life event to go through, but this is what Natalie J Webster was faced with. 

And not one to back down from a challenge, Natalie jumped into the role of motherhood without a second thought. 

At the time, she had felt she had no choice but to drop out of college and worked full time at H&M, which was difficult while she was pregnant as she was up on her feet all day long. 

And six months after the birth of her child, Danny, she and her partner broke up. 

She was broke, single and plunged into parenthood all while juggling the disappointment from her dad, who she is still not on speaking terms with. 

Now, 23 years later, she’s a sought after wedding photographer with multiple awards to her name, making a six-figure salary. 

read more fabulous stories

I make £100k a year as a kids clown – I work 2 days & charge £236 an hour

I saved £45k to buy a house at 28 – it was thanks to side hustles

To understand how Natalie, now 40, came to own two homes, we have to start from the beginning. 

Following the birth of Danny, Natalie returned to college and eventually went to Nottingham Trent, where she studied photography. 

Danny would spend time at nursery while she finished her education, which involved getting placements.

She worked with the likes of Marie Claire as well as Bizarre Magazine. And in the hopes to make it big, she moved to London to work for ASOS, back before it was the retailer giant it is today. 

Most read in Fabulous

At this point, Danny was a little bigger and would come with her to shoots, spending time with the people on set and playing games on his iPad. 

While she did get child tax credit, she had no housing benefits and her income support had been taken away as a result of her earning above the threshold. 

“When I phoned them, they said, ‘It’s your choice to live in London,’ and by then I had a job, my son was settled at school now. I couldn’t move. And that, honestly, made me feel very, very alone,” she told Fabulous in an exclusive interview. 

I couldn’t afford clothes, I couldn’t afford holidays, I couldn’t afford anything

This life wasn’t sustainable for Natalie though as she admitted more money was going out than coming in. 

“I couldn’t afford clothes, I couldn’t afford holidays, I couldn’t afford anything. My son would have school dinners and at home he loved having a ham sandwich for tea, he never wanted to mix it up,” she continued. 

“But I couldn’t afford proper food for me. I would have a bowl of cereal when I went to work and a bowl of cereal for my dinner… I was really slim.” 

She eventually got headhunted for a job at a company called Figleaves, an online lingerie and swimwear retailer. Her salary was bumped up from £22,500 a year to £32,000. 

It would’ve been perfect had they not relocated the head office to outside of London, costing her a fortune to get to and from. 

“Even though I did get a pay rise by working at Figleaves, I was actually no better off because it was going on travel and childcare,” she told us. “Again, every month it was kind of back to less than zero.” 

An intuitive person, Natalie one day decided that if her boss ever wore blue, which she never did in the past, she would quit.

“I walked in that morning and she was wearing this bright cobalt blue dress,” she said. “So I walked to my desk… It didn’t make sense at all. Being a single mum, living in one of the world’s most expensive cities with no financial help or anything, because at this point I didn’t get child tax credit anymore either.

“I walked to my desk, wrote my notice and handed it in… It just felt like the right thing to do.” 

Natalie explained that she had no choice but to make freelance life work. 

Leaning into her portfolio website, she eventually built up a regular client base thanks to her contacts in the business. 

She did shoots for Cosmopolitan, Vidal Sassoon, Tesco and more. 

Natalie’s Career

• During University, she did many placements to get her foot in the door
• Her first job was at ASOS
• She quite her job at Figleaves to go freelance and managed to make just as much money
• A course called Passion for Passive (now One to Many) changed her business
• She now shoots weddings, sells photography courses and works one-on-one with clients

And a few years in, she was making roughly £40,000 thanks to her hard work. And eventually, she found a house in Buckinghamshire, where she had grown up. Crying at the sight of it online, she took the plunge and moved in 2014. 

Unlike before, at the point she was saving a lot of money because she didn’t have to rely on childcare and fork out on travel costs as much. 

“I remember with the first bit of income that I had, I took my son to Paris,” she shared. “It was just nice to kind of start enjoying life a little bit.” 

She continued: “We started to have holidays, I could treat Danny to takeaways or go out for dinner…” 

In 2015, Natalie made the conscious decision to switch from fashion to wedding photography. 

“I’ve shot weddings in Paris, Venice, Santorini, Iceland, New York, Hawaii, Las Vegas,” she shared. “I was on the Rangefinder List in the wedding photography industry, too, which is quite prestigious.” 

But it wasn’t just her wedding photography that catapulted her yearly income into the six-figure numbers… She eventually started to expand her business.

“I did a course at the end of 2018, which was called Passion For Passive at the time but has since been renamed to One To Many. 

“And honestly, it was life transforming for me and my business. I put my first course together, which was ‘how to ace group shots’… And that sold really well.” 

That was in 2019, when Danny had turned 18 in March, and just a few months later in July, Natalie met her now-husband, Steve, 41. 

And then Covid hit. 

I remember with the first bit of income that I had, I took my son to Paris

“All the weddings have been cancelled, we’re in lockdown. So I decided to really tap into the course. I made a recording so people could buy that and then started working on another course, which had always been my plan.” 

Thanks to her master classes, she was making £3,500 a month extra on top of her wedding photography business. This figure then turned in £5,000 and is only growing with the expansion of courses. 

In total, since she started this section of her company, she’s made an additional £165,000 in income. 

“Normally in seven months, I shoot about 17 weddings but 2021 was a very busy year and I ended up shooting 48. So it was bonkers,” she continued. 

In 2022, she did 41 weddings in total and this year she’s made the conscious decision to halve the number of weddings she covers. 

“I’m doing 20 full day and a handful of shorter coverage weddings this year,” she told us. “This is to have more time to put another course together.” 

“I’ve got my group shots course and a success accelerator course, which is a photography business course. Now, I have time to build my next one, which I think will be called Wedding Photography 101, teaching people the practical elements.” 

In 2022, Natalie’s total income was £155,000, while the year before that was £165,000. 

And thanks to her lucrative business and courses, she’s managed to bag herself not one but two homes. 

One of them is a beautiful Victorian house with 12 rooms that she currently lives in. 

“I got a mortgage in 2020, which sounds crazy because of the pandemic, but with the help of my savings from the courses and an amazing mortgage broker, she helped me get it.

“I managed to get a bigger mortgage than expected. And it cost £322,500. It’s perfect.” 

She and Steve then bought a home together, which they are currently renovating. The pair split their time between the two houses.

“But the plan is for us to renovate and then rent the house out,” she explained. 

Natalie has come a long way from being that 17 year old girl and she has no plans to stop anytime soon. 

Read More On The Sun

Change to GP appointments could see you get a slot 10 times FASTER

Woman shares how she transformed her council house kitchen for £48 using Wilko buys

“I’m aiming to make £200,000 this year, but we’ll see how it goes,” she shared, adding that a lot of her business is now automated. 

As for her long term plan, Natalie’s hoping to find her forever home with her husband, where they can enjoy their garden in their egg chair. 

Source: Read Full Article