From $106 to national attention: How Lebanon’s Carl Bott is building a $1M photo business

He's seen the devastation of drug and gang violence firsthand, slept on the streets and, in October 2018, he quit a job with $106 in his bank account to start a new photography business.

Lebanon’s Carl Bott used almost all of that money to buy a camera and launch Legacy Photo Company. Now, at 35, he holds contracts to photograph about 60,000 athletes and nearly 100,000 youth per year.

The entrepreneur also received notoriety as one of 60 businesses picked from thousands of applicants for the fourth season of “The Blox” – an Amazon reality docuseries with competitions and exercises for business owners. Bott was invited for a return week of filming in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June for the show's ninth season. Air dates have yet to be determined.

“I’ve always been a hard worker, but I felt like I’ve always been in a hamster wheel,” Bott said of life and business today. “Now my feet are finally hitting the ground, and I’m starting to get some traction instead of my feet always being in the same spot.”

Music scene, experiencing homelessness preceded Bott's journey

Bott moved to Middle Tennessee in 2015 from Flushing, Michigan, a town just outside of Flint, where he mostly avoided trouble but counted a dozen friends who died due to drugs or gang violence.

The initial plan was to move to East Tennessee, but Bott started in Nashville and a hobby playing the harmonica led to a few sessions with bands in the city, and the music scene led him to stay.

At one point, Bott said he experienced homelessness for several weeks when his apartment became unavailable — he was told because of a cracked water pipe. He couldn’t find anything else in his price range at the time and spent several weeks on the streets.

“I was embarrassed by my homeless story, but now I’ve tried to use that to hopefully inspire somebody,” Bott said.

Starting Legacy Photo Company with $106

Bott launched Legacy Photo Company three years later after a work assignment. He was a New York Life employee working at a Midstate Youth Football League jamboree as a company representative helping to offer child ID cards to families.

Since Bott had a company-issued camera, a football coach asked about team pictures, he said, noting that he couldn't take the photos with the company camera, but he could schedule a future photo session that turned into multiple sessions with multiple teams.

He had some photography experience working for a Michigan company and used $100 plus a $3.25 ATM fee of the $106 to his name to buy the camera. And, as more youth football coaches and parents wanted in on photos, Bott was able to establish the  “volume photography business,” that targets youth sports and activities, he said.

The model focuses on the business side and customer relations in tandem with photos themselves, friend and YMCA of Middle Tennessee Executive Director of Programs Brian Harter said. Bott has a post-pay system and allows parents to view different images online to choose what the family wants before payment is required. Legacy works with schools, youth sports programs and dance companies to produce youth, yearbook and individual photos.

“With other photographers, a lot of work ended up on the plates of my staff,” Harter said. “He found a lot of friction points within the process and eliminated those friction points.”

Legacy made about $17,000 in 2018 and $27,000 in 2019 as Bott grew the business.

“I do remember when he first said he was going to start his own photography business, I’m pretty sure my words to him were ‘you’re crazy,’” said Merissa Bott, who married Carl Bott in 2017, and was able to pay the couple's household bills working as a cardiac sonographer while her husband built the photography business.

“The first few years are very challenging opening a business,” she said. “I had some doubts, but I knew I had to trust him, his work ethic and knowledge of photography business.”

Bott expects Legacy to approach or reach the $1 million mark in gross revenues for 2023, with the company about to celebrate its five-year anniversary in October. He now employs four full-time staffers with about 20 contract photographers.

“I love – love working with kids,” he said. “But my passion is helping others. In the arts, it’s hard to survive. There, I’m the weirdo who runs payroll and gets excited about it. Now, I’m able to help people with this company by giving somebody else an opportunity.”

'The Blox'

Carl Bott finished 13th out of 60 businesses in Season 4 of the streamed reality show competition for new entrepreneurs, held in Kansas City.

“The Blox,” available on Prime Video, invited him back for Season 9, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Carl Bott couldn’t give a spoiler, but he did say he fared better in his return trip. Season 9 will air on Prime Video and is already available through "The Blox" app and Vimeo.

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Middle Tennessee photographer started with $106, reached 'The Blox'