6 Ways to Save Time in Your Photography Business

According to The Business Journals, most entrepreneurs start their own business because they are “Freedom Seekers”. We want to control our schedule, our work environment, and the course of our career. If you’re anything like me,  there may be times when your business controls you. It’s easy to become a slave to your computer as the hours of the day jet past you. In the last year I’ve been working to become more productive so the computer can be turned off at a reasonable hour. I have a husband and two puppies to love on! Here are 6 ways to save time in your business – so you can get back to the things you love. You’ll see family and beach pictures…because that’s what I want to occupy my free time!

Email templates can be used for inquiries, frequently asked questions, and anything else you find yourself repeating. You can  create your own templates, or you can buy some and customize them (I use Jeremy Chou’s, but Amy and Jordan’s are great as well!) Make sure these emails include enough info to answer their questions. The more info you include, the fewer questions you’ll have to answer later. This is the number one way I save time in my business. I copy and paste the email, make the necessary changes, and viola! Email is sent 🙂

This is something that I’ve been the worst at…but I promise, I’m working on it! As business owners, I think our minds are always going a mile an hour (office fans, anyone?). When we’re in the car, we may be thinking about our pricing and profitability. In the shower our mind may be occupied by certain policies we want to change. And at night…that’s the worst!! My brain seems to come up with the best ideas when I’m trying to fall asleep. Whenever I decided something, I would stop to immediately write it down.  There are notes upon notes in my phone that contain valuable information – but none of it is organized, and I’d have no way of ever finding it. Anyone else like me?! I recently started doing “brain dumps” every Tuesday. Sitting in a quiet environment, I’ll bring to mind all of my ideas, thoughts, and goals. I’ll jot those things down until I run my brain dry. I think through blog post ideas, business policies I may want to change, more ways to serve my clients, finances, and a *lot* more.  Then I’ll set aside an hour or two that week to dig deeper. I’ll cross off things that don’t line up with my mission, and start the things that do. Doing this has saved me an immense amount of time – because I’m not stopping every 10 minutes to write something down!

 

On any certain day as business owners, we can find ourselves doing bookkeeping, answering emails, editing photos, working on pricing, marketing, blogging, or posting on social media. Doing all of those things on any given day is not the most efficient use of time. Writing requires your brain to get into a groove, so activities like blogging and social media should be done at one time. I like to sit and write multiple blog posts at once because I can knock them out much faster once my brain is locked in. I also plan out my Instagram and Facebook posts. I use Planoly and schedule at least a week’s worth of IG posts at a time. Planoly allows you to see what your grid will look like, and it’s free if you only post once a day!

There are so many ways to outsource your business and personal life! Areas to outsource include editing, bookkeeping, copy writing, errands (high school students are great for this!), web design, meal planning services, and housecleaning (the last one is unfortunately impossible for us…not many women would be able to endure two dog chasing the vacuum!). I’ve thought about outsourcing for a long time, and I’m so glad I got the ball rolling. Tiffany Picotte is a copy writer for creatives and she revamped my entire website! SO worth it. I’m in the process of finding a bookkeeper, and it will be so great having some extra hours each month. If there are things you don’t enjoy – or things you aren’t good at (for me, bookkeeping!), hire someone else to do it! You can spend that time doing things that drive profit to your business.

As business owners we want to serve our clients, right? One way I thought I was serving my clients was going to a coffee shop near their house. Living in a metropolitan area like the Bay Area, sometimes that meant driving an hour each direction to meet for coffee. And, these were just initial meetings. They hadn’t even booked yet. This wasn’t a service to my clients for two reasons. First off, I was always in a new environment and that can threw my confidence off. Sometimes I would get lost on the way, end up being late, and run into the meeting with my bearings completely off track. Secondly, I got burnt out. You just can’t serve from an empty cup. Back in January I went to the AJ workshop with Amy and Jordan  (if you get the chance to go, GO!). In their inquiry response emails, they tell brides “we meet all our brides at this Starbucks at this address.” I implemented this a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve saved hours upon hours. It’s important to ask brides for days and times that work best for them, then you can choose a mutual free day/time and meet them. This saves a lot of back and forth emailing!

This topic is debated in the photography world, and both sides have a good argument. When it comes to protecting your time, there’s only one right answer. Putting prices on your website prevent any wasted time for you and potential brides. You’ll likely get unqualified leads if brides have a $1,500 photography budget and your starting price is $2,500. Even worse, brides may never contact you because they assume you’re out of their budget. At the very least, put a “starting at” price so your time is taken only by qualified brides.

There’s no better gift than the gift of time, and I hope these 6 things will do that for you!