Confession: I am not naturally gifted at technology. But, I am a DIY kind of person. In fact, if something is more difficult, then I just see it as a challenge that I have to defeat! So because of this, I end up doing things the hard way more often than I should. So for those of you who are searching for resources to help make your photography business more efficient, or who are just starting your business, I decided to write this post so you wouldn’t have to do things the hard way!
- Honeybook: One of my first challenges when turning a passion into a profitable business was how to handle money. So much about this business is customer service, and I knew I didn’t want to end my sessions with a client fumbling for cash or a checkbook when it should be ending with hugs and good conversations! So I discovered Honeybook and it has done SO much more for me than just provide a way to process money. Within a matter of minutes, I can send a prospective bride a proposal, she can sign it online and pay a deposit and be officially booked. Within minutes!! This is how I handle all of my contracts, invoices, keeping track of inquiries, everything! It even runs reports for me to show my monthly income. If this sounds amazing to you (which it should!) Then you can click HERE to get 50% off your first year!
- Blogstomp: One of the first things I did before even starting my business was create a blog. I know blogs are not for everyone, but I wanted a way to share my images beautifully, and I also love using it as an outlet to share what is going on in our lives. I’m even going to start using it to share what I have learned about starting a photography business with others because I really wish I would have had someone to share with me when I was searching! Anyway, I used to spend hours on my WordPress site trying to get my images the same size so that I could pair two beside each other, only to find out that the spacing was uneven once I hit publish. Then I discovered Blogstomp. It’s an application that you buy one time and it instantly steps up your blogging game! If you’ve seen the beautiful gallery collages I post to Facebook on gallery delivery day, it is what I use and it just takes a few minutes. It’s also what I use to pair all of my images for my blog, and it is super quick and easy.
- Photomechanic: This is another one-time purchase that saves me so much time. If you are familiar with the editing software Lightroom (which is what I use 95% of the time), you know it takes forever to upload every single image you have taken to Lightroom, and then it takes forever to cull because Lightroom loads each image so slowly. So, Photomechanic was created for culling efficiency. Basically, it uploads thumbnails of all of your images super fast so you can choose which ones you want to edit, then you can just select them and drag them over to your editing software. It’s amazing for saving time!
- Showit: This is what I use for my website. Creating a website has been one of the biggest struggles for me. As soon as I finish one, I end up starting to work on a new design. Showit has made things so much easier! They have an online chat, and I know those wonderful people working them think I am nuts but they are always willing to help. They also easily merged my WordPress blog with my site so I didn’t have to start over!
- Planoly: I’ll be honest, this is a great resource but I just don’t use it as well as I should! It is supposed to be used to help plan Instagram posts so that you can bulk plan content to save time. Currently, I love using it to see what my overall grid will look like! I still don’t utilize it the best way, because I end up impulsively posting content anyway instead of sticking to my plan. However, it’s still a great resource!
I hope that you are able to use at least one of these resources to help your business because they have definitely helped mine!
xoxo,
Katelyn Workman
