Systems in Your Business
Business systems are such a sexy topic. Just kidding. Although it’s not sexy, it does make me “Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch” level of excited.
Somewhere along the line, I took my business by the reins and went on an obsessive journey to save time and simplify. [for perspective] I asked myself- if I died, how easy would it be for someone to jump in and understand my business and complete the tasks at hand? If you have created a business where you are truly irreplaceable (other than shooting), you may want to re-think. This is an exercise in objectively looking at your business.
How do you manage your workflow?
I love tracking my workload with Airtable. I keep a record of potential leads and booked clients. I keep track of the progress of each project there and have it broken down for every step: questionnaire > timeline > back up photos after wedding > send previews > deliver wedding > blog. I can quickly identify exactly what I need to do first and I’m never caught in the land of in-decision.
How are your files organized?
I would say this is probably the biggest struggle for most photographers. Shooting 30 weddings a year, your own personal work, and the occasionally family shoot can leave your hard drive look like a war zone of your client names and random titles. For me, a date is basically a barcode and everything is broken into categories. To break it down: Each year has a 500GB - 1TB hard drive and all years are backed up on a giant 8 TB Drobo. On each drive exists that year’s catalog and every selected RAW image. For me, I have 3 categories: weddings, portraits, and personal. Within those folders is every shoot with the date and client’s name. This organization system carries over to my LR catalogs where I make collection sets for each category and create collections for every shoot. The other day, I literally thought of a specific photo from 2014 and was able to find it within 3 minutes. Imagine the time you’ll save!
Do you have canned responses?
I used to think it was a sin to dare send a human a canned response. Then I sat down and I thought through a response that was thoughtful, to the point, and also communicated my interest in them. It also saves time to inform them before they have to ask questions. Being to-the-point saves everyone time. My approach is to use a standard canned response and I mention something personal that I can gather from their inquiry, such as “I really love that venue and have been dying to shoot there”, etc. Here is a portion of my canned response that I have sent out for the last few years:
I feel honored that you're considering having me photograph your wedding day. With wedding photography, my hope is tell the story of your wedding day and be more than just a wedding vendor, but rather- your friend. Most couples need about 8 hours of coverage and that is $_,___. That includes telling the story of your wedding day and 500-700 edited images 4-6 weeks after your wedding day.