10 Must Have Photography Business Tools to Save Time While Building a Six Figure Photography Business
If you are committed to building a six figure photography business without having it suck up all your time, you're going to need some time saving tools to help you get there!
Though my tools of choice have adjusted over the 12 plus years I've spent as a professional photographer, here is an updated list of my current top ten must have photography business tools that have helped manage my daily tasks, streamline my workflow and earn multiple six figures, while simultaneously having the time freedom to be a wife and homeschooling mama!
In no particular order, they are:
#1 Asana: Asana has quickly become one of my favorite and most vital tools in my toolbox. This management system is where I house my day-to-day tasks, create and organize projects, assign my team members their tasks and track our progress. At this point, I don't think I could operate as productively without Asana!
#2 Later: Nearly every photographer I know has an Instagram account. It’s a great way to showcase your portfolio and get more followers, but posting can be a huge time suck! Later allows you to schedule your Instagram posts days, weeks and months in advance! And there is no need to approve a posting (as other schedulers require) so I can accomplish an entire month’s worth of content in just a few hours. If you haven’t followed me on Instagram yet, come do so here! I’d love to see and follow your page too!
#3 A Client Management System: Personally, I have used and loved 17hats. It is a great choice when it comes to streamlining and organizing the administration part of running your business. You can track leads, collect payment, sign contracts, send email reminders, create and send custom questionnaires and so many other features. This software definitely takes the overwhelm out of all the managerial tasks.
#4 Calendly: Calendly is an online scheduling automation platform that eliminates endless back and forth emails. My potential clients can schedule in their inital consultation in a matter of minutes. It syncs right up to my iPhone and automatically sends confirmations and reminder emails. This one tool has saved me countless hours!
#5 An Email Provider: Building an email list of interested potential clients and past clients can be one of your greatest assets in business. But there is a catch: in order for it to be productive, you'll have to periodically email them 😉. Though there are a lot of great email providers available, I currently use ConvertKit to consistently connect with my clients and soon to be clients. You can create fully customizable email templates that are true to you and your brand, schedule out future emails and view the analytics of your emails, the percentage of those who opened the email, those who clicked and so on.
#6 Editing Software: I can fully edit a portrait session in less than 90 minutes and a big reason why is because I use Adobe Lightroom in combination with Portrait Pro. Lightroom allows me to quickly cull and bulk edit the final images and Portrait Pro allows me to quickly and effortlessly add an airbrushed look to my images.
#7 Blogstomp: Blogging is one of the best and free ways to grow your business, but it can be so time consuming to resize and design your blog, well that's if you're not using Blogstomp. Blogstomp allows you to crop, create collages and watermark your images in a matter of seconds that are perfectly resized for your blog or social media!
#8 Google Drive: Using Word Document and Excel Google Drive is where I track my prospects and clients, draft my marketing ideas, script my emails and marketing videos, track my financials and so much more. Everything is all in one place and I can access it wherever I am and on any device! As an added bonus, any changes I make are automatically saved.
#9 Send Out Cards: Send out Cards is an online card sending service where you can create custom designed personalized cards and even add a special gift. What I love about Send Out Cards is that I can pre-design and schedule cards to send year out in advance. This is a huge time and money saver! Sending your clients beautiful cards with a favorite image of theirs is a great way to show your appreciation and create client loyalty.
#10 A Professional Website: If you want to be taken seriously as a professional photographer, you must have a website. While an Instagram and Facebook business profiles will are important too, a beautiful designed website tailored to your ideal client will elevate your brand immensely. It will give you instant credibility, will help you showcase your photography, increase your chances of being found from Google searches and help you build your email list by offering opt ins that serve your ideal clients.
So there you have it! My top 10 go-to tools that save me time and hassle in my business and have allowed me to scale without sacrificing my family time.
Now, I’d love to hear from you now. How do you handle the million and one hats you wear as you are growing your business? Do you have any additional tools you use that help you manage your time and streamline your tasks? Comment below and share one of your favorite tools managing your growing photography business!
Cheering you on!
Heather
P.S. If you're looking to learn more ways to attract & book ideal clients, price, price your work and scale your photography business, grab yourself a copy of our newly released ebook! Over 3000 photographers have already gotten theirs so why are you waiting? Grab your very own copy of The Becoming Booked Method: A Photographer's Guide to a Fully Booked and Profitable Business by clicking right here!