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No matter how big your dreams, if you don’t have the right systems, you’re spinning your wheels.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
You’re an amazing photographer. You know that. You’re creative and have a vision for the impact you can make in the world and in your client’s lives. You became a photographer because you love photography. But success in photography is so much more. In fact, it’s 80% business and 20% photography. And running a business is hard work.
No matter how big your dreams, if you don’t have the right systems, you’re spinning your wheels.
A “system” is a set of processes or tools that work together cohesively to solve problems efficiently. As a photographer, this means having a structured approach to your core business functions. As you grow your business, the complexity and volume of your work increases, so without the right systems, it can become unmanageable, leading to missed opportunities and burnout.
Great systems allow you to focus more on your passion – photography – while keeping the business side operating smoothly and sustainably.
There are 5 systems that every photographer needs.
How people hear about you
How clients pick a date and time with you
How clients pay and sign a contract with you
How you stay organized with all your clients
How you give an amazing experience at scale
Your marketing system is how people hear about you. There are hundreds of ways you could market yourself as a photographer, but no matter how you do it, you need to systemize how you get and collect an ongoing stream of leads.
Too many photographers rely on passive marketing strategies; they wait for referrals or expect potential clients to Google them and magically end up on their site. To build a business that consistently delivers new leads and reliably generates revenue, you need a marketing system.
Once you have your marketing system dialled in, you must make sure you have a way to collect those leads, keep track of them, and stay organized. Most photographers will choose a CRM (customer relationship management) tool like Sprout Studio; others will keep track of things manually, use pen-and-paper, or build their own DIY tool, like a Google Sheet.
Your scheduling system is how clients pick a date and time for their session with you. Manually sending emails back and forth with your clients to propose times and cross-check calendars is not efficient nor a good use of your time.
You must make logistics simple and easy – for you and your clients.
The most productive photographers use apps like the Sprout Studio Schedulers, which lets you connect your Google Calendar, set up some parameters and let your clients book time with you that automatically works for you.
Your booking system is how clients pay and sign a contract with you.
You must make it quick, easy, understandable and simple. They need to choose a package, get you their contact information, sign your contract and pay. Don’t waste time trying to track that all manually or give confusing instructions such as how to send Venmo payments or to set up an e-transfer. Keep it simple and make it easy for your clients to do business with you and book you.
Your organization system is how you stay organized with all your clients.
Once a client books you, how do you know? Weeks after they’ve booked, how are you staying organized? As you prepare for their session, how do you know who booked what time, what their preferences are, the names of their kids, etc?
You need a system to stay organized and keep yourself sane. Otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed, make mistakes, and not be able to show up on the day of your sessions the way you want to.
Your client-experience system is how you give your clients an amazing experience at scale.
It’s non-negotiable to provide a great experience without manually maintaining all the moving pieces. Automation is your best friend, so you should streamline your workflow by putting things on auto-pilot. This allows you to focus on being creative while the repetitive, monotonous work is handled seamlessly behind the scenes.
When you build a client-experience system, you do the work once and then can deliver that experience repeatedly.
Make sure you have the 5 systems figured out and “installed” in your business before you start trying to grow. It’s never too early to get set up with a solid foundational set of systems so you can focus on doing what you love – photography – and less on the things you don’t, like admin work or repetitive tasks.
If you’re looking for one software system to help you do the heavy lifting, you should check out Sprout Studio. This is an all-in-one system for photographers, which gives you all the tools you need to run your business in one place:
Sprout Studio is an all-in-one app to help you run your business so you can spend more time on photography and make a living doing what you love.
Sign-up now and receive 20% off all annual and monthly plans in Sprout Studio – a studio management suite built for photographers by photographers.
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