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FEATURING GARRETT DELPH, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF SHOOTDOTEDIT

“Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” These are the words of Peter Drucker, management consultant and author. 

Maybe it was just a few years ago that you realized your calling in wedding photography. Or maybe you’ve been in it longer than that. You decided to get started to make your passion your business and grow with it both personally and professionally. You’ve spent years making a place for yourself in the wedding photography industry, and now you’re flooded with work from all corners. You’re happy but also dealing with the chaos of running a business.

And we get it! Running a business can be super difficult, and making photography business decisions like handling the shoots, post-production, client communications, networking, branding, advertising, and logistics can be overwhelming. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to keep your head above water!

If this all sounds familiar, DON’T PANIC! You’re not alone. 20 years ago, this was the life of Garrett Delph, the co-founder and CEO of ShootDotEdit. He was the owner of a thriving wedding photography business.  But it was a struggle! After years of stress and anguish, Garrett finally found his solution: outsourcing! Read on to learn about his story and the making of his belief that outsourcing is the best decision for your photography business.

The Challenges Of Running A Wedding Photography Business

“I started shooting in 1999, back when film was alive. That was really cool,” Garrett says. “You pick up a camera, you start shooting friends and family, and people start going, ‘Hey, I really like that!’ They start referring to you. That’s kind of how it happened. You’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! There might be a business here.’”

Garrett Delph, a husband and father of four, started his wedding photography business soon thereafter. But he was met with a huge unforeseen challenge – the transition from film to digital photography.

“I transitioned to digital, and what I never saw coming was the moment I switched from film to digital, I became the photography lab overnight.” As he was struggling with the transition and client expectations, Garrett realized many wedding photography businesses had gone under. Still, there were many others who were frustrated just like him. 

Editing had taken on a life of its own, not just for Garrett but also for his peers. They were spending so much time editing that it became challenging to focus on other aspects of their business. Frustrated by this situation, Garrett explored alternatives and soon discovered the power of leaving behind the ‘Do-it-yourself’ lifestyle.

Best Decision For Your Photography Business: The Solution

“In six months, we built a digital processing lab. We got together with a couple of buddies, one of them Jared Bauman, and we co-founded ShootDotEdit in March of 2007.” 

Garrett said that building the company had been a crazy ride. “I think at the end of the day, it’s the vision. We were committed to solving a giant problem to empower pro wedding photographers to succeed, specifically in post-production,” he says. “Managing your own photography business post-production is a big cost center in both finance, time, and emotional happiness. And so that was our big driver.”

It took constant commitment for continuous improvement so ShootDotEdit could succeed. Garrett and the team worked to understand their target market – professional wedding photographers. They knew they needed to meet and exceed customer needs and expectations. By understanding their market’s needs, they were able to build products and professional photography services within post-production that empowered photographers. This allowed their customers to truly grow their businesses. 

Suggested Read: A Comprehensive Breakdown Of ShootDotEdit Photo Editing Services

The Impact Of ShootDotEdit On The Photography Community

Outsourcing is the best decision for your photography business, irrespective of the fact that you’re a wedding pro or about to start a photography business. If you’re just starting out, the thrill of being a business owner is undoubtedly very exciting, but eventually, with the startup costs and workload, it can be overwhelming. But by delegating tasks to actual professionals, you can save a lot of time to do what you love (and what you’re good at!). This will not only build your business name and brand effectively but also help ensure a successful and thriving venture in the competitive market.

Garrett has read many customer emails over the years. They’ve told him how letting go of their editing work has made a huge difference to their photography company, its revenues, their mental health, and their personal life. “I think the biggest benefit is freedom,” Garrett says. “Our first company email was ‘My Life Back at ShootDotEdit’ back in 2007, and we have built lots of content and campaigns around getting your life back.” 

When it comes to making use of the time saved by outsourcing to ShootDotEdit, some customers spend more time with their families and some travel. Others use their time to book more gigs, refine their skill set and business plan, update their business goals, or work on a new marketing strategy. “Some clients spend their time editing the website they haven’t touched in five years,” Garrett says. “There’s a whole host of returns on their investment (ROIs) when they let a company like ShootDotEdit step in and handle the editing.”

Garrett says, “Post-production is the most time-consuming part of every job. If you add up all of those tasks and all of the brain RAM required to do them all in synchronicity for a dependable, consistent outcome in a timely manner, that becomes really heavy for most wedding photographers – unbearably heavy.”

Why Outsourcing Is The Best Decision For Your Photography Business

In Garrett’s words, choosing to outsource is the best decision for your photography business, but it’s a double-edged sword. “We get it. As creatives, that image is your baby. It’s your work. That’s your portrait. It’s your drawing. It’s your painting.” But he says choosing not to outsource all that uninspiring editing work, which brings no revenue to your business, is a GRAVE MISTAKE.

Garrett has given us not 1 but 5 reasons to outsource your photo editing with ShootDotEdit.

1. Make Your Work Yours  – Only With The Select Images That Truly Matter

It’s no secret that most professional photographers want to edit the fun shots, the curated selection of inspiring and amazing images that they get. They want to Photoshop those and do the artistic, creative editing on them. And that’s perfect! Photographers still need to have a brand identity. But if the wedding photographer chooses only the best of the best to make their own and leave the rest of the editing ‘grunt work’ to ShootDotEdit, they’ll spend far less time behind the computer.

2. Outsource To Make Your Clients Happier

With a turnaround time of 5 business days or less, your brides will ADORE you! Who hasn’t been in this scenario: You shoot a wedding. Then, weeks (or sometimes months) go by before you ever look at it. Now all of a sudden, your bride is knocking down your door – flustered and upset. She wants to know where her wedding photos are! Outsourcing saves you time and makes for a happier client. And ShootDotEdit’s average turnaround time is 2.8 days from the day that we receive our customer’s jobs worldwide. Now that’s fast!

3. Invest in Outsourcing – Saving Time Equals Saving Money

ShootDotEdit brings all of our excellence in workflow and editing to the table and does it in a way that you truly can afford. By continuing to find out what our potential clients need and want and providing it to them fast, at a fair, reasonable price, we continue to help wedding photographers get their time (and their life) back.

4. Outsource Beyond Editing 

Our mission is to build an integrated platform so that when you show up for post-production, you have a multitude of other services at your fingertips as well, like blogging. Yes, we literally can do it all for you! Another service we provide is EXTRA. It is perhaps our best-kept secret. It’s an image hosting gallery that comes free for every ShootDotEdit customer. We upload your edited wedding images to an EXTRA gallery, you set the product prices, we send you the link, and when you share the link with your couples, we begin selling for you. We send targeted emails to the couples and anyone they share the gallery with. Everyone who visits the gallery can order a free 8×10 (at no cost to the photographer) and is then encouraged (via those emails) to make additional print orders. Photographers who participate get a check every 3 months for any print sales that occur, and they don’t have to do a thing. If you haven’t tried EXTRA out, you should!

5. Outsource With A Company That Cares — And Is Cutting Edge

ShootDotEdit remains innovative and ahead of the game – it’s a byproduct of our core values. It’s evolving in an ever-changing industry. We are continuously improving and changing and are always planning for the next great thing that will help our photographers succeed. That includes content! We are committed to providing content that inspires, motivates, and educates photographers in areas of photography business ideas for growth or tips for lighting, posing, and shooting. We also share our customer’s images (with permission!) and stories, bringing inspirational material that showcases photographers, just like you, who are industry leaders and making BIG waves.

Suggested Read: Top Reasons You Need To Outsource Photo Editing

Garrett’s Message To Wedding Photographers

Garrett believes outsourcing is the best decision for your photography business and that ShootDotEdit can save a lot of new photographers by guiding them toward the right path of outsourcing. Photographers who are shooting professionally for the first time in the wedding and portrait space can be saved from a lot of stress and unhappiness by learning from people that have already gone through the growing pains, figured it out, and come out better and stronger on the other side!