Are you currently working with a partner in your wedding photography business? Having a teammate on your side can be a great experience for you and help you become more productive and profitable. However, sometimes, it can be challenging to work with someone or find the right fit for your business. In our Secrets to Building a Successful Photography Team (without going crazy!) webinar, Matt and Carissa Kennedy, a husband and wife photography team, shared how you can work together to create a competitive advantage in the challenging photography industry. Whether you are a husband and wife wedding photographer team or work with one or more photographers in your business, we pulled these 5 key takeaways from the webinar that could help you build and work successfully with a team.
How To Be A Successful Photography Team
1. Discover Individual Roles
When you work with a partner in your business, it can be difficult to separate your business and personal lives. Oftentimes, business issues can blend into business hours, and personal issues can affect the business if there is no separation. To avoid both of your worlds colliding, discover your individual roles as photographers and business owners. Sit down and create a list together of each of your strengths and weaknesses. During this process, you may discover your strengths are your partner's weaknesses and vice versa. Take the strengths you each have and apply them to day-to-day tasks. If your photography team also includes other members, you could use the same technique to figure out what each member is good at and accordingly set roles and responsibilities.
2. Understand Roles VS Tasks
After each person has a designated role, take time to create a to-do list based on what needs to get done. Throughout this process, it is important to understand the difference between roles versus tasks so you can maintain a priority on the most important parts of your business. A role is a required need for your photography business. Within a role, there are various tasks to work on and complete. A task is something specific that needs to be done to fulfill each of your individual roles. Working as a team may not always be a smooth process, but a photography team works better when everyone is on the same page and knows their roles and responsibilities.
3. Reevaluate Plans
After you choose roles and divide responsibilities, reevaluate your plan as often as necessary. If you do not check in often, things can automatically get pushed aside or left behind. Then the tasks that are pushed are done by the person who has time, even if it is not their strength or role. This not only disturbs the workflow but also means that the task will most likely not meet the set benchmark. When you are busy, and tasks begin to pile in both your business and personal life, there are interruptions to your schedule and your time.
When you reevaluate your plans, make sure you are not doing too much or adding too many tasks to your plate. If you find out you have an overwhelming and unrealistic amount of work - delegate. The whole point of setting each individual's roles and tasks was that everyone would be responsible for doing something they are good at. When work piles on, prioritize tasks that specifically require your attention and try delegating the rest to other members of your team. To become and stay a strong and successful photography team, it is crucial you work on this plan together.
4. Outsource
As you start listing out and assigning tasks, what happens when you realize there are tasks that nobody on the team needs to spend time on? For those tasks, find a specialist to outsource to so you can focus on other, more critical aspects of your business. As a professional wedding photographer and business owner, even though you may want to, it is impossible for you to take care of every task yourself - at least not without increasing the risk of burning out. Plus, the Law of Diminishing Returns says the more time you spend on something, the less value you get for your time, which affects the value of that item in your business. A perfect example of this is editing for your images. A wedding photo editing company can take care of your images, while you only need to quickly add your artistic edits once they are color corrected.
When you begin to decide what else you should outsource, think about the things you dislike and what you are not good at. Some of these tasks might be album design, blogging, social media, book-keeping, and taxes. These are all essential aspects of running a wedding photography business, but if you are not good at it or spend way too much time finishing these tasks, then, in the long run, it's more profitable for you and your business to find an expert who can do these tasks for you.
5. Work Together For Success
Working in a photography team can get tricky, but it's rewarding too! You get to brainstorm creative and business ideas, celebrate your wins with your team members, turn your big business vision into reality, and so much more. But to really reap the benefits of having a team, it's important to have a plan in place. Map out what each team member is responsible for, create TDLs, track your progress, and constantly modify plans to increase productivity while ensuring that nobody is overburdened. Working in a team means having each other's backs, and that also includes making smart decisions when it comes to delegating tasks or outsourcing. Whether your photography team is just you and your partner or you and multiple other individuals, keep communication open - listen to each other, if there are any roadblocks, figure out how to get over them together, and make plans to evolve together as a team.
At ShootDotEdit, we are passionate about helping you grow your wedding photography business. And to help you dedicate more time to the business side of your work, we lessen your post-production workload by taking editing off your plate with our professional photo editing services. To learn more, check out our pricing plans.
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