As a photographer and business owner, you cannot do everything by yourself. Taking repetitive, trainable tasks off your list is one of the best ways for you to find success and grow your business. Outsourcing to partners and specialists is the necessary step to take for many of your tasks, and can free up your time so you can focus on what is most important for your business. But, why should you outsource, and what needs to be taken off your list?
In our Online Training, 20 Tasks You Can Take Off Your List Today with Melissa Jill, she shared why you need to outsource time-consuming tasks, and ones that don’t require your constant attention. We’ve gathered the top 5 tips from the training to use in your wedding photography business.
“The most successful people outsource nearly everything that doesn’t play to their strengths, or things they simply do not need to do themselves.” – Melissa Jill
1. Time-Consuming Tasks
Though there are many tasks you perform on a regular basis, there are a few that often are time-consuming for your workflow. One area in particular is color correction, which can take hours after every wedding you shoot. Even if you only shoot a handful of weddings each year, or you allot editing time in your workflow, you are still spending those hours on your images rather than booking more weddings, meeting with vendors, or spending time with your family and friends. How many little league games have you missed or dinners with your best friends because you had to finish editing your wedding from 5 weeks ago that you kept pushing aside? Outsourcing your photo editing needs to a company like ShootDotEdit eliminates time from your post-wedding workflow, giving you more time to spend with loved ones.
Another part of your workflow that can be time-consuming is the album design and revision process. If your clients are unhappy with the design, chances are you spend hours going back and forth with them on revisions. To streamline your album design and revision process, use a company like Align Album Design so you can spend more time on parts of your business that generate profit.
Related: Missing out on additional profit by not selling albums?
2. Personal Responsibilities
Along with your business tasks, you also have personal responsibilities which require attention. Some of these items are things you can outsource, to allow you to spend more time working on your business. Outsource your housekeeping and yard work to a qualified company; have your assistant or office manager take care of the mail, packaging, and shipping; hire an accountant or bookkeeper to take care of important business and financial items on your list.
“So often, photographers have young businesses, and they feel like they can’t afford to outsource. But more than likely, they can’t afford not to.” – Melissa Jill
Related: 10 Reasons to Outsource to a Photo Editing Company for Wedding Photographers
3. Branding Items
For you to stay relevant and up to date, it is necessary for you to update your website and blog to match your brand. Even if you only do a full revamp every few years, regular updates take much of your time. Having a team take care of your branding and designing helps save time and keeps your brand consistent. You can use a website design company like GoLive to assist you with your website brand and design, and Infinetdesign to program your website. If you decide to do your own website creation with another company, it’s still helpful to outsource the initial design and branding to a trusted Specialist.
“Once you start outsourcing, you begin to love it more – it becomes more fun to hand things off. You also see how it really benefits your business and propels it forward.” – Melissa Jill
4. Curating Roles
Some things you also might consider outsourcing include blogging or social media. Instead of writing every blog post yourself, you can work with your office manager, assistant, or even an intern. You can still have a hand in the direction of the blog posts, as well as the final proofing, so you ensure it still matches the brand. But, to save you time and allow you to produce more blog posts, you can outsource the research, writing, and post-formatting.
Because social media can be a full-time job, utilize your second shooter or use apps like Planoly to help you build a calendar and schedule messages for posts on Instagram, and Hootsuite for Facebook and Twitter. Your office manager can help you place images on Pinterest and create boards to attract ideal clients to your website and blog.
5. Smaller Tasks
When you think of everything you need to do to maintain your business, there are often smaller tasks that you cannot get to. These are items like encouraging print sales, sharing images with vendors, submitting images to publications, and organizing and archiving images. Although they are crucial to help you stay top of mind and reach new clients through referrals, they often stay low on your priority list.
Use a hosting and print selling company like Extra to eliminate the time it takes to upload, organize, and sell your prints to clients. Outsource to companies like LulaWed to share your images with vendors. Have your office manager or assistant send images to publications as a part of their regular workflow, as well as have them organize and archive your images as necessary. When you outsource these tasks, you are taking care of smaller tasks that do not require your attention.
As you decide what to outsource, you can focus on tasks which help you grow your business and focus on client happiness, as well as projects which provide additional revenue. Even after you outsource everything you need to, there are still additional ways for you to save time in your workflow. Our Guide, 27 Ridiculously Simple Hacks to Transform your Business will assist you in getting more of your time back so you can focus on more of what matters in your business. Grab it today!
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