It’s not easy running a photography business, but there are tools and applications out there that help make things easier! Here are my 5 favorite business tools that I use almost every day!
#1 Honeybook
Having a client management software is a must! With Honeybook, I can customize and send contracts, request payments, send questionnaires, set up workflows, and so much more. What I love most is that you can automate ALMOST EVERYTHING! My life thrives on automation. I don’t have time or the brain power to remember everything going on in my life and my business so if I can automate something, I’m going to! All my payment reminders are automated, my wedding questionnaires automatically get sent out 90 days before the event date, and my event planning magazines get automatically sent to my couples after they book! I also have it set up in my workflow to send information to my couples at certain dates over the course of our time together. For example, the day after the wedding I have an email sent that lets them know when to be expecting their sneak peek gallery, when their full gallery will be done, and how to order their wedding albums. And it’s so great because all of this gets done AUTOMATICALLY! My clients are happy that I’m so on top of things, and I’m happy because it’s one let thing I have to remember. Honeybook is accessible on your desktop and through an app on your phone so that makes it easy too. Get a discount through this link HERE. It’s the best!
#2 Quickbooks
This is what I use to manage all my business transactions, accounting, taxes, everything! I use to do all my business finances over an excel spreadsheet and man, it was a time waster. With Quickbooks, I link it with my business banking so that every transaction that comes through gets labeled and sorted into a category (income, travel expenses, office expenses, education, etc). Makes doing your taxes at the end of the year a breeze and I know where all my money is being spent. If you decide to use quickbooks, like I do, then you can get a massive 50% off quickbooks through this link HERE!
#3 Dropbox
I store all my personal photos, social media photos, and business documents through Dropbox. With syncing available across all my devices, I can access everything on any device! So when I make an upload from my desktop, I can access that same upload on my laptop and my phone. When I prep my social media photos for Instagram and Facebook, I upload them to dropbox so that when I’m away from home I can access and post the photos from my dropbox app on my phone. I also scan all my paper documents onto my dropbox. From business receipts to any other paper documents I receive in the mail, I use the dropbox app to scan and store the information so that I don’t have paper building up in my filing cabinet.
#4 Planoly
I’ve used a variety of Instagram planning apps, and Planoly is by far my favorite! They all kinda do the same thing except for one major difference, DESKTOP ACCESS! I hate typing captions and uploading photos from my phone to plan for Instagram. On my desktop, I can upload photos from my hard drives, type out captions (because who types with two thumbs faster then all your fingers on a laptop keyboard??), and I can schedule my posts straight from my computer. After 15 minutes, I’ve got a weeks worth of posts scheduled! It saves me so much time doing it all on my computer vs. my phone. And it cuts down on my phone time which is always a plus ;)
#5 Google Drive
Lastly, Google Drive the main source to all my document sharing with my team members! We share team notes on google docs, make spreadsheets with google sheets, and upload workflow videos for future reference. All of this gets saved through Google Drive! No need to use excel or word documents anymore. Google is a one stop shop and it’s so nice to have it all in one application. AND if that wasn’t enough, all google drive things can be created, edited, and accessed on both your computer, and your phone. You’re welcome!
I hope this helps you in your business as much as it has helped mine! Please share in the comments below any business resources that help you on a daily basis. I’d love to know!
