I’m sitting here warm in my home while snow continues to build up outside, and while I sit here hanging out with my family and enjoying this impromptu snow day, my business continues to run itself without me! While I’m outside playing fetch with Boris or sitting warm by the fire watching movies with Jason, blogposts are going live, payment reminders are being sent out, and my business expenses are being sorted into the proper categories.
So what are these automated programs that create MORE play and LESS work so we can enjoy the freedom of owning a business? I use to hear a lot “Make your business work for you instead of working for your business” and that’s exactly what we are going to do.

I do not know about you, but personally, I am always on the lookout for new ways to use technology to make my business more efficient. In fact, my friend who is a successful business owner herself has recently introduced this adaptive project management software, from somewhere like ProSymmetry into her business, and has already seen a noticeable difference in her business operations already. It is designed to help prioritize and schedule large work projects, so the pressure can be taken off certain departments. Now that sounds good. But it’s not what I’m looking to introduce just yet. That being said, IT has never been my strong suit, but thanks to the joys of outsourcing, I no longer have to worry about encountering any technical issues. I was actually speaking to a friend of mine about this a few days ago. She is a small business owner and has found that outsourcing the maintenance of her IT systems to a managed IT service provider has made a huge difference to her productivity levels.

In case you were not already aware, managed IT services can cover a range of business functions, from network, application, system, payroll, server, backup, and recovery solutions to workstation and printer management. My friend told me that when it comes down to Managed IT Support Melbourne is home to some fantastic managed IT service providers, so if you are looking for more ways to automate your IT processes, it is well worth doing some research online.

Anyway, that being said, below are 3 IT systems that I use on a DAILY basis to help my business continue to run in the background.

COSCHEDULE

• This program allows me to schedule blogposts, Facebook posts to both my personal and business pages, Pinterest posts, google+, twitter, and so much more! The interface is a big calendar that connects to my WordPress blog so I can see all my drafts and just drag and drop them on days I want them to be published. It also keeps track of when the best times to post are based on my audience engagement. And I recently read that they just came out with an app too so I’m excited to check that out as well!

PLANOLY

• The best Instagram scheduler! Since Instagram policies won’t allow you to automate posts, this app is the next best thing. It could well and truly be a blessing in disguise, as the more posts you decide to schedule, the higher your chances are of being able to grow your instagram at a quicker rate. Interaction is key, and the more engagement you have with your followers through your posts, the more success you can have, and this app could be a great place to start. There is a free version of this app that I had initially signed up for to check to see if it was even worth further investment. 15 minutes later I upgraded so I could upload/ schedule more then 30 photos at once. I was already hooked and here’s why:

1. It has the interface of Instagram (the grid) along with your recent photos that are already posted to Instagram (including how many likes and comments you got on those posts).
2. You can upload as many photos as you want then rearrange them into whatever is most visually appealing to your feed.
3. You can schedule a post by picking a date and time, writing the caption, and adding hashtags.
4. My FAVORITE part of Planoly is there is a desktop version so you can schedule and type a caption on your computer rather then doing it all on your phone. I HATE typing things on my phone sometimes and honestly it’s just so much faster to do it on my computer. You still post on your phone but you can schedule everything from your desktop :) Best thing EVER!!
5. When it’s time to post, your phone sends you a push notification and sets everything up in Instagram so all you have to do its hit “post now”.

HONEYBOOK

• This program revamped everything for my business. I loved the interface (which can be customized with your brand/logo) in addition to the organization. My clients love the ease of the contracts, payments, and communication. I swear I have booked clients again and again solely because of how simple my process is and it’s all because of Honeybook. This program allows me to create a new contract, invoice, and payment schedule for a client in less then 5 minutes. No more having to get client info, input it into a word doc, saving a pdf, have them print, sign, and snail mail it back to me. With Honeybook I can have a contract signed and a deposit in my bank account within minutes of sending a bride their client profile. This program also automates payment and questionnaire reminders so all I have to do is sit back and watch the magic.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions about these programs or anything else regarding photography or business, please and I’ll answer or I might ever write a post on it ;)