I’ve asked quite a few business owners quite a few questions over the last five years. I’ve sought out resources, paid for courses, scrolled Pinterest, and read blogs of generous entrepreneurs looking to help and trying to teach myself photography, design, and running a business – the real-life crash course.
In the last few months of connecting with entrepreneurs, I’ve been able to speak to their stressors with the systems, tools, and tips I use to keep my own business running smoothly and realized I might have picked up a helpful thing or two. There are a few elements I’m most thankful for in my business hoping they’ll help someone feeling stuck!
Here’s to taking some weight off your shoulders, tasks off your plate, and stress off of your brain!
01. FOR BLOGGING PHOTOS
I spent hours and hours of time bumbling around in Photoshop trying to create simple collages to be able to blog sessions. BlogStomp is the simplest and most affordable way I’ve found to curate images in blog posts, especially if you don’t have the time or experience to learn one of the Adobe programs.
If you are looking to display styled shoots, sessions, designs, or products – it’s a great fix!
Blogstomp: $49
02. FOR CLIENT GALLERIES
I have been using PASS since day one of my business. They offer a free option and made it possible for me to make a profit during my first few months in business – I’m so thankful for them! I still use PASS, but upgraded to the unlimited version – so easy for uploads and for clients to walk through ordering prints and downloading their images.
PASS: $0 – $34 / month
1 free month free riiiiiight HERE
03. FOR INSTAGRAM
You can find all kinds of information on how to improve your Instagram game. There are courses, tips, stock images, podcasts, blogs, and articles on the strategy of the platform. The biggest hangup I had was having at least a minimal plan of what to post – using UNUM is the biggest stress relief. I have the categories I post about and then just work those images and inspiration into the grid. It’s laid out so I can see what’s coming up keeps me motivated and focused.
Unum: free!
It took me a while to find a consistent way to share images or designs from recent projects on Stories, but I LOVE Unfold. It’s fast, clean, simple, and pretty – I chose a template system that works for me and after airdropping designs to my phone or downloading images from PASS, I just plug them in. Easy peasy.
Unfold: free!
04. FOR CLIENT MANAGEMENT
Oh, the days of emailing clients a PDF contract I had barely designed so they could print it, sign it, scan it into an email, and send it back to me to file. Questionnaires listed out in emails, waiting for checks in the mail, excel spreadsheets to track expenses, and sloppy communication.
I started using Honeybook two years ago and in the last few months I’ve finally customized everything in there – agreements, questionnaires (oh, so many questionnaires haha), invoices, emails, consistent images.. .LIFE IS GOOD! It saves me hundreds of hours and displays a professional, seamless front to clients so I recommend it to anyone and everyone starting or revamping a business in any industry.
Honeybook: $34 / month
*50% off your first year riiiiight HERE
These are just a few things that make my day-to-day life better in my business I figured I would share. Hope they’re helpful – shoot me a message if you have any questions!
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