Professional photography services have become a necessity for many private individuals and corporate clients. This is because photos never lose their value — and for great reasons. In terms of business, professional photography offers better engagement with the audience and more effective brand promotion.
But regardless if you’re a photographer that services private events or business needs, it’s vital that you maintain a steady and organized workflow. With this, you can take and manage multiple projects without worrying about things getting out of hand. Not sure where to begin? Follow our tips right here.
Create a dedicated space
This is something to prioritize, especially if you don’t have a commercial space for the business. You can choose to set up an entire home office for the business or use a card table to get the work done. The point is to have a dedicated space in your home for work. The area should, of course, contain a place for the gear, may it be a closet or drawer, as well as your marketing or packaging supplies. You can also opt to label your storage boxes for more organization. Lastly, make sure to invest in your comfort and buy an ergonomic desk, chair, and keyboard to work on.
Streamline communication
Just like other types of business, you’ll need to manage and talk to different clients. Thoughtful and careful communication is necessary. If you want to encourage repeat customers, you need to provide your clients with a smooth transaction, from their first inquiry to the finalization of the project. Keep things tidy by gathering and organizing client information using online forms. Avoid paperwork and opt for a more convenient and earth-friendly option.
Clear communication with clients, like giving them all the essential details upfront, can save you headaches and time. For this, you can consider creating a comprehensive set of FAQs. You can create the client guide as a PDF copy that you can send to clients, or better yet, build a custom page on your website to answer all the routine client questions.
Plan for proper storage
Storage is an important part of running a photography business. Aside from hard drives, another way to keep your photos and videos organized and safe from disasters like floods or fires is using cloud storage options such as Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, and more. If you need more secure storage and archiving, you can utilize a video storage solution. Find a reputable company specializing in media storage and is certified to operate in high security levels.
Moreover, don’t forget to purge all your media files and get rid of what you no longer need. There’s no good reason to still keep those outtakes or unedited files anyway. Lastly, it’s best if you have a ready-to-go case for your photo gear, whether you’re at the studio or home. This way, you can easily zip it up and get on the road when it’s time to meet with your client.
Make sessions stress-free
If you want to be labeled as a reliable and professional photographer, you’ll need to focus on giving your clients smooth photo sessions. To avoid feeling disorganized and stressed out, make sure to prepare everything in advance. For instance, instead of bringing six different reflectors, invest in an all-in-one type for a neater packing. Reflector kits already include different panels such as black, gold, sunlight, silver, and two diffusion types. You can also create a list of your must-have suppliers and equipment for every type of photo session to save time and energy.
Figure out an editing workflow
Another important thing to work on is how you can efficiently edit your shots. The simplest and most organized way to do so is to batch edit. This is a great way to ensure you’ll only make the same small adjustments to series of images once done. You’d also need to find an editing style that is appropriate for the particular collection of images.
Among the best tools out there that are used by both amateur and professional photographers is Lightroom. This software offers convenient batch editing methods: applying a preset or copying the edits from the previous image. In case editing isn’t your thing, consider outsourcing it to prevent any hassle.
By keeping your photography business organized and streamlined, you and your team’s life will be definitely much easier. Not only could this give you a more efficient work area and flow, but it also ensures that every client that comes into the business will be properly accommodated from start to finish.