2017 has been the year of education and systems for me. I’ve always had a lot of good systems and workflows in place, but I upgraded a couple of them this year and it’s been awesome! I wanted to share the things I’ve invested in, because good gear can only get you so far in a photography business. Your knowledge and skills need to always be improving, and that’s what will keep your business growing!
- The Photo Lab with Jenna Kutcher // This was a massive investment in my business, and let me tell you, it was worth every. single. penny. Jenna Kutcher created this course to focus on the business side of photography and not the technical side of shooting. I had reached a plateau in my business in terms of how I was running it, and this course took me to the next level. My social media game is strong, my client communication has been kicked up a notch, and I have a really solid handle on how to price my services so that I’m making a profit every time. The best part of this course was the COMMUNITY Jenna has created on facebook, and it has been invaluable!
- Salt Air Workshop with Amanda Hedgepeth // The workshop with Amanda breathed life and inspiration back into my business, and I really needed this in my life. I also received some incredibly valuable feedback post workshop, and having this girl in my corner rooting for me is one of the best things in my life!
- Planoly // This is the system I use to schedule out all of my Instagram posts, including stories! Saves me so much time during the week to have everything scheduled and all I have to do is hit “post” when I get the reminder!
- Tailwind // One of the things I’ve been starting to focus on is using Pinterest effectively. The biggest battle for me was actually remembering to get onto Pinterest specifically for my business, and then staying within the five or ten minutes I scheduled for that. Tailwind has taken care of all of that for me! I first used it a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to schedule 65 pins to go up on various boards, from various places 4-5 times a day all the way through the end of this week. The best part? It took me less than 45 minutes to do it! Seriously so amazing!
- The Posing Course with Amy + Jordan // Another hefty investment that was made on a whim just a couple of months ago, and I LOVE this course! They broke everything down in a way that makes sense to me, and left me with a system that I’m still fine tuning and working on over the course of the winter. I’ve always felt pretty good about the client experience during my sessions (the guys pretty much always leave happy and having more fun than they anticipated), and felt like I’ve delivered solid images, but I did often feel like I was missing something, and that the variety needed to be better. This course leaves me feeling so excited for future sessions because I can hopefully start leaving some of that panic photographers might feel during a session about what to do next! If you struggle with how to interact and direct your clients, this course is for you! Especially because it’s not just for weddings, they talk about a variety of types of photography!
There are definitely other investments I’ve made here and there that have been solid choices, but these five were the top ones! I hope that these can be of help/inspiration to you as you set your goals for your photography business in 2018!
Linda is a Maine-based photographer specializing in weddings and creating family legacies. You can see more of her work online at lindabarryphotography.com, on Instagram, or on Facebook. If you want to reach out directly: linda@lindabarryphotography.com. To sign up for the monthly newsletter full of encouragement and real life, click here!
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