The Importance of Workflows
“Go with the flow…”
I can do that! I can chill out. I can be flexible!
Who am I kidding?!? The only time I can truly live like that is the one week a year when we’re on vacation, and even then, it takes me weeks beforehand to research the best places to eat, find discounts and coupons, plan grocery lists, and pack.
I am not the type of person that can live my life without a vision or plan. If you are, I envy you! This blog post might be full of ideas that probably sound a like a lot of extra work to you. But I thrive on structure, schedules, and organization. Knowing where I am going and how much time I have to get there actually relaxes me! For the first few years of running a small business, I had no structure. I was “going with the flow,” and it was burning me out! It often meant lots of late nights, binge editing, and arguments with my husband over how I was spending my free time. When I wasn’t crashing from all the extra work on top of my day job as a teacher, I found myself losing myself for HOURS trying to stay caught up with blogging, social media, editing, and business maintenance …while sacrificing important time with my family. Finding that work-life balance was a priority, but it was hard to see from the inside what I needed to do. So I spent a month working with life/business coach Davina Fear, and she was able to look at things from the outside in and identify some areas that I could easily adjust to make my life easier. One of the most important things she taught me was how to develop workflows for my business and my life. From wedding photography to meal-planning, workflows have become my best friend. So if you’re like me, keep reading…I am going to share a few of my top secret workflows with you. Maybe one will inspire you to get yourself a little more organized so that you can free up time to go with YOUR flow!
Before I started using workflows, I would work when I had time, which was often after the kids went to bed. I always had a never-ending to-do list, and that was overwhelming…I never felt like I could relax until it was finished, and it was NEVER finished! My coach advised me to decide how many hours I wanted to spend on my business each week and then stick to that limit. Decide how to use those hours each day and STOP when my time was up. Do what I could in that amount of time, and then spend the rest of my hours living. THAT was revolutionary to me not only in my business, but in my life! My mentor teacher my first year teaching told me, “What’s important today will be important tomorrow.” But twenty some years later, I still hadn’t quite figured out how to make that happen…my work as a teacher, photographer, homeowner, and parent never seemed to end. But then someone finally gave me permission to STOP working! So I decided I would spent one hour per day on my business (at least during the regular school year), and I divided those hours this way:
Monday: 1 hour for developing future blog posts
Tuesday: 1 hour for pre-planning social media posts
Wednesday: 1 hour to work on client follow-ups and future email campaigns
Thursday: 1 hour for editing
Friday: 40 minutes for editing and 20 minutes for website maintenance
Saturday: 20 minutes for business maintenance (budgeting, taxes), 20 minutes for client follow-ups, and 20+ minutes for catching up on priorities
Sunday: REST
You might be thinking…ONE HOUR? How can you run a successful business in one hour per day? Don’t forget that this is part-time for me (for now). And I don’t always stick to this plan, especially when I end up with extra time (like during the less busy winters and summers…the one perk of being a teacher, right?), but during the school year when I am trying to balance all the things, this plan gives me limits so that I am not feeling so overwhelmed and making sure that I leave time in my life for my family and myself!
And the planning didn’t stop there. To be the most efficient with these hours, I had to create workflows for blogging, social media, editing, client correspondence, email campaigns, editing, website maintenance, business maintenance, and more editing. I won’t bore you with all of them, but here are a couple of workflows that have worked best for me!
Social Media Workflow
Social media is one of those necessary evils that can be a huge blessing to a small business. But it can also be incredibly overwhelming! Creating content that speaks to your audience and connects you to the right people is not easy. That’s why I didn’t start blogging until a little over two years ago, even though I have been in business for almost ten! I kept using the excuse, “I don’t have time.” But when you create a plan, you can carve out time for anything. And I actually found that I really enjoy the blogging experience the way I have it set up.
I usually pre-plan my Instagram/Facebook posts using Plann. I have a specific plan for my posts: Sunday-Funday, Monday-Featured Print or Testimonial, Tuesday-Client Spotlight, Wednesday-Education, Thursday-Detail, Friday-Behind the Scenes or Friday Introduction, Saturday-Motherhood. When I get too busy or have a creative block, I focus on my Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday posts.
For blogging, I have an ongoing list of blog ideas and like to write about what I am passionate about. Sometimes that’s photography education, teaching, running a small business, motherhood, a wedding or session I have photographed, or just about life! I decided that I need to publish at least one blog post a month, so I actually have a total of four hours on Mondays to work on getting that ready. Sometimes I can work on several blog posts at once and then save them for publication later. And sometimes, like after Christmas when I have a week of zero plans, I can just take an afternoon and write, write, write so that when I am in the middle of busy photography seasons, I can substitute an hour of blogging for an hour of editing! (I currently have eleven partially written blogs in my queue right now!)
Wedding Photography Workflow
When a bride or groom inquires about my wedding photography services, that kicks off the first step of my wedding photography workflow. The first thing I do is reach back out to find out more about their wedding vision, location, date, and budget to make sure we are a good fit! Then I share my wedding brochure with my couples so that they can check out all the different packages I offer. During this process, if I haven’t heard back from them after a few days, I reach out no more than twice to check in and answer questions via email, phone, text, video chat, or in person. If I don’t hear back after reaching out two times, I am a firm believer in moving on…I HATE when people hassle me and beg for my business, so I refuse to do that to other people! I learned that back in college when I sold furniture on commission for a summer…you don’t have to be a hawk to get a sale! Being friendly, making sure people know you’re there to answer any questions, and providing them with the help they need and want is important, but you can turn people off in a heartbeat if you’re a lurker. If we’re going to be a good fit, it’s usually clear after the first couple of contacts. When a couple is ready to book, I share with them a proposal that includes their wedding package, taxes, any additional travel fees, and my contract that they can review. I also give them the option of deciding how they want to pay for their wedding photography—there is a required initial retainer and the last payment is due on the wedding day, but I am flexible with how I let them break up the rest of their payments. I have built the majority of this process into a workflow in HoneyBook that triggers email templates and reminders for each step of the process. (Honeybook is a client management software for small businesses that has been an absolute life-saver for me, and I would highly recommend it to any small business owner! Click here for a referral code if you’re a small business owner interested in trying it out!)
Once a wedding is booked, depending on the time between booking and the wedding and the package chosen, I have a workflow and reminders set up to schedule an engagement session, gather wedding details, schedule a bridal portrait session, communicate with wedding coordinators, develop my photography timeline, gather the must-have shot list (special details and family groupings), communicate with videographers, and send final reminders before the wedding day.
The day of the wedding is the most physically taxing, so I always prepare the day before making sure I have all my gear ready, batteries charged, and memory cards packed, and by getting a good night’s rest! I usually arrive to the venue a little early to scope things out and then jump right in…my timeline and the flow of the wedding day guide my work!
Depending on how late the wedding runs, I either come home that night and immediately dump all the photos onto my computer and get them backed up, or do that first thing the next morning. Then comes the editing process. This is the most tedious process, but I start it as quickly as possible while the day is still fresh in my mind! I cull through all the photos (mine and sometimes a second shooter’s can sometimes total into the thousands) and select the best shots and angles of each moment of the day. Then I begin editing, making sure that I create a consistent gallery from the first details to the final exit. I often do some photoshopping (like removing bugs from the bride’s veil or doing a few “head-swaps” during the large group photos). Editing is my least favorite and takes the longest, especially since I have to fit it in between my full-time job and parenting my two boys! I have a fantastic editor that I sometimes outsource with so that it doesn’t take me an eternity to finish a gallery. I usually try to have the full gallery ready by the bride and groom’s “monthiversary;” I state in my contract that it should be delivered within 4 to 6 weeks. I deliver an online gallery for proofing through SmugMug, and once the bride and groom approve everything, I send them their full gallery on custom USB for safekeeping! It is also stored permanently in my online galleries through SmugMug.
Create Your Own Workflows
So before you allow yourself to be swallowed up and overwhelmed by work, I encourage you to sit down and plan out how you are going to use your time. Give yourself limits! It’s kind of like creating a budget. It takes a little bit of time upfront, but once it’s there, just stick to it and you’re golden. Or change it around when you need to! Figure out what works best for YOU. Also, invest in the technology tools that are out there, like Honeybook and Plann, to streamline your processes and save time. (After all, time is money, right?) And then, start living!