Today’s blog post is geared towards all the other photogs out there (or really anybody that just happens to be curious about how we do things for our business.)  We’ve decided to start a new little blog series to share some of the tools that have helped us make our business more efficient (and keep our sanity) over the last few years. One of the hardest things about being a new photographer is figuring out how to run the “business” side of things. Sure, maybe you can take pretty pictures, but what about the rest? We learned a ton from reading other photographer’s blogs, attending conferences and knowing some awesome photogs that were totally open and willing to share with us, so we thought it was about time we started to do the same.

We have learned a lot of things in the last 3 years that could totally help out someone else who’s trying getting a handle on things.  Now keep in mind, we’re not saying that all of the tools we use will work for everybody, they just happen to work for us.

First on our list of awesome Photo Biz tools . . .

ShootQ is an online studio management tool that’s designed to meet the needs of photographers.  We refer to ShootQ as our office manager cause it pretty much does all the work a real live office manager would do for us!  It contains our contact list, accounting information, client records and a ton more.  And the best part?  It’s all online so we can access it from anywhere, even our iPhones.  It’s an A-MA-ZING program and we were up to our ears in outlook folders, excel spreadsheets, file folders and lots and lots of paper before we had ShootQ.  Now we’re so much more organized and can lend a nice nod to the environment since our studio is almost entirely paperless :-)  Here are some of the features that we use the most:

Calendar Management & Appointment Scheduling

ShootQ syncs our personal and business calendars so we can have an easy snapshot of what we’ve got going on and what’s coming up.

When we need to set up a meeting with a client we can actually send them a meeting request by defining just a few easy fields.  Then the client can choose what date and time works the best for them.  It factors in any conflicts on our calendars and only allows them to choose from our available dates and times.  So much easier than trading dozens of emails back and forth just to schedule one meeting!

Email Templates

I love writing the same email over and over again, don’t you?  I THINK NOT!  ShootQ has made us a ton more efficient when it comes to keeping our inbox under control and streamlining our correspondence.  We just set up a bunch of templates and then do our emailing from within the ShootQ interface.  Every email is tracked and linked to the client or lead, which is extra nice with there being two of us.  This way we don’t both accidentally email someone about the same thing!  A simple click of a button now creates the email we used to retype every time.  After applying a template, you can still customize the message based on your relationship with the client or any specific questions they have.  Using a template is just a great way to avoid having to retype all the standard info over and over again.  The templates can even be designed to fill in the name of the client and other important details for you :-)  ShootQ takes such good care of us (sigh).

Lead Management

When ever someone inquires about our services through our website or blog, the ShootQ contact form automatically sets up a lead profile with all the wedding/session details and alerts us via email so we can go check it out and respond to them.

The lead tracking section of the site allows us to categorize each lead, track our correspondence and set up reminders to follow up with them after a certain amount of time has past.  Easy peasy :-)

Shoot Details

Once a client books us, their lead profile is converted into a client profile where all the information for their wedding/session can be kept in one place.  Contact info, notes and correspondence, workflow tasks, package and billing information and even other vendors related to their shoot can all be accessed from one easy place.  There’s A LOT of information to keep track of for every client and this flawless system makes it so easy to make sense of it all.

Client Sites, Surveys & Contracts

Every client gets there very own password protected client site where they can update information about their wedding, track the progress of their album, make payments and interact with us in a variety of ways.  The very first thing they do on this site is sign their contract & pay their deposit.  No more waiting for contracts or checks to come in the mail!  It’s all in one quick, easy, online process that’s super convenient for us and for our clients.

We also use the client sites to send surveys.  These surveys are an easy way for us to gather information for planning a couple’s engagement session or confirming all the logistical details, portrait list and schedule for the day of their wedding.  There’s even a handy feature that asks our wedding couples to enter the contact information for their other vendors.  When they do, it’s automatically entered into our ShootQ contact list, making it really easy for us to connect with their vendors before and after their wedding day.

Workflow (Task Management)

I’m a total checklist person – mostly because I’m naturally pretty forgetful!  The only way I’ve found to combat my forgetfulness is to be very organized.  Before the days of ShootQ we would spend hours creating tasks in Outlook for each of our shoots so we wouldn’t forget to do anything.  It was horribly tedious, difficult to share between both Ryan & I and a huge waste of valuable time.  ShootQ allows you to create workflow templates with all the typical tasks related to every shoot.  We have one for portrait sessions, weddings, engagement sessions, album production and a few others.  You define how many days/weeks/months, etc. a task should occur in relation to a shoot or booking date and ShootQ does the rest. During the process of booking a new client we apply the appropriate workflow and BAM!  All the tasks are created for us.  No muss, no fuss.  And every day when we log in, there is a lovely little preview of what needs to be done and what’s right around the corner so we never miss a beat :-)

Seriously, we don’t know how we were getting by before investing in ShootQ.  It has made our business better in a thousand ways.  We’re more professional, more organized and can provide much better customer service to our clients because of it.  And for us, it’s worth every single penny.  Now in case you’re wondering, ShootQ didn’t ask us to write this post.  I’m sure they don’t even know about it, but we feel so strongly about what they’ve done to help our business grow, that we felt inspired to share it with you.  We highly encourage you to check them out – just click the link below and take a tour!

If you have questions about how we use ShootQ feel free to leave us a comment or email us.  Or if you have another photography related question you can ask us over at our Formspring page. Thanks for reading and we really hope that you found the information helpful!