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- [00:01]
A
Happy Thursday. Today we're tackling a topic that's been a game changer in my own life. How to stop booking sessions on weekends. If you've ever felt torn between serving your clients and spending more time with your family, or if weekends have started to feel more like an extension of your work week than a chance to recharge, this episode is for you. I'll be sharing the exact steps I took to reclaim my weekends without sacrificing income or client experience. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear plan to set boundaries, communicate them effectively, and create a schedule that works for both you and your clients.
- [00:48]
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Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mom at a 2 and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast, we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience, and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here, just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in.
- [01:40]
A
So let's talk about the problem with booking sessions on weekends. On the surface, it might seem like if you're a photographer that offers weekend sessions, you're going to seem more available, which would equal more money. But here's the reality. Constantly working weekends comes with hidden costs. You're sacrificing family time, self care time, and the ability for you to rest. And then over time this can lead to burnout and even resentment toward your business. And I found myself very much here several years ago. Many of us say yes to sessions on weekends for a few reasons. One, we're afraid that we will lose clients or we feel obligated. We think that, you know, working sessions on the weekends is the only way. Number two, we don't realize that there are other options. Maybe you've never even thought, oh my goodness, I a client will actually book me on a Wednesday. Did not know that. And then three, maybe you work a niche that requires more weekend work, so you maybe do weddings or events or something like that. But I want to show you that booking sessions during the week is possible. In my own business, the majority of my sessions take place during the week and then maybe one or two times a month I will Open up my calendar to book one session on a weekend. My weekends are sacred, and I don't want to give up every single weekend with my family to book sessions and be gone working and traveling. I want the weekends to be open, and I want to have the freedom to spend it however I want to. So the first step to booking less sessions on weekends is first shifting your mindset. If you're stuck in scarcity thinking, you might believe that if you don't offer weekend sessions, clients will leave or leads will not book you. But here's the truth. The right clients will respect your boundaries and adapt to your availability. You're offering them something valuable, and that value doesn't change based on the day of the week that they're booking their session. I want you to ask yourself, what does success really look like for me? For myself, it meant being present for my family on weekends and fully serving my clients during the week. And once I got clear on my own priorities, saying no became much easier. Some other pushback I hear from family photographers is that they're worried their clients won't book them on weekends because of their kids bedtimes or the school day or daycare. This is my 11th year in photography, and I can count on one hand the amount of times I've had a client say something like this to me. You know what they usually say? 7:30 is usually when we're winding down for bed. So I'm having the kids take a late nap. Hopefully they are all smiles for the session. And you know what? 90% of the time they are. I've had weeknight sessions where the kids lost their steam a little earlier in the hour than usual, but that wasn't a big deal. And the main point here is that this bedtime or this weekday routine did not prevent my client from booking with me. Now let's get into the how to how do you stop booking sessions on weekends and start getting people to book you at other times during the week? All right, first step, audit your current schedule. Look at how often you're working weekends and why. Is it by request? Is it out of habits? Is it because you're fearful again that people won't book you during the week? And then I want you to create your ideal booking schedule. So you're going to just. I would get out a sheet of paper and I would say, okay, write down Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. What do I want this week to look like? If I. If this was like a recurring schedule, you know, what are the days or how many Times a week do I want to book sessions on the weekdays versus the weekends? The best way to transition from booking sessions every weekend to opening up weekday sessions again is to create this ideal schedule. You have to see it on paper first. So for example, let's say that you are booked through the next two months. So at the time you're hearing this, it is January. So let's say that you actually don't have any space to not work a weekend until March. Okay? So then you're going to go to your March calendar and you are going to start replacing your weekend dates with weekday dates. Another thing to keep in mind is to decide if you want to stick to shooting on certain days of the week. So instead of it constantly like revolving and changing from week to week, maybe you could commit to booking sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. And then if you need some weekend availability, maybe you could open up one weekend a month. Second step is to start communicating your weekday availability to your leads. Leads can't book you for the weekday if you're not giving them weekday options. And they're also not going to book your weekdays if you are constantly allowing them to book every Saturday and Sunday in your calendar. So you have to take some of that away and give them weekday options as well. Send them your booking calendar. Let them choose an evening that works best for them or a day. So if you're a newborn photographer or an in home photographer or studio photographer, then you can just replace this evening with the day. Let them pick a time slot. I promise you, if clients want you to photograph them, they will make it work. They will be flexible. If you're nervous about pushback, I want you to remember that you're not just setting boundaries, you're modeling healthy work life balance. And your clients are going to be able to recognize this for themselves too, regardless if they own a business, right? Everybody's doing something to where they want to see this work life balance. And so you're modeling it not just for yourself, but for everyone you come into contact with. And one final note, if you're worried about losing business, I want you to start phasing out your weekends gradually. Give your clients time to adjust so you don't have to abruptly even if you want to. You don't have to abruptly, like next week, decide, okay, I'm never taking a weekend again. If that's what your leads and clients are used to seeing, you can totally phase out if you want to. I've seen this transition work for so many photographers, myself included. One of my clients went from working every Saturday and Sunday to booking weeknight sessions only and guess what? Her clients didn't leave. She continued to book and of course she was also booking at higher rates which is so fun to see because we had done some coaching together as well. So I've seen this work in many, many, many photographers businesses. So now it's your turn. This week I challenge you to go audit your schedule, create that ideal schedule that you want and figure out your first step towards reclaiming your weekends. I hope this was helpful. I know that this was a very popular question. I've gotten this question again and again, especially for those of you who that are in your first two years of business. This might seem like such a wild concept but I just want to encourage you that it is possible but you have to take that leap of faith first and allow your clients to have the ability to book you on weekdays. So I hope this was helpful and I will see you on the next episode. It.