Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
This past Monday morning, my son Judah and I had a bit of a moment. He was stomping around the house, panicking that he didn't have anything clean to wear to school. And I was standing there drinking my coffee, trying very hard not to say, I told you so, because, well, I kind of had. Judah is 15, he's almost 16, and he is responsible for his own laundry, which isn't a new chore, right? He's been doing this for years, but it is definitely a chore that he struggles to keep up with. So, as per usual, I had been nudging him all weekend. You know, hey, do you need to run a load? How are your clothes? You know, I wasn't trying to nag. I was just trying to give him some gentle, motherly reminders. But he did what he always does and kept brushing me off. Right, I've got it. I've got it. Because of the. Of course, he had a million things that he was more interested in doing than laundry until Monday morning when, nope, he most definitely did not have it. All his T shirts were dirty, his lacrosse jersey was wet in the machine. So it wasn't even like he could bring it and just wear it dirty. It was a whole thing. And as I watched him spiral, it hit me. This wasn't a laundry issue, right? It wasn't even a teenager issue. It really was a systems issue. And it got me thinking about how often the exact same thing happens to us in our businesses. There's this quote I love from James Clear, who wrote the book Atomic Habits, and I've said it before, but if you haven't read Atomic Habits, you totally should. Where James Clear says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And I imagine we can all relate to that, right? When we are overwhelmed, it's rarely because we don't know what to do. It's because we haven't built a system to help us do it consistently without burning out, without blowing it off until it's too late. It's because we haven't built a system to help us do it consistently. So today I want to talk a little bit about what that might look like in your business. Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. My name is Anna Mi Tonkin, and I help photographers run profitable systems sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it, and I can show you how. So here's the thing. Systems aren't just for type A people, right? They are for anyone who who hates the consequences of chaos. Shockingly, Judah doesn't love doing laundry. And as I've told him a thousand times, I don't love doing laundry either. I imagine most of us don't. But when the alternative is waking up and realizing at the last minute that you have nothing clean to wear, it's probably worth getting it done anyway. But laundry is just one example of falling to the level of our systems. We all tend to procrastinate on the tasks that. That we dislike, right? We hope maybe we'll feel more motivated tomorrow. But then a deadline hits or a client complains, or our inbox explodes and we find ourselves in panic mode. This is not a character flaw. It's a system failure. And whereas in the case of Judah's laundry, the fallout was just the sort of inconvenience and embarrassment of wearing an outfit that he wasn't particularly happy about. To school, the consequences of a business system failure, or the failure to have a system built in the first place, can be much bigger and much more costly. So when I talk about business systems, I know that that can sound a little dry or corporate or intimidating. And because of that, I feel like a lot of photographers that I talk to will kind of awkwardly laugh if I ask them about their systems. But we all have systems, even if they aren't, you know, called systems. And they aren't written out and rigidly followed. Systems are just the way that you do something on purpose. And a good system makes it so that you can create consistent results without having to invent the wheel over and over and over again. So every business that I can think of in every kind of field has at least three basic systems. And these three are absolutely essential if you want to be profitable and serve your clients well without constantly feeling that you are flying by the seat of your pants. The first is your marketing system. This is the one that brings new people into your world. So how do you connect with potential clients? How do you get in front of them in the first place? And then how do you make them pause and pay attention? A lot of photographers point to marketing as their weak spot first because most of us don't love talking about ourselves all day every day, but also because marketing isn't an exact science. I wish that there were some sort of magic formula where if you do A, B and C, you will get X, Y and Z as a result, but there's not. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a system. If your marketing strategy is just posting on social media, when you remember to, you will always be on a roller coaster because you won't be able to pinpoint or what's working, what's not, and then act accordingly. A real marketing system is more intentional than that. It's also something that you can plan for, and once you've built it and started putting it into place regularly, it starts working in the background to bring in leads that you don't have to chase. In the consistency club, we talk about this as the difference between hunting and gardening. If you have to go hunting for a client every time you need one, you're always going to feel that sort of insecurity. But if you've got a garden that is thoughtfully planted and you know, scheduled to yield different crops at different times of the year, you're never going to go hungry. The next system is your sales system, and this is the one that converts those people who find you from being interested to being booked. Having a sales system isn't about being persuasive, it's not about being salesy. It's really just about having a clear, values aligned process that guides your potential clients, giving them the motivation and the confidence to choose you. Your sales system includes things like how someone reaches out to book how you're, you know, how you package up and describe your services, what your pricing looks like, and not just the amount of the price, but also the presentation and the value that's sort of baked into that price. It includes your booking process, like how someone actually signs up. And then it also includes all the communication that's involved in getting someone through that process. So if any of those pieces feel unclear or awkward in your business, or if you're constantly fielding inquiries that ghost or you know, ask for discounts or whatever, that's a sign that your sales system could use some love. Again, a lot of photographers I talk to say they feel confused or insecure about sales, or even that they straight up hate sales. But sales is like laundry. You have to figure it out because not selling is just not going to work. It's not an option if are a business owner. Last but not least, there is your fulfillment system. And this is the system that kicks in after someone hires you from the moment they say yes to that very last thank you email that you send. What does your client's experience look like? There are so many steps in a fulfillment system. And they can vary pretty widely from business to business, but involves everything from how you communicate and check in to how the session works, to how and when they get their photos and how you ask for feedback. Right. Every one of those steps contributes to the experience of working with you. And when you've crafted your fulfillment system well, it does two things. Number one, it creates a five star experience that makes clients really rave about you to their friends and family. And number two, it makes your life easier, not harder, because the fewer decisions that you have to make on the fly, the better. That's what systems do. They pre decide things for you so that you're not constantly in reactive mode. If Judah had a system for laundry that was as simple as I do laundry on Sundays, that would mean that on Monday morning he would never wake up panicked because he didn't have any clean clothes. Now, I've talked a lot on the podcast about those three basic systems, marketing, sales, and fulfillment. But today I want to mention a few more that you really should be thinking about as well. These are the systems that can feel easy to put on the back burner because your clients aren't necessarily going to know if you aren't taking care of them. But if you're not taking care of them, they're going to cause you a lot of headaches and stress in the long run. The first is your retention system. So every photographer I know wants repeat clients and referrals, but so few actually put a system in place to make those repeat clients and referral clients happen more predictably. Once you've worked with a great client, what are you doing systematically to bring them back? How are you staying top of mind? How are you making it easy or even automatic for them to hire you again? My solution, which truly revolutionized my business, was creating a portrait membership. And that's where after working with someone for the first time, if I feel like we're a good fit, I invite them to join my membership and get annual sessions with some added perks built in. My clients like that because they can make the photo process easy to check off their list. They can make it easy to budget for since they've, you know, get to break their big portrait session investment up into automated monthly payments. And I like that I have work and income that are locked in ahead of time. But that system isn't just good for income, it's also good for energy too. I already know those clients. I know that they show up on time, they love my work, they pay on schedule. Plus when I have all this work booked out ahead of time. It reduces the pressure on the rest of my marketing. So it's like I feel better in my business, which is a total win win for everybody around. The second system that I don't want you to ignore is your accounting system. So if your entire financial system is basically waiting for tax season until the very last minute and then stress binging your way through that process, that is not a system that is a countdown to a meltdown. Personally, I love the system that Michael Malitz teaches in his book called Profit First. If you've never read that book, I totally recommend that you pick it up. It's really straightforward. It is not technical, but it is also really thoughtful. It's. It works really, really well. If you're not into Profit first, there are many other systems out there that you can follow. You can check in on a weekly or monthly basis to, you know, look at your income, look at your expenses. Even just that process makes a big difference. It helps you avoid surprises. It helps you catch mistakes before they become bigger mistakes. And it helps you make smarter decisions in real time. The last system I want to mention is your data tracking system. And I kind of mentioned this a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about that weekly accountability meeting and the fact that I am going to be adding a training in for my photographers business dashboard students in January where we're doing some data tracking. But just in general, data tracking is an easy item to overlook, especially since tracking data sounds like something that's, you know, meant for software companies and spreadsheets and that sort of thing. But the truth is, if you're not measuring what's working, or at least watching what's working and what's not working, you are making every decision based on just kind of a gut feeling. And maybe your gut gives you good advice. But I promise you, it is not the best, most accurate way to run a business. And it can get really expensive, really, really fast. So a good data system helps you know where your best leads are coming from so that you can do more of that. It helps you see your booking rates so you know if your pricing or your process needs to be maybe revisited or tweaked a little bit. It can help you spot slow seasons before they sneak up on you. You can see patterns in how your business runs year to year and prepare. It can help you track client retention, who's coming back, who's ghosting, why, you know, helping you again, tweak your existing systems to make them better and more efficient. And Then it helps you measure your marketing efforts. So instead of just posting and hoping you've actually got some real data behind your strategy, this data tracking business does not need to be complicated. Again, I'm going to be teaching a very simple weekly check in that allows you to just look at everything in five or ten minutes every week. But then over time, that helps you see trends, right? You don't need fancy CRM software, You don't need an analytics degree. You do need a place where you regularly log things that actually impact your business. Things like inquiries, bookings, where your clients are coming from, how much time you're spending on the various activities in your business, how much revenue each session is bringing in along with you know how much each session is costing you. And tracking those things takes a few minutes a week. But again, over time, it gives you so much valuable insight. So if you've ever felt like you're flying blind in your business, you're constantly guessing what's working. This is your sign to start tracking. Even if it's just one or two metrics to begin with. Remember, the goal isn't to track everything. The goal is to pay attention on purpose to the things that matter in your business. And creating a system helps you do that. It helps you replace chaos with clarity. So yes, this system is a little nerdy, but I promise it's the kind of nerdy that makes you money, which is great. So here's my challenge for you this week as we head into the quieter season. I want you to make a list of the systems that are working well in your business and the ones that could use some work or maybe need to be built in the first place. What are your laundry piles in your business? Because we all have them, right? Those are the things that you keep avoiding until they turn into a crisis. Once you have your list, just put it in priority order and commit to tackling that list. When things slow down in the new year, maybe it's just as easy as reading a book or taking a course. Maybe it's building a checklist or a spreadsheet for yourself. Whatever it is, just knowing where your blind spots are is really the first step toward fixing them. And if you need a little help, I have resources. In fact, when I think about the way that this business, my education, business has grown, basically every course that I teach really comes down to helping you create systems in your business for all of these things, right? Because I really do believe that good systems are key to success. So the consistency club is our one stop shop for maintaining a marketing system that doesn't rely on hustle. The simple sales blueprint teaches you everything you need to streamline both your sales and fulfillment processes from start to finish. Revenue on repeat walks you through the process of designing, marketing and running a portrait membership that fills your calendar and stabilizes your income. And the Photographer's Business dashboard is going to help make your data tracking and organization so much faster and easier. So I'll put links to all of those below in the show notes, or you can just go to this Can't Be that Hard under the Learn tab. All of these are listed there. But whether you use my tools or not, don't let another season go by stuck in the cycle of I'll get to it later because as James Clear says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. So take care of those systems and let those systems take care of you. That's it for this week's episode of this Can't Be that Hard. I'll be back same time, same place next week. If you like the show, be sure to check out thiscan'tbethard.com to explore all the resources we have for photographers. And of course it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review of the show on itunes or Spotify. As always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.