Get Your Photography Business Organized

After the dust settles on the busy holiday season at Sarah Petty Photography, I’m a little burned out and ready to put down the camera for a few weeks. I think it’s completely natural and it’s not something I’m ashamed to admit. The holiday season is ROUGH both physically and emotionally.

Here are 3 things I do to get organized in the new year:

1. Fix what’s broken
After a few days completely away from my business, I come back ready to dig in and fix the broken things that there wasn’t time for in November and December – like the printer that won’t scan, updating my database with all new client info I gleaned from holiday sessions, downloading new software versions, etc. Sometimes it takes me a few days to fix the broken things and sometimes it takes me longer. But before I can let myself move on to looking at my goals for the new year, new marketing ideas or products, I have to fix the things that are broken. I want to start with a clean slate.

2. Plan my marketing – for the entire year
Once the little nagging things are in order, it’s time to get myself SUPER organized for the next year. Yes, I look at the entire year when I’m planning, not just a month at a time.

Call me crazy, but here’s why I do it. I learned early on in my business that if I don’t plan for what I call the BIG rocks (those things that take a lot of time, planning or budget), they don’t happen. I have to make sure I schedule time for them to happen, otherwise I’ll get distracted by the latest, greatest thing and not go back to the things I know work for me.

Sure things change on my plan as the year goes on, but my big activities like my holiday card and my senior marketing piece always get done (and budgeted for) because I schedule them out well in advance.

I’ll be talking more about how I plan my marketing for an entire year this Wednesday, February 5 at noon Central during a free call. Just grab your seat here:  www.joyofmarketing.com/30days

3. List opportunities for sessions in the next 90 days
My database is my go to resource for knowing what opportunities I have to get new business, where I have opportunities to gain loyalty from my current clients and how I can promote my photography with other businesses. Without it, I have to rely on my memory, which after 3 kids isn’t the best!

As much as I try to stay on top of what’s going on in my clients’ and co-marketing partners lives, the busy holiday season often puts this activity on the back burner. I spend a few hours on social media at the start of the year finding out what is new in my clients’ lives, going back to the notes I made over the holiday season when clients came in and doing a brain dump of any new contacts I’ve made in the past few months. I add this new information to each client’s record in my database and update my marketing calendar so that I am reaching out at relevant times with personal messages that show I care about how their lives are changing and am not just trying to sell them something.

Once my database is updated, I make a list of what opportunities I have in the next 90 days to get business. Then, I look at my calendar and see what I can realistically make happen. I go to work making those opportunities happen that are most likely to help me meet my revenue goals – from writing notes to making calls, setting up appointments, creating new products and more. On my free call this Wednesday, February 5 at noon central (10 am Pacific, 11 am Mountain, 1 pm Eastern) I’ll show you how I do this. You can grab your seat here www.joyofmarketing.com/30days

The slower season is the perfect time to get your business organized for the entire year. What tips for organizing your business do you swear by?