There are so many things to celebrate for. From the moment we wake up until the time we’re bound to sleep, there are a lot of reasons to celebrate life as it is.
But do we give ourselves time to celebrate? What reasons do we have to celebrate? Why do you celebrate? What are you celebrating today?
Here are 10 celebrations you can use in your photography business!
Celebrate Goals
Do you set goals? Before you answer, goals can be big but also small.
For example, your to-do list consists of tiny and big goals.
Like ‘today I want to finish editing this shoot and write that blog’ is definitely a goal.
So if you do set goals, do you also plan to celebrate when you achieved your goals?
I know that I am usually not good at celebrating when I meet my goals, but I am very good at punishing myself for not finishing my goal. And that’s just not a nice way to live my life, right? I know a lot of people fall into that trap. Let’s be gentle with ourselves.
So today, at the end of your to-do list, write ‘celebrate what I have finished!’ And when you start cooking dinner, or when you pour yourself a glass of wine at the end of the day (stuff you would normally do as well), now you do it with a new intention. The intention to celebrate all that you have accomplished today.
You deserve it, be nice to yourself, and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back ;-)) If you are a ShootZilla user, add a task at the end of your workflows “celebrate making another client happy!!” so you will never ever forget it.
Share
How can you share celebrations with your clients?
You might know by now how important it is to celebrate your wins. And getting new clients is certainly something to celebrate. Now I like to think that celebrations are even more fun when shared. So how can you share this with your clients? Here are a few ideas:
☑ Send them a Snapchat video of yourself (use one of the funny masks) where you thank them for their business/trust. You will give them a laugh and a good feeling! If you’re a more serious type of person, send a normal video where you thank them. Don’t overthink this, do it with your camera phone and send it away, without editing. The more authentic, the more your client will appreciate it.
☑ Send a little gift when receiving a contract. Be creative. I like to browse Etsy for fun and small gifts and buy them in batches so I always have something suitable to send out.
☑ Send a card! It’s always fun to receive a handwritten card.
Sharing the celebrations is also a great way to surprise and delight your clients and get them to talk about you, which in turn will bring you referrals by the dozen.
Support
Celebrate your support team.
Everyone has one. A support team. The people that help you get back on your feet when you had a breakdown. The people that wait for you in the pub when you finished a 10-hour wedding and you need to talk about it because you are so high in energy! The people that hear your stories and don’t judge. The people that trust in your talents and give you confidence when you doubt yourself. The people you can always call when you are in need of someone to talk to. And of course, let’s not forget our furry pals who will always jump on the keyboard when a deadline is in sight.
Who is your support team?
Celebrate them today. Send them something nice. Say you appreciate them for being in your life. Give an extra hug.
Little Wins
Are you celebrating the little wins?
When you are a solopreneur like many photographers are, it is easy to forget how much work you do every day. You tend to only look at the big stuff like the raving review you get once in a while.
Here’s a little remedy for that.
Get a sticky note and write down “little wins.” Hang it next to your monitor.
Every time your eye catches that, you reflect on what you are doing and make a nice internal comment about it.
☑ Sending out previews? Yay you, your clients will be so happy with them!
☑ Answering emails? Way to go, your clients will be so happy with the answers.
☑ Doing bookkeeping or sending out invoices? A big pat on your back for keeping your business tidy and organized and making it possible for your clients to reward you for your amazing work.
☑ Getting a glass of water? Hugs for keeping yourself hydrated so your energy stays high!
I hope you will feel so energized after a day of doing that, that it will become a habit for you ;-)
Fans
When is the last time you celebrated your fans?
You probably have a few social media accounts and a real-life following of people who check out your work regularly.
It’s fun, right? To see their nice comments and likes come in when you post a new picture.
Give them the appreciation they deserve today! Create a nice thank you image with one of your own artworks as the basis. Use @Canva to make it quick.
And share it. No likes needed today, just appreciation from you to them!
And with that. I want to thank you for being here as well!!!! I so appreciate you following my updates and tips.
THANK YOU!
News
Spread the news.
Do you send out email newsletters? Make sure to include your celebrations now and then.
You don’t want to come off as a bragging type, but you can certainly be proud of your achievements and the achievements of your clients. After all, making great photographs is a team effort!
So show off your successes in your email newsletter:
☑ highlight publications on blogs and magazines
☑ Share the photos that you are extremely proud of and why
☑ share the goals you have met, make sure to include a personal element as to why you set that goal and who helped you achieve it.
☑ share the followers you gained or the clients that hired you that month.
It’s a great way to show your appreciation for all the clients that put their trust in you and for all the people that helped you get there.
And of course, this only makes it more attractive for other people to hire you too.
[content_container max_width=’500′ align=’left’]Related: Check out 3 Tips to Grow Your Photography Business with an Email list[/content_container]
Clients
Celebrate your clients regularly.
When your business has been running for a few years, you have a lot of different client celebrations to be attentive of. Their anniversary date, their first shoot date, their birthdays, Christmas, Easter, mothers’ day, fathers’ day, and the list goes on and on.
The celebration days are the perfect way to stay top of mind with your clients.
You bring them joy with congratulations on a nice photo of one of their photoshoots and they get a great reminder of how much fun the shoot was.
Slip in a discount or referral coupon and they will have another reason to book you.
Create a system so that sending these recurring messages to take no time at all and will still be super personal.
Money
Can you celebrate making more money from your clients?
Yes, you can! And it should be a little party for your clients too.
A lot of photographers are hesitant to talk about money, raise their prices, or push the upsell.
But really, if you believe in your products (and you do, since you probably hate the prints that destroy your careful editing), you owe it to your clients to sell them on it.
You need to educate them and reach out to them at just the right time.
So today I ask you to change your mindset from being salesy to be service-minded. Offering your customers to buy at the right times. To make the buying decision so easy that it really feels like a service.
So how do you do that?
Offer something when they are open to receiving it. For example: offer a boudoir shoot around 8 weeks for the wedding so the bride has a great gift to give her husband.
Make it a no-brainer to say yes. Offer them a special deal since they are already your clients.
Make it ‘technically’ easy to say yes. Have an easily clickable web page or an email that only requires a yes and you will take it from there.
Don’t complicate things. Offer only one thing in your email or call so they don’t have to make multiple decisions. When you do want them to make multiple decisions (e.g. album sizes and covers), make it easy for them too. Give them samples and make a pre-selection for them that matches your brand.
Do you ever feel happy and festive when you buy something and the whole process went so smooth? Like the person or website offering it to you knew exactly what you wanted? That’s what you are aiming for.
To make the celebration complete, send them a nice congratulations email to confirm that they made the right choice.
And for you as the photographer. Make a system out of it so it doesn’t take you lots of thinking or execution time.
Everything is thought out in advance and all you have to do is the creative process and let’s not forget >> collect the money!
Habit
How to make a habit of celebrating?
Celebrating is so good for the soul; I suggest you make a habit of celebrating.
It can be easy to form habits when you tie something you want to do more of to something you do anyway. My husband and I want to learn Spanish, so whenever we eat at home, we created a habit of doing one lesson on Duolingo after dinner. Without much effort, this has become a habit for us and the kids too (they are learning English). You can tie your habit of celebrating to waking up!
Every morning, when you open your eyes, maybe your first thoughts go to all the things you have to do or worries that you went to bed with. Make an effort to focus on the things that you can celebrate or appreciate instead.
I have told many people this and the results are always the same. In the beginning, you might have some trouble to find things to celebrate, but after a couple of days, practicing it becomes easier and easier and you will find more things!
Vendors
Are you celebrating your vendors enough?
If you are working as a wedding photographer, you usually work with a lot of vendors. Some you have worked with a couple of times and you are getting to know each other better.
Make this the object of your next celebration.
Celebrate working with vendors that are a pleasure/dream/fill in the blanks to work with.
Maybe you can do a ‘behind the scenes’ shoot at their place.
Or maybe you can create a nice album for them with all their work that you have shot so far collected and nicely presented.
And a blog featuring their work is always a good idea!
Go the extra mile and interview them in advance so your blog is even more appealing to read.
Go celebrate your favorite vendors you work with (or want to work with). The result will always be more referrals for you. Spread the love and receive it.
Want to know what else to celebrate?
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