The biggest mistake you can make in your photography business

[pullquote align=”normal”]I always think post processing of the images and getting them to my clients fast is the most important thing for me to do. [/pullquote]

This one remark from a client made me think a little.

It was made in a discussion about the time involved in doing sales & marketing related tasks (a lot of people feel they don’t have that time).

The key thing why this remark is the biggest mistake you can make in your business…

In essence, you are handing over the controls of your company to your clients.

They decide when you have time to work ON your business instead of IN your business. And that is for sure a big photography business mistake, or any business for that matter.

Working ON your business:

Usually, this is proactive work like:

• blogging,
• optimizing your workflow,
• thinking about your branding and how it’s coming through in all your touch-points,
• networking,
• promoting your work with blogs in the industry,
• doing SEO on your website,
• thinking about your prices,
• creating goals and a strategy to reach them,
• planning actions towards your long term and short term goals,
• basically a lot of photography marketing and business planning.

Working IN your business:

Usually, it’s reactive work like replying to inquiries, post processing, creating albums, delivering images, ordering prints, Twitter & Facebook updates.

These tasks are more or less the same for every shoot you do, that’s why I recommend using a workflow chart or ShootZilla to keep track of them. If you don’t use a system for this kind of tasks yet, download the free workflow chart here:

So when do you think your business will be most successful?

I guess you know the answer.

So how do you create an environment that will allow you to work ON your business while not neglecting your clients and still over delivering to them?

You can read it in my blog post “How to work ON your photography business“.

It has a lot to do with Deadlines, and why you need them so you can read that one first.

If you liked this short reminder please share the blog with your friends using the buttons on the side. Thanks!