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The calendar strikes November 1 and stress levels jump. At work, you have to juggle your shoots, editing, marketing, selling, client management, and all the hours for backend work. At home, you have family responsibilities and the addition of holiday events, shopping, and family visits. It’s a real recipe for burnout. 

We hear you! And that is why we created this guide for you. We’re diving in and breaking down some of the biggest tasks you need to tackle right now and giving you tips and resources to help you survive the busy season!

Our Photographer's Survival Guide will help you manage your business during one of the busiest times of the year. 

Picsello Photographer app in phone on table with photographers camera and flashes.

Help Every Step of The Way 

Stuck on something and can’t figure out what your next move should be? Struggling to find an answer to how to deal with a client situation? It can be rough out there while you are building your business! There is a lot of information- and misinformation- and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out what is the next best step to take. 

Picsello’s business coaching is always right at your fingertips to help guide you with helpful tips, instant business advice from industry pros, and one-on-one coaching -all right at your fingertips. Wherever you are in your photography career, reach your next goals with our business coaching. 

Picsello Pricing Calculator on photographers phone.

Setting Your Prices

A lot goes into pricing. Accurate pricing needs to take into consideration things like where you live, the type of photography you do, how many years you have been a photographer, and the types of shoots you offer. 

Misinformation on how to properly price photography services is all over the internet, making it difficult and confusing to figure out where you should land with pricing. It also misleads potential clients who then end up expecting to pay less than what you are worth. 

Picsello helps you set your prices so they will be profitable in two ways. Our proprietary calculator was built on years of experience and research and helps you enter the information that matters into our calculator. And, as you set your pricing, you will be backed by our support team every step of the way if you need extra support or have questions.

Delivering Images and Upselling to Clients

No one wants to leave money on the table. Unfortunately, with other galleries and product sales platforms, you might have dealt with clients downloading more images than they paid for, or missed profits from product sales because clients had to go elsewhere to order.

When you are busier than Target the day after Thanksgiving it's easy to forget to turn on a setting or follow a bunch of steps that protect your downloads. Picsello solves this problem in a few different ways. You can set the number of digital images included in your package, and then offer the opportunity to upsell on a per digital image or "buy them all" price- right when you are setting up.

Our gallery also lets your clients order custom products right from inside their gallery and you get to keep 100% of the profits from every purchase they make. 

Finding More Time to do What You Love 

Especially during busy season, we find ourselves amidst a neverending list of to-dos at work and at home.

Here are a few ways that Picselo can help you manage your list.

Marketing Tips for Photographers

Marketing is essential- and time-consuming. Here are a few tips on breaking down your marketing tasks so they are more manageable. 

  • Do some research and decide which social media platforms you want to focus on. While most people suggest having a presence across the board, you will still want to focus the majority of your energy on growing one to two platforms at a time. It’s important to engage on social media with potential clients and focusing on one or two platforms at a time makes this easier.
  • Try to do one type of marketing task at a time. Schedule all of your social media on a specific day of the week, send out your marketing emails another day, and set aside a day for client follow-up communications.
  • Keep a running list of marketing tasks you want to do so you can chip away at them when you have time.
  • Create a newsletter sign-up and add it to your website or social media bios. This allows you to always be collecting emails from potential clients even when you are away from your computer.
  • Set aside a day once a month to write a newsletter to your email list announcing any upcoming sessions, your availability, or any changes to your business.
  • Use an all-in-one tool to manage your marketing tasks. Picsello makes it easy to access everything you need to market your business all in one place- marketing emails, your website, social media, google, and more.

How to Avoid Burnout and Make it Easier to Get it All Done 

No matter how you manage your to-do list, there will be days that you just can’t get everything done. Maybe your energy levels are dragging, something that was not on your list pops up, or you simply run out of hours in the day. Remember you have the power to say when you are finished for the day. 

When you run a business you are never going to have an empty to-do list, there will always be something more to do, so take a moment throughout the day to check in with yourself. Ask yourself what can wait, and what can be delegated. Be comfortable saying to yourself that you are done for the day, even when some tasks still remain on your list. 

Here are a few more ways Picsello’s features can help you get things done easier when you are tackling that list. 

Your Personal Studio Manager

Our studio manager keeps all of your emails, proposals, questionnaires, and contracts in one place so you can easily take care of all of your backend business tasks and get back to doing more of what you love about being a photographer. The business-y parts of your business are way easier to manage when you can see them all in one place.

Client booking on Picsello's Client booking app.

Integrated Client Booking and Online Scheduler

There are a lot of pieces and parts involved with client booking. From creating packages and letting clients know your availability to the actual booking, signing contracts, collecting payments, and client questionnaires- there are a lot of moving parts involved. When you use our client booking system, you and your clients will navigate the client booking system with ease. Easily set up events and availability, and clients go from looking to booking in under 10 minutes. And mini-sessions? They practically sell themselves.

Email Automations

Automated email sequences take the endless task of client communication and puts it on autopilot. Your account is pre-loaded with set-it-and-forget-it customizable emails that streamline client communications from leads, to galleries, to post-shoot follow-ups. You can also customize these emails with the details of your business and any personalized messaging or links you want to include, and then save these updates to all of the emails in a specific job type (weddings, family, newborn, portrait, ect.).

Forgetting to send wardrobe guidelines, prep emails, or last minute shoot confirmation details are a thing of the past! Using automated emails makes you look like a pro and your clients are prepped for their best shoot. Imagine effortlessly always sending the right email at the right time. Automatically send follow ups to those ghosted inquiries, send booking reminders, pre- shoot emails  invoices, contracts, and those post shoot follow-up emails. This feature really is a game-changer that will save you stress and give you hours back in your day.

Manage Your Time (even when you are short on it!)

Here are a few tips for managing your time as a photographer to maximize what you get done, while still leaving time for your personal life. 

  • As tempting as it is, try not to multitask. Focusing on one task at a time gives you a better chance of being able to get more things done, more effectively. As opposed to doing a few things at once may leave you feeling distracted and reaching the end of your day with many more tasks still undone.
  • Set boundaries. This is a huge part of effective time management and finding harmony between work and life balance. It’s ok, and a good skill to learn, to say no when you need to. When it comes to sanity savers, learning how to say no is at the top of the list. 
  • Prioritize your tasks. Try choosing a big 3 for each day and then look at your leftover tasks. Ask yourself what you can delegate, and what can wait. Arrange your schedule accordingly, and don’t forget to leave space for your personal life and time for yourself to recharge- this is especially important during busy season.

Learning the best way to manage your time is key to running a successful photography business and creating harmony between work and life. Don’t be afraid to try different things until you find a time management method that works best for you.

Photographer looking at the Picsello app on her phone.

Our Favorite Busy Season Resources

We’ve curated a list of some of Picsello’s most popular free resources that will help you navigate your busy season.

Wrapping up

Picsello exists to help photographers build a profitable business they love-  we’re more than just software, we’re at your service. Sometimes things don’t always go right- (seemingly during your busiest times, right?!) but we’re always here to help get everything back on track. As always, if you have any questions about using Picsello to manage your photography business, please reach out- we’re here to help you succeed. 

Here’s to surviving the busy season!

Want to see Picsello in action? Sign up to view a demo here.

P.S. Keep an eye out in your inbox for updates on our Black Friday Sale-when it's live you'll see a banner right at the top of Picsello where you can click to take advantage of this amazing offer that includes a deep discount on a yearly membership and 12 month access to our much-loved business mastermind.

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