We know! You’re busy. Don’t we all feel like there are more things to do in a day than there are minutes in which to do them?

As your photography business grows so does your to-list. That list gets especially cumbersome when you’re a one man show. Photographer, prop hauler, scene stager, blogger, sales person, editor, kid wrangler, accountant, and the list goes on. More often than not, it’s just too much for one person to handle alone. But that’s exactly what many photogs end up doing. So where is your time best spent? That’s not an easy question to answer. However, there are many ways you can lighten your to-do list without giving up your hard earned dollars. The secret is to figure out where you can automate processes, streamline things or outsource them. Here are some of the industry’s best time-saving tips. If you have another idea, we’d love to hear from you.

1. Photography Business Systems

There are a number of different software systems designed for photographers; SuccessWare, Third Light, ShootQ to name a few. Look into a few options to see which is right for you. If you feel like you need an office assistant to send clients directions and reminders, send out emails in a timely manner, collect payments, get your contracts signed, help stay on top of leads, keep track of routine tasks and collect key info from clients prior to or after their sessions, you need to look into photography business systems. Having a system like that is absolutely like having an office assistant.

2. Don’t Let Your Inbox Control You

Email is another place where you can spend hours of your time yet it can still feel out of control and stressful. If checking your email has become a less than pleasant prospect it’s time for you to show it who’s boss. Carve out an hour or two to create some frequently asked questions email templates based off of emails you’ve already sent. Use your email program’s tutorials to learn the ins and outs of flagging emails for followup later or creating filters to send newsletters etc. to their own folders. Yes, this will take you time to set up but it will save you loads more in the long run.

3. Outsource Printing

Some labs like WHCC and ProDPI will drop ship prints directly to your client without the invoice. ProDPI offers an upgraded packaging option if you want the prints delivered in a nice box. It’s another time saver because instead of receiving prints, reviewing them, packaging them and mailing them out to clients, it’s all done on auto-pilot. Now you do lose the option to add your branding with personal packaging, but that’s not the end of the world, and I would say it matters less if you are not a high-end photographer, charging high-end prices. The other thing is, sometimes you have to put your family first, and some of these time-savers can go a long way to giving you your life back. And, yes, I am speaking from personal experience.

4. Office Scanner

Don’t let paperwork consume you and your minimal office space! You absolutely want to keep good records on your clients, vendors and so on, but having it all printed and filed away isn’t necessarily the best option. Consider going paperless. Buy a scanner and tackle your piles and, or drawers one at a time.  All bills and anything paper gets scanned immediately, and goes into our cloud based storage system. If you have a lot of files you may want to invest in a backup hard drive just for them. However, keep your most important and your most recent work on a cloud service that you can access from your smart phone or tablet when you’re away from the office.

5. Online Fax

Along those same lines, consider giving up your bulky fax machine in favor of an online fax number. Many American’s don’t even own a land line at home anymore. That trend is bleeding into the work place as well. An online fax service allows you to send and receive faxes as emails. It’s easier to manage, and you pay a small monthly fee. You save the expense of toner, paper and the phone line. It’s also convenient when you are away from the office. No paying fax fees at the local copy shop.

6. Streamline your editing

Much of your time is spent behind the computer editing so it makes sense to look at ways you can streamline the work here and save some time. Photoshop is a well known program but we’ve been hearing wonderful things about another program called Lightroom. Once you become familiar with it Lightroom is much faster than Photoshop, and you can do almost all your editing in it without even having to use Photoshop. It even includes extras such as album designing tools and slideshow creation.

Small business owners usually go into a particular industry because they love it. But you don’t have to sacrifice every minute to your business.  Practice efficiency by implementing a few of these ideas.