This is part two of my year end favorite round up! My first post was about photography tools and can be found here. Today we’re going to talk about my favorite photography business tools! They’re not limited to just photographers, but things that can be for most entrepreneurs! I share things that have been tried and true for me. Hopefully, they can help other business owners like you! FYI: There are affiliate links that help support my business in this blog post.

Dubsado

This is my CRM or Client/Customer Relationship Management tool. This is where I house all my contracts, forms, send invoices, link jobs to my calendar, etc.

There are a lot of CRM software out there. This was recommended to me by a mentor who had tried out other software and liked this the best. I found this post which gives a great detailed breakdown between two of the bigger CRM software that people use.

Reasons why I like Dubsado:

• Awesome support. If you have a question, you can easily get in touch with a live human being on the team, explain to them your problem, and get feedback.
•  Their trial period is for a certain number of clients and not days which is more flexible when I was not a full-time business.
•  Updating new features. I haven’t been a client for a long time, but I’ve noticed that they are robust in creating new features that help your workflow. They also have videos and webinars, which help you learn how to use their features.

If you’d like to try them out, I have an affiliate link here.

Pic-Time

Pic-Time is my new this year, gallery delivery system. I wasn’t looking for a new Online Client Gallery system. I hadn’t heard of them before and decided to see what they offered and was completely blown away.

Why I prefer Pic-Time to Pixieset:

• Easier for clients to navigate!! This wasn’t even the reason why I transitioned over the Pic-Time, but is a reason why I’m a raving fan of their product!
•  They offer high and low res images and different settings for clients to download only one gallery if desired.
•  Business tools:
  • Analytics – see how often people are viewing your galleries
  • SEO – add keywords to your gallery
  • Promotions: your shop can have a coupon code for percentages off.
    • I see now that Pixieset has begun to offer this, but it is a newer feature that wasn’t offered before when I was a client. They still do not offer the other business tools
  • More options in gallery design
  •  Top notch customer support

This affiliate link gives us both one month of Pic-Time for free if you decide to sign up. 

Felix Grey

This seems like an unlikely business tool, but if you spend as much time as I do in front of the computer: writing, editing, making graphics, planning out your social media. Then you realize this is something that you use all day everyday!

These are blue light blocking glasses that aren’t orange goggles, what my husband opted to wear. We keep it super sexy at home.

I got my pair with a slight reading glasses prescription because that’s what works for me. You can get them with a reader magnification of your choice. You can also put your regular lens prescription in them as well!

Social Curator 

This is just my personal opinion here, but I think one of the best kept “secrets” in the creative community is that we don’t do it all. I’ve met photographers that outsource their editing and their blog writing. This is something that is common place, but not a lot of people talk about.

It’s literally impossible to do it ALL. While I write my blogs, and still edit all my photos, the photos in this post and some other “personal” posts are Social Curator stock photos. I could style and shoot photos like this, but it would delay me from making and sending out content into the world. Just like how other photographers that outsource some of their work can write their own blogs, and edit their own photos. We could do it all if we had a abundance of time, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

I’m not trying to throw any shade. I’m sharing this with you so that you don’t feel like you need to DO IT ALL. I did this when I first started and it was a quick path to overwhelm and feeling like a failure because I couldn’t do it all. You’re not a failure if you can’t do it all. We all need help to succeed.

Social Curator helps me show up in my business more often by helping me manage my streams of content: social media platforms, blogs, promotional materials, etc. It also have a SOLID community of members where we support each other and cheer each other on.

Conclusion

So friends, I hope that was helpful to you! Please write a comment below if it was! I’d love to hear what was the most valuable to you and if you’re planning on using any of these tools for your business!