Are you currently working with a partner in your photography business? Having a teammate on your side can be a great experience for you, and can help you become more productive and profitable. Often times, it can be difficult to work with someone in your business, especially if you share a personal life together.
Photography Team
Here at ShootDotEdit, we provide photo editing services for professional wedding photographers. We also love to connect with industry leaders to cover valuable topics you need to know for your photography business.
In our Secrets to Building a Successful Photography Team (without going crazy!) Webinar, Matt and Carissa Kennedy, a husband and wife photography team, shared how you can work together to create a competitive advantage in the challenging photography industry. Whether you are a husband and wife wedding photography team or work with one or more photographers in your business, we pulled these 5 tips from the webinar to help.
1. Discover Individual Roles
When you work with a partner in your business, it can be difficult to separate your business and personal lives. Oftentimes, business issues can blend into business hours and personal issues can affect the business if there is no separation. To avoid both of your worlds colliding, discover your individual roles as photographers and business owners. You should do this for both business and personal responsibilities.
Sit down and create a list together of each of your strengths and weaknesses. During this process, you may discover your strengths are your partner’s weaknesses and vice versa. Take the strengths you each have and apply them to day-to-day tasks.
Related: Find out how you can incorporate print sales into your workflow to skyrocket your income!
2. Understand Roles vs. Tasks
After you discover your roles, take time to organize your to-do list based on what needs to get done. Throughout this process, it is important to understand the difference between roles versus tasks so you can maintain a priority on the most important parts of your business. A role is a required need for your photography business. Within a role, there are various tasks to work on and complete. A task is something specific that needs to be done to fulfill each of your individual roles.
Related: Use these 5 email templates for your email communication to streamline your workflow!
3. Reevaluate Plans Frequently
After you choose roles and divide responsibilities, reevaluate your plan as often as necessary. If you do not check in often, things can automatically get pushed aside or left behind. Then the tasks that are pushed are done by the person who has time, even if it is not their strength or role. When you are busy and tasks begin to pile in both your business and personal life, there are interruptions to your schedule and your time.
When you reevaluate your plans, make sure you are not doing too much and having too many tasks on your plate. If you find out you have an overwhelming and unrealistic amount of work, create a plan with your partner to move forward. It is crucial you work on this plan together so you remain a team photography who is solid and who is in agreement with the direction your business is heading.
Related: How can you maintain a healthy workflow for your photography business?
4. Outsource Tasks
As you separate your tasks, what happens when you realize there are tasks neither one of you should do? For those tasks, find a Specialist to outsource your tasks to so you can focus on other, more important aspects of your business. Even though you may want to, it is impossible for you to take care of every task yourself (and the same for your partner). Plus, the Law of Diminishing Returns says the more time you spend on something, the less value you get for your time, which affects the value of that item in your business. A perfect example of this is editing for your images; a wedding photo editing company can take care of your images, while you only need to quickly add your artistic edits once they are color corrected.
“Because we were able to take back those 2 or 3 days a week, we were able to use that time to market our business. We grew a huge amount when we weren’t editing.” – Matt and Carissa Kennedy
When you begin to decide what else you should outsource, think about the things you dislike and what you are not good at. Some of these tasks might be album design, blogging, social media, book-keeping, and taxes. This concept also applies to personal things such as cleaning, childcare, yard work, groceries, cooking, car washing, and laundry.
Related: Discover essential efficiency tips from one of the industry’s leaders in workflow!
5. Work Together for Success
With every decision you make for your business, work closely with your partner. When it comes to the plan you create, both of your opinions and insights are valuable. Matt and Carissa have a weekly meeting and a daily meeting to stay on track and focused on their goals.
During the weekly meeting, you can discuss the major tasks you each need to complete for the upcoming week. Make sure you review the past week so you can adjust your plan accordingly if something fell behind. This is a great time for you to go out for coffee or lunch together for a half-hour or so to get out of the house and enjoy some time together. For the daily meeting, it can be a quick meeting to set expectations for the day and set short-term goals so you are both on the same page.
When you work well with a partner, you can build that into a successful and profitable business. Use your relationship as an advantage, so you can continue to grow and share your brand message with ideal clients. Ensure your brand message represents you when you click on the banner below and download our Guide, 7 Branding Mistakes Wedding Photographers Make (and How to Fix Them)!
