As a wedding photographer, many of your friends and family might be under the impression that the only thing you do is take pictures at weddings. But in reality, a wedding photography business is about so much more than just taking photos. From booking more weddings and post-production workload to making strategies for social media marketing and networking with other photographers and vendors, you pretty much have to be the jack of all trades when you run a wedding photography business. And while all of this is necessary for the business, it’s also essential for you to manage your time to give yourself some breathing space. So if you are in a place where even 24 hours seem too little to get all your work done and no such thing as a work-life balance exists for you, our top 5 time management tips for wedding photographers might just help make things easier.
Time Management Tips for Wedding Photographers
1. Track Your Time
One of the most important time management tips for wedding photographers is keeping track of your time. This goes without saying, but this step is necessary to fix any loopholes. To ensure that you are using your time optimally and meeting all your deadlines, you could maintain Excel sheets, use business management software, or simply mark dates and events on your Google Calendar. Your time is precious, so it will only benefit you to use it for the right tasks. Additionally, for any tasks that don’t need your expertise, you could hand them over to a team member.
Related Read: Spending Time With Intention While Growing Your Photography Business
2. Be Realistic About the Time You Have
Business owners across industries often overestimate the time they can spend on their work compared to their other commitments in life. And this can become one big reason why you might lag behind your targeted deadlines. One of the elements of time management is knowing how much time you have for a specific activity and how much you can stretch it to at maximum. Not considering your daily responsibilities and commitments such as household chores, exercising, or going to the supermarket will only make doing business difficult and stressful for you. Try to calculate the time you can dedicate to each activity and try your best to stick with it.
3. Set Priorities to Stay Organized
Once you know how much time you have to give to your wedding photography business, divide your work into sections. For example, pre-production, production, and post-production. List down all the related activities under each section. Now, depending on whether you are a beginner in the wedding photography industry or a longtime pro, you can decide which tasks would need more of your time. Next, based on the importance or urgency of a task, set your priorities. You will realize some tasks might need immediate attention while others could be worked on later. Following this time management tip could help to keep your work organized and make it easier for you to track your progress.
Related Read: Tips To Speed Up Your Wedding Photography Business Workflow
4. Know Your Most Productive Hours
Some people are night owls, while others are early birds. Some feel super energized during the afternoons, while others would rather work in the evening. If you haven’t already, see if you can identify which category you fall in. Knowing your most productive time of the day can be extremely helpful in managing time for your business activities. You can focus on the most critical tasks around this time and finish them within the deadline. For the other hours of the day, when you don’t feel too productive, you can work on other things that don’t necessarily require you to be highly creative or productive. Dividing your tasks into different parts of the day will help to ensure that you finish the most important ones first while also paying attention to the ones that are not a top priority.
Related Read: 9 Time-Saving Tools You Need
5. Outsource to Succeed
As a wedding photography business owner, you might have the urge to control everything – from post-production to blogging for your business, but you may not always have the time. Or you might find yourself in a situation where you don’t know how to consistently come up with blog post ideas or how to engage your social media audience. In these scenarios, outsourcing could be the solution. A task that might take your hours could be finished with perfection by an expert in a shorter time. So, whether you are struggling with photo editing, blogging, or even accounting, outsourcing would save you a lot of your time that you could instead invest in shooting more weddings or spending time doing things you love.
Related Read: Professional Photo Editing: Why Outsource As A Beginner
Improve Work-Life Balance With Time Management
With a few time-saving hacks and discipline, your wedding photography business can keep flourishing, and you can also take some time out to spend time with your family or revisiting old hobbies. It’s essential to prioritize time management. Without that, you might just be headed for burnout. So, track your time, set your priorities, and be realistic with how much time you can dedicate to each part of your To-Do-List. For more inspiration, you can take a look at our featured photographers and learn more about how they manage their wedding photography businesses.
At ShootDotEdit, we love sharing tips and ideas to help you grow as a wedding photographer. We also offer photo editing services to lessen your post-production workload. To learn more about how we can help your wedding photography business, check out our pricing plans.