Has anyone else banged their head against the wall trying to figure out all the in’s and out’s of running their creative business? Especially for creative-minded individuals, running a business can be overwhelming. There’s so much more to a photography business than just taking photos. In order to make a living out of this art we are passionate about, we also have to know how to run a legal business. As a Wedding Photographer, it’s important for me to stay organized and on top of all business and communication tasks, and to have a great workflow process to make sure I’m showing up the best I can for my wedding clients. This is why I am sharing with you 5 software programs that have been game-changers for running my wedding photography business.

Honeybook

As soon as I booked my first two wedding photography clients, I opened an account with Honeybook, and I’ve never looked back. Honeybook is a client management system that helps photographers stay organized by streamlining their workflow for them. Honeybook’s features include proposals, contracts, invoice & payment services, email templates, questionnaires, and more. As soon as a client reaches out to work with me, Honeybook creates a “file” for them and adds them to my workflow, ensuring that I complete all necessary tasks in my workflow for each client. I’ll never have to print out contracts to put in my manilla folder file system ever again or panic when I misplace a file in my jam packed cabinet. Use this link to get 20% off Honeybook: http://share.honeybook.com/taylor58269

Quickbooks Self-Employed

Quickbooks is a service that helps many individuals who are self-employed with bookkeeping, tax planning, and tax payments. If you’re anything like me, when tax season rolls around, it feels like chaos. Quickbooks Self-Employed helps me keep track of my income and expenses through tracking and categorizing every transaction I make in my business. It does some tax planning so when quarterly and annual taxes are due, I can easily click a few buttons and pay right through my phone! Like I said, it’s been a game changer for running the business. For 50% off, use this link: http://fbuy.me/v/taylor_12983

Photomechanic

Have you ever spent hours culling through images from a session or wedding, getting frustrated at the amount of time it takes to render and load each photo before you can decide to keep it or not? Photomechanic is a great software where you can cull through your images in half the time it take if you were to pull each image up on your computer or even through Lightroom. Adding this to your workflow will save you hours of time. https://home.camerabits.com/

Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop

In order to edit your images and apply any necessary touch ups and color corrections, you’ll need to choose a good editing software. Some photographers to the free route and use VSCO and other apps, but if you’re wanting to become a professional photographer, you may need a more comprehensive and reliable editing software like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. This is one of the most popular editing softwares among photographers for a reason! https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom/compare-plans.html

Pixieset

Once you finalize images from your session or wedding, you’ll need a way to send them to your client. Some photographers go old-school and send over a flash drive of images through the mail, but most photographers now use online gallery delivery sites like Pixieset. What I love about Pixieset is that not only is there a free option with 3 GB of storage, Pixieset galleries look so beautiful, professional, and organized, which enhances client experience. Pixieset also allows for high resolution and web resolution images, so when clients download photos, they aren’t losing any quality like with other apps such as Google Drive. https://pixieset.com/ref/YVyzWa8xex