Being a business owner is so rewarding, but it can also push you to your limits at times if you don’t have proper systems in place. In all honestly, I learned this the hard way! This past wedding season was tough on me at times. Like…really tough. It was my first year working full-time for CCP. I left my full-time 9-5 corporate job last May (WOW, has it nearly been a year already!??) & went full throttle into CCP full-time the day I walked out of those doors. I somewhat knew what to expect as I had been running my business for 2 years already, but going into this full-time? Hmm…I was about to find out! It happened to be when I was smack dab in the middle of my busy wedding season…neck deep in work just trying to keep my head above the water that I realized how much I had to change how I was working.

Running your own business is great because it gives you freedom to enjoy life a little more, the freedom to do what you love for a living, set your own hours & everything else you can think of in between…but if you’re not strict about your time and how you spend it…you can find yourself in a tizzy at the end of the day. Learning things the hard way really is a blessing in disguise. You realize where you were & where you never want to end up again! Working all hours of the day & night & not having the proper systems in place…welp, just like it would do to anyone – it took a toll on me. I had just begun my business, how is this happening ALREADY!?! I was stressed out & always thinking about work well after my work day had finished. I was testy towards Daniel at times because of it & any stress I felt, meant he had to hear it too…which is the last thing I wanted. I knew I had to get a grip…and FAST! (and the fact that we moved to our new home right in the middle of wedding season didn’t help, but still – something had to give!) and it did – thank the Lord!

After doing some research, I realized that once again, I was doing things the LONG & HARD way. Little did I know, there were systems out there that I could purchase that would help me out in so many ways!!! Just to name a few things that I have incorporated into my workflow:

• CREATING A WORKFLOW! A few months ago, I didn’t really have a specific workflow. I would do things here and there, but I wasn’t sticking to a plan for every single session that I did. I will be sure to share my complete workflow in another post!
• CULLING! Wow, like, how did I ever live without doing this? So, for instance, say I take 4,000 photos on a wedding day – of course, not every single one of those photos will be given to my client – so a fast, reliable tool that I use allows you to sort through all 4,000 photos in a fraction of the time & mark them as keepers or discards. It probably takes me about an hour or two to cull through all photos from a wedding day. My eyes are trained now to where I can whiz through the photos at lightning speed & choose the ones to keep/discard versus uploading all 4,000 photos into LR, waiting for each of them to load as fast as a snails pace, & then deleting them one-by-one in my editing system. Definitely one of the best investments I’ve made into my business thus far.
• LR Tips & Tricks: As you guys have seen me mention before – I am not the most tech-saavy gal out there, so when I made the switch from using Photoshop to edit my photos over to Lightroom…it was a scary process! I finally feel like I’ve gotten the hang of it & after learning some key points to help me speed up my editing time, it’s made the world of difference for me!

Those are just a few things things that I’ve put into place that actually add up to HUGE differences when I use them on a daily basis and stay consistent with them for every shoot.

Before I incorporated these systems into my workflow, it would take me anywhere from a 3-5 week turnaround for my portrait sessions & weddings. (Gulp, I know – that’s terrible now looking back on it.) Now, my turnaround time has been cut into more than half and I’m able to turnaround a wedding in about a week & half to 2 weeks. Normal portrait sessions are usually completed and delivered to my clients in 2-3 days!

I bet if a few photographers out there are reading this – they are thinking – wow, how did you just find these key things out?? LOL Well, I started out without knowing any other photographers. I had NO connections. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Didley Squat. Now, after networking and meeting some amazing photographers near and far, I’ve learned so many things that I now incorporate into my own business! These small steps/techniques that I have put into place in my business have allowed me to find balance as a business owner. The fact that I’m able to relax & enjoy quality time with Daniel, Maggie & Charlie every evening is something that I don’t take for granted! I know that there will be some late nights spent working once wedding season is in full swing, but I know that this year will be a lot less stressful than my last wedding season & I am so so so looking forward to it now that I have created a proper workflow & incorporated great systems into my business!

xoxo, Chandy