Photography is not just taking and editing photos.  There is a ton more to what we do.  Don’t get us wrong, we love our jobs as photographers so much, but it can get overwhelming with all of the tasks we have going on. If you’re a small business owner…YOU TOTALLY GET IT! Being there are two of us, we decided early on that we should probably start divvying out the tasks.  We looked at our strengths and split up our to-do list.  Although we are identical twins and extremely similar, we have our differences.  This is what helped us decided who would be in charge of what.  Not to mention, early on in starting out our business, we sometimes both ended up responding to the same messages and e-mails, confusing our clients! Rookie mistake there. However, we have learned that making mistakes is the ONLY way we would be where we are today.  We have learned a TON! This is why we are here to share some of the steps we take to stay organized in our crazy busy lives!

A Shared Google Calendar! This is a MUST.  We not only share it with each other, but we also share it with our husbands.  This way everyone knows what is going on. We like to be an open book when it comes to what we have planned. Communication is so important. Our Google calendar not only houses the set dates and times we have meetings, sessions, reminders, etc. but it also allows us to add client information. For example, if we have a senior session, we might add in the Google calendar where they want to meet, maybe one of their Pinterest inspiration shots, or even some other random facts about the person. This gives us something to glance and look over before the session so we are more than prepared.

Planoly: This is an app that saves time. What!? Everyone needs to save time and work efficiently. We feel as though part of our success has been the ability to work efficiently in what we do.  We are all about any tools that can help us with this.  Once every couple of weeks, we sit down and batch out social media posts and captions. We do this in an app called Planoly.  This app allows you to pick the day and time you want the post to go live. It is also great because it ensures that we have a post going out every single day, which we have learned is a game changer for our business.

Trello! Hello! Yet another app that has allowed us to collaborate in a much more efficient way.  We used to spend all day and night texting back and forth.  When one of us was busy, we couldn’t respond right away and certain text messages would get lost in the message stream.  The ideas and questions would then go missing and we would forget about them altogether.  So, when we heard about the app called Trello, we were ecstatic. This app has allowed us to make groupings of “to-do lists”.  We both have access to the lists and we can move items from one list to another. So, Emily has a list and Erin has a list….we also have tons of other lists (if you saw it you would see how crazy and organized we stay)…anyway, when Emily wants to ask Erin a question or assign her a task, she slides a task/question right on over to the “Erin list”.  When Erin is finished with it or has answered the question, she slides it back to the “Emily list”.  This has worked wonders for us.

Voxer: Who doesn’t love walkie talkies? This is a walkie talkie app.  This is yet another way we communicate.  We use this mostly when we have something on our minds but we cannot just call the other person up right then and there. We can leave a message and the other person can listen and respond at their own convenience. This has also worked well when we get separated at a wedding, to check in and see how the other person is doing.

Google Drive:  The educators in us love Google Drive. This is where you will find folders of spreadsheets, documents, and other materials we use often.  We like this because it allows us to collaborate when we aren’t together. We can be working on the same document at the same time.

Shared Albums: When we are talking about shared albums, we are talking about the shared photo albums on our phones. We can add photos, comment on photos, like photos, delete photos, etc. all in one place.  If we cull and edit some sneak peeks, we can add them to this album and decide which one we want to post and share with our clients. We have found this much more efficient than texting each other the photos..when let’s be real, we always have at least 15 or more. We can never decide.

Mileage Tracker: This isn’t the most exciting way to stay organized, but it is important. We have created a Google Form where we can track our mileage anytime we are out on the road for photography.  We have made a button on the home screens of our phones titled “mileage tracker” and this links us right to the form. When we are in the car, whoever isn’t driving, is filling out the form once a session is complete. This way we have a record of all of our mileage. It is great to have at the end of the year for tax season.

These are just a few ways that have helped us really stay organized. We know there is always room for improvement and we know we aren’t perfect with staying organized, but these tools have helped us immensely. We hope you took something from this and we would be excited to hear all about the ways you stay organized within your business.  Are you interested in learning more tools we use for our business? Click here to download our free business tools list just for you!

 

Thanks!

 

Erin & Emily