You wear many hats.

Maybe you’re a full-time Mom, starting a photography business. Or perhaps you’re transitioning your 9-5 into a photography career. Or maybe you’re running a successful, fully-booked photography studio already.

Whatever the case is, you’re busy. You have lots on the go. You feel like there’s never enough hours in the day to get everything done.

What if you could get more done in less time, though? What if you could discover more time in your week, and achieve greater balance? What if you could not feel like a slave to your business? What if you could take ownership of your time and get control of your life?

I believe success isn’t defined by how busy you are.

Have you ever noticed that we glorify “busy” these days? We almost wear it as a badge of honour, and treat it as a status symbol. We use it to justify ourselves, or as an excuse as to why we can’t do what we really want to do.

But, I’m willing to bet you didn’t get into photography to feel overworked, overwhelmed and burnt out. That’s not what entrepreneurship is about.

Entrepreneurship is about freedom, flexibility and control. It’s about doing what you love and making a living doing it. It’s about designing the lifestyle you want and creating a business that fits into it.

Let’s redefine your relationship with time. Let’s redefine how and where you chose to invest your attention. Let’s redefine your priorities. Let’s redefine your business. Let’s redefine busy.

I run SproutingPhotographer.com. We have free articles and podcasts where we teach about the business of being creative. I’m starting a movement, called the Redefine Busy Movement. Together, we will stand for the anti-busy. I’ll show you how to gain control of your business, get your life back and take ownership of your time.

As of the time of this writing, I’ve released Article #1 and #2 of the Redefine Busy series. At the bottom of each of the articles, you can see and view all the other articles in the series.

There are many ways you can redefine busy and do more in less time. That’s what I’m writing about in the Redefine Busy series. One way is to streamline and implement more efficient systems. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel in doing so.

Let’s look at what you’re doing right now for the typical client workflow.

First, you get an inquiry via email. You reply back to it, and then have to keep track of it somehow, probably in your head. If you don’t hear back from the inquiry, it may fall by the wayside.

Once you’re ready to book an inquiry, you send them a contract. Maybe you use an app for that, or maybe you send them a PDF via email. Then, you collect payment via PayPal or some other payment processor.

You put the session in your calendar, and use that to remind you to send an email as the session gets closer. Maybe you use an app to send a questionnaire before the session to collection details such as:

– What style do they like?

– Where do they plan on hanging the photos from the session?

– Do they have a preference of props or accessories?

– Are there any special blankets, clothes or props that they’d like to have photographed?

After the session, you send them an online gallery of the images and let them choose which ones they’d like to buy. Are you happy with their print orders? Or do you offer just digital files? If you offer digital files, you then have to get that all together, put it on a USB stick and mail it to them.

Maybe they pre-purchased a book or album, and so you design it and send them a PDF of the design. The revision process is perhaps complicated and time-consuming because of all the back-and-forth.

Does any of this sound like what you’re doing?

To me, looking in from the outside, there seems to be a lot of open loops. There seem to be a lot of places where things can go wrong or where the ball can get dropped. There seems to be a lot of wasted time. There also seems like a lot of room for you to become overwhelmed. If you have to keep track of inquiries, orders and details, all in your head, then you’re surely pushing yourself to the limit.

I know how you’re feeling. In fact, 2 years ago, I was the exact same way with my wedding photography business. I figured there had to be a better way and a more streamlined, efficient system to run a successful photography business.

But there wasn’t.

So I set out to create one.

Two years later, and now with a team of 14, Sprout Studio is changing the lives of photographers across the world. It’s the industry’s first all-in-one platform for photographers, designed to take the chaos out of running a photography business. Sprout Studio combines studio management with online galleries, album proofing, and the revolutionary new sales galleries.

Sprout Studio was designed to eliminate busyness and streamline your photography business.

I asked you at the beginning of this article if you were interested in getting more time back and in re-gaining balance. Join me through the Redefine Busy series, and I’ll show you how to do so. I’ll show you how you can take ownership of your time and move away from the lie of busy.

In the meantime, you can also check out Sprout Studio. It can help you, too. Once you’re set up and running (the set up process is simple), you’ll be able to immediately save time in your business. Not to mention you’ll be able to deliver a better customer experience.

You can check out more information about Sprout Studio here.

And if you’re on board with me in the Redefine Busy Movement, then share this article. Declare that you will stand for the anti-busy. Declare that you are starting a transformation to gain control of your business, get your life back and take ownership of your time.

 Author: Bryan Caporicci

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