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Feeling "Stuck" in Slow Season? - Here's 10 Things You Can Tackle During Slow Season - Episode 40
53 Plays1 year ago
As January moves along, it can be easy to feel nervous or frustrated as a business owner right now. It seems like almost everyone from photographers, to retail stores, to restaurants are all in the thick of a quiet time for business. What you may not know is, slow season can actually be a HUGE blessing in disguise for your small business, because there may be lots of small, behind-the-scenes tasks that went on the back burner during busy season, and you can now give them your full attention. Do you need to organize your gear before another booming wedding season comes around? Are you wanting to level up your social media? Or, are you freaking READY for a vacation? Right now is a great time for all of those things, and we break them all down one by one in this quick, but jam-packed episode. Get ready to take some notes, and save this one for later.
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Transcript
Navigating the Slow Season for Small Businesses
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey friends, if you're in the photography industry, you know by now that we are currently riding out slow season. In fact, January is notoriously a slow time for almost every small business owner. The flurry of Christmas is over and almost everyone from bookstores to coffee shop to photographers and wedding vendors might be feeling the effects of slow season.
00:00:19
Speaker
It can be easy to feel nervous or discouraged during this time, but get this, your slow season can be a blessing and a great time to show some love to the areas of your business that may go neglected during busy season. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. While slow season is a great time to regroup, rest, and take care of yourself, like Ayla just said, we bet there are other aspects of your business that can finally have your full attention and set your next busy season up for success. We've talked about that before on the show.
00:00:48
Speaker
setting yourself up for success when it does get busy. This is an episode for all the self-employed people out there and of course with a focus on photographers and editors and general seasonal service providers. We broke our slow season projects into an easy list of 10 things you can spend your busy season doing. So this is an episode to save and come back to for sure. Go ahead and keep listening.
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:01:09
Speaker
Welcome to the Art of Intention podcast with Beth and Ayla. Two best friends turn creative entrepreneurs.
00:01:14
Speaker
This is a place for us to discuss everything business, friendships, and faith, and occasionally more. We're so excited for today's episode. We think you're gonna love it. Stay tuned.
00:01:29
Speaker
Okay, so quick story time. I remember about this time last year, mid-January, I had just quit my full-time job to pursue my business as a private photo editor full-time. I had wrapped up a previously very busy season, as always, then I had taken time off for the holidays and I was ready to finally have full days to commit to my clients. I was like, this is going to be
00:01:49
Speaker
So great. Working a full-time job and then coming home and editing was getting crazy. And so I was like, full-time, here we go. I was going to commit to all my clients, round out my social media, all the things, but little did I know that January would have almost nothing as far as editing projects. And that January specifically, Beth, we'll talk about this later, was just so slow. Like last year's slow season was just so crazy.
00:02:13
Speaker
But I took the time to work on a much needed website rebrand, which was absolutely amazing. And I was most active on my social media rip now, but I was just looking back at it today and my social media was popping at the time. And I dove into marketing strategies and to really round out my client list.
Opportunities and Strategies During Slow Season
00:02:33
Speaker
So I really tried to make the best out of a very quiet season during that time. Oh my gosh.
00:02:38
Speaker
I love that. Oh my gosh. Already starting out strong. Thank you for sharing that. The first few months of 2023 definitely hit hard when it came to slow season. More so than normal, like you said, Ayla. Photographers and vendors just all over the place had a harder than expected slow season for sure.
00:02:54
Speaker
While we don't know what this year brings, we can definitely tell you that slow season can be tricky, yes, to navigate. But there's lots to do for your business in the meantime, and also for just some encouragement. If you're listening, Word Around the Block says that the US is looking at 2.6 million weddings for 2024, you guys. That's a lot of weddings.
00:03:14
Speaker
So even if you're not a wedding photographer, right? It seems that the love and value of photos is not going anywhere, you know, but yeah, the wedding industry is going to be booming. So we hope you have your best year yet. Absolutely. And if you've been a photographer for a couple of years now, you probably already know this, but the wisest way to spend your slow season right now, what we're in
00:03:35
Speaker
is keeping yourself busy. So without further ado, we came up with a list of 10 ways you can not only keep yourself busy during slow season, but actually set your upcoming busy season up for success.
00:03:47
Speaker
All right, so Ayla and I, I think you and I, we're just gonna tag team this list here, so let's go. First item on the agenda, the first thing you'll actually do in slow season, the first thing you should have probably already done by now, but don't stress, is to actually take some time off and enjoy yourself. So for me, I think some ways to summarize this, things that I try to do, number one, self-care and healthcare.
00:04:15
Speaker
Most people that I know, not just during the winter, but also during busy season, your immune system takes a huge decline. Most people get sick in the winter and to combine that with photographers and editors being super busy, yeah, you probably just got sick. I was actually really lucky. I didn't get sick this year. Not to brag. Me neither. I'm doing okay. Dude, everyone around me has had a cold and I am still going strong. I haven't even been taking my vitamins.
00:04:47
Speaker
I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna get better at it. I'm gonna, but I'm just saying things are going good so far. But you're taking care of yourself, you're going to the gym, you're eating in a way that is really working for you. So yeah, I mean, I think I'm not super surprised that like you don't need vitamins. What's that? Get rid of those.
00:05:03
Speaker
No, I'm just kidding. Okay, but anyways, yeah, I also didn't get sick. I also tried to eat healthier and stuff. But okay, the point is though, let's say you just got sick or let's say you don't, you know, either way, even if you didn't get sick, it's always good to boost, you know, boost your health. So make sure you're eating better than you did during busy season. Make sure you get more sleep than you did during busy season. Just relax, take a bath, you know, just enjoy the slower season.
Balancing Work and Personal Life
00:05:28
Speaker
let your body reset because even if you feel like you're good, you're probably still in fight or flight mode if you just came through a really busy, stressful season. And the other thing related to just enjoying yourself during this time off is to do fun things. One of the benefits of having a job where you have a slow season, I mean, this even applies to teachers who have the summer off. Yeah, there's stressful parts to it, but guess what? This is when you can go on a trip. This is when you can have a vacation. This is when you can go and do that fun adventure or that hike you've been wanting to do.
00:05:56
Speaker
Go fill your time with fun things. I love that. I love that for slow season vacations too. It's January. Who's traveling right now? Take advantage. It's everyone's slow season again. Is he land in the winter? I'm telling you. It's the shortest lines you're going to find. The shortest lines you'll find. I love that. Exactly. Well, that actually kind of goes into I think just the third thing I'd say about that is spend time with family.
00:06:21
Speaker
Whether you notice it or not, you probably do, but you kind of have to neglect your friends and family a little bit, your loved ones during a really busy season. Maybe that's not everybody, but for me, I feel like my replies are slower to family during a busy season. I don't really get to see them or talk to them, so give them a phone call, go visit, just really get some quality time in with your family and friends as well.
00:06:45
Speaker
I'm very similar. It makes me, it's interesting because I definitely, I mean, Beth, you'll, you'll understand you're very much like me. And I think a lot of our listeners don't understand. We love our work.
00:06:56
Speaker
Like I am all good with being busy because it is so seasonal. I'm all good with like early mornings, a couple of late nights, just like plugging away, getting it done. And I think it's easy for the people around you to start viewing you as like, Oh, she just works all the time. I know she's so busy, especially if I have to work on a weekend. Cause I usually keep my weekends pretty sacred, but I opened up quite a few Saturdays last business season. I still won't work through the entire weekend because then I'll just never stop. And that's a quick way to burn out. Like Sundays, I always keep
00:07:24
Speaker
keep pretty free, but I'll work Saturdays and I don't mind doing that for three months out of my year. And it's easy. Sometimes for your loved ones, bless their hearts that they care about you to say like, Oh, she's just always working. She's just always this. So I'm trying to find the balance of being like, yes, that's me for now.
00:07:40
Speaker
But I hope you know that another three months out of the year, my weekends are completely free. So my days are completely free. And just like helping understand it's not that typical nine to five Monday to Friday, the same level of business all the time. There's an Abina flow to it.
00:07:55
Speaker
So yeah, now I definitely like to take this time, spend more time with Chris. There are definitely some times in busy season where I'm like, hey, we can't go do this, this, and this thing. I'm going to need you to run the errands without me today. And then these days, if he comes home from work at like one to two, because his hours are all over the place, you know, oh, I can step away from the computer and go do this fun thing with you. So that's kind of what that looks like for me.
00:08:17
Speaker
right now and yeah we can do a weekend trip to go see family and I just feel a little less stressed so it doesn't always have to be huge big things but just yeah I kind of dedicate that time to family extra so that they understand I'm like I swear I'm free now
00:08:32
Speaker
Yes. Oh my gosh. That is, I don't even think of anything to add to that. That's perfect. That's exactly
Skill Development and Creative Exploration
00:08:37
Speaker
it. Let them know you're alive and well and that you do have good quality of life. It's just, you know, the busy season is just a season because yeah. Um, and also kind of actually a little note, I would add to that if you are, um, maybe especially a little bit newer to having really busy, busy seasons and you
00:08:51
Speaker
are struggling with family or friends kind of saying, wow, like, are you a workaholic? You're kind of working too much. And, you know, this is just a reminder that that will end and that you just have to show them that it's seasonal and that you can spend quality time with them. So anyways, moving on. Yeah. That's the first point. Take care of yourself by physically taking care of yourself and spending time with the people you love the most. Number two, if you participate in any kind of business coaching,
00:09:18
Speaker
or an online course, now is a great time to delve into that. You kind of can jump back into your education a little bit. I think part of being a creative business owner is continuing to learn yourself all the time, especially in an ever-changing industry like photography. If you're someone who has a business coach, maybe, and you've been wanting a call, now is a great time. If you have things to set up for your 2024, if you meet with a bookkeeper, now is a good time to set up a call.
00:09:46
Speaker
If you've been eyeing a new camera lens for photographers, now's a good time to pick that up, purchase it and practice with it. Get set up and acquainted with new gear. For me, I'm actually doing this right now, Beth. I haven't gotten to tell you this yet, but I got gifted for Christmas. Any editors listening are going to laugh that I don't have this yet.
00:10:03
Speaker
but I got gifted a shuttle pro. It's a... Is that the mouse type thing? Yes, it's a mouse. I wanted to get set up with it right when I launched my business, but I was being cheap and I didn't want to buy it. So I just ran my business without it. It's an extra little mouse that goes in your left hand and it just has programmable buttons. You can use it for any stuff.
00:10:25
Speaker
software, but I have it set up with my Lightroom Classic. So you just set it up on your other hand and you program the buttons to be like next photo, previous photo, crop shortcut, mask shortcut, whatever. So the idea is that you're not constantly moving your hand back and forth from keys to whatever. You just place both hands on both of your mice, I guess, and plug away. And it's supposed to seriously cut down on editing time, which I'm definitely excited about.
00:10:51
Speaker
all the galleries I have right now. And there's no way I was going to learn that during busy season. No way. I was like, now it's going to be faster than learning something new. But now I can take the time to be a little slower on galleries and practice this new software to be super fast on it by the time busy season comes around.
00:11:09
Speaker
So that's what I'm working on and anything like that, um, new camera, new lens, new piece of equipment, new software, anything like that. Now is a really good time to get ahold of it and be practicing it. Uh, cause I really want to be able to be fast on it by the time busy season comes around. Cause if I'm not, then I'll just have to do what I'm already doing. And I know I can be editing faster if I take advantage of that. So I'm actually doing that. Yeah. Pretty much speak.
00:11:33
Speaker
Dude, I love that. Congratulations on that. That's going to be so cool. I got gifted it. Chris's mom gave it to me. Thank you, Belle. She got it for me because I've been talking about it for years. And so she got it for me and she was like, I hope it's okay to get you work things. And I was like, yes.
00:11:48
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, I love that. Honestly, I think it's totally cool to get work gifts. I love that. I'm, I'm a fan of that. Okay. And actually to bounce off that point, you were just saying, let's move on to number three and that's to experiment and do experimental work. Um, so yeah, this is the time when you can do things like workshops, styled shoots. If you have, especially if you're a photographer, I would say, I think Ailey, you pretty much just covered like the editing side, but yeah, like her, yeah.
00:12:17
Speaker
But for photographers, let's go
Optimizing Business Operations
00:12:19
Speaker
out and get some styled shoots done, go take a model couple, go do a shoot you've been wanting to do, do self-portraits. Now that you're not so stressed and you won't look actually insane if someone takes a picture of you. You can just order self-care done and then go get some self-portraits done. You're going to be looking so good.
00:12:37
Speaker
That's so funny because it's so true. You look crazy for like six months out of the year. I don't want to be editing dark circles out from under your eyes, then don't be doing self-portraits during a busy season, my friend. I did that right after my busy season ended, Chad, I went out with Chad, my husband, and he was so gracious and took some cute photos of me that I can use for just branding in the future. And I was like, wow, why do I look so good? I'm like, oh, because I got sleep last night.
00:13:03
Speaker
for the first time in a long time. Okay, so yeah, that was what I was going to say for number three is just go and do your experimental work, go do your dreaming and your creativity, you know, kind of reignite that fire of why you like this art form again.
00:13:19
Speaker
And yeah, I just saw another photographer I follow. It's like, she called it passion project season. And I loved that. If you're a big dog in the game, you might have your own merch and stuff like that. Again, now's a good time to maybe maybe work on that stuff. But next, the next one on the list number four is to do okay, this one's a doozy.
00:13:39
Speaker
This is probably what I spend the most of my slow season doing. So it's a super important one. Take a look at your background, background, inward facing, not client facing, but inward facing systems and processes during your busy season. Was there anything such as emailing or sending invoices that you wished was smoother? And what I mean by this, I have a perfect example. Cause I just loaded this out during my busy season, one of the do, do, do, do.
00:14:06
Speaker
how do i explain this so i used ipsado for all of my automations my invoicing my canned emails all of that and one of the things with invoicing is usually it has this feature where you create like a package so you create the title of the package what the price is
00:14:22
Speaker
and what the package is under. And for me, I break up my packages between wedding editing, elopement editing, portrait editing, culling, and then additional Lightroom stuff such as cloning stuff out, whatever. I never actually created those packages in Dubsado, so every single invoice I was writing, so I was titling it, Ayla Bowering, private photo references.
00:14:44
Speaker
wedding editing services this much per image this much like I was doing that and I knew that the packages existed I just like didn't make them and there's some clients or well one client in particular that I have that I was editing multiple sessions a week from her and I invoiced her like bi-weekly but still on every single invoice every single job I was typing out a la barring private photo and she was like blah blah blah I was just typing it all out and I knew
00:15:11
Speaker
I knew in the depths of busy season, I was like, I need to fix this. So like three or four days ago, I sat in and look, it took me about 20 minutes. I made all my pack. So now I can just go click packages and be like portrait editing and all the pricing's there. Yeah. So good. Yeah. I'm not even kidding when it, when I tell you, it saves me about
00:15:33
Speaker
two to three minutes per invoice, which sounds dramatic, but if I'm sending out and writing up multiple per week, I will take that time. I will take that typing energy. So anyway, is there anything? Oh, sorry, go ahead. No, I was going to say, yeah, I just fully agree. It's also just your mental energy. You're more drained at the end of the day having to do it all from your head and write it all out than if you just have any kind of template, I would say too.
00:15:57
Speaker
But yeah, gonna say and even for me same thing when I started doing my like canned emails, is that what you're calling it? Just the automated ones. Yeah, yeah Yeah, that that saves me like an hour per inquiry If not more because I used to also write them all out or create like custom ones and now I have a templates that I customize But yeah, exactly. So anyway, sorry keep going
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah. No, no, you're, you're, that is perfect. Well, and I actually, I bring that up coming up here. What you said, Beth, we talk about it. We have an amazing workflows episode, so I'm not going to get into workflows too much because we, we went in on that workflows episode pretty much laid it out step by step of exactly what your workflow should look like. So definitely go check that out. Cause Beth mentioned, you mentioned Beth, how your packages are very
00:16:42
Speaker
like through HoneyBook, they're like brochures, they're customizable. And if you just take the couple of days it takes to set all that stuff up super smooth, get the pictures you want in there, get the fonts looking good, then you just have to do a little bit of work and then send it off. I couldn't imagine doing that per person when you have so many people to respond to. And then like writing and rewriting canned emails. The same day that I worked on my invoicing,
00:17:07
Speaker
I went and looked at all my canned emails. I was like, is there anything I need to change? Anything I wish was written better? There's a couple, there's like my inquiry response email I looked at and I was like, you know what? This has always bothered me. There's actually a paragraph I was always deleting from my inquiry response email because it felt too wordy.
00:17:24
Speaker
All year I was deleting that. So I finally just went into the actual canned email and deleted it. So I like to categorize this as anything that was bothering you about your system during busy season. Cause I get it. You're, you're doing a bunch of stuff. You can't go in and fix all that right away, but definitely make note of it somehow.
00:17:43
Speaker
to go and fix during this time during slow season. So smooth out your invoice process, write or rewrite canteen emails, just anything that you know could save you time. Now is a good time to do that. And again, I won't talk too much about specific automations or workflows because we do have a whole episode on that. And if you're listening to this as a photographer, hopefully you have a lot of that stuff set up. I'm just saying if there's anything you wish was smoother, now's a good time to do
Organizing and Cleaning for Efficiency
00:18:09
Speaker
the research on that.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. So worth it, so worth it. Let's see, move on to number five. This one is to organize your gear. So something that maybe applies a little more to, well, I would say more to photographers, but I'll talk to photographers. How about that? Yeah, yeah, sounds good. So this can look like if you have like a dry box for all your gear, go ahead and clean off your lenses. If you have any camera bodies or lenses you want to send in for cleaning,
00:18:36
Speaker
Maybe didn't think to do that go ahead and do that That's something you can do and then also your SD cards if they kind of got jumbled up or if you want to Relabel them maybe clear some and label them as empty, you know, even organizing your files on your computer So organize your galleries within your hard drives just all of that organizing I mean, I think we don't even need to talk about the benefits of that. Obviously, it's good to be organized and starting fresh But yeah
00:19:00
Speaker
Well, and side note, a note for the editors, clean up your computer. I don't work on an external hard drive. I might. This year might be the year. And I have a system to keep as far as client galleries go clean. Pretty much whenever they expire in WeTransfer, after I've sent it to the client, that's when I remove it from my computer. And after I've gathered all the content that I need from it, I do delete it. But here's the thing.
00:19:28
Speaker
Here's some wonderful free advice, okay, to the editors. So you might have a system for clearing out client work because that will take up the most room on your complete computer. You will have a system for clearing out
00:19:38
Speaker
galleries, past jobs, whatever. What you might be underestimating is how many, at least for me, how many frigging things I download all the time when it comes to Canva things for posts. Like downloading this image on Canva and then downloading this image from a camera overall to put into Canva and then putting the Canva graphic back into my photos and getting that on Instagram. And for our podcast, downloading this audio, keeping these recordings here. I save all recordings in case there's anything I want from them.
00:20:07
Speaker
later and downloading this thing and then downloading this document that I had to read later, just the little downloads that I just throw somewhere into my computer. Like my actual desktop stays organized, quote unquote, there's folders for everything, but then the downloads folder is ridiculous. So I actually still get to do that. So just going in and clearing that all up, getting a cleaner software on your computer is a great idea for that.
Social Media and Marketing Strategies
00:20:31
Speaker
your your gatherings themselves may be organized but go and take time to look at everything else because I bet you there's stuff on there you didn't know and your computer will thank you once you're able to to take the time to do that so oh yeah like Beth said organize your gear and
00:20:46
Speaker
Photographers and editors, just do a cleaning of your computer too. Okay, next up, this kind of goes right along with the cleaning your computer note, but gather as much social media as possible for your socials and your website and organize it. Well, sorting through all the work you've done takes time for everybody to go through
00:21:08
Speaker
and select whatever wedding you just shot, whatever, to select what you want to use for your socials. There was a time in my business, there was a time where I did this after every single gallery. I'd send a wedding back to its editor, or back to its editor, back to its photographer, and then I'd go through and select everything I wanted for socials. And for me, it's tricky because I use a lot of before and afters.
00:21:28
Speaker
showcase my work and I won't get into it but it's just it's a whole thing to make that happen. It takes probably 30 minutes to an hour depending on what I'm sorting through to get all the content that I want from it and I never really organize it. I just throw them all in Google Photos and pray for the best so this year I'm actually going to try to like break it up wedding by wedding to actually source it for my socials better and it just takes a lot of time and I can only imagine it takes time for photographers too so
00:21:56
Speaker
That's my project probably going into next week, any empty days that I have. I really, I have months and months. I have literally thousands of photos to go through to pick out what I want for social so I can get my social game back up. That's why I've been struggling with it so much is because I just have to go and get all the content that I just did. So I'm going to be spending my time doing that for sure.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, organizing for socials is really important too that I think a lot of people don't think about. There's a lot of work that goes into it. If you want to put a lot of thought into your feed, then there's a lot of back-end work that goes with that. Especially when your work is your job and the photos that you show off will directly impact your career. Yeah, there's a lot to that. I use Tailwind.
00:22:38
Speaker
I don't know if you know what that is, but I use a program called Tailwind to organize my social media photos and stuff. It's a lot. You have to go into your galleries, find what you want, then download the specific photos you want from that, and then put it all into the Tailwind account and schedule it and all that stuff. Same as you. Whenever I'm slow on posting too, I feel like it's either I'm really busy or even during slow season, it's because I'm just like, oh my gosh, I have to go to this huge task.
00:23:03
Speaker
in order to first plan. That's exactly what it's been. And I could do more of the personal reels and stuff, but I just, yeah, that's totally been like this big obstacle that's in my way. And I started it the other day, so getting it going. What is Tailwind? I've actually never heard of that. Okay. So Tailwind is basically a social media planner app. So to explain, it's kind of like, you know, have you used grid planner apps before?
00:23:30
Speaker
It's like that, but kind of on steroids. I will say I don't love it. It's not my favorite thing ever. It's not super user friendly. I feel like I find a lot of glitches with it, but my social media person, she, who does my social media for me, she works with it. And so she said, if she's going to be my social media coordinator, that I need to be using that. So I had to create an account for that. I might even be paying for it. I'm not sure. Oh no, I think it's free. It's free.
00:23:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely free. But you had to create an account for it and everything. And that was a little bit of like a process and then learning how to use it because like I said, it's not super straightforward or user friendly. So yeah, but it's nice because you can actually schedule posts and you can collaborate. So like we anyway, so it's okay. But it's really not any better than any other grid planner out there. I don't think
00:24:10
Speaker
Right, but just in general the ideas like get organized and if you can dedicate the time to planning, absolutely. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so we're on to number seven now. So tip number seven. And we're just going to say website, website, website. I mean, you probably knew this was going to be in here, I hope.
00:24:29
Speaker
Does your website need some polishing or even a little rebrand maybe? If anything, it's a good idea to freshen it up, replace the photos with all of the new work you did during your busy season with some new fresh photos, up to your pricing if you need to. This is why Ayla's previous step is so crucial and so important because this is when you will then be taking those photos and it's another area you can use them in. So you'll want to keep your website fresh and active, especially for SEO purposes too.
00:24:56
Speaker
Yeah, we talk about it a bit. It's like, it's like our second or third episode, but we talk about SEO. And one of the things with SEO is constantly, uh, Beth, you may explain this more than I can, because you actually know it better than I do. But
00:25:12
Speaker
consistently updating and creating like little mini blog posts and just writing in your website will register it as more active, just helps more people see it. I created that on my website. I have a little like recently done section. I haven't updated it in like a while, but I'm really good at telling people to keep their socials up and then not doing it for myself. But anyway, well, it's always easier.
00:25:39
Speaker
That's a 2024 goal, but I do have a section that I've specifically put together where it's super easy for me to do actually where I have a little recently done section and I can so easily just replace the photos, replace it. You click on it and then it shows a little mini portion of a gallery, some before and afters.
00:26:00
Speaker
to switch those photos out but just keep the SEO active on my end but back to what Beth first said website's important even if it doesn't even if you're not changing your whole thing refreshing your photos again rewriting anything that's bothered you about your website I um
00:26:17
Speaker
Whenever I change my pricing at the beginning of the year, I go through just my whole website because I'm already going to be in my website anyway. I just go through anything. Is there a sentence that's been bugging me? Is there colors that's been bugging me? Let's just go fix that now. If it's just a little polish, I would safely say a day, maybe two, is all it takes to get it where you want to be. I agree. If it's just a little polishing, yeah.
00:26:40
Speaker
and then next up content creation just one after another very similar point it is content creation season so batch your reels your posts your tiktoks as much as possible and when i say batch i kind of don't just mean for the next couple weeks i mean
00:26:58
Speaker
create a whole little folder of content you have ready to go to be posted six months from now, maybe, when you're drowning in business season. Just a little information reveal, a little something fun. I know that content is constantly changing and it might not always be applicable, but even if it's just a funny real or a joke, just something that you're going to want to have ready to go,
00:27:19
Speaker
Take the time to get ready. That's my biggest drawback with Reels. Again, during busy season, I'm in the cave. I don't want to dress nice and look nice for the internet. So now's a great time to actually wake up, get yourself ready, get yourself looking cute if that's what you want to do and really plan out some Reels you've been thinking of. Write captions to file away for future use and even prepare posts in Canva or wherever you make your Instagram posts.
00:27:46
Speaker
Again, and not a negative way like you have to do this, but if you're feeling creative during this time, go ahead and create as much content as you can to save and then post in a few months when you start getting busy again. Exactly. And also when your creativity and inspiration runs out.
00:28:03
Speaker
I find so often that sometimes I have a lapse and unfortunate lack of overlay between when I have time and when I feel creative. I feel like I either feel really creative and have all these ideas or I have the time to do them. It's like never all at once except sometimes during slow season.
00:28:21
Speaker
Let's see. All right. So another one, we're on number nine now, and that is marketing. This kind of goes hand in hand with content creation, but marketing is still vastly different from creating a quick Instagram post. Photographers, you're going to want to start nailing your books down as soon as possible. Of course, you know this. So your marketing should always be in the works. Now it really is a better time than ever to prioritize it. So you can do paid ad campaigns, you can reach out to brands.
00:28:47
Speaker
This is when you're just going to be thinking about very businessy marketing strategies.
00:28:52
Speaker
Definitely. And we've talked about this before, but I would say for photographers, the marketing game kind of never ends because you are booking yourself out for advance over and over. Uh, for me, luckily this year, marketing does get to take a mini backseat just cause my client list has been, has been super good, but editors, this is a great time. If you are looking for clients to step on your marketing, um, the constant conundrum with photo editing is the time when editors are the most busy fall.
00:29:20
Speaker
is the time when most photographers are looking for editors. So I'll notice when I'm full and I can't take on anyone else, the inquiries are out the door for photographers looking for editors. And then come slow season, editors are all up in Facebook groups and all up looking for new clients, but photographers aren't as busy. So they're not looking. So it's a constant thing. So I'd start saying like now is a really great time.
00:29:41
Speaker
to set up other avenues with that be super active in your Facebook groups there definitely will still be photographers looking to set up for the next year in fact having come out of such a busy season you may come across photographers who don't want to go through that again in another six months they might be looking for you so just be active
00:30:00
Speaker
in your Facebook groups, be active on your Instagram, be active in person. I feel like it's so easy to market on socials these days, but you know, check out the photography scene in your local area, see what's going on there. Like you just, it's a really good time to take some of the extra steps that not everyone may be doing for your marketing, especially if you find yourself
00:30:20
Speaker
When busy season comes around, if everyone else seems so busy but you don't, well, what can you be doing now to update that and change that?
Financial Planning and Personal Goals
00:30:28
Speaker
I don't actually have the most marketing tips myself other than having a good website and reliable looking socials and just putting yourself out there as much as possible. Like I said in the beginning of this episode, when I had a slow season where I was full time,
00:30:43
Speaker
and looking for more people, I would spend a good half my day in marketing mode. So it can definitely take up a lot of your time. You kind of get out of it what you put in, I guess. And it's another time to be creative. You can do what everyone else is doing and then start really thinking what else you can do that you haven't seen before. Yeah, exactly.
00:31:01
Speaker
Last and absolutely certainly not least is start getting ready for taxes and assessing your numbers for the upcoming year in business. A quick note on financial planning. This could easily be its own topic, but
00:31:17
Speaker
The way I like to run things on my end is because work is so seasonal, because there is a couple months where things don't come in, I basically assess what I want to make in a year and then what do I have to make per month to make that in a year. So then for the months where I make over that, because there are months where I'm going to make over that, the busy months, how to carry those into the slow months.
00:31:39
Speaker
So it's just a good time to sit back if you have a bookkeeper, be chatting with them and just finance financial plan a little bit in the year. Again, not really, I don't really have a super good guide on how to do that because that's business and money talk. And I have somebody else who does that for me.
00:31:56
Speaker
Just a good time to look at that and start getting your stuff ready for taxes. Just start gathering it so that when April comes, you're not super in a frenzy. You can start focusing on your fun spring stuff that you get to do. Agreed. That is all 10 points, everybody. Hopefully, I think that all made sense. I think that was pretty good. Overall, you guys have got this season. You have got it. In fact, by the time we
00:32:22
Speaker
this episode, we will likely only have a few weeks of slow season left. And then it'll be right back to weddings, editing, client calls, and more, all the fun things. So we hope you were able to help you navigate this time and that you're inspired. You're ready to maybe tackle that thing in your business that you might've been putting off like, I'm fired up from this conversation. Probably when I hop off this call later next week, I'm probably going to organize my computer. I think that's the one I'm like most excited for. I think that's my next plan.
00:32:51
Speaker
Oh, good. I know. I love like talking about this kind of thing because it always motivates me and kind of gets me a little further organized in my head. Um, I'm right there with you. So for me, I'm this slow season. I've been prioritizing. I'm doing a style shoot, which I don't know. Um, if you follow both me and the podcast page, you'll probably see that's what I spent my slow season doing. I'm hosting a workshop for photographers, which I love when I'm actually able to do that. And then of course, thank you. Thank you. We're do it through wild love workshops. Um,
00:33:19
Speaker
And I'm hosting this one with a local videographer, so that's great. And then also I did a self-portrait update. So like I said, my husband got more self-portraits, so stoked to share those. I'm just going to share them whenever, like it's time to share them. I was so tempted to just plaster them up on my stories because I loved how they came out. But anyways. And then I'm trying to be more intentional about spending time with family and friends. Maya, I have a couple of people visiting me at the end of this month, so that'll be fun to spend time with them. But yeah, anyways.
00:33:48
Speaker
Thank you. So we hope you guys are stoked to do the same. And yeah, for more talk about business, photography, editing, and just life, you can check out our Instagram at Art of Intention podcast. We share tons of resources on there each week, including, I think for this episode, we're going to do a condensed list of all 10 tips that we had, all 10 points this week. And yeah, it's a great way to also be reminded whenever we drop a new episode. If you're not already, definitely hit the follow button, subscribe button, whatever the button is wherever you listen.
00:34:17
Speaker
press it so that you never miss a new episode. We are on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Zencaster and definitely leave us your five star rating and review. It helps us so much. It gets our podcast to more people out there. We seriously appreciate and are so thankful for the feedback and reviews we've gotten already on the show. So don't stop now. Keep them coming. Yeah, absolutely. And just a reminder, there's new episodes every Tuesday. So we'll see you again next week. Bye. Bye.
00:34:48
Speaker
Bye!