Do more with less time has always been my mantra. I’ve recently have been listening to Tim Ferris and have been inspired by his audacity and tenacious endeavor of trimming all the fat and improving your life and making yourself more and more profitable.
GM Tangent
Speaking of excess; today marks the end of GM as we know it. Today, GM is officially bankrupt.
I think at this point of the day; everyone knows this; that’s if you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere in Timbuctou. Unfortunately, General Motors provides us an “alamo-like” reminder that times are tumultous, harsh and the rules of the game in Business.
How does it relate to Wedding Photography?
You, too, are a business owner. You must be careful in such times to manage your cashflow effectively and out think and outwit your competition.
3 General Rules of a Profitable & Very Successful Business:
- Cash Flow
- Religion of ROI
- Time Management
Cash Flow
Are making more than spending? Or is it vice versa? Make sure your books are well kept and keep every reciept you can. Take control of your money and if you’re not going to buy Quickbooks or some type of financial software; then just keep it simple. Keep a spreadsheet with a cash flow sheet of your money coming in(Column A) and out(Column B). I’m no accountant so i try not to use those fancy confusing accounting terms.
You must also ask; Can I really afford something like this given my current Income?
Make sure you are projecting your sales. Provide realistic historical cash flow data into your analysis.
Religion of ROI
Investing and maintaining equipment is a large part of wedding photography. Make sure you keep track and see if is really worth purchasing certain items. This might mean asking several of the following questions:
- Is this piece of equipment required to do your job or provide you more income?
- Is this form of advertising maximizing the most amount of dollars for me?
- Am i really using this service enough to
Time Management
Your time easily equates into dollars and cents. I’ve probably covered this already and have talked about it several times.
Here are some quick ideas for better time management (These are some of the ideas shared by Tim Ferris in his book; 4 Hour Work Week):
- Reduce the amount of times your check email a day.
- Reduce drive time. If you can. Make clients come to you or meet you in the middle.
- Bring things to do while you wait for clients.
- Keep a list of errands and do them all at once.
- Execute at most 2 tasks. Doing multiple tasks at once always that efficient.
- Have phone calls rerouted to your cell phone. Don’t answer every call. You really don’t need to unless it’s absolutely urgent
- Time yourself. Keep a timer on hand or download one onto your computer. Get a grasph of how many minutes on average it may take you to retouch a photo.
- Outsource as much as you can. Simply, find ways to free up your time
- Avoid meetings that don’t have any set agenda.
- Replace phone calls with with email.
- There are so many more. So sure you check out Tim Ferris’ book, 4 Hour Workweek.
- Oh my last tip is this. Don’t read books. Just listen to them while working on your Post-Processing. You can sometimes finish a book in 3-5 hours. When reading a book might take double that if you aren’t the fastest reader. The exception is if you’re going on a trip. I think that’s most profitable with your time. When you can’t find wireless.
- Give yourself breaks. Try the 45/15 rule. Work for 45 minutes; break for 15 or 60/20 or 70/30, etc. Whatever works for you. 45/15 seems easiest to keep track of. Breaks allow you to keep focus. It is often difficult or challenging to work large amounts of periods of time.
Once you free up all that time. Your hourly rate will jump quite a bit. This will give you more time to do things that’ll make you more money.
More ideas on profitability later.