That 80% Business/20% Shooting Ratio

I am doing a bit of market research. I have seen many people say they spend a lot more time dealing with the "business" rather than actually shooting. If you could help me out by answering a few questions I would really appreciate the help.

1. What are the top things that take up your time from the business side of things? (i.e. not shooting or editing).

2. Would you be willing to outsource some of these things so you could devote more time to shooting? If not, why?

benji25 wrote in post #17016405
I am doing a bit of market research. I have seen many people say they spend a lot more time dealing with the "business" rather than actually shooting. If you could help me out by answering a few questions I would really appreciate the help.

1. What are the top things that take up your time from the business side of things? (i.e. not shooting or editing).

2. Would you be willing to outsource some of these things so you could devote more time to shooting? If not, why?

This is not my day job, but...

I shot our swim team: scheduled individual action photos and the big team photo. 4.5 hours of shooting, and probably 60 hours of processing/posting. Since it was one scheduled event, efficiency was way up on the shooting end of the spectrum. This ended up being 50 swimmers, and everyone paid a "sitting fee" up front, so I knew they were actually customers.

Also, how would one measure time spent shooting? Is this all time when the camera is on your person? Because that's could involve a lot of business stuff too. On the other end of the spectrum is total time spent with your eye against the viewfinder. This is a pretty fuzzy measurement, but my 4.5 hours above was from when the first swimmer arrived until I was done shooting the last swimmer.

Editing takes up a lot of my time to but I have the strong client base because of my attention to detail and no one else knows what the image should look like but me so I would never outsource a part that is just as important as shooting.

waterrockets wrote in post #17017198
This is not my day job, but...

I shot our swim team: scheduled individual action photos and the big team photo. 4.5 hours of shooting, and probably 60 hours of processing/posting. Since it was one scheduled event, efficiency was way up on the shooting end of the spectrum. This ended up being 50 swimmers, and everyone paid a "sitting fee" up front, so I knew they were actually customers.

Also, how would one measure time spent shooting? Is this all time when the camera is on your person? Because that's could involve a lot of business stuff too. On the other end of the spectrum is total time spent with your eye against the viewfinder. This is a pretty fuzzy measurement, but my 4.5 hours above was from when the first swimmer arrived until I was done shooting the last swimmer.

So how much time was spent communicating with the various clients/customers? tracking down payments? Issuing refunds? Working with vendors? Bookkeeping? Making sure to send thank you emails?

Let's say you spent 5 hours shooting and spent 35 hours related to working with the client -emails, invoicing, payments, etc. (not including editing time, there are plenty of services to outsource that to).

That 35 hours you spend doing the "business" stuff is 35 hours you can't be out shooting.

My idea is like a Pixifi or shoot Q but I would manage it for you. So you shoot the 5 hours of swim team but you only spend 2-3 hours on the business stuff and I spend the rest dealing with it. That means instead of booking that 1 shoot and spending 40 hours on it (one work week) you only spend 8-10 and can book more clients.

benji25 wrote in post #17017248
So how much time was spent communicating with the various clients/customers? tracking down payments? Issuing refunds? Working with vendors? Bookkeeping? Making sure to send thank you emails?

Let's say you spent 5 hours shooting and spent 35 hours related to working with the client -emails, invoicing, payments, etc. (not including editing time, there are plenty of services to outsource that to).

That 35 hours you spend doing the "business" stuff is 35 hours you can't be out shooting.

My idea is like a Pixifi or shoot Q but I would manage it for you. So you shoot the 5 hours of swim team but you only spend 2-3 hours on the business stuff and I spend the rest dealing with it. That means instead of booking that 1 shoot and spending 40 hours on it (one work week) you only spend 8-10 and can book more clients.

For this event, I spent a few of those 60 hours setting up online ordering and explaining the process to them. There was probably a total of 1 hour of answering emails. I didn't have any refunds this time.

The biggest time sink for me was arriving home with 5900 images, paring it down to 2000 images, then paring that down to 1000 images, then finally lighting, cropping, white balancing, and delivering 850 images. I also recorded a sound file with each swimmer (on-camera) and had to dictate the names out of those files, then move images of that kid into the correct gallery. It went pretty smoothly, but all of that probably took 3 hours.

waterrockets wrote in post #17017313
For this event, I spent a few of those 60 hours setting up online ordering and explaining the process to them. There was probably a total of 1 hour of answering emails. I didn't have any refunds this time.

The biggest time sink for me was arriving home with 5900 images, paring it down to 2000 images, then paring that down to 1000 images, then finally lighting, cropping, white balancing, and delivering 850 images. I also recorded a sound file with each swimmer (on-camera) and had to dictate the names out of those files, then move images of that kid into the correct gallery. It went pretty smoothly, but all of that probably took 3 hours.

Well it doesn't have to be that specific time. But in general do you wish you devoted less time to the business side of things so you could shoot more?

benji25 wrote in post #17016405
1. What are the top things that take up your time from the business side of things? (i.e. not shooting or editing).

...from today's to-do list:

Just literally picked up a job for tomorrow. So starting to charge the batteries, checklist my gear, and about to head down the road to buy something I don't have for the shoot. I need to wash a shirt!

I've got a wedding meeting to confirm. I've got a comprehensive quote to prepare for a medical conference in Auckland that I hope to win, but the odds are against me.

I've got three follow up emails to send: simple "networking" follow up emails.

I've got an edit to do for a competition submission. So I've allocated about an hour of photoshop time for that: its about all I can stand in one sitting.

I'm in the process of an overhaul of my website/prices/service​s, and I've got to get another page edited and uploaded tonight.

Got a GST return for last month that needs to be finished. I want to get out of the way.

Covering a big conference next week. Need a sound blimp. Making my own. Materials arrive today, and I start making it tomorrow.

So thats today. Tomorrow is something similar, only with an hour of shooting. And I am only shooting an hour this week (currently). Next week I'm shooting 15 hours on one job over four days, three hours on another, and two hours on another job as well. I'm also putting in two photographers to cover another event that I can't shoot because I'm already booked.

So the 80/20 ratio pretty much holds true for me: but it isn't a week by week thing. Next week is almost entirely shooting/editing/uploa​ding. This week is almost entirely getting stuff out of the way so I don't have to deal with it next week.

There isn't anything I could practically outsource. Are you going to fly to NZ to charge my batteries?

My business is my life. If I screw up: I can't put food on the table. My customer service skills and knowledge of the market segment I target is what gives me the edge over the competition. I don't want someone else dealing with my clients. What do you know about the conference and events industry? I don't want anyone else dealing with my vendors either. I have great relationships with the vendors I work with that I have literally spent the last ten years cultivating. That isn't something I would task to someone else lightly.

Time isn't a business issue for me at the moment. And if it ever starts to become one: I will deal with it by streamlining my workflows and bringing on assistants. That 35 hours I spend doing business stuff is exactly what I need to do in order to keep paying the bills. If I were to pay you to do some of that I end up diluting the product I offer to my customers, end up with less money in the bank (because you now have it) and have less control over my business. If I want to shoot more: I'll just grab the camera and go out and shoot.

I am looking for a better online system to control my business. Shoot Q is fantastic but doesn't suit my workflow at all. I've tested the rest of the products on the market right now and they are all varying degrees of slightly worse than Shoot Q. Right now: I use a combination of Quotient, Nimble, Xero, the Google Suite of products and a custom filemaker database to manage my business. I'm working on replacing most of this with a custom filemaker database by early next year. But if there are other options out there I'd be happy to take a look.

benji25 wrote in post #17016405
I am doing a bit of market research. I have seen many people say they spend a lot more time dealing with the "business" rather than actually shooting. If you could help me out by answering a few questions I would really appreciate the help.

1. What are the top things that take up your time from the business side of things? (i.e. not shooting or editing).

2. Would you be willing to outsource some of these things so you could devote more time to shooting? If not, why?

1) Most of the business systems I have in place are templated and as efficient as possible as my office is pretty much paperless these days. When a new client comes on board reminders are set for invoicing, arranging meetings etc. The process is the same for every client. I probably spend the most time getting distracted by Facebook and POTN if I'm honest.

Bookeeping is straightforward for me and doesn't take much time.
Meetings are generally are a couple of emails to arrange each one.
I don't do custom quotes or proposals so that is another time saver.
I do spend time on SEO and analysing the results of various forms of marketing.
I manage my own website.
I had a custom online CMS system built which means hardly any back and forth with clients on details as it all gets entered into the system. It also manages updates and most communication post shoot too.

2) No. I'm not interested in shooting any more than I currently do. I don't want to outsource as that would cost me money... I prefer to just get more efficient at what do.

benji25 wrote in post #17017354
Well it doesn't have to be that specific time. But in general do you wish you devoted less time to the business side of things so you could shoot more?

I'm at the point that I'd like to spend less time not shooting, but not more time shooting. Since this is a back-burner endeavour, I'm not looking to add more jobs right now, just wanting to spend less time on the job.

I'm now spending some time setting up some Google Apps for sheets that will manage orders and scheduling for my customers online. I need them to be able to sign up, schedule, pay, and print a release to sign with me (or digitally sign?). I'm a software engineer by trade, so I'm just learning the specific APIs needed to set this system up, and it will fill a couple missing bullets on my resume.