3 Jan 2011 – Being a good or great photographer just isn’t enough to bring in the work. Just like you use various softwares for post-processing & editing, you need a dedicated photography studio software to streamline your photography business. If you currently use spreadsheets, then you are not alone. Thousands of photographers use them daily. Spreadsheets are a good starting point, however, they are great at number crunching rather than analysing data to give you a bird’s eye view of your business.
Before deciding on which software to invest in, you should consider these options carefully:
Productivity
You need to work smarter rather than harder to streamline your workflow. A good & robust photography studio software should be able to effortlessly handle the day to day of running the business, reminders & things to do, sending quotations, making bookings, keeping track of clients & suppliers, setting up a series of workflow things for various jobs be it weddings, portraits, commercial or sporting events, updating & keeping track of all your events in one place.
Pricing & Support
Pricing & after sales support is extremely important. First decide how much you wish to spend on a photography studio software. Then make a list of 3-4 products and then see what the Support is offered after you purchase the software. Some offer a 30-day support, with some companies you need to go and attend expensive day workshops & seminars just to learn the software and get to grips with it and some offer unlimited free support. Also see on the website whether they have a phone number listed as very few websites offer this. Here is a recorded 1 hour webinar on photo studio management you can watch.
Marketing
You need to turbo charge your marketing efforts in these tough economic climate. One of the best and under-used marketing tools by photographers is Email Marketing. Every marketeer will say this ‘The money is in the list’. So the sooner you start to build an email list, the sooner you can start making money. Email marketing is something
Book Keeping
As a photographer you want a simple photography studio software to help you run your business which gives you a bird’s eye view of your business on a daily basis. What you want is an easy to use book keeping system to help you with your sales & purchases with a powerful enough reporting system to help you see where your business is heading.
I hope this gives you some ideas as to which photography studio software is right for you. I would welcome you to try Foto SF, the award-winning photography studio software , for free and see how it can help you to turbo charge your business.
Oz
