Balancing Your Photography Business and Your Personal Life
Many photographers, including myself, have at least once in their life have felt the feeling of being overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated about their photography business.
We are balancing photography alongside a billion other things in our life including family, school life, social relationships, etc. Sometimes it can feel like all too much. Sometimes, you feel like you’re questioning if it’s all worth it?
I want to let you know that, yes, everything is going to be okay. I’ve had those nights coming home from a wedding at 1:00am only to get up at 7:00am to go to class at 8:00am. I see you spending your weekends building your business and working long hours.
I see you.
Building a photography business is hard work, but it’s also some of the most rewarding work you can do. But in order to make it work, you have to organize your time, focus only on the most important things in your life, and not be afraid to say “no” to things that will distract you.
We all have the ability to do amazing things. But we need to focus and prioritize our time on the tasks that will have the most impact for us.
Optimize Your Time
Remember that life is always moving and that no matter how much time you wish there was in the day, everyone has the same 24 hours. If you really want something, make the time to accomplish the tasks you need.
BE INTENTIONAL WITH YOUR TIME
Don’t waste your time on minor tasks. Focus on the macro and the tasks that will make the most impact. I like to make a list in the morning or the night before of the top 5 tasks I want to accomplish. By doing this, you narrow your focus on accomplishing the tasks that are most important to you. You can also try time managing techniques such as time blocking, the Pomodoro Technique, the Eisenhower Matrix, etc.
INVEST IN AUTOMATION
Invest in automation that will either speed up your workflow, reduce the time it takes to finish a task, or both. For my photography business, client relationship management (CRM) takes up a lot of my time. That’s why I invested in HoneyBook, a CRM, to automate emails and messages for all my clients.
Editing also takes up a large portion of my time (sometimes several hours). I am planning on investing into software that will edit my images for me with my editing style using AI. This will save me several hundred HOURS of time over the next year.
Remember that time is something you can never get back. Focus on saving time, or creating systems to reduce the time it takes to accomplish tasks.
3. START EARLY
This can apply to different areas but specifically towards those who are still in school. Start EARLY. Start studying for your exams early. Start doing homework and essays that you know are due early. Start doing tasks that you know you’re going have to complete eventually early.
It sounds simple enough but many students, including myself, always wait last minute to do things. It’s just in our nature to procrastinate. But by doing things early, we can drastically reduce our stress, our anxiety, and free up time in our schedule to accomplish other tasks.
Proper planning is crucial for getting things done early. Without a plan, you’ll forget about different due dates and deadlines until a few days before they’re due.
Not only is this stressful, it’s not a sustainable method for the long-term.
Do yourself a favor, and start early.
I can’t tell you how important it is to slow down, breath, and remember the big picture of why you’re doing this. What do you want to accomplish? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I know it’s stressful, I know it’s difficult. But, at the same time, balancing your photography business and your personal life can be amazingly rewarding.
Whatever it is, keep working, keep putting in the effort. Because it’ll be worth it.
Remember why you decided to pursue photography and what brought you here. Remember how it felt when you got that perfect photo. Remember how it feels to help capture memories of people’s lives. I know that it might be stressful now with life being so busy as it already is, but don’t keep pushing and instead, find ways to make time for it.