Q1 is known in the family photography world as kindof a dead zone for bookings and shoots. No matter how I slice it, things tend to slow way down. But just because there’s not as much momentum with shooting, doesn’t mean there’s not a ton to do to get your business in a great place that will support those busier seasons. Instead of giving you a list of things you *could* work on, I wanted to show you an example of what i’m working on during the slow season as a family photographer. 

If you’ve listened to the last few episodes of Photo Fuel, you’ve probably noticed it’s been heavy on the reflections and questions – the noticing and vision setting part of creative business. If you’re doing that kindof work in January, please go back and listen to those episodes – the Big Picture Workbook is there for you to download with a ton of great business questions, episode 33 has my whole end of year review process with a meeting agenda for yourself that you can download and copy to get you started – those are going to be great resources for that vision casting stage that’s so difficult but so crucial. 

The planning part is where we see the vision begin to tie to specific actions. Rather than a giant rambling to-do list, you can organize tasks into projects that support bigger goals around the way you want to work, market, shoot, etc. 

Getting Organized in the Slow Season as a Family Photographer

How I Use Trello to organize my tasks and projects

I use Trello for my daily, weekly, monthly, and big picture work as a family photographer. This is different than a CRM, which helps with the logistics and organization of client information and workflow. 

Task managers like Trello, Asana, Clickup, and Notion all do the job of helping you orient your day to day work and stay on top of doing the things you say you want to do in your business. Trello is free, and it’s working really well for me for now so If you want to see how I set up my trello boards, I have a really in-depth blog post all about it here.

Interested in going deeper with Trello? Check out my $35 mini course on Trello For Photographers here. 

In Trello, I have a board called “All the things” for all the big picture and logistical things that need to happen every year. Things like tax prep, a portfolio review and update, and some kind of spring session launch. 

In that All the Things board, I also have several different lists to organize all this info and and one of them is called To do/Projects. 

This is where we’re getting into the stuff I pull from to decide what gets worked on this month or this quarter. I am always adding to this list and another list called “ideas” throughout the year. When things pop up that I just don’t have time for now but want to think about or work on at a later time, I just add them as cards in those places. Every quarter and especially at the end of the year, I’ll go through and refine those brain dumps into categories, combine things that are similar, delete ideas that are just hard no’s, etc. 

In the To do/Projects list, I’ve broken things into 5 headings – and really, everything in your business can pretty much be broken down into one of these categories: Client Workflow, Website, Admin, Education, and Marketing. 

Now, what I find every year – this year included – is that when I step back and look at all these ideas, all these things I want to do to support these big dreams and goals – and then I look at the time I have available with part time childcare hours and three young kids, my gut reaction is… crap. How in the world. There’s no way. This is so much. 

But maybe you’ve heard the phrase – “there’s only one way to eat an elephant – one bite at a time.” 

And that’s what prioritizing is about. I can look at that list of “shoulds” or “wants” and think crap, it’s so much -and yes, of course, all of it could be things that are good and helpful for my business. But it can NOT all happen at once. 

So I take it one bite at a time. 

It’s taking all the big things you could possibly do, and choosing what’s most important next. And then once that’s done, you choose what’s next after that. One bite at a time. 

What I’m Working on in the Slow Season as a Family Photographer

The maintenance and deliverables

Every month – slow or not – I have a standard operating baseline. These are things I’m committed to as core, integral pieces no matter what.

1. The Firefly Letters

If you’re not on that I’d love to have you, it’s a storybased letter that goes out every wednesday night about simply joys, family, and creativity from the lens of my own personal life and work, it’s the real gold of my marketing efforts and how I just generally connect with people. I love writing it and it’s served me so well, so that’s not going anywhere. 

2. A weekly Photo Fuel podcast episode!

I am 37 episodes in and so far, have done every single piece of the creation, production, publishing and marketing myself. Now that I am getting more comfortable with it, a major goal this quarter is to better systematize the process and figure out where I can outsource some of that more logistical work each week like graphics, publishing, blogging show notes, etc.

I need to be able to work ahead more and all those little pieces are adding up and filling more time than I’m comfortable with in the grand scheme of things, but I love podcasting and want to keep at it! I plan on creating a better groundwork for gaining support to help it continue and grow.

3. Mentoring

I’m going to be mentoring a lot in January which I’m so stoked about. The first round of the Homestyle Accelerator, my small group coaching program, is starting this week so I’ll be really digging in with those ladies as well as a couple new 1:1 students. 

4. Photo sessions!

In terms of my client work and photoshoots, I’ll be managing leads that come in and hopefully getting some sessions on the books for next few months! In the slow season as a family photographer, I mostly see inquiries for newborn sessions and execute a few of those sessions as well.

I also plan to set up at least 1 model call session this month, hopefully in the snow if I can swing it! I have yet to be able to do a family session in the snow and would love to have that dynamic and seasonal variation in my portfolio and skillset. 

Interested in working together? Whether you’re local or across the country, let’s talk about making it happen! I often travel for sessions if I can get 2-3 families from the same area!

Growth and education

I’ve hired a coach of my own for Q1 to help me focus on learning more about business strategy, creating aligned channels for visibility and conversion, and refining my offers around education for photographers. The calls for that will take time, as well as the implementation of the work and decisions we come to.

I’ve learned over the years as a family photographer how crucial accountability is for me, especially in these cold dark months of the Q1 slow season. I knew that if I was going to be pouring so much into other people’s businesses, I was going to need my own support to make sure I didn’t leave my own business in the dust but to keep growing and nurturing that as well. 

I also purchased a small online course in podcasting at the end of last year and am hoping to work through more of that to help with my podcasting goals.

Foundational / Strategic Improvements

The main big project I’m prioritizing first and foremost this month is setting up my new CRM and gallery provider. I recently switched from Sprout Studio to Honeybook and Pictime and that’s going to be a beast to migrate.

I have been with Sprout Studio for years and have really loved it – I am familiar with it like the back of my hand, so starting back at square on with a new software was daunting. Still, I felt pretty strongly that it was time and that Honeybook was going to be a better fit for where my business is now. 

Refining my client experience with more heartfelt, personal touches is a top focus for the year and I know this part is crucial in laying that groundwork.

I also was really eager to jump into the PicTIme bandwagon because I’ve heard so much praise about their automations for print sales. I love the idea of their shop integrations with multiple labs and giving customers more control without having to go back and forth with me to boost the print sales portion of my business.

I just knew that this combination was the next level up for me but as anyone who has started or switched CRM’s knows, it’s a major undertaking. 

Marketing

This may come as a surprise, but I’m challenging myself to experiment with marketing on Instagram a little more this quarter and just come at it in a different way. I’ve done a couple episodes on instagram marketing – particularly episode 7 with Morgan Miles about privacy. I also wrote about my fraught experience with instagram and pulling back from it with stronger boundaries in this blog post. 

At the same time, I’m aware that it doesn’t do me or my future clients any good for me to hibernate in behind the scenes stuff for months. I need to force myself to creatively engage in more visible marketing avenues in order to increase visibility – it makes sense, right?! 

Admin

The last thing I have on my agenda for this month is in the admin category. I feel like it’s important to do early, though it will still come after the honeybook/pictime project.  I plan on doing an overhaul on my Google Drive organization.  I use Google drive for writing so often and even though I have things somewhat organized, but it’s been a system that’s been piled on and piled on as needed, including with the addition of the educational branch of my business. 

I know this organization step is important for laying a strong groundwork for scaling and outsourcing, as well as repurposing words from pieces I’ve already poured into. 

A reminder about plans

The caveat here is always open hands on all plans. 

If 2020 taught me anything, it’s flexibility. There will be snowdays that force calls to get  rescheduled. There will be sick days. There will be pieces that take way longer than I expect and surprise things that come up and need worked into the schedule. 

Goals are something to challenge me and push me, but not to kill me. 

At the end of the day, you are the boss and any deadlines you set are your own to meet or move if you need to. 

Of course I want to make adjustments and additions to my website. I want to do work on my SEO that’s still suffering a little after my business name change. I want to blog more sessions and I want to get Pinterest rolling better and blah blah blah there’s always so much I can and want to do. 

But it CAN NOT all happen at once.

Prioritizing and working steadily and efficiently on projects will help you (and me!) take better, clearer advantage of these slow seasons as a family photographer. 

Quick links for this episode:

LINKS DISCUSSED // 

Big picture workbook: https://leahoconnell.com/bigpicture

Episode 33: My 3-Part Process for EOY Goal Setting and Reflection (*free download for a personal meeting agenda)

Trello For Photographers course: https://leahoconnell.com/trello-for-photographers

How I use Trello in my business blog post: https://leahoconnell.com/how-i-use-trello-for-my-photography-business-2/

Kat Schmoyer – Trello for Beginners

The Firefly Letters (my weekly newsletter) 

Photographers only email list: https://www.leahoconnell.com/learn

Homestyle accelerator waitlist: https://leahoconnell.com/homestyle

Episode 7 with Morgan Miles: Marketing, Privacy, and Social Media

Blog post: Do i need instagram for my photography business? 

All my free resources to support you: https://www.leahoconnell.com/learn

You may also like:

Ep 36: 3 Methods for Journaling to Increase your Noticing Power

Ep 35: Big Picture Questions to Guide your Photography Business Goals