Let’s talk everything outside of the legal stack: the business filing, the taxes, the registrations, etc. Those legalities vary wherever you live. And I highly recommend hiring or speaking with a business lawyer who can assure you file those things correctly. But outside of the legalities, how the hell does one operate a photography business? What programs do you use? Where do you even start?!
I recall spending hours upon hours reading article after article, having multiple conversations, and scouring the internet on what tech supports I needed to run my own photography business. It felt like each article spit out a different subscription I needed and I remember feeling so overwhelmed. Another thing? I thought I had it all! So I’m here to spare you the time. Because let’s be honest, time is never on our side as it is. I’m breaking down every single, last subscription and program I have that allows me to operate my photography business.
Adobe Lightroom Classic
First and foremost, Adobe Lightroom Classic is vital to your editing game. This is the program needed to edit all of your wonderful images prior to sending them off to clients. All of my initial edits: coloring, exposure adjustments, highlighting details, etc. all happen here right off the bat.
Photoshop
This is your next best friend for editing. Images that need even greater tuning up and detailing I send over into Photoshop. This is where I edit out all of the small eyesores in an image: someone walking behind you, smooth up that newborn skin, take away that fly-away from the top of your head. All that magic happens here.
Google Business
There are multiple avenues in obtaining professional inboxes and such, however, I have found that going straight through Google Business gives me the control that I want. When using third party engines for inboxes, you can lose some of the ownership abilities to your email: such as sharing calendar details, etc. So I have learned to go straight through Google myself.
Wix
Wix is a great beginner tool for website hosting, online sales, and more than anything, domain registering. You can register a domain straight through Wix and still have it transferred outside of their platform should you ever choose to change website hosts (which is exactly what I did!).
Showit
Showit is a God Send! Premade website designs with plugged-in SEO, it doesn’t get much better than that! You can customize your site as much as you want and it also features Blogging capabilities/connections through WordPress. Super user friendly and easy to use! Worth every penny.
HoneyBook
This is my primary system management tool. It takes a bit to learn all of the functions and your way around the site. But once you do, it is really a much more efficient way at managing all of your client interactions and payments. You can set up workspaces for each booking which allows you to send emails, contracts, invoices, auto-reminders, set up calls, tasks, etc. The system directly links to your Google Calendar, so you are never needing to do more outside of that workspace. It truly is a time saver!
Session
I use Session when running mini-sessions during the Spring and the Fall. You can access it on desktop or as an app on your phone. It’s the easiest way to have clients sign up for sessions when I’m running multiple in a day. I can set different details to the session such as buffer time between sessions, add-ons like extra images, and auto-reminders for clients. This has been a life-saving tool for mini-sessions without a doubt.
Pic-Time
This my preferred choice in gallery sharing with clients. I absolutely love the sleek design of the final gallery and I also love being able to set a personalized storefront in my client’s gallery. I can control which items they are able to purchase, including prints, frames, canvases, etc. The third party companies and printers used are of high-quality and I want that for my clients. This is a great way to add on additional revenue for your business, which truly benefits both you and your clients!
Canva
This is the best tool for designing and printing business cards, flyers, creating client guides, advertisement, etc. I use this for so many things social media and information sharing, the tools in Canva are absolutely endless.
MailerLite
This is simply my choice in an automated email system. I use my emailing list when announcing specials, upcoming sessions, and even sharing small little insights of my life. MailerLite is the most user friendly in my opinion and outputs just the right amount of data for me to see what is hitting and what’s not.
Studio/Unfold/SCRL Apps
Lastly, these are all the apps I have found to be the most useful in creating dreamy social media posts/stories. There are, without a doubt, an abundance of them out there! But these have remained to be my favorite ones yet.
And there you have it. All in one place. The ultimate list of programs and apps needed to get your photography business up and running! You can thank me now. You can thank me later. You can thank me never. I’m just happy to have saved you some time!
