As a wedding & family photographer and virtual assistant for photographers, I love finding tools that help my business from productivity to client management to organization and more. And better yet, I believe in sharing the tools I love with fellow photographers.
Buckle up, because we’re cruising around to take a look at my favorite photography business tools in this blog post. As a friendly note, this blog post may contain affiliate links, but I promise I wouldn’t share a link with you if it wasn’t something I loved in my life and business!
1. Trello
Meet one of my not-so-secret favorite tools as a photographer – Trello!
I started using Trello back in 2017 or 2018. It’s an online task management tool that I use every single day in my photography business. It’s seriously vital to my daily operations as a business owner. With the app (on desktop or mobile), I use Trello to organize my business tasks, weekly to-do’s by day, content calendar, client workflows for sessions and weddings, and even personal tasks, too. This tool brings creativity and organization together, and that makes my Type A yet creative heart happy! I even wrote an entire blog post about Trello that you can read here, too!
2. Dubsado
Dubsado is another tool in my photographer toolbelt! I started using Dubsado at the end of our 2016 wedding season and haven’t looked back. At the time, I had been searching high and low for a client management software system. I signed up for trial after trial and system after system but couldn’t find the program that fit best with me and my photography business.
I finally stumbled uponIDubsado thanks to my girls at Launch Your Daydream and instantly fell in love! From the overall interface and ease of contracts to questionnaires, invoicing, and scheduling, I took the leap! Their developers are constantly working to make the CRM software better and are extremely customer-focused in their updates. Dubsado is pretty, practical, and easy for my clients (and myself) to navigate.
3. Later
I’ve been using Later in my photography business for many, many years! Later is an amazing tool that allows you to schedule content days, months, and weeks in advance across your social media profiles. Think Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest. It makes uploading and scheduling content easy. I also love how they offer weekly and monthly overviews of your scheduled content as well as a preview of your Instagram feed. It’s perfect for this photographer and visually-driven creative!
4. Blogstomp
Blogstomp (now known as StoryTailor) is one of my very favorite tools in my photography business! I’ve been using Blogstomp for longer than I can remember. Hence, they’ve even changed the name of the software since I started using it!
It’s a staple in my business, and I’d recommend it to any photographer that’s looking to uplevel their blog and social media game. I use Blogstomp to “stomp” images for Facebook sneak peeks from sessions and weddings and to prep blog photos for my blog and my clients’ blogs as a virtual assistant for photographers.
5. MileIQ
I’ve told so many photographer friends about MileIQ – can’t stop, won’t stop! I love that MileIQ is a tool in my photography toolbox. It helps me keep track of all my business mileage… That’s right! It tracks all my drives to and from sessions, weddings, client meetings, purchasing job supplies, and more. If you’re having a hard time tracking your business mileage and keeping things organized, I would 100% recommend trying out this software!
P.S. – I know that with some Quickbooks subscriptions (see below) you get mileage tracking. I’m just not in love with their system for tracking mileage so I stick to what I know and love, MileIQ.
6. Quickbooks
Okay, here’s where things may not seem fun, but hey, it’s one of my favorite photography business tools! Welcome to the chat, Quickbooks!
I’ve been using Quickbooks since the start of 2019. Before that, I was a diehard spreadsheet girl. If you could think of a category, I probably had a spreadsheet for it. I finally made the jump to using Quickbooks online in 2019 and have absolutely loved it. It links to my business banking accounts. I can easily track and monitor expenses, track payments coming in, reconcile accounts, review my profit & loss, keep track of contractor payments and 1099s, and the list goes on.
I know that bookkeeping is a daunting task to some (that’s why many outsource it!), but that’s not to say that a tool like Quickbooks can’t be the answer to make things a little bit easier in your photography business, especially when it comes to filing taxes and working with your accountant. Because after all, being legally legit is your responsibility as a photographer and business owner.
7. CrashPlan
And last but not least, CrashPlan! I’m a firm believer in taking action to create backups on backups on backups in your photography business. CrashPlan has been a staple in my business for many years. It’s a cloud backdrop system that I can control from my computer or mobile device. I use CrashPlan to backup photos, business documents, personal documents, and more. It runs in the background on my computer and helps me feel secure with all the most important things backed up to the cloud and up-to-date.
That’s a wrap! I hope this blog post dedicated to my favorite photography business tools is a big help to you and your business. If you’re looking to outsource tasks and to-do’s in your photography business, drop me a line. I’d love to see if my virtual assistant services would be a good fit for you and your photography business!
Cheers to working smarter, not harder in your photography business & to finding the tools that work best for you!
