2020 goals / how to set yourself up for success

As we enter into 2020, this topic might be more important now than ever. I wholeheartedly believe in setting goals so that you can do things to stay focused in your pursuit of accomplishing all you want. It is by no mistake that one of the first things I have my mentor students do is list out their top 3 business goals. We need to be focused on where we’re going + be intentional with our time. Here are some of my tips for setting realistic, attainable goals + setting yourself up for success!

Don’t let your goals depend on someone else’s movement

What I mean by this is try to avoid goals that have to do with things you yourself cannot directly control. Stay away from anything that has to do with the numbers game + here’s why:

Previously, I’ve had a goal of the number of weddings I wanted to book for the year. It was a little ambitious, however I felt that I should be able to obtain that. When I didn’t quite land that number of bookings, I felt like a failure. I was more focused on that failure than the fact that I was reaching other goals I hadn’t made for myself - like getting featured by bridal shop magazines, wedding blogs + online publications, or the fact that I made 3x as much income in my business than the year before. I wasn’t allowing myself to celebrate that I booked + traveled out of state + even internationally multiple times for shoots + weddings, had developed my mentor program and was even invited to teach among some of the industry’s top name photographers at a workshop.

After that, my goals looked more like getting all my back-end things taken care of during slow season, developing online workshops + courses, hosting workshops, traveling out of state for shoots - even if I have to set them up myself, stay on top of my bookkeeping, locations I will shoot at, so on and so forth.

write them down

as soon as you’re done reading this, go write them down. put them someplace you’ll come back to them, see them + be motivated. studies have shown that if you see something enough, it helps you to stay focused and therefore are more likely to accomplish those things.

break it down

especially with huge ambitious, scary or even just time consuming goals, break them down into little chunks that are realistic to complete. this serves a few purposes:

1. it helps you feel accomplished - you are able to see the steps you are taking

2. it helps you stay motivated - when I have a long list of to-dos, I need to be able to cross things off. If I work all day and wasn’t able to check off a couple tasks, I feel defeated.

3. it gives you more focus - you don’t have to worry about the big scary thing. you just work on one little thing at a time. and then you’ll get there.

get accountability partners

once you’ve written them on paper, broken them down into manageable steps, tell some friends. there’s something about speaking it out loud that makes it real. plus having other people that will be checking in on you, encouraging you, and celebrating with you when you accomplish it will make such a huge difference! (this is a great way to use our cohort group chat too!)

grow your goals

when you go throughout the year, feel free to add new goals to the list. don’t box yourself in. some of these goals might be by the end of 2020, some might be overarching business goals that you want to reach at some point. either way, add to it, challenge yourself + let yourself dream big.

however I can help you chase those dreams, I will! that’s what I’m here for - I will always be a cheerleader for you, motivator, challenger + encourager!

how honeybook saves me / part 1

I want to take a minute and give some awesome business info for my fellow photogs and vendors

When it comes to business, I am the super organized, color-coding, pretty files, all the office supplies kind of girl. I want things streamlined, systemized, efficient.

Being a business owner and mama, sometimes that is kind of tricky to do, and I was finding it difficult to juggle all my inquiries, what I’ve sent to whom, which package/location the client has selected, welcome gifts sent, along with print orders to submit, ship…the list goes on and on.

Enter Honeybook.

This Client Management System has my little organizational heart oh so happy and skipping for joy. Never again will I have to wonder where I’m at with any project, search my inbox to see if I received back that file, or try and locate a questionnaire deep in the depths of my email. I don’t have to search on old sticky notes or flip pages in my planner to see if one of my to-do’s was marked off…when I am out of town and receive inquiries, I never have to worry about losing track on what was already sent to whom…Honeybook keeps track of every single little detail – all in one very happy, organized, wonderful place.

When I first found Honeybook, it was a little daunting to be honest, only because it does SO MUCH!! But Honeybook is prepared for this and they equip you and help you every step of the way! From day one, their customer service team was working to help me out – they migrated all of my files in for me so that I was hitting the ground running. They also offer an orientation video course, as well as many help forums and how-to videos in case you’re having trouble or have questions on how to use things. Still need some help? Their customer service team is one of the best out there! They are friendly, timely and thorough on all their communication – working hard so that you won’t miss a beat! They know you are busy, so they try to answer your questions and get you back to what you do best ASAP.

Fastforward to now: Honeybook is so incredibly integrated into my client experience, I don’t know how I ever did this before them!

My homepage gives me a great glance at what is going on:

  When a client inquires from my website, it automatically loads into my Pipeline – this is where all of my current projects live. With that, thanks to Honeybook syncing with my calendar, it’s quick and easy to see if I’m booked on the date they’re inquiring for.

From there, I can quickly and easily respond to the client with the appropriate brochure which clearly outlines all my collections, pricing and full details. This allows my clients to look at all of their options and choose which package fits them the best.

The submitted brochure makes creating the proposal soooo easy – by inputting in what the client selected along with my predetermined contracts and payment schedules, getting a client booked is a breeze!! Their portal allows them to review the services, sign the contract and make payments – all in one place!

I can easily adjust payment schedules, set percentages and due dates for any balance and give discounts – which is all tracked AND Honeybook connects to Quickbooks so doing taxes is a breeze!

Since I offer many different services (couple sessions, weddings, seniors, portraits, individual education and workshops) Honeybook allows me to have different contact forms, brochures and contracts – which streamlines and categorizes EVERYTHING!

They have so many tools to help you get work done efficiently and thoroughly.

The ability to make custom questionnaires, send timelines, recommend other vendors – it is allowing me to serve my clients so well in one space, never lose track of anything and obtain (as well as deliver) all the information I need. The calendar allows me to see what project is coming up, as well as being able to see when payments are due and coming in – soooo helpful!

On top of what it offers for my clients, there are a few other amazing things Honeybook does: I can connect with other vendors, refer them easily to my clients, as well as post for opportunities/needs and see what opportunities there are in my area as well. I can look at reports to see what my inquiry:booking ratio is, see how I’m doing from month to month with booked projects, payments collected and download reports for bookkeeping. Seriously EVERYTHING I need is here in Honeybook.

Honeybook is only $400 per year – which is INSANE for the amount of time and energy it saves me (I want to be working smarter and faster – not harder, and spending my time where it is best spent – WITH my clients, family and friends) BUT use this link and save 50% on your first year!! Trust me – it is SOOOO worth the investment!

This is just a quick overview for y’all – stay tuned for a more in depth look at what all Honeybook can do for you, as well as video clips to see how I navigate the entire system so you can see how much of a breeze it really is!