Let’s face it if you’re going solo you’ll have to wear a lot of hats, maybe too many to keep your sanity. Photography is a beautiful and exciting career. But what happens when going out on a thrilling shoot gets replaced by admin tasks, meetings, to-do lists, endless editing and meaningless marketing stunts? It’s hard enough doing it when you’re based in one location, it all gets a bit more complicated when you start travelling.
In this article, we’ll cover a few techniques and tips that will help you regain your sanity and rediscover why you started photography in the first place.
Stick around if you feel that any of the following statements apply to you:
- You struggle to find time in your day to do everything you need to do
- You feel hopeless and stressed
- Your to-do list seems to grow no matter what you do
- You don’t know what to do first
- You are multitasking and not really getting anything done
- You’re not in command of the situation, you’re constantly being bombarded with things to do
Defining your goals
This seems like an obvious statement, but it’s not as easy as it seems. It’s time to ask yourself what you actually want to achieve. This is a question that can be tricky to answer, so take your time when you do. There might be a few things on your list, don’t worry, write them all down.
A few questions that might help you are the following:
- What’s the purpose?
- What am I good at?
- What do I really want to do?
- What’s my ideal job description?
- What do I hate about my job?
- What keeps me going?
- Who are my ideal clients?
- What jobs have I enjoyed the most?
- Where am I wasting my time?
- What jobs have I done simply for the money?
- What are some of the goals that I have already accomplished?
Once you’ve answered all the questions, you’ll start to identify what’s key to you and what is key to your business. Here’s a list of goals that many of us have when we have our own business:
- Getting new leads
- Spend less time on admin tasks
- Charging more money
- Creating a better portfolio
- Saving time
- Automating repetitive task
You could even simplify it to 3 simple things that will keep your business running:
- Acquire new clients
- Excell at your job
- Get paid
- Stop wasting your time
It’s so easy to waste your time but it’s even easier to do when you’re travelling. After 3 years of managing my own business and working on the road I’ve discovered some of the top things that waste my time when I’m on the road and how to avoid them.
