One month full-time...

I have now been officially self-employed for one month!

It's been interesting having all week for my photography business considering this is the winter season so I'm not shooting as much. But it has been a great chance to get all the business side of things tidied up going forward. You wouldn't believe the amount of tax, banking and insurance correspondence I have had to deal with over the last few weeks! (Apparently not having a fortnightly wage changes quite a few things).

One of the best decisions I have made over the last month is to implement a studio management software. I realised that my pieces of paper, to-do lists and post-it notes were not going to suffice in the long run. I don't want to be in the middle of wedding season and forget a meeting or not send an important email! This new software schedules all the workflow from booking right through to after the shoot for every client, so each day when I open up my computer it tells me what needs done this week. It's pretty much become my personal assistant and I'm loving it!

BOOKINGS - Over the last few weeks, with the weather improving, I've started getting bookings for spring & summer portrait sessions, plus I've even had a few wedding bookings for 2018! I'm excited for spring to arrive & to be out shooting more, then my wedding season kicks off in November - with our weddings spread far and wide this season all over Southland & Otago.

I'm just one month in to full-time photography and it already feels natural. At first it was weird working alone in the office all day and having the ability to structure my days how I wanted. But I've found a routine within that flexibility and my office days now often include loud pop music and the odd crazy dog lady conversation with Henry!