Making your photography business work for your life, instead of becoming your life.

Feb 11

I get it. You love your job. You love being a photographer, you love being creative, and you love your clients! Let me ask you something, is your photography business helping you live your life, or are you living your life for your photography business? If we are so busy every week, month, year making memories for other people, that we forget to make our own, that is not a photography business worth saving. Your life matters. So how do we run a successful business, meet deadlines, keep up with socials, and have a life of our own?!

BOUNDARIES.

They feel hard to create & even harder to implement. Especially, in a creative field like photography where we feel so much pressure to get each session culled, edited & delivered as quickly as possible. Every photographer needs to take a serious look at their business and how to make it work for their life.

Here are 4 boundaries I stand by.

+ I never work Fridays. I don’t edit, respond to e-mails, socials, or take on any sessions. This is my family day & we deeply look forward to it each week. In the summer, this extends to weekends, and I don’t take client work on the weekends either. As a mom of 4 young kids, time with them is so precious, so our summer weekends are spent as a family.

+ I delete Instagram when I’m not working. I typically work once throughout the day & at night after my kids go to sleep. I download my Instagram only when I’m working & delete it in the in between times. It helps with unhealthy comparison, with doom scrolling, and with responding to messages.

+ I don’t post every session. This is 2 fold. Posting every session is a lot of work, a lot of captions, and can quickly feel overwhelming. Secondly, not all of my paid work represents my “dream client”. I make sure to only post the kinds of clients I want to attract.

+ I only take on sessions that bring me joy and say no to all the rest! At the beginning, I thought I had to say yes to every single paid session. This left me uninspired and burnt out. I starting dreading certain sessions. As a full time family photographer, you would think that I do extended family sessions. I quickly cut those out when I finally gave myself permission to say yes to what I loved. Young families. Creating only the type of sessions you love will bring your work to a new level, and you’ll be less burnt out because your artist heart is being constantly cultivated.