How I’m handling summer time with kids and a photography business

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

In this episode, I’m sharing 5 ways I am making the most of my time this summer. I love summer and spending time with my kids but it can be hard to juggle all of that summer fun with running a business!

I also introduced my new course Soft Proofing Made Simple, learn more at https://softproofingmadesimple.com

Other software mentioned:

MissingLettr: https://lttr.ai/jK3k

Dubsado:  dubsado.com/?c=dearkate

Tailwind:  https://www.tailwindapp.com/i/dearkatestudios

About Kate Hejde

Kate Hejde is the host and creator of How You Pictured It Podcast and Dear Kate Brand Strategy. She helps photographers create a profitable business that fits into their lives. With over 10 years of experience running her own photography business, while raising three kids, Kate believes that business is not one size fits all and that you define your own success.  Kate teaches through her podcast as well as through courses, group coaching, and 1:1 mentoring. 

Check out Kate Online: Website | Instagram | Tiktok | Pinterest

FULL TRANSCRIPT

0:15 

Summertime can be the best time and it can also be so stressful when school starts to end and wrap up. I start panicking that I am not going to have any time to get work done. And what am I going to do? How am I going to do this? How am I going to work and have three kids at home? And how am I going to still enjoy my time with them? For me, it’s super important that I take advantage of the time that I’m given with them. They’re only home for summers for so long. They’re only little for so long and I’m watching them grow up so fast. My kids are turning eight, 10, and 12 this year. So I feel like my time with them is starting to get more limited, like. I only have a few more summers left with all three of them at home. And I want to make the most of it. They’re at really fun ages though, where we can go to the pool and I’m not having to constantly monitor everyone. I don’t have to be in the water with them. I feel like it’s kind of a sweet spot. Where they’re old enough to have some independence But they still want to spend time with me. So, what am I doing to make sure that I’m getting the most out of my time working and the most out of my time with the kids? Let’s talk about a few things that I’ve put in place this year. First we signed up for summer camp. We have three weeks of summer camp starting out at the beginning of the summer here. So they’re going they’re there this week. They’re going eight to noon, Monday through Thursday for three weeks. It is so nice because it’s free through our school district, which is amazing. But they are not loving it necessarily. They think that I’ve put them in school for the summer. So I’m trying to make the afternoons fun. But I, in the morning times I am running errands, going to the dentist which has been my first three days of this summer camp. And I am working on batching out content and social media. So that through the rest of the summer, I’ve got content ready to go. Things are scheduled out. I’ve got emails, I’ve got social media. Everything is just ready to go so that I can continue to bring in more clients, while I am on kind of a limited. schedule. The second thing I’m doing is hosting mini sessions for family clients. I have one night set aside in June and one night in July. And this lets me serve 10 clients and means I only have to be away from home for two evenings. I love mini sessions. I make great money at them. I charged 2 75 for a 20 minute spot and the clients get three images. So most of them end up upgrading and buying more images. I’m soft proofing. So, I’m not spending all day editing. I’m only culling and then editing for like quick global edits, no retouching, and sending those off to the client to choose their images. Then they get to decide which ones they want to purchase. And those are what I do a final edit on. This saves me so much time on the computer. I also ended up outsourcing a lot of those final edits. So I’m not even doing that part of it to save more time on the computer. I don’t want to be at the computer while my kids are here. So by doing these mini-sessions one: I’m not having to leave as much for outdoor evening sessions and two: I am soft proofing so that I’m not spending so much time behind the computer. The third thing I’m doing is having a set schedule of availability. I chose one weekday per week and one weekend evening every other week for any client appointments, because I will have some family or outdoor sessions outside of those mini sessions. I like having this set availability. I know that I might work those days. And I’ve even then set it up on a scheduler inside dubsado so clients can just choose which time works for them out of my availability and book without any back and forth. The setup for dubsado is super easy once you get the hang of it. And it makes it so much easier for me to have a place where clients can see what’s available and book straight away. It also makes it easier for me to plan other things like our family events, like family movie nights or camping trips, things like that. So that I know when I’m available for those things and I can put them on my calendar and make sure that I get that time with my family. All right. Number four: I also set up some daytime babysitting hours with the grandmas so I can get my culling and proofing out in a quick manner that my clients are used to. My clients are used to seeing their images within about 48 hours of their session. So when I book a session, I then make sure that I have time on the calendar afterwards to do that culling and proofing and get those images out right away. I find that having that quick turnaround time. Well, one: as a client, I hate waiting for my images. It’s so stressful. You think nothing turned out. It just leaves you feeling like this gut feeling that, oh, what if they’re not good? So it’s important for me that my clients give their images back fast for that reason, because if I was on the other end, I’d want mine back fast. But it also psychologically, the excitement is still high and it means that they’re more likely to buy more images if you get them back to them right away. So having that time built in to cull and proof and get them out right away helps increase my sale and means that I’m going to make more money on that session. Which then also means that I don’t have to take on as many sessions if I’m making more per client. And then number five, I’m scheduling in some time for play. We as a family can easily and happily be couch potatoes. I am writing out a summer bucket list and putting those things on the calendar. August, we’ll be here before I’m ready. And I want to make sure that they get some of these activities in last year. I know we did not schedule things out and I missed out on some of my favorite summertime activities. I love when we make a trip to the river and just go play for the full day by the river here nearby. I want to make sure that we do that. We didn’t do that last year. Also with that, I find that having kind of a routine or a schedule really helps us. I don’t really like a strict schedule. But for me, if we have like morning activities when it’s cooler and then afternoon we’re home and in our air conditioning. I can work in those afternoon hours while the kids kind of relax. Having that kind of set up for them to know what to expect each day, that mornings we’re going to go do something and afternoons they’re going to be home helps me know when my work hours are and I can then schedule out the work that I need to do. Lastly, I’m delegating, outsourcing and automating things so that I’m making the most of my time and my time is as efficient as possible. Like I said, I outsource that final edit the retouching part of it. I also outsource grocery shopping by using grocery pickup. That time is super valuable to me. I hate grocery shopping and being able to quickly place an order online and go pick it up is so much better for us. And it means that my kids aren’t having to grocery shop either. I have just always dreaded grocery shopping with kids. When my third was born, we really switched to pretty much only grocery delivery and grocery pickup, or my husband did the grocery shopping. As far as delegating, we’re working as a family to keep the house picked up. We are doing Sunday house resets, where everybody helps do a quick, it really only takes like 10 minutes clean up of things. Get the dishwasher, emptied and reloaded. Get the counters cleaned off, get the table cleared. All of those kinds of things on Sunday nights. And my kids are old enough to help. And really any age of kids are able to help with some part of the house care. I guess once they hit about two. I think of the easiest things you can. My littlest loves to vacuum. He always gets to do the vacuuming. They all help with putting dishes away. They’ve done that for a long time. Especially like the silverware. That’s an easy job. That is easy for them to reach. But it is a huge help for me when I can go to an empty dishwasher and load it and not have to unload it first. I don’t know why, but that extra step of having to unload it always just like stops me. And I ended up putting off doing the dishes forever. And then automating things I talked about earlier that I am batching a lot of content. So I then am scheduling that out, using things like planoly and tailwind. I’ve also started using a new program called missing lettr. I will make sure to link all of those things in the show notes for you. Missing letter pulls from your blog posts and helps create social posts. So, if you are good at keeping up on the blogging missing letter will help pull images and quotes. From your blog posts and turn them into social media posts. Which is super helpful. and then schedules them out and you can do like, even like a 12 month campaign where you’re repurposing that content over and over again. For a full year. All right. I do want to let you know, also that I have a new course coming up called soft proofing, made simple. It is coming out in the next week or two. And it will be a really low cost course that teaches you. The basics of how to set up soft proofing the benefits of soft proofing and how to really cut your editing time in half and increase your profits. You can grab the course now at the presale price. At the link in the show notes, this is going to be the very lowest price you’ll ever see the course. And you’ll get access to the course, as soon as it launches. You’ll also get to help shape the course a little bit. I’ll send you a survey when you make that purchase. So you can tell me what you need and are hoping to get from the course. Then I can add those things in and make sure that it is as valuable as possible for you. Again, that link is in the show notes and that offer is only valid through Friday, June 24th. Let’s keep the conversation rolling. I would love to know what your plans are for summer. What are your favorite summer activities with your family? What should I add to my summer bucket list? DM me at dear Kate brand strategy or post a screenshot of this episode. And tag me, letting me know at do your Kate brand strategy. As always I’d love for you to rate and review the, how you pictured it podcast in whatever podcast player you’re using, those ratings and reviews, help other people find my podcast. And spread this message of building your photography business to fit your life, how you pictured it.