Running a business is challenging. You are the owner, the assistant, the bookkeeper, photographer, editor, blogger, educator – the list goes on and on. And that’s just the business! It doesn’t account for your personal life. Get into your personal life and you may be the spouse, parent, laundry cleaner and sorter, dinner cooker, housecleaner, finance manager, and so much more, right? It is no wonder that business owners get burnt out and overwhelmed. When you get to the point in your business where you’re constantly up at 2 AM editing a wedding, writing a blog, or culling your latest session, it’s time to consider a better way of running your business.
When you first consider outsourcing your immediate thought will likely be a photo editor or a virtual assistant. Both options are great for their own reasons. A good editor is going to save you hours in your week once they have your style down. A virtual assistant is going to be a great fit if you’re confident that you’re going to be able to train them to do the tasks you want them to do. A VA is going to be looking at you for guidance to bring your vision to life. Virtual assistants are great fits for the business owners that know exactly what they need to outsource and how to train someone to do those tasks.
How Success Beyond the Lens is different
I’m going on two years of working with photographers in the managing and marketing of their businesses. I’ve come to know the industry, how to market a photography business effectively and how to offer exceptional client experiences for their clients. When working with my clients I come in as a partner, someone to help alleviate their stress, build boundaries in their business, and come up with a marketing strategy that is going to attract their ideal client. Here’s a look at what it’s like the first 30 days with SBTL.
Before the Strategy Call
Yay!! You have joined the SBTL family and we couldn’t be more excited to have you. Before our call together I’m going to take a look at your social media, website, CRM, and sign-up for your newsletter. During this process, I’m going to take notes on what I feel will benefit you most on improving immediately and what items would be great to improve or add over time. This “map” will get ironed out after our strategy call to see what aligns best with your goals.
The Strategy Call
This is our first call to kick things off and map everything out. This is such a fun call! We go over your goals for yourself and your business and put together a plan of attack. For example, if your goal is to no longer answer emails then we put a plan in place to make that possible. Depending on the package you chose this will also be where we chat about your marketing strategy for your blog, newsletter, and social media. If you’re a photographer educator then we’re going to chat about how SBTL can support you in that as well.
After the Strategy Call
Once our call wraps up I’m going to finish your map. The map includes what your goals for your business are, how we’re going to support you in those goals, what kind of blog, newsletter, and social media planning schedule we need. And if we have a launch then that will get mapped out as well. I’ll add all of these details to ClickUp, which is the project management tool we use at SBTL. ClickUp is an amazing and easy to use tool that will allow us to communicate and manage every aspect of your project effectively.
I’ll send the recording of our meeting to the assistant who will be assigned to your team. Her and I will go over your content creation schedule and she will be in charge of creating the rough draft of your content. She will also be familiar with the goals you have for your business and the direction we’re taking with your business.
You will receive any homework you may have and the recording of our meeting within 24 hours. You’ll receive your map within a week of our meeting, which is also when you’ll be introduced to the assistant on your team.
Each Week
Each week you will receive a report of what’s happening in your business, including the drafts for your blog and/or newsletter, any information we’re waiting on, and what tasks were completed. This serves as a check-in to let you know where things are, but you’ll have access to me and my team through email and Voxer anytime during business hours.
After 30 Days
Once we’ve hit our first month together, we’ll have a call and see how the first month went. We adjust the things we need to and get a good handle on what you really liked and what you would like to see changed. We don’t use a cookie-cutter system for our clients. Each client gets a plan that works best for their needs. So, this second strategy call is imperative to set your plan for success once we have those first 30 days under our belt.
Going forward, we’ll have a check-in call each month to see how things are moving or if there are any adjustments that need to be made. This is also when we chat about your analytics for your current social media and marketing strategy and make any changes that need to happen.
Wrapping it Up
Success Beyond the Lens goes beyond being a virtual assistant. We become a team, your team, to help you achieve your goals. We work alongside you and take the weight off your shoulders by implementing systems, creating a strategy that works for your business, and crafting a plan that fits the needs of your business. We are your business manager, your assistant, your strategist, and your cheerleader all wrapped into one. If this sounds like what you need to take your business to the next level we would love to hear from you!