hey guys! welcome to today's video. I am answering a question that I got inside
of my photo boss Facebook group which, by the way, you can join for free right now
via the link description below. the question was "what do I do during my
off season" how am I marketing my business? and
growing my business how am i attracting I do clients during my offseason and
that's the question I'm gonna answer for you guys today I thought this was a
perfect topic for today's video so I'm going to be covering some of the things
I do personally and that I recommend you also do as well during your off season
despite how it sounds my offseason is actually one of my busiest times of year
while I don't have as many weddings or gigs on my calendar I am spending a lot
more time educating myself and planning out what the rest of the year is gonna
look like taking care of things on the business end when I think of the busy
season versus my offseason I kind of picture a swimmer I'm into my lane my
head is down I'm working really hard in hustling during the on season the
offseason is my time to come to the surface to take a breather to kind of
look around and take stock and figure out what's been working what hasn't been
working and what needs a little bit more attention in my business the number one
thing I'm doing during my offseason that I highly recommend you also be doing and
your offseason is marketing you should always be marketing yourself but the
offseason is particularly a good time because you just have more of it a few
ways that I go ahead and market myself our blogging shoots that I may not have
had time to blog earlier in the year when I was having back-to-back weddings
so I go back in my archives and I make sure that I take some time to blog these
images taking special care to tag vendors and let them know so that
there's a potential reshoring going on the next thing I do is submit my work so
that I can be featured so this all falls under the marketing category the next
step that I take in the marketing of my business is to map out the next six
months following my offseason now regardless of when your offseason is
calendar maybe it's in the winter maybe it's in this summer depending on what
time zone or climate you live in it could be the opposite of mine but odds
are you will have a time that is kind of more of a lull in your booking and that
is your offseason this is the perfect time to dive in and look at the
potential promotions that you might have it coming up in the next few months you
can go ahead and take a look at your calendar and see if you're happy with
the number of bookings that you have or if you need some areas that need a
little extra attention so you have a marketing plan you've gotten your blog
updated the next thing I like to do is update my website this is something that
does not get done very often just because of how time-consuming it is
after I've gone through and blogged some of those weddings and tagged some of
those vendors I now have new images that I'd like to showcase in my portfolio
take those images and update your website the next thing you'll want to do
in your off season is take some time to network and this doesn't have to be a
big scary thing where you go into a conference center with your business
cards and it's a little bit anxious kind of situation it doesn't have to be like
that what I like to do is find some really cool people and Instagram send
them a message and see if they like to grab coffee I like to network with other
people in the wedding industry but that are not in my same field under that same
umbrella of networking this is also a great time to do some venue walkthroughs
if there's a venue that you've been wanting to work at this is a great time
to contact them go meet them have a face-to-face and walk through the space
so you've updated your website you've updated your blog you have all this new
work it's time to send some of that work to your favorite vendors so go ahead and
create some smaller galleries and gift that to your favorite vendors
potentially they will share those images it's also keeping you top of mind for if
they ever need a photographer the next thing I want you to do during your next
offseason is review your workflows how is that onboarding process for brides
and grooms how is it when somebody inquires with you are you writing the
same emails a lot or do you have that system down now if you haven't thought
about what your workflows in a while check out this series I did I think five
or so videos I also include a free pdf and lots of bonus material and it's all
available here on YouTube so if you check out that series I think it's
really to help you to tighten up those systems
make sure that you're not wasting time here and there throughout the year that
really really add up to really getting into your productivity I want to
encourage you during your offseason to be sure to take some time to get read
inspired travel read a book do something that gets you back to you and maybe dive
into some personal work even if you're playing around with film or kind of
diving into Photoshop or doing something completely different than your normal
wedding workflow I think you can just refresh you as an artist the final tip
that I have for you guys is to educate yourself educating yourself and taking
it online class or reading a book you're really staying sharp you're honing your
skills you're continuing to learn and you're making sure that you don't get
fuzzy in some areas that maybe you could use some work so one thing that I do
that I think might be interesting for you guys to try is I create a to-do list
and I keep it somewhere like inside of my planner or somewhere that I won't
lose it where I have what's called my offseason to-do list
and essentially I create a list of things that I would like to get done
when I have more time so what's cool is when the offseason rolls around and it's
February I can look at a list that I made and maybe June when I was really
busy with weddings and I wanted to work on certain projects but I couldn't now
at that time in my offseason I can look at the list and I can decide whether or
not I should do it or whether I should mix it but it's just nice to have that
list and know that I'm keeping it and gathering it throughout the year those
are my tips for growing your business during the offseason I would love to
hear what you all do if you have some similar tips or something completely
different share it in the comments down below I
would love to hear from you you guys next week bye guys