It’s no secret that outsourcing parts of business has become a popular and necessary thing among small business owners. When outsourcing to-do’s within your business, if done correctly, your business can see exponential growth. As a photographer, one of the top tasks to outsource is photo editing. We understand that delegating this part of your business may feel like you’re giving up a chunk of your business and even part of yourself (you are an artist after all). However, there are so many pros to hiring a private photo editor.
So what are the benefits of hiring a private photo editor for your business?
More Time
Let’s do a little math. We’ve found that the average wedding photographer spends at LEAST 3-5 working days editing their own images. (And that’s if you’re not distracted by Netflix, TikTok, and Instagram 😉)
So let’s take that 5 days and turn it into hours: 40.
Multiply that by 20 weddings every year.
That equals 800 hours.
On average, there are 160 working hours each month.
Do you realize what that means?!
800 hours equals 5 SOLID MONTHS OF EDITING ALONE.
That’s almost half of your year that you spend on JUST editing. Even if we’re half right…that’s still 2.5 months, ya’ll.
WHAT COULD YOU DO WITH 5 MONTHS OF YOUR TIME BACK?
By outsourcing your photo editing, not only do you put time back into your day but you’ll be able to better serve your clients.
For example, have you been thinking about adding another wedding or two to your calendar? But you know you don’t have the time to edit all of the images? You do have options.
- Consider hiring a private photo editor to act as an integral member of your team so you can make outsourcing part of your workflow after every wedding. This removes the stress of “Should I outsource this one, or shouldn’t I?” AND it gives your editor more repetition so he or she can maintain the best consistency with your unique style. Photographers who do this have the best experience with outsourcing.
- Stick to your original wedding dates without adding more to your plate.
- Or, you know, the third option is you could still add more wedding dates and stress over getting galleries delivered in a timely manner by staying up into the wee hours of the night staring at Lightroom.
You get to make the call! But after working for years finding the best solutions for photographers, we are biased to the first option.
Find Balance
You can create better balance within your work and home life. Even if you’re still in the side hustle stage of starting your photography business, you’ve probably learned that it’s very easy to work all. the. time.
If your partner has been nagging about how much time you’re working or you’re starting to feel burned out, these are quick tell-tale signs that it’s time to re-evaluate how you’re spending your time. So often, we get photographers coming to us stressed out, overworked, and their relationships suffering because of it. Interestingly enough, everything the experts have learned about productivity is that taking breaks makes you more productive. That means two things:
1. You should DEFINITELY go on that vacation you’ve been talking about, and
2. If you outsource your editing, you’ll actually have the time to do it, guilt-free.
We can’t stress the importance of setting clear and concrete boundaries from the get-go for yourself and sticking to them.
Busy Season
Your photography niche and your location will determine your busy season, but nonetheless you’ll have a busy season or two each year. Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed with editing that you begin to lack communication and overall quality that you like to provide for your clients. As we all know, even though one wedding is over, there’s another one right around the corner. With more weddings and sessions, comes more clients that will have questions and need to be helped.
Scale Your Business
Culling and editing take up the majority of a photographer’s time (as in, 5-whole-months kind of time as we talked about before), so naturally it’s the best post-wedding workflow task to let go of. Yet, it’s difficult for so many to release because, well, outsourcing costs money. So sometimes, photographers fall right back into old patterns to SAVE money. Unfortunately, it ends up COSTING money in the long run. Let’s unpack this a bit:
Remember that outsourcing your editing all by itself could give you MONTHS of time back. What could you do with that time?
You could finally focus on things that you’ve been putting to the wayside. From cleaning up your office to maybe even launching an educational course; more time in your schedule means more time to work on things that will grow your business.
With all this time back, you’ll realize that you’re able to take on more clients and more work that will actually move the needle in your business. Double header? Sure thing! After all, you won’t have to cull and edit those 4000+ images you shot. Post on Instagram because you aren’t glued to a computer screen? Yea, baby! Reels? Yep. Write *gasp* CONTENT BLOGS to serve your potential audience? Yes, ma’am! Start emailing your list? Now you are totally catching on! Naturally, work like this will begin attracting new potential clients and increase your photography inquires, which enables you to book more events, which leads to…you guessed it…more cash in the bank. And more cash means you can have the tools to go anywhere you want to go.
Improves Quality and Consistency
Don’t get us wrong, we know that hiring a private photo editor can be scary. You may have the fear that they won’t be able to match your editing style (no one can do it like you, right?). Well, the one neat thing about hiring a private photo editor is they actually take the time to learn your unique style. We have a very specific process we follow to make sure you are heard and to make sure your personal, dedicated editor learns how to emulate your style consistently. Finding the right photo editor for you will wash all your outsourcing fears away, providing you with peace of mind and more of that precious time. Knowing that your work and turnaround time will always be consistent and top notch is priceless!
Not sure what your editing style is? Take our quiz to find out!
If you have any questions about hiring a private photo editor, please do not hesitate to email Meagan with your questions.
We would love to hear from you!
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