Ashley’s Advice :: Your time is valuable!

Hello, friends!

So this week’s Advice column is very personal to me. It’s something that I talk about at my workshops, it’s something I talk about during mentoring – it’s something so important that many people pay no attention to it, and take advantage of it. What am I referring to?

TIME.

That’s right – your time. Your family’s time. Even your client’s time.

I am coming back from a somewhat relaxing mini stay-cation. My kids were on Spring Break all last week, and I sent my equipment in for annual repairs and cleaning … so I took an entire week to just hang out with them. It was AMAZING. I got to go to the zoo and see the new elephant exhibit, I got to play with sidewalk chalk, I got to play a game of Scrabble with my husband – I got to just hang out and not do anything really but hang out with my family. Today is my first day back in “the office” so to speak, I don’t have any shoots scheduled until this upcoming weekend … and I couldn’t wait to jump onto the blog and write about this past week.

Why? Because spending this week with my family has made me realize something – that sometimes as business owners, we forget that sometimes we need to be PRESENT. That’s its not enough to just be around, but rather to be THERE.

Trust me, I understand the pressures of being a business owner. We don’t just do the “store front” stuff of being a photography business owner – taking pictures, editing and responding to client communications … but we have to deal with taxes and licensing, educating ourselves with workshops and seminars, working with vendors in our respective industries, website overhaul/design/upkeep, blogging, social media – I mean, you get it – the list goes on and on. Business owners don’t feel like we can take a break, because if we do, Armageddon might happen and we may not get The Call to be the Official Armageddon Photographer and we may lose opportunities if we don’t respond to emails and phone calls right away. And many clients expect instantaneous responses in the modern day of cell phones and 4G. My first year in business, I worked myself to the bone – sometimes working upwards of 80 hours a week. Lawyers and doctors work 80 hours a week – and they get paid pretty dang well for it. Well, I’m not a neurosurgeon and while my husband might disagree with this – I’m not a lawyer. I’m a photographer. I certainly was NOT making the type of money that would warrant that kind of time spent away from my family.

Not to mention, I can absolutely sympathize with anyone who feels like their entire identity is their career. You hear about Ashley Durham and you might think “oh yes, she’s a wedding and boudoir photographer!” but it’s rare for someone to go “oh yes, she’s got four kids and an amazing husband!”. No – people identify me most with my career. And that’s fine – to a degree. I want to be well-known as the premier boudoir photographer here in Colorado Springs, and a top tier wedding photographer in Colorado. It’s my goal to be sought after and published. That’s how I measure my own personal success – by the referrals I receive for new clients, and being “heard of.” My income definitely is a numerical reflection of my success, but honestly I’d much rather be respected by my peers and desired by my clients than make tons and tons of money a year.

But here’s the thing…

The truth is – I am a wife and a mom first. And a photographer/businesswoman second.

The last three years, I have been so utterly blessed beyond the scopes of my most amazing dreams, and the opportunities coming my way are absolutely jaw-dropping. I’ve had some of the most amazing clients, and taken some images that to this day make my heart happy. I’ve gotten thank you cards and phone calls from grateful families, and trust me – I’ve kept them all and I go through them whenever I forget why in the world I bust my butt to be successful in such a fiercely competitive job market. 

And something that I’ve learned – probably the most important thing, actually … is that as business owners, we need to take time for ourselves and our family. That first year? I didn’t. I’ll be the first to admit it – I let the goal of being a profitable photographer and business person take me away from my family. And since I was still so fresh to the business, I was absolutely underpricing myself and because I wasn’t as efficient as I am now at editing, I was spending countless hours tied up in Photoshop. I figured it out one time, and my first year in business I was working 80+ hours a week for about 2 dollars an hour in profit, after all was said and done. That’s not okay! 

The key to being successful is to BALANCE work with life. And life should always come FIRST.

I’m a photographer because it’s my passion. I’m in business because I’ve found a way to earn an income chasing my passion.

I’ve met so many photographers who are okay with doing 2-3 shoots a day, 6-7 days a week, and not charging enough for it. And they are happy with that – and that’s their prerogative. But I respectfully disagree with that train of thought and business practice. I’m not in this business to be working like a dog all the time, and I’m certainly not in it so I can be super wealthy. The phrase “work smarter, not harder” is a mantra I live by – and one that I teach to my workshop students. I would much rather take on a very small amount of clientele and give them the absolute best experience possible and best images possible, rather than rushing through because I’m overloaded with work. And I never want to make the choice between work and my family.

I need to be a wife – my husband is my absolute everything. I want to go out on dates with him, I want to spend the day with him when he’s not off at work. I want to watch him be a dad, playing catch with our son and playing Barbies (and ahem, post those pictures on Instagram, haha!). I want to be with him while he does projects around the house. And he deserves to see more than the back of my head as  I stare at my phone or computer screen.

I need to be a mom – my kids are my life. I want to teach them how to cook. I want to talk with them about what they’re learning in school. I want to go on field trips. I want to get splashed by bubbly bath water and listen to their gleeful laughs of joy. The deserve to hear more than “uh huh” and “yeah okay” from me – they deserve my full attention. I don’t want them to grow up and have many missed opportunities and experiences with them. I don’t want to deny them that, and I don’t want to miss out on it either.

This year I’ve really started to implement office hours and have taken on limited bookings for sessions and weddings. If a client messages me outside my office hours (typically 7am to noon, Monday through Friday), I check to make sure it isn’t something urgent (like a last minute change of homecoming arrivals) – and I respond to them first thing the next morning during office hours. I no longer book anything on Sundays, except the occasional wedding or workshop. I only work two Saturdays of each month. I only schedule a maximum of three shoots per week, including boudoir. I only schedule family/seniors/engagement sessions at the end of the day, typically on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays. I schedule in-person ordering sessions during office hours. Every two to three months, I do something to improve myself – whether it’s taking Jasmine Star’s ReSTARt course, going to California to take a workshop with the Boudoir Divas, or going to to Utah to hang out with Kandis of Wish Photography again for the Wish Retreat – I am constantly doing things to improve myself. I factor all of this into my life as a businesswoman and an artist. And I counterbalance these learning opportunities with my family life, taking time off before and/or after.

So my advice this week? Prioritize. Figure out what your weaknesses are, and find ways to improve. My weakness my first couple years was accepting too many clients and not charging enough. How do I fix that? Raised my prices. Yes, I got fewer clients BUT I actually ended up making more because I could provide a better experience for my clients, and I was working less. My editing was slow and tedious, so what did I do? I learned how to improve my editing workflow, and my Lightroom and Photoshop skills by taking several courses on each through my college.

If I don’t respond right away – it’s not that I don’t value your business. I absolutely do! I am so appreciative of all the wonderful people I’m blessed to work with each year. It’s that I’m a wife and a mom first.

xoxo