The Photography Business ESSENTIALS KIT
WHY THIS KIT? After 7 years of running multiple businesses, we found out what tools worked, and what tools didn't. We often get asked what products and services we have used to run a highly profitable business, and this list is the result of that. This kit is ever evolving, so please keep that in mind as you check these tools out. Some of these resources are free or very cheap, and the ones that do cost money, we have tried to dig up as many discounts as we could because we want you to get a head start! Not ONE of the companies mentioned in this tool kit cut us checks for talking about them ď Š We hope it is useful for you! Sincerely,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I ORGANIZATION & EFFICIENCY ………….....…………………. 5-7 TRAVEL ………………………………...………………….…………. 8-9 SOCIAL MEDIA .…………….…...………....………...….…...…… 10-12 BLOGGING ………………………………………....……....……… 13-15 EMAIL MARKETING ….…………………….…………....………. 16-17 WEBSITE BRAND & DESIGN …………………….....………….. 18-21 BUSINESS GROWTH …......……………………………………… 22-24
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Part II SALES & MARKETING ................................................................ 25-27 GEAR ……………........................................................................... 28-32 NATURAL LIGHT SHOOTING TECHNIQUES ..................... 33-35 LIGHTING TECHNIQUES ........................................................ 36-39 EDITING TOOLS ......................................................................... 40-44 CLIENT PRODUCTS ................................................................... 45-47
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ORGANIZATION/ EFFICIENCY
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ORGANIZATION/EFFICIENCY
This tool helps control your email and removes any non-essential emails from your inbox that suck your time. It works like a charm!
This tool saves you time by auto-filling text for you that you type repeatedly. This is similar to "shortcuts" on the iPhone but is for your computer! (Mac only)
(Two week free trial, $5 in SaneBox credit)
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ORGANIZATION/EFFICIENCY
Stores your photos, docs, and videos and lets you access them anywhere and share easily. Never email yourself a file again using DropBox! (Free up to certain storage size, then monthly payment can occur).
An inexpensive way to have your own personal Cloud Storage. We put all of our personal images from our iPhones, all videos and any other important docs on them. Access that hard drive securely from anywhere you have an Internet connection!
Evernote is a digital filing cabinet where you can go paperless and organize all of your files. Access from your desktop or mobile device. (Want to learn how to use Evernote's power? Get the Evernote Essentials by NerdGap for a minimal price).
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TRAVEL
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TRAVEL
Never forget to pack a piece of gear again! Create comprehensive packing lists for all types of shoots and events, and then just check off all the items as you pack for the shoot. Can also be used for personal travel items and more!
Compiles your travel itinerary for you as soon as you book a flight/rental car/hotel and puts all the info into the app under its own trip! Not sure how it does it, but it is AMAZING and saves us TONS of prep time for traveling. (Free service).
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SOCIAL MEDIA
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Use bit.ly to not only create shorter links to your URLs, but it tracks the clicks as well! Great for anytime you share content online. For example, here is a bit.ly link that we have created: http://bit.ly/FreeLightingEBook.
Any time you share a long URL online (that you don't need to track) Tiny URL will shorten it for you. (Free service)
(Free service).
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Allows you to create lots of social content (tweets and so forth) at once and then schedule when it goes out. Going on vacation now becomes an actual vacation! (Free service).
Want to give your clients an easy way to share your messages? Ask them to Click To Tweet! (Go ahead, click it, you know you want to). (Free service)
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BLOGGING
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BLOGGING
4 Essential Elements to Writing a Great Blog Post It is key that you get your clients coming to your blog to share their stories, this post by our expert blogging buddy Jeff will teach you how to do that!
5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchier Headlines The first thing you say may be the only thing anyone reads, so learn how to make it count by writing catchy headlines!
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BLOGGING
25 Blogging Tips for Newbies Ready to dig deeper into your blogging? Read this amazing post by Jeff Goins!
Creating collages for your blog is a PAIN, but this tool makes it super easy. The less time making your blog look right means more time actually spreading your message!
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EMAIL MARKETING
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EMAIL MARKETING
If you want to start an email list to stay top-of-mind with your clients, then this is a great tool to design and send out your newsletters.
Want to grow your email list and utilize it to its fullest potential? These guys will teach you how to do that with precision.
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WEBSITE BRANDS & DESIGN
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WEBSITE
For years ShowIt was what our website was built on. It allows YOU to have control of your site and create stunning client sites for your clients to share their images and point back to your brand!
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BRAND & DESIGN
Melissa Love built both our ShowIt website and our new blogsite. She is incredible! We have always recommended getting a pro to design your site and she is the real deal.
Julie designs exclusively for photographers on the ShowIt platform and has done design work for some of our products. She is incredibly talented and a great person to work with.
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BRAND & DESIGN
Sourcing of designers, writers, videos creators and more. Need your pricing page designed to look professional? Business card? Need SEO words added to your blog? You can have all of this and more done for as little as $5.
Have a digital job that needs to be done? Post it on elance and have access to 4 million creatives who will bid on your job to get it done! They do design, editing, typesetting and even writing.
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BUSINESS GROWTH
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BUSINESS GROWTH
This is our complete digital video guide to running a thriving photography business and thousands of photographers have used the tools it provides.
Smart creatives use smart tactics to win, and Lawrence Chan has those tools. We have been listening to and using his tools for business for years with tons of success!
Save 25% with promo code KITDISCOUNTharvest!
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BUSINESS GROWTH
You will become like those you surround yourself with, and if you want to WIN in business, you need to be an avid reader of business books. These are our top reads that helped us make 6 figures within 12 months of starting our business.
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SALES & MARKETING
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SALES & MARKETING TOOLS
In your business, you need to be able to take credit and debit cards from your clients, and square is the most simple way to do that! No merchant account required! Just a smart phone and a card swiper that costs $10!
Do you need to some great sales documents and sales strategies that are proven to work? Just pick up ours for 22% off when you get the bundle! (Save 22% automatically when you get the bundle by clicking the above image).
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SALES & MARKETING TOOLS
Where do you start when you are trying to market your brand? This is your jumpstart guide to get your brand out there!
One of the toughest parts of running an effective business is managing clients, and this guide will show you how to do that effectively.
(Save 22% automatically when you get the bundle by clicking the above image).
(Save 22% automatically when you get the bundle by clicking the above image).
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GEAR
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GEAR
This section highlights some of our top gear picks, and to get our comprehensive list of ALL the gear we use, click HERE.
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GEAR
We use this Airport Security V 2.0 bag to carry all of our main photo gear and this is one incredible bag!
This is the bag we use for gear we need on us while we are shooting. These things are sweet and you can get them personalized!
Check out the review we did on it HERE.
Check out our post on this bag HERE.
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GEAR
This $49 product allows us to get perfect exposure and perfect white balance on all of our shots. It saves us HOURS in post and is worth the investment ten times over.
We always take one reflector and one diffuser to every shoot and they rock for giving your images that extra oomph. (Click on the image to be taken to the reflector in Adorama).
Read more about it HERE.
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GEAR
This Rapid Box packs a big lighting punch for use with your speedlights and should be your first off-camera lighting modifier. Read more about it HERE.
We always try and rent before we buy an expensive piece of gear. Doing that gives us a trial run to make SURE it is the right purchase. LensRentals is the biggest, fastest and best for any rental need! Use discount code: RENTZACHJODY
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NATURAL LIGHT SHOOTING TECHNIQUES
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SHOOTING TECHNIQUES
This is our comprehensive guide to shooting with natural light. This content was taught to over 1,200 photographers live, and is now available to you digitally!
Close Up Portrait Lighting This post will teach you how to soften shadows and create stunning portraits!
Save 25% with promo code KITDISCOUNTshooting!
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SHOOTING TECHNIQUES
Reflectors | Part I
Reflectors | Part II
This blog post covers the essentials to using one of the most powerful tools in your photography tool kit!
This is part II ď Š
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LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
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LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
This is our unique, and comprehensive guide to making off-camera flash easy! We spent years developing this system and because you are reading this guide, we are excited to give you discounted access. Save 25% with promo code KITDISCOUNTlight!
How to Achieve Ultra-Soft Lighting with Flash Want to make your flash shots extremely soft lit? Read this post to learn how.
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LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
Reception Lighting Basics | Bounce Flash
3 Simple Steps to Lighting an Outdoor First Dance
Want to learn how to shoot flash at receptions? This is your starting point.
Ready to dig deeper with difficult reception lighting? This is the post to read!
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LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
4 Fast Steps to Easily Light Your Backgrounds
3 Easy Tips to Take Locations from Boring to Brilliant
If you are ready for more advanced offcamera lighting techniques, then this is a good place to start with background lighting.
If you are stuck in boring locations, then use these 3 tricks to make them look incredible.
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EDITING TOOLS
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EDITING TOOLS
We can edit an entire wedding front to back in 2.5 hours. This tool is a big part of that workflow moving that fast! Want to learn how to use it? Read THIS post.
There is nothing worse than thinking your images look correct on your computer, and then getting them printed and they look whacked. The Spyder is what we use to calibrate our monitor so what we see is what we get.
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EDITING TOOLS
This is the top selling editing software on the planet and for good reason. It is the ONLY software you will ever need to organize, edit and finalize your images.
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EDITING TOOLS | BACK UP
When shooting thousands of large images, we need a great back-up system that is not crazy expensive, and we use these hard drives for that. We connect the internal drives using the Black X Thermaltake.
This back-up system is more expensive, but allows you to have LOTS of files in one place with RAID protection. Remember, keep another copy of your images somewhere else for extra protection! -Thunderbolt Version (mac) -USB 3 Version (windows)
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EDITING TOOLS | EDUCATION
Ready to speed up that workflow even more? Check out this post to learn how!
If you want the complete solution to edit thousands of images in just a few short hours, then this is for you. With over 3.5 hours of content, you will learn our entire editing system. Oh, and 25% off is pretty sweet too. use code: KITDISCOUNTpost
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CLIENT PRODUCTS
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CLIENT PRODUCTS
Albums can be incredibly profitable, but insanely painful to create. The KISS System has made this process easy! We can create, proof, make edits, and order a 60 page album in under 2 hours.
When we order printed products for a client, we want it to be beautiful and professional, and we absolutely love what Bay Photo offers, with quality and great customer service. Check out our recent family shoot we put on our walls HERE.
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CLIENT PRODUCTS
Images Sharing with PASS: If you want a simple way to upload your images and have your clients proof, access digital downloads, and share them online to help promote your brand, then this is the app for you! It makes your images look even more stunning & is incredibly simple to use.
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SHARE IT!
We hope you have enjoyed these resources and tools! If you liked it, we would love for you to share it with your friends and those you influence by clicking here!
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