My sweet friend Amanda of Amanda Hedgepeth Photography based in the Outer Banks, NC is guest blogging for me today!! I am still trying to play catch up after sweet Abigail was born, so here is a GREAT post that i just LOOOVE from a fabulous photographer!!!
Hi all! I am so honored to be guest blogging for the fabulous, talented and kind Samantha Martin who I had the pleasure of working with at one of my weddings this past May! The past May where I had three weddings in one week, one of them was out of the country — and did I mention at the time my daughters were 2 years and 4 months old?! And I have a husband to communicate with (he’s incredible and KEY to my balance) and a house to keep mildly straight. That’s when I met dear Samantha and today we’re rolling right off of this topic and going right into how the heck are you supposed to do all of this and make it out alive?!
First and foremost, I decided four years ago that I wasn’t willing to wait on having a family OR starting my business. I wanted both, and life is short so my mentality…my very strong willed hard working mentality…said to me “you’re doing both”. So I did. I told myself, you will do both and make both work because you want both. I didn’t want to start this business and have my heart and gut telling me I was missing out on something I wanted sooner than later..babies. I didn’t want to have babies and put off building what “could possibly” turn into an amazing career. And you know, in doing both..I made a statement. Women can do it and they deserve to do it all. It’s hard. IT IS HARD some days. Yesterday..I ate Blueberry Puffs for breakfast, half a bag of chocolate chips for lunch and for dinner, I ate whatever my two (almost three) year old didn’t finish from her dinner. I literally didn’t take care of myself. But..I made it through the day! And some days are just like that!
The biggest challenge in being a business owner and balancing motherhood is one main factor..it comes down to one big thing for me.Time management. When you don’t have any children, you have to push and motivate yourself to get up and get your work done. You have SO much more time than you realize! It’s needing to be DILIGENT and EFFECTIVE with your time and that takes discipline. NOT checking email and Facebook while you’re editing, not opening up that browser is your computer slows down a little or if you’re just bored in between editing. When those babies come along..you best bet you’re gonna get more work done in 1 hour than you ever did in 8 hours pre-kids! Seriously! You know your time is limited and your time needs to be all about working smarter and not harder. I don’t open that little browser anymore when my husband says okay honey– you have from 3-9 to edit that wedding. GO!
And I do it. I worked hard on figuring out how to edit manually in Lightroom and now I can get so much done in SO little time. The other day, I instagrammed about how much work I got done in one day. It was a grand total of 5 sessions and 1 full wedding in 7 hours while my husband watched the babies. But– that time block? That is crucial. Scheduling your time where you answer emails and edit is going to be very very very important. Trying to schedule in editing time that corresponds with your shooting time is even more of a great idea! If you shoot a session on November 4 and you aren’t back to back booked– why not schedule a corresponding editing time slot for it? Show up for BOTH events! November 5 from 10am-1pm — edit then! Does it take me that long to edit a session? Not anymore..but it’s FINDING the time that takes the most time from my life! Not setting yourself up for success!
This year got crazy and it really got away from me. We moved to a new state, we made the decision to slow down and so did my turn around time..but I still made it a point to blog each wedding within the week of shooting it to give my clients that wow factor and that client service of being able to see their wedding images FRESHLY after the event! I always schedule time to sit down, cull and pick favorites for the blog. Even in the craziest weeks, communicating with my husband and getting it done is a priority and team work is what saves me so much! It’s something we KNOW has to get done because it’s a standard I set for myself..and that’s what it’s all about. You are the boss, the secretary, the treasurer, the EVERYTHING for yourself so start figuring out how you want to run your business and what kind of work manual you are going to create for your job! 🙂 Sometimes late nights happen or early morning email answering– but it gets done because it has to. I will never forget how much I wanted it in the first place, and if I want both– I have to keep working for it! 🙂
Remember– things will change. You will have to adjust. Embrace the chaos of having babies running around and OWN IT because you have to do that to get by daily! We’re so fortunate to be able to do what we love but we have to continue to remember that in the challenging and stressful times! I would never trade it for the world!!!!!!! 🙂