Signs It’s Time to Outsource Your Editing
As a photographer, it’s not uncommon to work crazy hours—especially if you’re shooting elopements! You’re off adventuring with your couples, capturing their incredible love stories, and soon enough you’re heading off to the next elopement as quickly as the first one ended. When do you have the time to edit your couples’ photos? Next year?
There are several reasons why a photographer might want to outsource their editing (and it’s not a bad thing to do so). Here are some signs it might be time to hand off some of your work to another expert.
You’re Completely Booked for the Year
Are you completely booked, at full capacity for the rest of the year? CONGRATS! That’s incredible, but that also might mean you have no time for any extra work—including editing all of those sessions. Having a huge workload means you’ll be spending more time helping couples plan, pick a location, find vendors, and zero extra time editing their photos. When your schedule starts filling up quickly, it could be a sign it’s time to start outsourcing some of your editing work.
You Want to Grow
When it comes to growing your business, you can only do so much—especially if you already feel like you’re doing a lot. Maybe you’re not quite booked out as much as you want, but you don’t feel like you even have the ability to work more. This could be a sign it’s time to outsource. When you outsource your editing, something gets taken off your plate. This makes it easier to book more wedding, elopement, engagement, or vow renewal sessions, helping you grow your business without feeling completely overwhelmed.
You’re Overwhelmed or Approaching Burnout
The dreaded burnout. We’ve all felt it at some point, but when you’re doing something you love, it comes at an even higher cost. If you’re overwhelmed or approaching burnout, it could be a sign to outsource your editing. You need some help and you can’t have someone else shoot your sessions, can you? Outsourcing your editing allows you to take some of the busy work off your plate, and keep you from feeling too overwhelmed.
Maybe on the flip side, the actual work of editing is what overwhelms you. You have 1000s of photos and the thought of culling, editing, and delivering all within a reasonable amount of time makes you sick. One word: outsource. You’re already an amazing photographer, don’t let editing make you feel paralyzed.
You Want More Freedom
Being a photographer gives you so much more freedom than a traditional job. But if you still feel like you’re working nonstop behind the scenes, it can be anything but freeing. If you want more freedom in your day-to-day life to be with family, travel, or just live, outsourcing your editing can be the perfect solution. You get to shoot magical sessions with dreamy clients and then hand off the tedious editing work to another expert. Plus, if you’re shooting an elopement and want to travel around afterward, you don’t have the work of editing holding you back from exploring for a few days. It sounds like a win-win to me!
You Always Feel Behind
There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re always behind. Not only are you causing yourself feelings of panic and overwhelm, but you can feel like you’re disappointing your clients if their photos aren’t delivered to them as fast as they hoped. The truth is, editing and delivering the photos to your clients is a part of the whole experience. If they are way beyond a normal amount of time, I know you don’t want to hear it, but it can look bad. Outsourcing your editing ensures they are delivered quickly to the clients so they are surprised in a good way!
There are a variety of other reasons why it might be a good idea to outsource your editing (you’re stuck creatively, you don’t like editing in general, you want to pursue other projects, etc.). But to make things clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with outsourcing your editing as a photographer. And if you’re ready to do so, I am ready to help! If you want to outsource your editing to me, contact me today and let’s talk!
