Meet my dad

This is my dad, and yesterday was his 86th birthday.

In the late 70’s he wrote a quality control system for the developing computer industry. The system was adopted by British Standards (BS 5750), and today, manufacturers of most camera companies use the same quality control standardisation (now updated to ISO 9000).

Dad is systems obsessed, and I think some of this trickled into my genes, because I do love seeing where processes can be systemised. (Also we’re both Virgo’s if you’re into that kind of thing.)

Setting up systems and processes means I don’t have to waste time on the things I don’t enjoy, and can instead invest my time into the things I love.

As a photographer you’re often fighting fires and responding to what needs to be done; clients want things NOW! Or even yesterday.

I get it. As an agent I was always in reactive mode when it came to client needs and requests. 11pm calls from Hong Kong? Part of the job.

But marketing was one of those wonderful things I could be utterly in control of.

Marketing is pro-active, and as such you can systemise it.

Email blasts and social media are examples of things you can set in place ahead of time when you’re not busy, so even when you’re on a location shoot, or flat out in pre-production mode, they can continue to tick over, keeping you top of mind with your other clients.

What’s not to love about that?

My dad has dementia now, but systemising my marketing, my meetings and many other facets of my business means I can spend precious time with him, and still continue to invest my time into the things I love, like meeting with my clients, blitzing images, and helping photographers see their potential.

So what one thing are you going to systemise today?