Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Welcome to 31 Days to an Organized Life & Business! For the month of October I will be a participant in The Nester’s 31 days Writing Challenge. Taking some of my own advice and taking you along on my journey to a life reset. I’ll be sharing (and practicing) some tips on everything from bookkeeping, shopping, managing kids, intentional parenting, work from home mom syndrome, work/life balance, spiritual reset and more. Not because I am the expert in these fields, but because they have worked for me in the past, and I so badly need them to work again for me now.
When I say I need this reset I’m not even kidding. When I say I’ll be writing about it, I don’t mean, I’m going to talk about past advice or something that worked once for me 3 years ago. I mean I’m going to hit publish on this blog post, and then go and do what I am writing about today. That is all I can commit to for today. Which means, if you can relate to any of this, I invite you along on this 31 day journey. Watch me triumph or fail, but I’ll be here daily to give you updates. I’d love if you joined me, and keep me posted on your progress as well. There’s hope and support in community here.
If you missed Day 1, or would like to catch up on any other day, click the link on the right hand side or right here.
Be sure to also follow along on Instagram as I post updates throughout the day. #31daystoreset @Angelsea Urban
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Welcome to Day 22: 3 Marketing Tips that have NOTHING to do with Social Media
More and more people are turing away from Facebook daily. Not because social media is the enemy, but for a number of personal and business reasons that vary all over the spectrum. More people have pondered the idea, but the #1 objection I have heard is, “but I use Facebook for business”.
Coming from a person who adores Facebook marketing and what it has done for my business, I have uttered those very words myself. However, Marketing 101 will tell you never to put all of your eggs in one basket. Always to diversify your marketing portfolio because at any given moment the tides can changes and you already need to have something in the hopper when that happens.
So for those that have built their business on Facebook alone, what are some other ways to generate business without having to use Facebook or rely on Social Media so heavily?
1. Business Cards
I know. It’s so 1996 but carrying around business cards that stand out is the new “unique” form of personal marketing. Tangible is latest trend amid the technology boom and although we want an iPad size phone on our face for calls, we suddenly ooooh and ahhhh over something pretty to touch in our hands. It might fall in a purse, get stuck in the dash of a car, or even a pocket. That’s not the point. The point is that one day that purse gets cleaned out and they see your name. Again. And remember that amazing conversation they had with you when you gave them your pitch of what it is that you and what you were trying to sell them. Don’t have a pitch? Get one. You should work on that so you can deliver it on a dime when you hand out your business card.
Where?
As my friend Kathy would say, it’s to the cashier at the grocery store who commented on your camera mug. It’s to the dental assistant who asks how business is going. It’s to the PTA mom who inquired about a wedding for her sister’s friend’s cousin. All of them.
2. Freebies
If you are a photographer, the cost of printing a 16×20 canvas to decorate your pediatricians office will be worth it’s weight in gold. Stop by every doctors office, dental office, pre school, wedding venue, florist and stationary shop you know. Ask them if you can decorate their offices for free with your canvases. The number of people who will see your work will far outweigh the costs to produce the items. Set aside a marketing budget for this project and then decide how many products you can afford to produce. Narrow your market based on the number of products you have. Don’t forget to stop by the offices monthly at least to chat with the staff and see if anyone has noticed or inquired. Be sure to leave some business cards at the office in case they do.
3. Direct Mailing
Having a promo? Are you trying to attract families with babies to tell them that there is a photographer in town for their children? For a small investment you can buy a filtered list of demographics specific to the targeted area you are trying to advertise to. For a bit more time, you could likely research it yourself, but time is money and for a small amount I would be inclined to make a small investment to get my marketing materials in qualified buyers hands. Consider a 5×7 postcard with all the information for your promo delivered to the hands of every mom in town that meets your ideal client exactly.
Facebook was great for business for a long time. We had tons of free advertising and no one can doubt the benefits it had for businesses. But like any business, they had to shift gears too, and now it’s harder for businesses to reach their potential clients so we all have to make some concessions and move forward.
Personally, I have seen a shift in my clients shying away from Facebook lately. The solid referral system that was in place for many years simply is not the same that it was years ago. Over the winter when shooting time slows down, and back end business stuff gets some solid attention, I will be implementing some of these marketing strategies again into my 2015 Marketing Plan. Budgeting for them now will save me the scrutiny of trying to decide if the investment will be worth it later. It will just become a necessary line item along with internet service, and printing costs.
Have any tips that worked especially well in your area? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!
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Be sure to check the blog every day during the Month of October for new content. Or sign up for the VIP Newsletter for important updates.
East Coast Fine Art Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer Angelsea Urban
 Angelsea Urban is a photographer and entrepreneur helping women use their creative gifts to nourish their homes and cultivate their businesses through practical stewardship. Her unique photography work focuses on Redefining the Family Portrait Experience by telling the story of family through personalized foundations while creating a space to strengthen family bonds throughout the experience. As a certified tax professional and seasoned business consultant, Angelsea has helped the careers of photographers, restaurateurs, musicians and general small business owners through teaching, workshops, coaching, and hands on consulting. Her ministry work focuses on fostering creative gifts in women entrepreneurs to prioritize family and discipleship. She has photographed for families, brides, Bravo TV, NFL Films, and more and has been featured on multiple blogs and magazine print for her work in photography and in business. Angelsea teaches and photographs throughout the United States, and resides with her husband of 17 years, their two children, and their barely 3 pound Yorkie near Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
To book your session with Angelsea Urban, please visit www.angelseaurban.com
Follow Angelsea Urban on Facebook
Follow Angelsea Urban on Instagram
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014
This January, The Urban Family will be traveling to the Island of Exuma on an international Short Term Missions Trip. We will be traveling with a team from our church, Bayside Chapel and working with Starve Poverty International to reach out to the community of people in Exuma. Starve Poverty has been working alongside the people of Exuma for years and has the resources and knowledge necessary to execute a short-term mission trip.
WHY EXUMA? WHY THE URBANS? WHY ARE YOU BRINGING THE KIDS?
With a small population largely spread out through the country, the biggest need is stable housing that sustains storms. Unlike the United States, shelters are not readily available and homes are often lost, to be rebuilt with extremely limited means. Older homes that have survived are often one room, with no bathroom or kitchen.
As a community that was directly impacted with Superstorm Sandy, this factor hit home for us. How easily we had safe shelters from the storm, food and water readily available, round the clock workers to restore power, and ample gasoline available at any station to drive to any place we needed. Donations or insurance to cover damages, and even donations by the garage full of clothing, canned goods and supplies as we put the pieces back together. The volunteers were plentiful and the community came together to help each other put the pieces back together.
We witnessed the devastation in our small hometown, and surrounding areas. Our children saw first hand what it takes to rebuild something after it was destroyed, and most importantly, how important it is to help others. To serve them, to give to them, and to minister to them. We worked with other families and helped clean out destroyed homes, serve food, distribute clothing. Even how small acts of bringing hot coffee to construction workers in the snow can make a huge difference.
 Specifically on this trip, our team will be doing some construction, and building a bathroom for one of the local homes.
Beyond helping to meet some physical needs, we will also have an opportunity to visit some elementary schools in the area and lead children’s events. This is a valuable opportunity for our family to participate in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ while being His hands and feet for the community of people in Exuma.
(Exuma Home)
We feel called to serve in missions specifically as a family with young children. Our children will not only be coming along, but will be participating as well. They will be assigned alongside the adults to help where needed and to reach out to the community of adults and children of the island. We believe this experience will leave a lasting impression on our children and we hope this will help to cultivate their passion to serve others, leaving a permanent impact on their lives. That the experiences they have can be shared with their peers, impacting our local community, and generating future interest for other families with young children to have the same opportunity. We felt Exuma and Starve Poverty was the perfect match for this vision, and are extremely excited about this opportunity to partner with them. We are blessed to be able serve along side them, for their willingness to allow us to serve as a family, and be included in this mission trip.
Harmony and Greyson are very excited for this opportunity as well. Specifically after we found out about the Exuma swimming pigs, but truly because they have both been given a compassionate heart and are interested in what they can do to help. Greyson is curious if the children have Legos (which, I’m guessing, no) so he is working on ways he can bring them some legos to enjoy. Harmony will be spending her birthday on the island, which we thought, might be an issue at first, but she is actually very excited to be able to celebrate her birthday while on a missions trip.
WHERE IS EXUMA?
Nestled between Cuba and the Bahama Islands. From the looks of a google image search, it’s a stunning landscape that looks like paradise. Reminds us of a our trip to Turks & Caicos and made us think how often we visit resort looking areas not thinking about the families of the locals that live there and the conditions among them.
We need your help! 🙂
1. Prayer: You can help by covering our family and our team in prayer for this life-changing experience! For preparedness for our children (who will be 7 and 11 years old) to be equipped to serve alongside adults and other children their own age. Also for the health and saftey of our family and our team.
2. Share our need: You can help by sharing our need with others through your social media outlets and to other missions supporters.
3. Financial Assistance: You can help by financially supporting our family on this mission. To be fully funded for this trip, we will need to raise $1100 per person (x 4). The funds will cover all airfare, lodging in a dorm, all meals and transportation on the island. Any excess funds raised will be used to purchase supplies for donations for the community of people on the Island, as pricing for the simplist supply is extraordinary.
To make a tax deductible donation, click below to donate directly to Bayside Chapel. Please notate in the SPONSOR field: EXUMA – THE URBANS
Other donations made on our youcaring site, or directly to our family, are accepted, but are not tax deductible.
Our family is thankful for this opportunity to serve and we are so very grateful for your support!
Joyfully in Christ,
The Urban Family
Steve, Angie, Harmony & Greyson
Help financially support the Urban Family on Mission
Welcome to 31 Days to an Organized Life & Business! For the month of October I will be a participant in The Nester’s 31 days Writing Challenge. Taking some of my own advice and taking you along on my journey to a life reset. I’ll be sharing (and practicing) some tips on everything from bookkeeping, shopping, managing kids, intentional parenting, work from home mom syndrome, work/life balance, spiritual reset and more. Not because I am the expert in these fields, but because they have worked for me in the past, and I so badly need them to work again for me now.
When I say I need this reset I’m not even kidding. When I say I’ll be writing about it, I don’t mean, I’m going to talk about past advice or something that worked once for me 3 years ago. I mean I’m going to hit publish on this blog post, and then go and do what I am writing about today. That is all I can commit to for today. Which means, if you can relate to any of this, I invite you along on this 31 day journey. Watch me triumph or fail, but I’ll be here daily to give you updates. I’d love if you joined me, and keep me posted on your progress as well. There’s hope and support in community here.
If you missed Day 1, or would like to catch up on any other day, click the link on the right hand side or right here.
Be sure to also follow along on Instagram as I post updates throughout the day. #31daystoreset @Angelsea Urban
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Welcome to Day 20: Intentional Living
Out of the archives from last year, is a post that I thought really needed to be included with my 31 Days to an Organized Life and Business Project. Intentional Living is a topic that has become a popular buzzword this year, but it’s roots run deep and rather than try to repackage the same information, this post is included in it’s entirety for any new readers, or those just following the 31 Days Project.
Intentional Living….It’s a topic near to my heart, and as with a lot of my personal writing on this blog, I felt that it needed to be talked about more as a reminder (if only to myself) to be more accountable with my thoughts and actions. As I stopped and started multiple times, I kept coming back to the echoes of my dear friend Rachelle’s advice. She is my “Intentional Living” poster child. She’s the homeschooling mom of two-business owner-pastor’s daughter-pastors wife-and just all around awesome-woman of God. A gal I am truly blessed to call my friend…. and the best part – is the whole sentence probably made her cringe because she is as humble as she is amazing.
If you don’t already, I encourage you to follow her blog here.
So rather than give you my version…I’ve invited Rachelle to guest blog on her thoughts for those seeking to live a life with dedicated intention. Thanks so much Rachelle! XOXO ~ Angie
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When Angelsea asked me to guest blog about intentional living I said yes right away.
I love talking about this topic, because I feel like living in an intentional way has made my life so much easier!
It’s a funny thing…intentional living, because it does not come naturally!
I naturally prefer sleeping late, eating whatever looks good, going for a run when it’s 65 degrees with a cloudy sky and light breeze, disciplining my kids when I have had a good night’s sleep, and 2 cups of coffee.
Not: getting up early, eating healthy, running in the rain, disciplining when I’m exhausted and lacking caffeine.
However.
Those are the times that I am going to need to be consistent the most.
The most important word of practical advice I feel like I could give is this:
Decide your convictions and standards before you even need to use them!
Sit down and write out your list of priorities.
Make your big decisions and write them down.
Now…obviously your list will look a little different than my list, but that’s just the point.
Your life is about finding a way to live intentionally the way you have decided is best for you.
BUT…you need to make sure you are actually finding that way, not just letting life happen!
For me? It has to all start with my Bible.
I have to tell ya, my moods can very easily change my convictions if I let them!
One minute I could be convinced that something is totally wrong. And then another day of the week I can see sides to it that I never noticed before.
That’s why I use the Bible. It is unchanging, and it helps keep me balanced and focused.
Because I like to number things when I write, to help all of you skimmers out there, I thought I would give a list of ways that will help us live more intentional lives.
1. Keep consistent with your relationship with God.
My relationship with God is my first priority. I spend every morning reading my Bible, with a cup of coffee and praying. When I start out that way, I find the rest of my day runs much more smoothly!
2. Remember that family is forever.
I know..totally cliché. But really…you are going to have friends come and go. It is so vitally important to remember that our family is going to be with us forever. If you are married with children, you have to remember to keep your husband and his needs first, even above your children. This is so hard to do! But ultimately, we are raising our kids to leave the home. We will then be left with just our husbands! We need to make sure that we are growing that relationship to be as strong as possible.
3. Stay humble.
This may seem obvious, but if you are anything like me, you may struggle with good, old fashioned mommy-guilt. Do you know that that can be a form of pride? Pride is when you are thinking of yourself more than you need to. This includes thinking less of yourself! The more you are thinking of yourself, the less you are able to think about the needs of others.
4. Laugh a lot.
Even this can take a lot of thought out, planned practice! If you are realizing that your first reaction to a spilled cup of milk is frustration, irritation, annoyance…maybe you should try laughing the next time! See how it makes you feel. See how it makes whoever spilled it feel! Laughing can make you feel better about everything, and it also puts people at ease! BUT…it is an intentional choice to realize the things that are not worth getting upset at!
Now..back to my most important word of practical advice.
Decide your convictions and standards before you even need to use them!
You can easily break this down by topic:
Personal life, entertainment choices, dating, marriage, parenting, religion…fill in the blank.
*Make the decision how many, if any, drinks you are going to have with your friends before you even go out for dinner.
*Make the decision what rating of movies is ok for you to watch before you friends even pick the movie.
*Make the decision what words you are going to allow to be used in your home.
This way, everything is not a guessing game.
Here’s the thing. You can still be care-free and crazy fun…in fact, I think you can be even more so when you choose to live life intentionally!
When I have already decided how I am going to act in certain situations before I go out?
I have so much more freedom to just be myself!
It relieves any pressure in the back of my mind that is screaming, Should I be doing this? Should I be saying this? Should I be watching this?
Because I have already made my decisions while I was in a right frame of mind and I am confident in what I have chosen.
It is also helpful to have someone you trust know about your decisions…this accountability can definitely help you stay strong when you start doubting yourself!
Living intentionally gives you the freedom to live a confident, fun and amazing life.
I hope that you can take one or two things from this and really start deciding to live intentionally. It’s a pretty amazing place to be…
you’re going to love it!
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Be sure to check the blog every day during the Month of October for new content. Or sign up for the VIP Newsletter for important updates.
East Coast Fine Art Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer Angelsea Urban
Angelsea Urban is a photographer and entrepreneur helping women use their creative gifts to nourish their homes and cultivate their businesses through practical stewardship. Her unique photography work focuses on Redefining the Family Portrait Experience by telling the story of family through personalized foundations while creating a space to strengthen family bonds throughout the experience. As a certified tax professional and seasoned business consultant, Angelsea has helped the careers of photographers, restaurateurs, musicians and general small business owners through teaching, workshops, coaching, and hands on consulting. Her ministry work focuses on fostering creative gifts in women entrepreneurs to prioritize family and discipleship. She has photographed for families, brides, Bravo TV, NFL Films, and more and has been featured on multiple blogs and magazine print for her work in photography and in business. Angelsea teaches and photographs throughout the United States, and resides with her husband of 17 years, their two children, and their barely 3 pound Yorkie near Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
To book your session with Angelsea Urban, please visit www.angelseaurban.com
Follow Angelsea Urban on Facebook
Follow Angelsea Urban on Instagram
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to 31 Days to an Organized Life & Business! For the month of October I will be a participant in The Nester’s 31 days Writing Challenge. Taking some of my own advice and taking you along on my journey to a life reset. I’ll be sharing (and practicing) some tips on everything from bookkeeping, shopping, managing kids, intentional parenting, work from home mom syndrome, work/life balance, spiritual reset and more. Not because I am the expert in these fields, but because they have worked for me in the past, and I so badly need them to work again for me now.
When I say I need this reset I’m not even kidding. When I say I’ll be writing about it, I don’t mean, I’m going to talk about past advice or something that worked once for me 3 years ago. I mean I’m going to hit publish on this blog post, and then go and do what I am writing about today. That is all I can commit to for today. Which means, if you can relate to any of this, I invite you along on this 31 day journey. Watch me triumph or fail, but I’ll be here daily to give you updates. I’d love if you joined me, and keep me posted on your progress as well. There’s hope and support in community here.
If you missed Day 1, or would like to catch up on any other day, click the link on the right hand side or right here.
Be sure to also follow along on Instagram as I post updates throughout the day. #31daystoreset @Angelsea Urban
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Welcome to Day 17: How much should I pay myself?
Congratulations!!! You are an entrepreneur and run your own business. While the workload increases, so does the pride of what you are doing, and knowing that your hands have a direct result in producing your own income, while doing something you love, is so worth all of the blood sweat and tears you put into this business of yours.
So, now that you have built yourself a job… How much should you pay yourself?
A. You can take a look at your bank account, do a quick once over in your mind about any upcoming expenses and yank out a chunk to pay bills, hoping you left a big enough cushion.
B. Determine the cost of your services/goods/projects. Add a few bucks on top, cash the check, and keep the difference.
C. Put yourself on a predictable salary so you can set a personal budget, and actually live off of the income you are producing.
So… let’s go with C. Because that makes the most sense, yes?
How much do you pay yourself?
Time for some 5th Grade Math (no… not the common core, because no… just no. Good ole nostalgic “original” math).
Let’s say you are a photographer. You charge $2500 for a wedding. That wedding includes your photography, + digital images and nothing else.
You just made $2500!!! YAY!!!
NO.
Let’s skip all the red tape and remember that we have cookies at client meetings, send a client a thank you card, pay for internet service, insurance, shipping, website hosting and all the other good stuff that goes into running a business.
Let’s just say that you have a ridiculous over head cost of $12,000 per year, or, $1000 per month.
You shoot an average of 15 weddings per year. AVERAGE being the key word. This year was 12, maybe you are hoping for 20 next year.
For budgeting purposes, we’ll assume the income of 10. Because we want to consider the most predicable method of income, so you can draw a conservative salary.
10 Weddings X $2500 = $25,000
Ridiculously high overhead of $12,000 per year
$25,000 – $12,000 = $13,000
I can’t assume you will have lots of tax deductions and credits, so let’s assume you will have to pay 20% taxes on your $13,000
$13,000 X 20% = $2,600 (in taxes)
$13,000 – $2,600 = $10,400.
Your salary for this year should be set at $10,400.
You could draw $200 week. Or $400 bi-weekly, or just take it monthly at $866.67.
Now… WHEN should you start to draw this salary?
A. After your first 10 weddings?
B. After you have $3,000 in the bank
C. After you have booked 10 weddings a year for 2 or more years?
I would go with C. Truly. Because building a business takes time. Maybe you booked 10 weddings this year and only have 4 on the books for next year. That means your business can’t afford to pay you this much yet. Not on a regular basis. If you start to draw the $866.67 a month too early, you will soon run out of money and will be paying for expenses with each new wedding you book, instead of operating out of the financially stable business that you built.
Remember, your business needs to be financially healthy before it can support anyone.
Think of your business as the adult on the airplane. You are the child. When times get tough and the oxygen mask comes down, the money goes to your business’s health first. Only when your business is stabilized, can it then be counted on to help you.
If you want to build a long lasting business, one that not only lasts, but thrives, and eventually provides an income, a steady income for you and your family, treat it like the adult on the plane and allow it to be steady first. Then you can rely on it to take care of you.
So How much should you pay yourself?
Consider the simple formula given above. Take a hard look at the last 2 years of your business, and choose a number that you know you can hit over the next 12 months. Be realistic. You are not competing with anyone here. It’s far better to know ahead of time that you can afford $800/month than scrambling around every time a big payment is due or trying to budget for equipment or even a vacation.
Remember on day 5 where we talked about “she considers a field and buys it”. She plans for it. She gives it great thought. She doesn’t just grab the money and run. She considers it, because she is caring for the business as if she knows one day it will care for her.
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Be sure to check the blog every day during the Month of October for new content. Or sign up for the VIP Newsletter for important updates.
East Coast Fine Art Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer Angelsea Urban
Angelsea Urban is a photographer and entrepreneur helping women use their creative gifts to nourish their homes and cultivate their businesses through practical stewardship. Her unique photography work focuses on Redefining the Family Portrait Experience by telling the story of family through personalized foundations while creating a space to strengthen family bonds throughout the experience. As a certified tax professional and seasoned business consultant, Angelsea has helped the careers of photographers, restaurateurs, musicians and general small business owners through teaching, workshops, coaching, and hands on consulting. Her ministry work focuses on fostering creative gifts in women entrepreneurs to prioritize family and discipleship. She has photographed for families, brides, Bravo TV, NFL Films, and more and has been featured on multiple blogs and magazine print for her work in photography and in business. Angelsea teaches and photographs throughout the United States, and resides with her husband of 17 years, their two children, and their barely 3 pound Yorkie near Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
To book your session with Angelsea Urban, please visit www.angelseaurban.com
Follow Angelsea Urban on Facebook
Follow Angelsea Urban on Instagram
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Thursday, October 16, 2014
Welcome to 31 Days to an Organized Life & Business! For the month of October I will be a participant in The Nester’s 31 days Writing Challenge. Taking some of my own advice and taking you along on my journey to a life reset. I’ll be sharing (and practicing) some tips on everything from bookkeeping, shopping, managing kids, intentional parenting, work from home mom syndrome, work/life balance, spiritual reset and more. Not because I am the expert in these fields, but because they have worked for me in the past, and I so badly need them to work again for me now.
When I say I need this reset I’m not even kidding. When I say I’ll be writing about it, I don’t mean, I’m going to talk about past advice or something that worked once for me 3 years ago. I mean I’m going to hit publish on this blog post, and then go and do what I am writing about today. That is all I can commit to for today. Which means, if you can relate to any of this, I invite you along on this 31 day journey. Watch me triumph or fail, but I’ll be here daily to give you updates. I’d love if you joined me, and keep me posted on your progress as well. There’s hope and support in community here.
If you missed Day 1, or would like to catch up on any other day, click the link on the right hand side or right here.
Be sure to also follow along on Instagram as I post updates throughout the day. #31daystoreset @Angelsea Urban
Thanks for visiting!
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Welcome to Day 16: How to create Business Systems that Work!
Let’s face it…. If it’s complicated, you probably won’t attempt to learn it.
If it’s inconvenient. You probably just won’t do it.
If it’s not custom designed for YOU, then you are stuck trying to adapt to a system that doesn’t highlight your strong points and AMPLIFIES your weaknesses and you will probably pull the plug on that system faster than #bendgate on day 1.
So, what is the solution?
You need to find a system within the system you are already doing.
But Angie, what the heck does that mean?
Let’s talk about a hypothetical situation with my friend “Lara”, with whom I did a hypothetical impromptu coaching session with.
Lara is a very successful wedding photographer who was having a hard time finding the time/discipline to record payments from her brides and to track expenses on a regular basis. She wanted to avoid the end of the year crunch and be able to know, in a moment’s notice, who owes what, without a complicated system.
I could tell Lara, “ok, so Monday, Wednesday and Friday you should sit down, open QuickBooks and just do your bookkeeping”. She would laugh at me.
So I asked Lara about her normal routine. Turns out she loves laundry. Well, maybe not “loves” it, but is totally committed to it at least 2 – 3 times a week without fail. And while putting in a load of laundry, she loves to watch Boy Meets World on Netflix.
We started the “Laundry Sessions”. I knew I had an opportunity to come up with a system that only took 30 minutes, 2 times a week. That Lara can put in a load of a laundry, turn on her favorite TV show, and commit to sitting at her desk for 30 minutes of business management and bookkeeping.
That meant no time for QuickBooks or crazy programs. Just a spreadsheet to track her income, her clients, and her workflow. And 2 boxes to capture payments and receipts. Simple. Easy.
What routines are you currently doing that you could implement some business management time into?
Is there a block of time that you could commit to? Instead of trying to learn a system and making time for it, figure out how much time you can commit to, and then create a system around that.
Because you will only do it, if it works for YOU. And a system is only works if you do it.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Be sure to check the blog every day during the Month of October for new content. Or sign up for the VIP Newsletter for important updates.
East Coast Fine Art Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer Angelsea Urban
Angelsea Urban is a photographer and entrepreneur helping women use their creative gifts to nourish their homes and cultivate their businesses through practical stewardship. Her unique photography work focuses on Redefining the Family Portrait Experience by telling the story of family through personalized foundations while creating a space to strengthen family bonds throughout the experience. As a certified tax professional and seasoned business consultant, Angelsea has helped the careers of photographers, restaurateurs, musicians and general small business owners through teaching, workshops, coaching, and hands on consulting. Her ministry work focuses on fostering creative gifts in women entrepreneurs to prioritize family and discipleship. She has photographed for families, brides, Bravo TV, NFL Films, and more and has been featured on multiple blogs and magazine print for her work in photography and in business. Angelsea teaches and photographs throughout the United States, and resides with her husband of 17 years, their two children, and their barely 3 pound Yorkie near Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
To book your session with Angelsea Urban, please visit www.angelseaurban.com
Follow Angelsea Urban on Facebook
Follow Angelsea Urban on Instagram
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Joni James - Awesome ideas! I wicked need to work on my pitch. The teller at my bank asked about a session the other day and not only did I not offer her a card, I stuttered and flailed and otherwise did a horrible job. I’m going to research direct mailing too!