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Owning a photography business is a big deal. As a photographer, you get to snap incredible scenes and help people capture memories that will last a lifetime. That said, being a photographer takes a lot of work, and that’s just to get the right shot!

If you’ve been in business for a while, you might start to notice that the busier you get, the less time you spend actually taking photos and photo editing. In fact, you’re probably beginning to spend more time sending invoices and trying to figure out operations strategies. And we know you didn’t become a photographer to do that!

So, if other tasks are starting to get in the way of your photography work, it may be time to consider hiring a virtual assistant.

What is a Virtual Assistant For Photographers?

A virtual assistant, or VA, for short, is a self-employed professional who works remotely. Because they are independent contractors, they are responsible for providing their own workspace, equipment, and benefits. A VA also pays their own taxes. This results in cost savings for company owners who need support but don’t require someone to work full-time hours.

VAs Are Fractional Service Providers

We like to think of virtual assistants as fractional service providers because they provide their expertise to multiple clients. Therefore, you get to benefit from their amazing skill sets without also paying for unused capacity. That’s because you only pay for time actually worked. With a full-time employee, you may have to pay even if they didn’t truly work 40 hours.

Hands on virtual assistant

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant For Photographers?

Virtual assistant writing down business operations

Photographers may hire a remote assistant for many reasons, but here are some of the top ones we’ve heard over the years.

Experience Less Worry

When everything falls on you, it’s easy to worry about whether you can handle it all. Maybe you’re concerned that you’ll drop the ball with client communication or just overwhelmed because things aren’t running smoothly. Fortunately, a VA can help you with follow-ups and other important things, so it’s not all on you.

Work/Life Balance

There’s the business side, and then there’s your personal life. Yet, it probably feels like you’ve been handling company stuff way more. Maybe you desire more freedom. Maybe enjoying time with your friends and family seems too far-fetched now that your company is growing. However, we’re here to let you know that you can have balance.

The right VA can help you achieve structure in your life so you can spend more time doing what you love while still running a successful business.

Focus On Your Creativity

You know how to capture and create spectacular images, but it’s hard to focus on that when other business tasks call. A solid VA for photographers can help you get back to providing the services you’re great at. In short, they’ll give you more time to create magic, which is what people are paying you to do.

Flexible

A virtual assistant for photographers only works when you need them to. So, if some months are busier than others, they can adjust. In addition, if you need assistance after hours or during the weekends, that may also be possible.

Efficient

We match our clients to top-tier U.S.-based Photography Virtual Assistants with the specialized skills required to complete the tasks you need help with most. As a result, they are less likely to waste time or money when handling to-dos.

Cost Effective

Photography Virtual Assistants are responsible for paying their own taxes, benefits, and computer equipment, allowing business owners to save more than they would with in-house employees.

What Tasks Can A Virtual Assistant for Photographers?

Now that you know what a virtual assistant is and why you should consider hiring one, it’s time to discuss what they can do.

Virtual Assistant For Photographers Can Do Administrative Tasks

Whether photography is your side hustle or you run a big company with a team, there are many administrative duties that must be completed. An administrative virtual assistant can help you tackle various to-dos. Consider the following:

  • Make labels and rules for email inbox; unsubscribe from lists that no longer serve you
  • Invoice management: create, send, and monitor invoices
  • Data entry: Add client details into a customer database or CRM tool, like Dubsado or Honeybook
  • Lite editing support, such as applying presets
  • Scheduling appointments/managing bookings; put reminders and calendar synchronization in place
  • Make travel arrangements; this is especially helpful for traveling and wedding photographers
  • Add watermarks to images
  • Renaming photos
  • Bookkeeping
  • Organizing files, such as adding photos to Google Drive and creating folders based on location, year, etc.
  • If you have or want employees, a VA can assist with the hiring and onboarding process
  • Send service proposals and contracts
  • Conduct market research
  • Generate a list of local leads
  • Keep track of vendor information
  • Order supplies
  • And more!
Virtual assistant scheduling photography appointments

Virtual Assistant For Photographers With Customer Support Tasks

Sure, taking photos is a big part of your business, but you probably wouldn’t have any clients without good customer service skills. One survey found that over 85% of customers say the experience a business provides is as important as its products and services.

Here are some ways a customer service VA could support you:

Virtual assistant talking on phone doing client follow ups
  • Talking to current clients about additional services and/or products you offer
  • Resolving customer complaints and concerns
  • Providing a timely response to a direct message, text message, emails, website chat tools, etc.
  • Identifying ways to improve the client experience
  • Reaching out to event planners, florists, DJs, and other vendors (common for wedding photographers)
  • Providing information to potential clients about your service offering
  • Assisting with the client onboarding process (and offboarding) by communicating expectations every step of the way
  • Updating the customer database after speaking with a client to add notes, etc.

Virtual Assistant For Photographers Can Help With Social Media Management

Want to know where people often go these days when searching for a photographer? Social media! Platforms like Instagram are a great place for professionals like yourself to showcase your work. But how in the world are you supposed to find time to do that, too!?

Well, social media management is another part of your business that virtual assistants can help with. You’ve probably got over a year worth of photos that are just waiting to be posted and explored by potential clients.

Here’s what your awesome social media VA can do:

  • Use a social media scheduling tool to plan and automate posts
  • Conduct hashtag research
  • Come up with catchy captions that make leads want to engage with your content.
  • Remain aware of new social media trends and find ways to incorporate your brand.
  • Direct/suggest what types of content you should capture that would resonate with your audience
  • Make graphics using Photoshop, Canva, or another editing tool
  • Edit videos for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram & Facebook Reels, etc.
  • Organize your brand assets into digital folders to make content creation simple.
  • Monitor social media analytics and make adjustments as needed
Virtual Assistant organizing social media content for wedding photographers

A Photographer’s Virtual Assistant May Assist With Email Marketing

In our opinion, having your social media on point but lacking in the email marketing department could hinder your success. Nonetheless, we also know that developing digital marketing strategies can take hours. Especially if you have no prior experience or knowledge of it.

So, here’s how an email marketing VA can help:

Virtual assistant working on marketing strategies
  • Set up and manage email email marketing campaigns
  • Make email templates that look good across all devices
  • Use a system like MailChimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, etc., to manage email automation workflows
  • Segment email lists by putting subscribers into certain categories based on interests, behaviors, etc.
  • Schedule to send emails each week, biweekly, monthly, or whatever timeline aligns with your brand
  • Monitor metrics like clickthrough rates and open rates and make changes to improve performance
  • Develop email opt-in forms
  • Work with others on your creative virtual team to ensure consistent brand messaging

A Photography Business Virtual Assistant Can Help With Technical Tasks

Having the right technology in your photography business can increase the efficiency of your systems, products, and services. In short, it can make your job easier. However, it also requires someone to be hands-on if you want to get the most out of it.

Given that you’ve already gotten a bunch of other tasks on your plate, it might be a good idea to have a technical virtual assistant support you.

Here’s how one can help:

  • Enhance blog posts so they’re more likely to gain visibility on search engines
  • Set up workflow tasks in CRMs like Sprout Studio to streamline operations
  • Manage and set up project management tools like ClickUp, Asana, Monday.com, etc. This makes it easy to see what tasks you need to do each week.
  • Get payment gateways, like PayPal, set up and ready for processing transactions
  • Add sales and landing pages to your website
  • Prepare calendar management tools, like Calendly, to make booking appointments simple for clients
  • Set up a course delivery system to show other photographers how to grow their business
  • Update plugins on your website
Virtual Assistant helping with workflow tasks

Photography Virtual Assistant For Photo Editing

Editing photos is easily one of the most time-consuming parts of your job. And guess what? It’s another task that a virtual assistant can help you with.

Here’s what they can do:

Photography Owner
  • Use Photoshop, Lightroom, and other editing tools to enhance image quality
  • Perform color correction
  • Retouching
  • Silhouetting
  • Make other image adjustments as required
  • Ensure photo follows brand guidelines

VA for Photography Business Can Perform Personal Tasks, Too

Virtual assistants don’t just free up time in your photography business. They can free up time in your personal life as well. Here are some tasks a personal virtual assistant can do:

  • Finding household vendors, like maid services, landscapers, electricians, etc.
  • Gift shopping for birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, and more
  • Researching child care, senior care, and pet care facilities that are near your location
  • Vacation planning – looking for transportation, lodging, excursions, restaurants, etc.
  • Setting up grocery delivery
  • Helping to manage your family calendar so everything stays in order
  • And more!

What Traits Do Great Photography Virtual Assistants Have?

If you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant for photographers, you should look for certain characteristics in that person. After all, this individual will basically be like your right-hand person, so yo don’t want to select just anybody.

Here are a few qualities to look for in your virtual assistant for photographers:

Resourceful

A great VA knows how to make it happen. If it’s something they’re unclear about, they’ll know where to look for the answer.

Communicative

Have it be client communication or speaking with your team, a great VA knows how to professionally do so. Once they get to know you and your needs, they’ll know how to relay messages to you in a way that makes the most sense.

Detail-oriented

Each client is unique, and paying attention to their preferences and needs can improve the overall client experience. Virtual assistants can ensure these notes are added to the customer database, maintain deadlines, and remind you of these details throughout the process.

Organized

You likely have thousands of images, but are they stored or named in a way that makes them easy to access for a blog or other use? Your VA can ensure images are in their proper place.

Virtual assistant making sure everythign is running smoothly

How Can I Prepare For A Virtual Assistant?

Once you’ve decided to hire a virtual assistant for photographers, it’s time to put some things into place. Consider these tips:

Virtual Assistant helping a photography company owner
  • Make a list of tasks you’d like your VA to do
  • Produce screen recordings or work instructions in Google Docs to show them exactly how you want a task completed
  • Determine if you need them for a one-time project or if you require ongoing assistance
  • Decide on their availability
  • Come up with a budget
  • Note the tools they’ll need access to in your photography business
  • Be prepared to train them on your business. You likely have certain practices and operations in place that make your brand unique, and you’ll want them to be aware of that.
  • Schedule a discovery call with Imperative Concierge Services

When is the Best Time To Hire A Virtual Assistant?

Virtual assistants can make a world of difference, but when’s the perfect time to bring one on? We’d say it’s likely time to hire someone if you’re experiencing any of the following:

  • You’re uncertain how to complete a task on your task list
  • You don’t know how to utilize certain tools
  • You’re overwhelmed trying to juggle everything
  • You don’t enjoy doing specific duties and find yourself avoiding them
  • You’re about to take on several new clients
Virtual Photographers Assistant

Ready to Find Your Perfect VA Match?

Imperative Concierge Services has supported business owners since 2015, and we’re ready to help you next. We aim to make outsourcing seamless for those who are ready to take their photography business to the next level.

Think about how much more free time you’ll have once you start delegating. Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing that many of the tasks on your to-do list have already been completed. This is what having a virtual assistant for photographers is like.

So, are you ready to find your perfect VA match? Click here or book a discovery call below.

Virtual Assistant for Photographers

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