Studio Management Software for Photographers: Táve + ShootProof

Love and happiness and elegance spill over onto anyone who visits The Youngrens’ website. In person, Erin and Jeff have a reputation for being every bit as lovely, happy, and elegant as their website suggests – even Jeff, a self-proclaimed “five-year-old boy stuck in a grown up body.” (Because who doesn’t love an adorable five-year-old?)

But as every entrepreneur knows, it’s hard to maintain all that elegance when you’re neck-deep in invoices, contracts, calendars, and fast-food wrappers. That’s where Táve comes in, the studio management solution that has been supporting this San Diego husband-and-wife team for nearly a decade.

Wake up and smell the – UH-OH,  WHAT DID WE JUST DO?!

“I found a contract on my desk that had just been sitting there for a week,” Erin Youngren shares. “I had gotten so busy that I hadn’t added the clients to my calendar or sent them their signed contract, and their check was sitting there undeposited. I was quite literally leaving money on the table, and I realized I couldn’t handle everything. That was when we decided to start using a studio management software.”

One of the biggest challenges small business owners face is acknowledging that they can’t do it all and that they need help. If you’ve ever found a time-sensitive document buried in a stack of unopened mail, you might be ready to make the change Erin made all those years ago.

Thankfully, Táve is designed to keep track of those time-sensitive documents – and a whole lot more.

Take care of your business, and your business will take care of you.

It’s easy to see your business as an entity apart from your personal life. But your business is truly an extension of yourself, and if you take care of it, it will support you when you’re a bit off-kilter. A solution like Táve is the first step toward brand security and consistency.

“Táve is central to everything we do,” explains Erin. “Táve houses our e-mail templates. It’s where we keep track of and respond to all of our inquiries. It’s where we book all of our weddings, all our portrait sessions, all our commercial jobs. Our clients use Táve to sign their contracts and make all of their payments. Táve sends payment reminders to our clients, which means I don’t have to bug them to get paid. We get paid on time, every time, because Táve takes care of it for us.”

Love your clients, and your clients will love you back.

Good communication is key to building trust with your clients, and Táve enables The Youngrens to establish and maintain incredible trust.

“We send automated e-mails to our couples about everything,” says Erin. “We send e-mails congratulating them for booking, telling them what to expect, when they’ll receive their questionnaires, and when we’ll help them build their photography timeline. These e-mails even remind our clients when they’ll receive their photos. And because we are educating our couples all along, throughout the process, we receive fewer questions, which means less time spent on e-mail responses.”

ShootProof enhances the client experience further by streamlining the print ordering process, then auto-populating Táve with each order’s details. Orders shipped to the Youngren’s studio can easily be delivered to their final destination with a simple Táve search for the client’s shipping information, and all order financials are auto-populated into Tavé to make bookkeeping a breeze.

Quick turnaround and simple solutions are the fastest way into your clients’ hearts.

“By automating each process, I don’t have to think about it. It’s all taken care of for me. I book a job or I check off a task, and automatically my clients get an e-mail or a communication or a questionnaire. It makes them feel so taken care of.”

Let your message shine through every product you use.

The Youngrens have strong feelings about brand consistency – and for good reason! They’ve built a powerful reputation based on deeply-held values as artists and as people. Erin knows that this message has to extend throughout every element of their business.

“A powerful brand always has systems that back it up. By using e-mail templates – and using the same e-mail template every time – we can create communications that build a brand and attract our dream clients because we’re writing in a voice that we love and we’re not reinventing the wheel every time we send an e-mail. That’s so important,” Erin reiterated. “Yes, it saves time. Yes, it brings you a lot of freedom. When it comes to branding and marketing, and attracting and booking your dream clients, having a system like Táve will help you to do that in a very, very powerful way.”

Draw your dream client.

“I’m a big believer in booking your dream clients,” Erin shares emphatically. And The Youngrens are proof that it can be done. With a commitment to consistency and a brand built around authentic connection, you will find yourself in the company of people who share your creative vision and artistic values. Learn more about The Youngrens and see how ShootProof and Táve are supporting their success.

Ready to get started? Sign up for ShootProof and get your first 30 days free.

You May Also Enjoy...

None found