Category: Small Businesses

  • Goal Setting

    Most people will have set goals at the beginning of the year of what they plan to do through the year. A lot of these goals might now be unattainable due to Covid19.

    But your year doesn’t have to stop with Covid19 you can refocus your goals changing them up for the current climate. As Dani Barker Media (Social Media Strategist) says “we can then treat post covid as a 2020 take two setting yourself brand new goals when the time comes”.

    But first think about what you can do during this pandemic to improve your business. You might be thinking you can’t do anything, but there’s always something you can do.

    I think that goal setting is important because:

    • It focuses your attention on something.
    • It raises your self-confidence when you achieve them.
    • It motivates you to do more.
    • It gives you a sense of purpose.
    • It gives you more control of your future.

    In terms of goal setting I like to set my goals on the last day of every month.

    Each month provides me with new goals. Some months I have a week or two set out for a course I’m taking part in. Other months I use a structure I created when I did probloggers 31 days to build a better blog course and sometimes I do both.

    If we weren’t currently in lockdown, the first thing I would do in a typical month would be to check what I have booked in and right that down in both my calendar and my bullet journal which I use to create the schedule.

    As currently lockdown is the only thing that is happening , I’ve been thinking about what I can do with my social media content and web content as a change of focus because I can’t do photoshoots right now.

    In the month of March there was a 7 day content sprint with problogger. But this month looks a little different.

    I have a main goal set for the month of may which is to finish the podcasting course I’m doing which is a course on the future learn website called the power of podcasting for audio storytelling. I am also hoping to launch the podcast later this month. So this is what the month looks like for podcasting:

    • Week 1: Complete the podcasting course.
    • Week 2: Podcast Wednesday: plan the next month of podcasting.
    • Week 3: Get podcast platform ready.
    • Week 4: Launch podcast

    The podcast isn’t my only plan for this month though. In March I did a design sprint day which helps you work towards your long term and short term goals. So on the 11th of every month I will be doing a design sprint task day implementing some of the techniques I learnt. I will also be doing an idea generation day on the 15th of every month to help me think of ideas in all aspects of business. I have also scheduled in my zoom meetings in order to work around them.

    In the month I usually have one or two rest days per week which I call a do something different day where I do something completely unrelated to photography.

    When I’m planning my website content for the next month I have days set to do certain types of post for example a lust or review post. I may also have days to get someone who hasn’t looked at my blog before to analyse it and days to ask readers questions.

    I also have goals for everyday some are due to lockdown and others I want to implement even after. These are:

    • Spending some time on social media to post, comment, share, like and engage.
    • To do daily walks and workouts most days.
    • Listen to podcasts most days.
    • Read for at least an hour.

    Finally on the last day of the month I do two things:

    • Goal setting by planning a schedule for the next month.
    • Checking google analytics to see how my website has performed for the month.

    If you enjoyed this post why not set goals of your own and share them in the comments.

  • What Can A Photographer Learn From Spending An Hour On Instagram?

    I think that every day or at least every other day as a photographer you should try to spend one full hour On Instagram.

    In this hour you scroll on the news feed and make a note about which images grab your attention and then make a comment and maybe even share them in your story.

    If you don’t have time to spend a full hour you can always spend less time and save the images to go back and looked at later which I usually do when something catches my eye.

    This is a really useful process because it allows you to spend time seeing what other photographers are doing and asking yourself if any of their ideas fit in with your brand. Could you implement something someone else is doing that you haven’t yet tried?

    If you like something why not ask if the photographer is willing to share tips and tricks, especially when it comes to lighting because you can learn a lot from how someone else lights their subject.

    At the moment I think that looking at hash tag social isolation and hash tag COVID-19 may also help you spark ideas for new posts too. Also, the hash tag FaceTime photo shoot is another one as now a lot of people are looking for new ways to take photographs with models when no one can meet up in person.

    Something you need to always be doing outside of this hour is checking when someone follows you or leaves your comments. It is always good practice to reply to their comment and then engage with them on their own account. Any time someone followers you provided it its spam you should go and take a look at their profile, comment and then follow back.

    For me I tend to spend time trying to post something every day. On a typical week I’d normally post 2 images per day on weekends and one image per day for the whole rest of the week. I also share all my posts On Facebook and Twitter.

    As this post is all about Instagram why not follow me on there @lucyandthelens. If you liked this post stay tuned for more.

  • Is Coronavirus Affecting You As A Small Business?

    Having seen countries on lockdown already. I think that it is immnent that the uk will follow suit.

    We’ve already seen people panic buying toilet rolls, hand sannitiser and pasta.etc.

    At the moment I’m just starting out as a freelance photographer so I’m still doing a lot of marketing so I’m doing the majority of my work from home but I think the virus could delay client bookings for the forseeable future.

    Currently my cancellations include shifts for my part-time ad hoc job and workshops for me to learn new skills.

    This week I have a planned campaign to work on as I’m trying to work as normal until we can’t work. The reality is this campaign is related to an upcoming event which may not even happen if we are stuck at home.

    If we are on lockdown I won’t be able to go out and shoot so I will have to focus on more marketing and plan some personal projects I can do around the house. I feel this might be all we can do once all the photographs we have already taken have been edited.

    So is coronavirus affecting you as a small business? Let me know what’s been happening to you in a comment below.