Cutting Your Costs: 11 Cheap Tools To Grow Your Photography Business

One of the most common questions people ask me is:

“I’m trying to grow a photography business on a very small shoestring budget. What should I do?”

As a small business owner, “shoestring” automatically becomes a word commonly used in your vocabulary. Times are tight and when you have a very limited budget, you attempt to do whatever you can at the lowest cost possible.

With a photography business, it takes more than a camera and a computer to run it. You need many different things to make it both functional and profitable. So if “fast” “easy” and “cheap” are now permanently ingrained in your vocabulary, take a look at some of these tools and tricks for running a business on a budget. You may find some new ideas that are perfect for you to move forward with this year.

Google Voice

A virtual phone center to run your business from anywhere in the world. Google Voice offers a wide array of services. Start by choosing your area code, then use the system to help you with everything from budgeting your time by setting up “do not call” hours, to sending multiple SMS messages at a time. Read my review to learn even more.

Gliffy

Gliffy is an easy to use processing system for graphics, diagrams and flow carts. With easy to use formatting, you can create dynamic presentations for your website or presentations. [Read more…]

Google Voice – an Amazing Tool For Virtual Photographers

We’re in the middle of a big transition here at Virtual. This past weekend we moved from a very large home, into a smaller condo one third of the size. Downsizing is our new “buzzword” and we’re doing everything we can to simplify our lives.

Part of it is a new direction we are heading – we want to take our “virtual” business even more “virtual”, allowing us to travel anywhere in the world at any time – and still be in the office.

Up until Friday, we still had a landline phone for our business. But that’s all changed. Now we rely on VoIP and mobile, and on Google Voice.

Google Voice was introduced in 2009, and we signed up for our first account as soon as it was available. We played with it, but for the most part ignored it. A few weeks ago, we took another look at as a solution to our new needs, and what we found can be of benefit to any small business, no matter where you are in the world. So here are a few things you can do with Google Voice.

When you first sign up for Google Voice, you can choose a virtual phone number in any area code. You can use that number to make calls over the Internet, send and receive text messages, and record voicemails. And because you are using a phone number in your area code, your prospects and clients will call a local phone number to reach you – yet you can be anywhere in the world. You can even transfer to a mobile or to a landline phone, making it easy on you, and “masking” where you really are to those calling in.

In addition to the normal features of any voice system, Google Voice offers a variety of other services perfect for the small business owner. It can [Read more…]