I’m confess. I just spent hours doing something I tell all my students not to do: I updated my own website portfolio.😬I resized images, dragged and dropped them, and re-arranged galleries.
It’s work a virtual assistant could easily do, but I did it myself.
Why? Because for me, curating my portfolio is like an artist playing in their studio. It brings me pure joy, and it’s one of the few “in the weeds” tasks I refuse to give up.
But here’s the thing: that’s a rare exception, not the rule.
For 90% of the tasks in my business, I live by one principle: doing something yourself to “save money” is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make.
Not spending money on delegating is actually costing you growth.
I knew this even when I was just starting out, working part-time as a waitress and part-time as a photographer.
While I was waiting tables, I paid a friend to drive around LA and drop off my postcards at various businesses.
It probably seemed crazy to be paying someone to be my marketing department when I was still serving food to pay my bills.
💁🏼♀️ But that decision, hands down, made me more money.
It freed up my limited time to focus on the high-value tasks that actually helped my business grow—like shooting, working with labs, and building my brand.
That’s the secret: You have to work ON your business, not just IN it.
The moment you start treating delegation as an investment in your own time, your business will transform.
Have you read the book “Who not How?” You should, it’s a great read on this concept!
If you want to grow faster, your first and most important WHO should be a virtual assistant to take over the “busy work” that drains your energy and keeps you from the real money-making activities.
“But what would I even give them?” I hear you ask.
Here are just some of the things my assistant (who by the way lives in another state) does, that you can start to delegate as soon as possible.
On a side note, in case you’re wondering HOW she does all this virtually, she does it by using a software called Splashtop to access my computer.
What my assistant does:
- Providing email support to clients
- Responding to initial client inquiries with a personalized template
- Following up on unpaid deposits and invoices
- Booking makeup artists
- Managing wait lists
- Updating my client database or CRM
- Exporting, uploading and sending final galleries
- Handling retouching orders (if not placed on our online storefront)
- Submitting images to our retoucher
- Sending proofs to clients
- Formatting and publishing blog posts
- Planning, drafting and scheduling newsletters, promotions and affiliate marketing
- Updating email and text marketing contacts
- Updating small changes on my website
- Providing a list of social media handles for clients to be tagged when posted
There’s so much more! Maybe your assistant can schedule your social media posts, maybe they can answer calls.
The list goes on, but imagine having all of those hours back.
Imagine what you could do with that time to grow your business and make more money. To do the high-value work that moves the needle forward.
That’s not an expense; it’s an investment in your growth, your sanity, and your bottom line.
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