I know you're super excited to start invoicing clients and booking shoots BUT before you send anything to a client, let's make sure you have everything setup properly first.
Step 1: Watch The Photographers Workflow video.
This video will give you a great overview and understanding of how to book shoots and use Studio Ninja for your photography business.
Step 2: Pour yourself a cup of coffee and spend 15 - 30 mins going through all the settings.
Settings is divided into two sections - Global Settings and Company Settings.
Company Settings (Edit company): Add your business info, upload a logo and upload a banner image for your client portal.
Currency & Taxes: If you charge tax, make sure you add a tax name and tax rate.
Payment Methods: Setup Stripe or PayPal to accept credit card payments from your clients or whatever other method of payment you would prefer.
Date, Time & Calendar: Integrate Studio Ninja with your Google Calendar.
Products & Packages: Add in all the different products and/or packages that you sell. These will appear when creating invoices or quotes.
Email Settings: Add an email signature and integrate with Gmail or SMTP to send out emails from your email account.
Email Templates: Create any email templates or set up appointment reminders.
Contract Templates: Use our sample templates or create your own.
Questionnaire Templates: Use our sample templates or create your own.
Workflows: Create different workflows for the different types of shoots that you do. A workflow is like a checklist, a list of tasks that need to be completed to finish each job to help you keep track of all your jobs.
Contact Form: Create and embed our contact form onto your website.
Step 3: TEST EVERYTHING!
Before you send anything to a real client I highly recommend that you run a test on yourself first.
Create a new lead or job.
Add yourself as the primary client.
Create a new quote with payment schedule, contract and questionnaire all bundled together and send it to yourself.
Now put yourself in the clients shoes and make sure you're happy with the way everything works and looks. Check the email you receive. Make sure you're happy with the way the client portal looks. Accept the quote and go through the process as if you were a real client.
If you're happy with everything, then you're good to go! You can start putting real leads / jobs / clients into Studio Ninja - woohoo!!
Step 4: Feeling confident? Step up the automation!
If you're feeling good and loving Studio Ninja then it's time to start incorporating more automation.
Add auto emails, auto contracts or auto questionnaires to your workflows.
Integrate Stripe (or PayPal) so Studio Ninja can automatically record payments when they come in and automatically send receipts once payments are made.
Integrate your Studio Ninja account with either Xero or Quickbooks to automate your accounting or integrate with ShootProof to easily create galleries for every job.
Questions?
If you need help with anything we are here for you :-)
Message us in-app by clicking on the green chat icon on the bottom right hand side and one of our friendly staff with give you a hand. (Users accessing their account from the mobile app can click on Settings > Open Settings in web browser).
Book a training session and Chris will help you through every step of the process to get you setup as quickly as possible. He can also answer any questions you may have and also make sure your account is running in the most efficient way.
Join our Ninja community and chat with all of our users in the private (members only) Facebook Group.
Now you're ready young padawan! Go forth and conquer.