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Building Your Team

this segment we're going to talk about building your team and over the last few years I've had to sort of look at you in ways that I can handle my business a little bit better and I think we talked about it earlier with identifying your weaknesses so when you are building your team you know you need to know what are your weaknesses what don't you like doing you know there's so many different things that that can come into play here because I mean when you list all those hats that we wear as a business owner and that's what we are you know when we're when we're being paid for service in a product we're business owners we have to run our business effectively in the right way and we also have to identify how many different roles and positions we have in that and also you know as like from a I'm a mum when I have to I have to identify how many hats were in that role as well and can I outsource any of those I can't but you know can I and and identify where I need help him what my weaknesses...

are so it was funny because my husband and I with him being home now on dh working with me and my business it didn't take long for me to sort of offload some of my weaknesses and one of them being the cooking he cooked now every night but that's one of my weaknesses it's something I don't enjoy but we worked together and we created a way to make things work for us as a team and I think that's really important to follow through from your business right through to your family life is well so this is why office I just took it with my phone and I want to show this is where I spend the majority of my time when you walk in my front door which is back here you walk into my house this is my office it's all open directly opposite that area is the door into my studio so it's all at the front of the house exactly when you walk in you've got my husband's desk over here which is actually looking really quite neat and tidy and then the far computer in the corner that's where melissa my my office administrator sits and she's works two days a week tuesdays and thursdays and then this is my computer over here on the side so it's actually good that I'm opposite my husband because when I look into my screen actually I can actually see the reflection of his screen and I can say stop playing candy crush and he's like I'm not know what I can see your screen wei have such a great space to work in it's set up so that its functions and then what works well and it's set up so that everybody's got their own space and we can work together when melissa is in the office two days a week our shoot three days a week so I'm not shooting the two days that she's in the office but you know if I have to reschedule for whatever reason then I you know I will shoot the days that she's there but I like to actually be in the office to work with her because we have to do so much together in the terms of responding to emails and you know making sure where we're at with different things and for my business right now it involves so many other things other than being a newborn photographer so I have to make sure that we're on the right track with all those different areas that we're working together on so I like to be there and being side by side and means you know I can network between her computer I can take whatever I need from there and put it onto mine and I can finish it I can we just work together really well and if she's got something that she can't quite reply too and in the form of an email or a question then I'm I'm asking her or I'm replying to her and way work really well that way so communicating is the key so I think at that point you know a few years ago when I started to get really quite overwhelmed with how much I was doing and not having enough time to do it all and not doing it all well I was trying to do so much that I was actually letting down so many different areas of my business so I had to identify you know my weaknesses and then I had to sort of start to think like I think it's the right time now to start outsourcing so asking yourself you know if you're getting busy if this is where you want your business to go when is going to be the right time for you to start looking at outsourcing or hiring and you know for me it's it's taken such a huge white off some of those areas that now I've been able to pour so much more time and energy into some of the other things that I wanted to work on which is incredible and identifying those weaknesses rodel east write a list of everything that you have to do to run your business and then identify and decide is it in the admin side of things that you need help with is that the marketing side of things that you need help with is that the editing side of things that you just don't want to edit anymore that's fine sometimes it becomes really mundane for people they can't quite keep up or they would rather do the marketing and the admin as opposed to actually sitting in front of a computer and editing that whole time everybody's different and I can't tell you how many times I've been told to outsource my editing and I did I tried it didn't quite work um but I don't think I did it right I don't think I actually you know I don't think it was the right time and I don't think I followed the right steps to make it work for me but I actually enjoy it inning I love it I don't necessarily enjoy all the admin side of things anymore because I did it as a career for so long I let somebody else do that now it's like I've been promoted I don't have to do that stuff anymore the marketing side of things I enjoy doing that I really do and there's so many other things that I don't enjoy doing as well bookkeeping you know keeping your books up to date is so important for your business and knowing where you're at and so the tax man doesn't come knocking on your door something I didn't put all of my energy into wholeheartedly and thought it'll just get done it'll be all right I kept putting it off and it just backed up and I was so far behind with my bookkeeping and you know my expenses of what's coming in what's going out that now my husband looks after all of that and he we also have a bookkeeper as well and we have a great accounting food that looks after us is well so knowing what areas you need help with and identifying those but before you can identify those you have to write a list of everything that you have to do in your business you seventeen hats and put into different columns I like that's like like dislike and figure out what it is that you would rather not spend your time on you know when is the time to build your internal tane you know we've we've talked about that at what point are you feeling so overwhelmed that you can't do it or maybe it's not being overwhelmed maybe it's you you've got this incredible idea to do something new and different but you don't have the time to do it so bringing on somebody then so you can put more time into this new project or a new adventure or or something like that so you know for me I've got this great idea that I want to create a book I'm going to do it so I'm actually now currently looking at putting more people on an outsourcing more so that I can spend more time and energy on creating this incredible book and it's not an educational book it's not a not a book you'd pick up with beautiful baby pictures in it it's actually something that's going to take me probably twelve months to create and it's gonna tell wonderful stories about every single different culture in this world so these are things that I'm working on and I need to put energy and time into those so I need to start thinking about when is it right to start that when do I need to find somebody to come in and help me with those you know and before you hire do you test assistance do you kind of like do a couple of trial runs with somebody how you advertising you know for for those people is that somebody that you know is that somebody that you've responded to an advertisement as well and getting them in and seeing if they can actually take the load off you as well so how do you make sure that hiring you know how do you make sure you're hiring the right fit for your business for me I know that when I hired melissa she'd actually already worked for a photographer for eight years in a straight like a straight front winning photography studio and they were they had a massive turnover they also had four photographers so I know that when she was working there that she knew that the day to day running of a studio she knows how to communicate with clients because she's been doing that from a photography point of view and she also knows me and we've known each other for a while so it just seemed to be the right fit at the right time and she's been incredible with taking a load off me so when you are looking for the right person to suit your brand your business and you as a person you know you have to be specific about the certain traits that they have for may I need to calm easy going person really important because I'm common easy person if I had somebody in this was like going a hundred miles now I would be just frazzled by the end of the day you know melissa's calm and she's quiet she's actually really quiet person you've got a really sort of but you know she's just easy going she's great it's wonderful it's a perfect fit we need to be able to set the tone for our studio so she knows that if I am doing a shooting she's in working and I'm in the studio she could just come in and gently ask my clients you know can I get you anything would you like a glass of water and I don't even know she's coming in and doing that because she just fits and she's she's aware of the tone that I'm setting for my studio hiring someone in a hurry you know without doing your research or the background sort of information checks you can really have an effect on your brand you don't necessarily want to do that because like we've been saying and we've been tying everything that we've we've talked about in this course you no right to the end when your client slave you've made an impression on them they've got there they're not only forming an impression on me but they're also forming an impression on all the other members of my team that they're coming into contact with so they need to be you know the right person and have the right traits that suit you when it comes to training there's a few things that you've got to be you know wear off and if you've never actually had to hire somebody or put them through you know certain types of training it can be difficult but there are agencies out there that can help you with that they're one of the names of the agencies that help you hire somebody yeah the temp cos temp agencies and there's also no employment agencies and things like that recruitment agencies that's the word I'm looking for they help you you give them specific guidelines about the type of person and the qualifications that they want those recruitment agencies will help you find that person and you know what if if I hadn't you know known that melissa was I was looking for work or wanting a change of pace or because she'd had a baby so she needed to sort of cut back on her eh are ours you know if I hadn't have known her I would have definitely gone through a recruitment agency because sometimes the training and finding the right person to fit your brand can be quite a lengthy a lengthy process and sometimes you will choose the wrong person and sometimes you know you want your hit that hit the nail on the head and you'll be able to take your business forward so when it comes to the training of your staff you know you've got to go over the policies of your business they need to understand every single element every single point of contact and everything that you advise your clients on they need to be aware of those so they can add heat adhere to them so I would spend probably one week training somebody in all of those policies you know they've got to study them closely they've got to understand my work flow at what point do we do this and this and this so for me when I was hiring office staff when I was working prior to becoming a photographer or having my family we actually had ah folder a policies and procedures folder and we have a small one in our office but it's just you know if I'm not available it khun b picked up and we can quickly go through right I've forgotten that which is such a great thing to have is a god but in policies and procedures procedures folder that you can hand to somebody to say here you know it's been lovely meeting you you know I can't wait to start working with you would you like to take this home and have a read through it before you come in and start next week before their training starts and then they've already got a really good understanding off you know what your expectations of them are and then you know you've got it you've got it observed them working and and assisting them when they need it but you know let them go observed letyou go to observe them and then let them observe you while you work so they can see that relationship that you're forming with your clients and know the importance of that so that when they have to communicate with them they're communicating in a way that represents that relationship that I've just built during that session let them see how you work sometimes I take melissa on certain shoots if I feel like the mom you know wants to sit back and relax something like that if I got into the park and do a shoot she'll calm and she'll spot and it just means that I can take a comfy chair down the mum can sit relax and enjoy the fresh air that she's probably not going to be able to do when she goes home because she won't be a baby down as you do but yeah you need to understand like they need to understand your flow and your level of service it's if you don't put that time and effort into training that person it's your fault if they're not doing their job right it's your fault you have to take responsibility for your business it's actually really easy to blame somebody for not doing something you know if I terrance said our god melissa didn't send this or you know she sent the wrong email or what have you that's my fault because I didn't train her right so we have to take responsibility for our business and the stuff that we hire and the information that we provide them with that is incredibly important gradual growth and responsibility as she developed through the business for anybody develops through your business you can start to offload more and more when they start to feel comfortable with what they're doing give them more task so that you can start to focus on other things and if they can't then that's when you would sort of look again at outsourcing for different areas but yes that gradual growth and responsibility letting them take over more the more ownership that you allow somebody to have we'll make them love their role even more always remember my mom saying to me because she always worked in hospitality and retail as well she she was a very young mom so I didn't get to finish high school and didn't get to go on to college or anything like that so she always had customer service roles but she is the best customer service provider I know she's managed so many retail stores and manage so many hotels that I don't know anybody better in a customer service roll so I've always looked to her for advice on things like that and guidance and whenever I have a question I can wring her so if you know somebody get advice but you know it's incredible when you when you get that back and so I look att I've looked at her throughout you know this whole process and I'm like right I need to do this I need to give melissa more information I need to do this and I'll get my mom to give me advice on how to do that but it's yet so important to be able to home in on that but yet do we have any questions can audience you have any questions as well as we'd love to hear from all of you if any of you are in that stage of considering building a team if you feel you're not there yet if you're planning for the future what is resonating with you about this or what what are you afraid of all those things well I think I'm at the point where I would like to have a photography assistant I know you don't work with one but I've seen other photographers have and I think I would really enjoy that I don't want to rely on parent it's for spotting because a lot of times I've I've tried and maybe they don't have had dad's just kind of like turn away and not be paying attention and like no you have to be right here but I'm I guess one of my fears is getting someone hiring them training them and having them just turn around and start their own business and not actually being able to get the workout of tthe um have you had any experience of that or is that something you'd even think about yes oh when you do hire a shooting assistant and you have them in your studio yes I've I've had experience with someone coming in but you know I have considered it but I do like to work in my space and I find that the way that I communicate with my clients would be the same way that I would communicate with you know a potential employer that I'd have in my studio assisting may but it is a personal preference I'm quite an introvert introvert person when it comes to what I'm doing I have a concept in my mind a vision of what I'm going to dio I kind of when I'm setting something up already know what it's going to look like trying to interpret that to somebody else can sometimes get lost in communication or in transit so that for me is why I probably don't work with someone but the reason I do have my clients come and assist and be a part of that is because sometimes they are you know a little bit away from it but it's getting them involved and communicating with them but I do find it easier to communicate them on a parent level um then I do say for example another photographer who might also have in their mind how it should look because they're looking at it from their perspective but I need them to look at mine but a parent doesn't have that perspective but photographers do so I think that's why for me it's better that I have an admin assistant or somebody else to do all those things as opposed to having a shooting assistant but because because I've been working alone for so long I already know how teo go through a session without one but if you are new and you think that you could possibly work with one try it out try another photographer and work together with them I have quite a few friends that use them and that's perfect for them absolutely perfect it works for them they feel safer when they're doing specific set ups or you know like for example when you're shooting down on a on a nest you know I have a friend that does this and for me you know I like to be able to be here and shoot down because of the baby moves I can quickly bend and do that or I can keep my hand here as I'm putting my getting my camera and I consider gradually come up and release the baby and I'm right there down if I had had a baby that was slightly touchy feely and a bit of a turn I got to get up onto a step letter I think to get my balance if I didn't have an assistant down there I'd have to get back down I could fall in the process whereas if you are working with an assistant you can quite easily use something to stand on or what have you take the time because you've got an extra set of hands the baby moves you've got somebody there to just quickly tuck that foot back in or move that hand or if something doesn't look right when you're up there are can you just move that that works well that's fine but I've got used to doing it alone so I'm not about to bring somebody in on that but yeah it is it is at that point right now where you're considering it and I think that's an incredible thing because it means that you're looking forward towards that that growth in your business and and identifying that is a big step huge step I'm definitely not in a position to be able to bring someone I'd love to be able to I'd love to have some help but something that terrifies me is knowing like my my business has set up a za sole proprietor and tohave an employee I needs to be be an llc and so the legalities of everything and paying taxes for someone else and I mean that is over it seems so far over my head that I don't know that but I mean maybe that's something that when I get to that point I'll be able to figure it out but that seems really scary to me right now absolutely and that was hit everything is scary and business especially when you're doing it for the first time you don't know and that was a huge step for us you know we'd never we had to change our business over from a soul patrol a sole trader to a company so you know now my business has got p t y l t d but say the word but you know that's the biggest step we've ever had to do in business actually employing someone having to pay their superannuation you've gotta pay their tags you've got to make sure they're paid every week like you're going to be on top of that you can just go oh you know I'll just I'll just pay it in a day or two not like a bill or anything like that you've got to make sure that that person is paid regularly you've got to check their time sheets it's more work but you've got to make sure that the work that they are doing is actually still taking away from from all those other things so my husband does look after all those employment contracts and dealing with them accountant and the australian taxation department when it comes to all of those processes and having those procedures in place but it is a massive learning curve it's scary like I come I tell you we were sitting there one day going are we really doing this we really bet to pay somebody x amount of dollars per hour all of that had to be factored into our cost of doing business which all falls back to our pricing segment so when you're doing that you know you have to be aware of all of those things that are costing money and not just the fact that I have to pay her x amount of dollars per hour I have to be aware of the tax to deduct I have to invest money into the superannuation fund or the report retirement fund I've also then go to take into consideration how many hours have I had to pay my accountant to set up all these different things and that all store goes into my cost of doing business this fees and those little things that add up everywhere along the way and that's why you know having those planes to put these into place is really big as well but year like I mean I would love to hear like what areas would you like to give up what do you not like doing what hats do you have that you don't like wearing we might actually go here first and then we'll come over did you have a question relating forward yeah all the business like answering emails and sending files like client guides and stuff those are things that I don't really enjoy I am very I I love the creative part of the art side off this business so and I have no idea of how business remarketing that's not me I've always just loved the art so I'm still struggling but because I don't know about it that's a big part um have also had a few emails or even calls of people that ask me if they can come and work for me for free to assist me or to you know just answer emails and of course it's great to have someone to order for free but I'm of its well actually I'm really scared of letting someone into you know my space I'm very organized and like I like having things under control and knowing what goes on so actually that scares me a lot and sometimes well I say no you know very well that way but I just don't know how to say no no no thanks thanks but no thanks um and when like when do I say yes what level do I need to reach to say yeah come give me a hand yeah so you get to that point where you are feeling overwhelmed I just can't do it all and you start to fall behind you gotta really look and identify those things you got to take a moment you've gotta stop and go right I'm really not coping here I'm not getting through or everything that I need to do you know I'm not filling out my text declaration or my best statements when I need teo and all of that kind of stuff wow this is overwhelming I'm really struggling here I need help the minute you start to say these have got any help that's when you start to look at that butt you know going back to when people want to contact you or people contact you and they want to work for free you know that's fine that they want to come in but it is going to take your time to train them you might not be paying them but because they working for free they can leave at any time we actually have an employment contract and you have to specify the terms off unemployment contract and what their job title is you have to be able to communicate what the expectations are what their job title involves and they have to sign that this is your agreement these will be your working hours have those in place your lawyer won't help draft those up for you and word them in a way because that's a contract an employment contract is when you are hiring someone is definitely a must so making sure when you do have somebody come in for free you know make sure that you don't have to take too much of your own time away from your business training that person because they unless you do have a contract in place for free employment I'm not quite sure you know how that kind of pans out but you'd have to get advice on that but you know when you do have when you do employ someone you know set that timeframe there's going to be a period a probationary period because if you're not performing the tasks that I've set for you that I'm really sorry but you know I'm gonna have to find somebody else that can a probationary period can go for I think it's usually around three months and then after that you know how long this is a contract for how long is an indefinite or is it for a minimum off six to twelve months or is it for a minimum of two years get advice from somebody who knows how to give that and usually your lawyer can but the australian taxation department has so many forms and guidelines for employing and so would the what do you call the agency what do you call the american text department revenue digger service I arrest and so are you able to go to those websites and find information that help small businesses in all business administration there we go so all of those websites have content available for people when hiring and it's really important that you put all of that you know in place before you actually even start looking toe employ somebody take the steps take the time to really do it properly because if you don't like I said if they're not doing what's required or you know they just not the right fit for your business you've got to take responsibility for that put all the steps in place to do it for me when it come when it came time tio to hiring a re toucher I didn't I didn't look at it properly I was like I just need some help with summary touching at that point because I was I was quite busy and I've got a girl in and we sat together for a day we did training she watched me and it I wrote all steps down she took notes andi I said are you comfortable with this you know you you happy with how I'm doing it do you think that this is something you can create and she was like yeah she went away she sent me back an album in the mail I got it I put it into my computer it was a disc and the photos when nothing like what I was expecting but it was my fault because I didn't actually spend enough time with her I didn't spend enough time researching to find the right person to do it for me I did look at some of her work it was great didn't it babies before though but it was a bit of a recommendation through somebody else and I was just a bit like yet great you can do that for me didn't spend enough time I had to pay her and then redo that album it was my own fault because I didn't didn't do it properly I didn't look into it far enough and I didn't hire the right person for the job so now with my retouching you know I just do it I actually do have my friend garrett helping me out with some images when I get a little bit behind which is incredible but he's worked with me for so long and he knows my steps he sat in on nearly every workshop I've taught and watched every editing segment over and over again probably like a broken record so he knows my work flow and knows what I'm doing and he likes to say he's not a photographer but you know he knows photoshopped as well as I do and he can take incredible photos so you know he's a he's a great fit for me because we work so well together but he also has his own business so he can't be a full time employee or you can't be called upon all the time as well but research and put steps in post in footsteps in place so that those those future employees all the staff members or the outsourcing that you you have a doing the right job so that they're not creating more work for you at the moment I don't have time to train someone to to retouch so I just have to continue to plug plug away at it because if I took the time off to actually train somebody the way I want to train them I would get further behind so think about it write down all the things that you have to do within your job all your roles figure out what it is that you like dislike if you don't know enough about the marketing side of things it's just going to come with time and practice and patients so be persistent at it you know the information is out there for years it is there's so many books on marketing and just running a business you know like I've read the seven habits of highly effective people there's so many incredible resource guide's available for you but you have to go out and find them don't send me an email and say how did you do this go on do it for yourself and read that information and do the hard yards because it will be so rewarding in the end kelly I just what's really resonating for me in the segment is that so many of us are in at different levels of of our businesses on dh unwto always having that planning for the future always thinking about okay well I'm here now but here is where I want to be on so I think you know seeing not all of us are where you are no different but I've been I've started dinner and in it's trial and error somebody asked may way have this thing in a stray according on the lounge without association so you know they asked a photographer and to open up this studio and allow x amount of people to come in and just listen and get to know you and find out a little bit more about how you run the studio in the space that you're in it's a really fun night you get to know lots of people around you and network and when it came time to some q and a ah lady said to may what is what is the one business decision that you you know you wish you'd done differently like you know is there one thing that you can think off like a business mistake is there something that you didn't do right and I I thought about it and I was like I've done so many things wrong if you don't make mistakes you don't learn and you've got it you've got to do that so you know which direction I can provide people with there's not much information is possible on how to do it but sometimes you do have to make mistakes so you learned from them because we are all different and we're all of different levels but it is up to you to know where you want your business to go if you want your business to be up here you take it there and you plan for that growth and you think right inner in six to twelve months I would love to put another photographer on I would love to hire an assistant in the next couple of months I would love to do that but plan for it and put the systems in place to do it I think we've got one more question but if they're not good for it have there been times in your business that you scaled back rather than just with whatever was going on in here personal life with your children or you know a lot of us are moms I think everybody here just about as a mom like for the birth of a new child or you know something to that effect and how did you handle that as faras you know scaling back and then later on you know growing again yeah when I think back to eight years ago and I had my twins um I've already established my business prior to them coming along already had my my business name registered I was always already earning an income from photography and I was shooting weddings and I was shooting families and then when I got pregnant I am I was I continue to shoot for long as I could but you know when we decided to get pregnant at no point did we realise that we were gonna have two babies so I had to sort of scale back a lot quicker than I thought I would have too and so I had to sort of take on less jobs and in it and you know it's just what you have to do is a mom like you have to make what fits have to do what fits with you at that time so for me it was you know obviously you know stopping to shoot sooner because my stomach got bigger quicker and I couldn't bend and often when you're shooting weddings or family portrait you're up and down your moving around a lot in cavern carrying heavy equipment so but I also didn't plan for my babies to be born so early in hospital and then require so much more care afterwards so I had a longer period of time where I couldn't work and then when things started to gradually get better I started to advertise again and take on a couple of clients and I would do them on weekends when my husband wasn't working so there is always going to be something that does happen in your personal life that's going to have to make you adjust and we were saying in the previous segment your business is going to go like that based on those things with the you're moving house you know whether you are whether you have another baby coming into the family or something like that or for me three years ago I when my mother got sick you know I really pulled back from the amount of work that I was taking on because I needed to be available for her and I wanted to be there every day so you just have to to make your business work for you yeah we work for our business but it's your business make it work for you and what fits your lifestyle at that point in time before my twins turned three I I kind of had them in care maybe one to two days a week so I could start to shoot and gradually build and then they got a little bit older they started a fore they started like a like a it's called seeing case so it's like two days a week where they go to school prior to starting school so I knew what was gonna happen in those years leading up to it and when they started school five days a week I had put every plan in place leading up to that moment so that the minute they start school I was full time five days a week make it work for you and where you're out with your life and what's happening but it also like you know when my husband decided tio to retire from his work it did get to a point where I was so overwhelmed in my business it had taken off in a direction that I had never dreamed off eleven years ago I started off photographing flowers and printing them on cards and selling them in market stalls I had my own card range I put them into little craft shops and gift stores I was having a great job but it fitted at that point in time so back then never did I ever intend that I would be standing right here on the other side of the world ever so when it took off and my husband is you know a six hour drive away and only home for three days of every to every fortnight every two weeks I was like full time mom full time photographer and everything else that was involved with that and I couldn't do it something had to give so you have to make those changes and adjustments to suit you in your business and your lifestyle it is really important but it's identifying them and you know people say that what at what point I just couldn't do it anymore that was the point I couldn't physically get out of bed some days because I was so tired I was unhappy and you just have to just have tio you know look at that point in time when a u so overwhelmed that with having to do everything in juggle everything that you've got to start re sourcing and looking for help when you feel like you need help that's when you start that's it