Get It Together Kit Blog

If you’ve purchased the Get It Together Kit then you’ve read all about our Original Flowboard. You’ve probably even written me to ask why the link wasn’t working and where you could find it for purchase. We were so busy working on the kit to get it out to all of you and the production wrapped, we decided the Flowboard was a project we needed to tackle once the kit was out the door.

I’m excited to finally be able to tell you that the original Flowboard is now for sale!

Additionally, we worked long and hard to figure out the most cost effective way to provide the Original Flowboard to you:

We knew many people would want more than one copy for editing workflow, albums and even print orders.

We also know that custom framing is… well, custom and can be pricey with opinions varying widely.

We realized that shipping raises the price and we wanted to keep the board, affordable and customizable.

This is why we landed on the decision to provide you with a downloadable PSD (Photoshop) file complete with a video link once purchased to walk you through making the Flowboard for yourself for just $75. This will allow you to create multiple copies of the board, print them as large as you would like and frame them however you wish. The options are limitless since you are in control of the finished product so head over and get your original Flowboard today.

We want to hear how you are using your Flowboard and see images to so please write us (info [at] getittogetherkit [dot] come) to share your images and let us know how much you are loving your Flowboard!

This is your brain:

This is your brain on branding:

Yesterday, I made a big mistake. I went to Costco when I was starving. I actually went in to buy a hard drive for one of our computers. But our fridge was empty, and I thought: “Here’s a great opportunity to multi-task. I’ll just knock out a little grocery shopping while I’m in here.” I grabbed one of those giant, oversized carts and the next thing you know, it was full of salad, avocados, frozen pizzas (that a rep was sampling), soft drinks, strawberries, peaches, Duracell batteries, taquitos and the biggest tub of Daisy sour cream you’ve ever seen! It was definitely a case of my brain on branding.

Hungry for more information on how to brand and market your business? Despite all of that food in my fridge, I’m not serving taquitos for lunch tomorrow (Tuesday). Instead, Charlene and I will be dishing out a hearty helping of ideas, tips, resources, and strategies in the first of our webinar series:

Branding: In a Nutshell.

Join us tomorrow at 1pm EDT. The “branding brain” is just the first of more than 50 slides that will help us present everything you need to know about branding in a nutshell. And, we’ve lost count of the tips, ideas, and resources we will pack into this sixty minute branding feast. We’ve still got room for you; just follow this link to register and pay for your spot at our branding round table.

What do you need to bring? Just a big appetite for great branding ideas.

I realized after my shopping spree that I had forgotten the salsa. Looks like there might be another trip to Costco in the near future….

P.S. You can visit the In a Nutshell webinar blog for an updated calendar for the entire webinar series and more information about each of the presentations we will give.

I found this link today through a friend on twitter. Although it’s a great visually interesting video, it’s an even better lesson in business and how we create the environment for our employees to thrive. I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the last year to creating an ENVIRONMENT that my employees love, that I love, a studio that allows us to get the maximum creativity and enjoyment. Last July I purchased a home and we relocated the studio into it. We’ve been busy decorating it to suit the style of our business and fill it with things that make us feel happy, creative, inspired and at home. Now that we are happy in the environment (although we are always adding and tweaking) I’m working to make sure burnout does not occur.

Additionally, I’ve been giving my employees less direction during the week on what to work on and when.  The more I trust the systems I’ve set into place and trust them, the harder they work. Sometimes my expectations for them are lower than their expectations for themselves and they tend to get more done when they set their own goals and drive themself to complete them. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still monitor things weekly to be sure stuff is getting done and once in a while I still make a request for specific projects to be completed within a specific timeframe. However, I find the more hands off I am, the more they get done and the faster it happens. I really LOVED the concept in this video towards the end that talks about how the employees were given a day where they could work on WHATEVER they wanted, with WHOEVER they wanted, they just had to show their results. I am eager to try this model for one day of the week and today our entire team talked it over. We love the idea so we are now making Friday, our short work day, FUN FRIDAY! I’ll let you know how that goes and what type of projects are chosen. Today we started making a list of things on our GIANT sized chalkboard. We each made our own list of things we’ve been wanting to do but haven’t made time for and already we can’t wait to mark them off and add to our lists. Just making them was fun!

On another note regarding keeping your employees happy: I was speaking with another friend several weeks ago and she mentioned that her work (a much larger company) gave their employees the option of summer hours. For them, this meant adjusting their hours during the week to be able to take off more time in the summer. Being wedding photographers we often work on Saturday’s during our busy season which means if we work a full week in the studio we are not getting much time off. We have to get the studio work done or we’ll fall behind, and we’ve been doing a great job of sticking to our business hours which we feel makes us more productive and keeps us happy. I wanted to find a day to not lose the momentum of a full work week but give my staff the extra advantage of ENJOYING the summer, being with their friends and family and continually feeling creatively refreshed.

Our new summer schedule is below. We come in one hour earlier every single day so that we can take off at 1pm on Fridays and I kept the old “sleep in” philosophy for Friday’s going!

Monday – Thursday  8am-5:30pm (with a 30 minutes lunch)

Friday 9:30-1pm

I think we as small businesses can learn a LOT from large corporations. I say tweak what you need to suit your needs but definitely give yourself some time to work on the things you love: consider fun Friday and some time AWAY from work!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

If you thought when you purchased the kit that you just got was a 100 page book then think again! The Get It Together Kit Disc has everyone raving about the kit even further. Some have said the information provided on this Disc is worth the price of the kit alone (as if there was not enough in the book itself). Take a peek at what you’ll find on the disc!

In the Get It Together Kit, I share the systems, workflow and strategies I used to grow my business from a one-photographer studio that had me feeling constantly overwhelmed to a seven-person studio that has enjoyed exponential growth.

The kit is divided into six main sections (which follow an introduction).  They are:

Brain Dump: In this section, I share my methods for clearing my mind, setting goals for the business, creating effective to do lists, and finding ways to accomplish those important goals that aren’t urgent, but are extremely important for growing a business.

Love Your Systems: Here, I give detailed examples of the day-to-day systems I’ve created to run my studio.  I cover everything from office organization to tracking workflow to storing archived discs for clients.

Email (I Hate You): I get a few hundred emails per day.  At one point, it seemed that email was controlling my life.  I found a way to win the battle against my overflowing inbox, and I’ll tell you how.  There are examples of how to automate your email, specifics on how to organize folders and subfolders in your email management system, and dozens of tips and ideas that will save you time!

Leadtracker: In this section, I cover my methods for tracking and converting leads.  I discuss specifics on everything from the questions we ask future brides to the way we keep in touch with prospects to how we set reasonable expectations with a client once a contract has been signed.  Even better, I’ll show you how we continue the sales process after the wedding and boost sales and referrals from our vendors.

Flowstand: What’s a flowstand?  One of my proudest inventions.  It’s an efficient fool-proof way to organize contracts, travel arrangements, payments, wedding details and more.  I show you exactly how I created this system (there are even x-rays of my folders!) so that you can create your own.

Break it Down: This chapter takes you through my workflow step-by-step.   I’ll explain the editing and production system we use to edit so many weddings at one time.  The process is completely scaleable—it worked when I booked 15 weddings per year and it still works with a studio that handles 90+ weddings.  We cover backing up files, rating files, editing, using actions, blogging, designing albums, and assigning tasks to team members to create a workflow chain.

But Wait, There’s More: Throughout the kit, I also share extra tips, resources, discount codes for my favorite tools and equipment, and worksheets that will assist you in starting to….Get It Together.

The Disc: In addition to our 100-page book, you’ll also receive a disc that includes the exact wording we use for simple client communications, the expectations sheet we send to brides, and a 90 Day plan to get you started on goal-setting for your own business.

I’ve been working on duplicating discs all day and getting ready for the kit to ship… only problem, I didn’t have the kit yet. I finished my errands around 3pm and waited, waited, and waited for the kit to arrive. The UPS man was supposed to be at my door by 7pm for delivery and he pulled up about 6:29pm. I’ve never been more excited to see a UPS truck at my front door in my life.

I’m pumped to be able share with you that the kits are here and myself and my team will put them on their way to all of you who pre-ordered first thing Monday morning! We won’t stop until every last kit is shipped. Woohoo! Hang tight, it’s almost there.

To those of you that pre-ordered… thank you so much for your patience!

For those of you who have not ordered your kit yet, you can purchase the kit on our website and we promise it will ship right after our pre-orders go out.

Sorry for my absence. It’s not like me to start up a giveaway and  not come back for a week. I’ve actually been prepping everything for the kit to ship and that’s been taking up all of my time. The good news is we’ve got a winner for giveaway #2… it’s Jenn who took the below image! (I’m actually assuming your name is Jenn because that’s the email address but there is no name attached). Just be sure to email us to claim our gift to you and include your mailing address.

You’ll be winning a collection of our favorite moleskin notebooks… we love these little notebooks and if you buy the kit you’ll find out exactly how we use them each and every day! Congrats Jenn, you are going to love using moleskins!

I promised a giveaway on Wednesday and one every week until the kit arrived so here it is, giveaway #2! This week you’ll be playing for another of my favorite organization products which is also mentioned in the kit. We’ll unveil what it is next week when we announce the winner but until then here is how to play for a chance to win:

Take a photograph spelling out “GITKIT”. You can use whatever you want to do it so be creative. The most creative person will win. Email the photo to info [at] getittogetherkit [dot] com. We’ll post the winning image (and possibly even runner ups) right here when we announce the winner.

The last day to send your image into us is Sunday, April 25th at midnight (EST). On Monday we’ll announce the winner and shortly after we’ll start another giveaway so start snappin’!

We have heard from the printer and rumor has it that the kits will arrive at our studio on April 30th. As I mentioned before, we had a few things slow us down on the kit and we were not willing to sacrifice quality for speed so we waited to get them perfect and sent them off to print! We’ve heard from the printer and they’ve told us the kit will arrive at our door on April 30th so if that happens as planned… we’ll get started Monday morning the 3rd of May packaging them and shipping them out to all of you and we won’t stop until they are all out the door. We’ve already folded all the boxes, shredded all the paper and we are ready to ship, just waiting on the kit!

Thank you so much for being patient. We do apologize for the small delay! We appreciate your understanding  while we work hard to provide you with a quality product!

Any other updates regarding the kit will be posted here, until then let’s do some more giveaways… stay tuned. More giveaways coming this week on Wednesday!

Speaking of UPS, here is a some fun trivia for you: Did you know the UPS trucks only make right hand turns? It’s true. They found it improved their efficiency and saved LOADS of money and travel time! Read about it here.

Just last week I posted a giveaway and today we announce a winner!

We’ll be doing more giveaways’s each week (along with posting some great articles I’ve been reading here on the blog) until the kit launches. Keep checking back for some encouragement, fun ideas, and even some more chances to win fun prizes, they’ll just keep getting bigger and better too!

Dear @CameraGirl_kew: email info [at] getittogetherkit [dot] com with your mailing address and we’ll be shipping you a little something we use every day around our office, an Infuse Writeboard! These are great for daily lists and they reduce the amount of waste in your office. Each morning when we huddle around at the MHP round table for a staff meeting you’ll find four of these little boards right in front of us. We love them and we think you will too!