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Banking and Paying Yourself Review

Lesson 23 from: Group Mentorship: Grow Your Wedding Photography Business

Susan Stripling

Banking and Paying Yourself Review

Lesson 23 from: Group Mentorship: Grow Your Wedding Photography Business

Susan Stripling

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Lesson Info

23. Banking and Paying Yourself Review

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Mentorship: Introduction and Overview

20:49
2

Mentorship: Business and Marketing

30:42
3

Mentorship: Shooting & Post Production

15:21
4

Social Media Marketing

13:07
5

Google Analytics

29:16
6

Targeting Your Market with Social Media

25:54
7

Social Media Marketing Q&A

10:21
8

Common Issues and Problems

20:01
9

Student Questions and Critique Part 1

26:18
10

Student Questions and Critique Part 2

20:41

Day 2

11

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Assignment Video

10:28
12

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Feedback & Weekly Review

53:10
13

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Assignment Video

09:43
14

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Feedback & Weekly Review

43:05
15

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

07:12
16

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Feedback & Weekly Review

39:17
17

Month 1, Week 4 (Sept 29-Oct 6) - Assignment Video

06:41

Day 3

18

Office Hours Overview

13:42
19

Name Your Business Review

31:41
20

Where are You Running Your Business Review

09:41
21

Get Set Up Legally Review

16:12
22

Personal and Business Finances Review

26:58
23

Banking and Paying Yourself Review

15:42
24

Pricing Problems and Case Studies

35:12
25

When the World Isn't Perfect Review

23:56
26

Mission Statement and Target Client Review

25:46
27

Shooting: Macro and Getting Ready

17:26
28

Shooting: Portraits of the Bride

14:24
29

Shooting: Formals, Ceremony, and Cocktail Hour

16:30
30

Shooting: Reception and Nighttime Portraits

18:46

Day 4

31

Month 2, Week 1 (Oct 6-12) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:47
32

Month 2, Week 2 (Oct 13-19) - Feedback & Weekly Review

55:04
33

Month 2, Week 3 (Oct 20-26) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:13
34

Month 2, Week 4 (Oct 27-Nov 2) - Feedback & Weekly Review

47:48

Day 5

35

Details Critique Part 1

28:49
36

Details Critique Part 2

23:57
37

Getting Ready Critique

29:38
38

Missed Moments Critique

11:44
39

Bride Alone Critique Part 1

12:39
40

Bride Alone Critique Part 2

21:04
41

Ceremony Critique

12:36
42

Wedding Formals Critique

19:18
43

Bride and Groom Formals Critique

24:23
44

Reception Critique

18:33
45

Introductions and Toasts Critique

18:14
46

First Dances and Parent Dances Critique

17:47
47

Reception Party Critique

20:08
48

Night Portraits Critique

15:38
49

Month Three Homework

18:45

Day 6

50

Month 3, Week 1 - "Office Hours" Checkin

43:05
51

Month 3, Week 2 - "Office Hours" Checkin

28:11
52

Month 3, Week 3 - "Office Hours" Checkin

36:06

Day 7

53

Get Organized

30:40
54

Editing Q&A Part 1

28:57
55

Editing Q&A Part 2

32:18
56

Editing Critique Part 1

33:32
57

Editing Critique Part 2

31:48
58

Editing Critique Part 3

28:43
59

Editing Critique Part 4

29:33
60

Editing Critique Part 5

21:51
61

Final Image Critique

36:28
62

Album Design and Final Q&A

21:57

Lesson Info

Banking and Paying Yourself Review

banking and paying yourself to talk about how I do it, and I've gone over this before. But let's go over it again. I have personal savings and personal tracking. I have business savings and business checking. Then I have college, 5 to 9 accounts, IRAs, investments, the automatic deductions and random contributions. The reason for this is have a personal checking account where I pay all of my life expenses, right. If you work a 9 to 5, you get your paycheck. It goes into your bank account. You pay your rent, you pay your mortgage, you pay your utility bill. I do that just like everybody else. It's not coming out of business money. I have a personal savings account. It's like a basically a six month buffer in case anything were to happen to me. And I need a quick cash grab Teoh pay a medical expense or Teoh fix my car or something like that. It's kind of the Dave Ramsey method of having six months of operating income just sitting there easily accessible. My business checking account is w...

here all of my business stuff is run. My business savings account is where I set aside money every single month to pay my quarterly taxes. Um, any sales tax that needs to be paid. It's just sort of a holding pen. So then I know that I've got it out of my account, and it's sitting somewhere else for when I need it. Now, if tax time rolls around right like quarterly tax time, If I've got the money sitting in my checking account to pay it, I pay it and just leave it sitting in my savings account. And at the end of the year, I look at the over is that I have in my savings account. I pull some of it and put it in investments. I have 25 to 9 accounts with the state of New York for my daughters to go to college. I have a Sepp Ira that I fund every single year to the maximum amount, because that is pretax income. So if, for example, I can put $50,000 myself Ira and it means that I'm not paying taxes on it, I'll go ahead and put it away. That means you pay taxes on it when you take it out, but it lessens my tax burden right now on, and I just have some investment accounts that just automatically deduct every single month the money is pulled out and it's gone, so I don't have to think about it and then randomly throughout the year. If I notice any of my banking account at my bank accounts getting especially fat, I skim off the top and put that in investment as well. So that's how I handle. That's how I handle my finances. And I'm you know, there are a lot of people in in the mentorship program women who let their husbands to all of their finances, men who let their wives do all of their finances. I've just always on all of my own finances, like I've always had a very heavy hand in the financial day to day of my life, married or not married. So talking about banking earlier in the class last week, Windy has started obtaining the L C and a G I N number going out of town. When I return, I'll be opening my business account savings. I could not do that until I had these items set up. Sure, No, I was not sure if I would get a savings or a money market for the business. I had a money market in the past. It was a full time graphic designer, but a savings kind of fine. I'd always get paid from a client and put money away in the savings pay taxes. The question is, the question is, I could get the QuickBooks software and pay the one time to 50 for it. But they also have an online month, the month version, with full online help in a way for the accountant have access to with her own name and password as well. I have to think about which I will choose. I went with the online version just because the online version of QuickBooks is really pretty easy. Well, as easy as QuickBooks can be, which is to say, not at all. But I also like that if my accountant needs it, he can go log in with his information and get what he needs out of it, instead of me constantly having to run report since into him. And I like having it all online because no matter where I am, whatever computer I'm out, I can access these things so Anna. I'm in the process of getting a business account, but in doubt as to whether I need to account for just one. I can't see why it is so crucial to have everything separated into checking and savings accounts. And if you don't need to separate things into two accounts, don't do it. You don't need to have a savings account. If you want to have it all in your checking account and you can stay on top of it. You don't need a savings account. You're good to go. So before we delve into the monster that is pricing and profitability, any questions about anything so far related? Not related. We sure do. So this one is from Wendy. Do you charge Mawr if someone wants to put their payment on a credit card? Or do you offer discount if they want to pay cash? No, I do not offer a discount if they want to pay cash because I have to, and people ask me this all the time. Can we get it cheaper if we pay it in cash? And what they're suddenly telling you is, can we pay you under the table so you'll take a little bit off the top and I won't do that, a knocking a chance that it's not worth it. If I ever get audited and busted, if they pay cash, it's exactly the same as if they pay check or credit card. It gets recorded. Everything is a listen. I do everything above board I It's just not worth it to do it any other way. I don't charge people extra to use a credit card, but I do have it in consideration in my pricing. If someone pays for a credit card, I know they're going to take a percentage off the top. And so I make sure that my prices air profitable enough to take that hit. If someone wants to use a credit card from Britney Santos. Tax question, I am not making enough to pay tax. I'm way under 25 k Can I claim my expenses against my husband's income? I don't know. I have no idea. I don't think so, but I don't know. I am not an accountant, and me answering that question would be incredibly irresponsible. You're gonna have to ask an accountant that question. I don't know OK, but you do play one on TV. Is that correct? Sometimes I just I just really official all right. From Terror Brown. I'm considering going to Allah cart instead of packages because I feel like packages give people the idea that they can negotiate things Mawr if they might not want a certain aspect of it. I just want to say, Oh, you want thes several things. They cost acts. How do you recommend, or do you recommend making this transition? This is one of those. It's a personal decision, right? Like I don't felt all the card, because what happens for me when I fell? Ala cart People add everything up and they freak out over the price that they come to at the very end, right? And then I'm stuck with people who still want to negotiate. They just want to negotiate each of the pieces. So if you've got a coverage that X amount in an album, that's X amount in proofs that are Y amount of digital files that are why amount? Then, instead of negotiating a package price, you have people that want to negotiate every single element that goes into the package. Well, what if we took this out. Or what if we took an hour out or what? If we made a smaller book, then it's just it's negotiating just on a different level. So if you think that going from packages to all a cart will reduce the people that want to negotiate, that's not gonna happen. They're they're still gonna want to negotiate all pieces, right? Uhm, I'm pretty sure we covered this in your 30 days, but sprung photo would like to know how much. How do you know how much to pay yourself? Is it the same every month or percentage? That's a big question. It it is a big question, and I'm not trying to be rude, but that was literally the point of doing all of the homework assignments, right, like you to find out how much you needed to make every single year and like, let's say I need to make X amount per year. I'm going to divide it by months and pay myself every single month because I do better when I get a paycheck every single month. I know that that is my paycheck. That's what I have to pay my bills for the month I don't just randomly take draws for my business throughout the year. I take a flat chunk every single month, and I know how much to pay myself because I know how much money I want to bring in right. My $255,000 of desired income is desired income. Teoh by close to fund vacations It's everything. It's not just to pay my bills. It's like if I were going out to get a day job, this is how much money I would want to make from it. So I take that amount and I divided by 12. I mean, you could figure out what I pay myself if you take it in divided by 12 and put it in their taxes for me, because I know what my taxes are pretty reliably. If I make X amount per year, I'm paying. Why amount in taxes? So my taxes are actually figured in as a business expense because I can reliably predict what they are going to be every single year. So it's literally added in as a business expense line item for me. I paid $27,000 1/4 in taxes. That's bad. It's really got. It hurts. Um, I can't even really think about it. Just makes me really sad. So I actually have the you know, when you're looking at that $330,000 of operating expenses every single year for my business, and you're wondering how in the world that's possible, it's because almost $120, worth of that is estimated tax money that I know that is going to go out. If I hit this level of income, I will have this level of tax. So I have to, you know, I'm budgeting for it. Knowing that I'm trying to hit $525,000 a year means that I'm going to be spending about $120,000 in taxes. So I want to prep for it. Makes me cry, makes me cry. All right. Ready for one last one before we move on. Yes, Always seven stars. I'm looking and I'm looking at the government trademarking website. It looks like seven stars photography. Our business name is available. Seven stars photography. L. L C, however, is not. Do you know if there's a problem with having slight variation of an L L C name. I don't know. I don't know. I would recommend that they theater, you know, submit a support ticket and ask, or if they have any access to an attorney or a trademark attorney after them. I don't know. I would rather say, I don't know that Make up an answer That's wrong. My gut, probably is that it's probably not gonna work. That's that's what my thought is. But I don't know, I don't know. But anyhow, moving onwards this is my Bryson calculator. Um, it changes literally all the time because I'm always tweaking this always. I'm always changing my prices. I'm always reconfiguring my rates. This actually just changed. Like a week ago. I'm experimenting with a new price range price race for next year because I have hit the number that I need to hit. I was talking about September 1st. I'll know if I'm doing well for the next year or not. I'm doing well for the next year, but my average is not quite where I want it to be yet, so I'm trying a temporary price bump. What? I basically done my collection three stays the same. My collection one has become collection to write nine hours of photography, and a nine by 12 album with 65 images has become collection to. Then I invented a brand new collection, one which is 10 hours of photography, a bigger album and a second photographer. And I've always had a second photographer on my add ons list, but I made it. I made a whopper package that has a second photographer included. So for every single inquiry that says, But why don't you have a second shooter? I can now say I do, but it's in collection one. They're still paying for it, just as if they picked it off of the Ala cart list. I just created a package that included it. What it's done is it's shoving people towards my former collection, one which is now collection, too, and I'm looking more of that. But this is, you know, these spreadsheets stay the same, right? Like it's the exact same process, no matter how you change your packages around and my collection three right with the assistant with the post processing with the online proofing with the pre event dining with parking and all of that base times five. That's still my collection. Three. Right? Like I'm still working with that. And if I make changes, if I pay my assistant MAWR, if I pay more in post processing now I understand if I have a collection with a second shooter in it, who is also shooting, my post processing fee is going to go up. So as I debate a price range, I just bust out these spreadsheets and I just redo them over and over and over again. The biggest thing we'll get to that. Never mind. We're moving on. There were a lot of questions. This is the biggest section of what we're gonna be covering today. So let's go back and talk about me here for just a second, all right. So we talked about how much money that I need to make per year, right? We talked about that. I need to bring in $525,000 toe live life the way I want to. My goal is to shoot 35 weddings at an average of $7500. That's not my long term goal. That's my goal for next year or the year after this is my 24 month goal is issued 35 weddings a year at an average of $7500 which would mean I would bring in 262 5 Great. My current average per wedding is about $6400 which would mean to make that 2 62 5 I would have to shoot 41 weddings instead of my goal of 35. Right? So what you can see here is to shoot 35 weddings. I need to get my average higher. My goal in educating photographers is $100, a year, and I have no problem. And I've said this before and I will say this again. I have no problem admitting that I write things. I write books I teach things to make money from Photographers are not going to get up here and be that photographer who pretends that they write books for the general good will of the industry. But you know that they're really making a profit. So why just be honest, right? I started an educational component of what I do for a living to make a profit, you know? Do I still hope that it helps the industry. Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn't have written it. And do I offer up a lot of free educational opportunities off course Ideo. The goal of those free educational opportunities is to get people to buy my books. And I am completely transparent in that, You know, I'm not gonna get up here and pitch my books to you if you want them. You know where to find them. Great. But I do have them out there to make money on. So I'm not gonna lie and say that educating photographers is not an income line item in what I want to make every single year And for this 100,000 that I hope to make educating photographers, that is an obscene amount of work that goes into that. It's not just one day I wrote a book and put it online, and people gave me money. There is extreme work that goes into developing these products, riding these products, putting these products out there and making sure that they're valuable to people. So it's not if you think that somewhere down the road you want to educate photographers and that it's free money, its not free money. It is obscenely hard work. So let's say I hit my goal, right? My average of $ wedding at 35 weddings a year. My goal for education. I'm still short. 162 5 to hit my amount that I need to make per year. My goal is my new portrait business. My new glamour in boudoir business. If I could shoot 65 portrait say year, a 25 $100 each and I could raise my average per wedding, the $7500 I could shoot weddings 65 portrait. If I hit my educational goal, I'm golden, Right. This is my goal. What can I do that? But I can't. We're gonna talk. We're gonna revisit this flight again very shortly to talk about what happens if each of these things doesn't happen. What's my backup plan? If this portrait business doesn't take off? If I can't get my average up, what am I gonna dio gonna talk about that when we talk about what happens when you're not in a perfect world? But everybody has goals. These are my goals. This is my 24 month goal. My 48 month goal is to get my average up to about $9500 for wedding, which means that I could shoot a lot less and to get my average for portrait's up to $4000 which means I could shoot a lot less, which means I could dedicate more time to each one, which means I could work on sales more for each one. I have a plan and my plan is very far in the future. I'm not just making these things up.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Mentorship Launch and Social Media Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Numbers.zip
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Excel.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 1 - 7.pdf
Susan Stripling - Business and Marketing Workbook.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets - PDF.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 8 - 14.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 15 - 21.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 22 - 28.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 2 Homework.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Two Introduction Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Three Assignments.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

A couple years ago I attended WPPI and sat in on Susan's class. Out of all the classes I sat in on that year her's was in the top 2 for actual information and not just fluffy feel good hype. So I figured her Group Mentorship course would be a good one and it definitely has! A bit of background on me, I've been running my own wedding photography business for the last 6 years, 5 of those full time. I've taken tons of business courses and have circled back around to taking more classes to improve my craft. Susan's class focuses on both business and improving your craft. The big warning I have for this class is that there is a lot of homework, A LOT!!! But that is not a bad thing at all. I was swamped with weddings as the class started and was late to get to my homework but I'm so glad I didn't skip it because there was a lot of things I learned about my business just in answering her questions. I believe there were homework assignments every single day and while some are quick others will take awhile. So my recommendation is to take this course in your off season and use that down time to really concentrate on doing the homework and putting together questions to ask during the weekly chats. I was not able to do that as much as I wanted because of my schedule and I feel I did myself a disservice by not taking full advantage of what was offered. As another reviewer stated there were a lot of basic questions that were asked like how to get proper exposure in an image, etc. If you aren't sure how to do that then this class is not for you. I believe this class is geared towards those who are past the portfolio building stage and are looking to set their business up for success on the back end while improving their craft. Remember to ask questions, keep a notebook and write them down while doing your homework. Don't focus so much on what she uses for everything but why she uses it, if you understand the why you can apply that better to your business vs just the what. Again I would say to properly allocate time to take this class, treat it like a college class with weekly homework and study required. Don't buy it to watch later as you will lose out on most of what this class is about which is access to Susan for questions and feedback. Do the homework, I found the questions she asked us to answer led to a lot of revelations for myself in my business. Her questions led me to ask my own questions and review a lot of historical data for my business to get a better grasp on where I am. Luckily for me I'm doing way better then I thought ;)! Also I recommend for image critique to not just submit your best images, while we all like a pat on the back that won't make you better. She requested a mix of your best and areas of struggle. The images I submitted that I was struggling with are the ones where her advice will improve my craft.

Carissa
 

Susan, simply amazing photographer, amazing woman, amazing business woman! If you want your but kicked then this the course for you! A kick start for your 'business', awesome .. honest .... brutal.... critique.... don't take it personally.This is a course for beginners and for those been in business for 4 + years. I have been in business for 4 years and this helped me seriously start from the beginning again on the business side of things and fine tune my processes. I learnt so much.... but was also great to know I was on the right track. For those beginning - oh I wish I had this as a guide 4 years ago!!! Enjoy! worth every penny! cheers Carissa www.capture-t-moment.com

a Creativelive Student
 

I found this course helpful - but I also did all (well most) of the homework and I think to get the most out of this class you really need to be prepared to do the homework - which does require a reasonable time commitment. I found the business information (month 1) invaluable, and Susan was very, very active in the Facebook group, constantly answering our questions, which was great. Month 2 was a big image critique and I also found this very helpful. Month 3 was about editing and it was also a critique, which was helpful as well. Susan, Sandra (her assistant), Jen (her post production person) and CL worked very hard for us so we could get the best out of this course and I really feel I did get the most out of it that I could have gotten out of it. It is definitely worth it if you are willing to do the work. All of my questions were answered and I feel like my work is going to improve for the better now. If CL run any more mentorships such as this one, I would highly recommend them as I found I learned a lot more than in a regular class - because of the homework and the feedback (direct from Susan) on the homework. I am so glad that she was honest about my images because now I am seeing them in a new light (no pun intended).

Student Work

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