How to know when to hire associate photographers
I know you’ve seen others in the photography space scaling their businesses with associate photography teams. You dream of having a team someday and expanding your business in that way. You’re feeling stuck in your current season of business, weighing all of the different ways to expand your business so you can eventually work less and feel supported by your business.
Living our dream life is why we jump into entrepreneurship in the first place, isn’t it?! Til we wake up one day being run by our business.
But it’s important to question whether you’re ready to hire associate photographers yet, and whether it’d even be something you’d enjoy in your business.
Don’t just make business decisions because everyone else is doing it. Think about how it aligns with YOUR specific passions and gifts.
Truth be told, I was not 100% ready when I decided to hire associate photographers back in 2016. BUT, like any business decision I’ve benefitted in the past, I didn’t wait around until I was 100% ready. I got to work because I knew it supported the business I dreamt of.
All that to say, you won’t ever feel 100% ready, but here are a few things to consider before jumping into starting an associate photography team of your own.
You have support.
If you plan to keep shooting the same amount of weddings you have been shooting personally AND adding on associate work, you’re going to need some help managing all of it! Having an assistant or editor to run the backend tasks will help you manage the team with ease. I’ve heard plenty of stories of people who book a ton of associate weddings and find themselves in that first year dropping the ball on so many things for their clients because they don’t have the support in place that they need to manage the larger workflow.
You’re in demand.
This one is kind of self-explanatory, but if you’re not getting enough inquiries yet, it’s probably not time to start an associate photography team! When you start turning brides away for being booked on their date, you can start to think about bringing someone on to take those dates for you.
You have systems set in place.
To circle back to #1, if you don’t have the support or systems set in place to smoothly manage a larger client load, you’re going to regret bringing on an associate team. While it allows us to shoot less, the workload increases and can quickly cause burn out from the backend tasks if you’re not set up strategically. Take some time writing down all of your workflows and looking for ways you can save time.
You enjoy running a business and leadership.
You gotta enjoy the backend of running a business and leading a team. Take a look at your specific gifts. Do you enjoy connecting with people? Are you a natural leader? Are you efficient? Where are your specific gifts in the backend of running a business? How do you handle conflict?
Spend some time writing down your specific gifts + leadership style. You may find that you don’t enjoy all that goes into managing a larger workflow + running a team.
Like I said above, you’ll never be 100% ready for anything in life. But if you matched most of these in this current season, I would say you’re ready to make the the leap! It’s such an exciting, expansive business venture and I’m SOOOO excited to see what all comes of it.
Like thousands of more dollars in profit each year for you to be supported in other areas of your business.
A new group of creative best friends.
Personal growth in all you learn about leadership along the way.
The whole process can be super overwhelming. I know cause I was in your shoes. ;) SO, I created a course that walks you step by step in how to build an associate team. I walk through everything from what tax forms to have them fill out to what to look for while hiring to getting brides to WANT to book your associates.
xoxo,
Ali Leigh
