Finding down time to work ON our business is so difficult when we are busy working IN our business. The daily happenings of our businesses like checking email, sending contracts, scheduling sessions, shooting, editing, and more of what takes up the majority of our time have come to a halt. So we must admit, this pause (while financially devastating for small businesses like ours) is kind of growing on us – we’re doing our part for our community by staying home, washing our hands often, and monitoring the CDC reports, but we’re also taking advantage to do some things that have been meaning to do for a while. Here are 5 things we’re doing in our business during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Financial
- We are analyzing all our P+L reports, really diving deep into what services/projects have been the most profitable, and putting an emphasis on what worked well for us in 2019. David also went to the bank this week (We use Wells Fargo Business) and reviewed our options. We have set aside savings for times like these, but because we are not sure just how long this craziness will last, knowing our options was an important step for us. The gentleman who helped him was incredibly informative and reviewed our options with him, which he then brought home to discuss with me. We ended up applying and being accepted for a business line of credit. What we understood was that a line of credit is a great form of available cash, lower interest than any credit card, and more flexible than a loan. The great things about this is that for the first 12 months, they offered us a fixed interest rate of 4.99% After that, the interest can vary, but we only have this as an additional safety measure to allow our business to stay afloat in the case that this outbreak lasts longer than we expect and we are unable to produce additional income during the remainder of the year. This line of credit can be closed at any time without repercussions and we believe it was a good decision for us at this time. While debt is not something we consider to be part of our business, these times are putting our business at risk, and we are willing to do what is needed to save it. Please be sure to speak to your banker as the details can vary, what’s most important is that you do what you believe is right for your business.
Brand + Marketing
- Tweaking our messaging – We have been working really hard to use copy that attracts our ideal clients and finding ways to inject our personalities and values into our brand. We have answered #allthequestionnaires and #brainstormedallthethings ! We got out our notebooks, brainstormed and reworded just about everything, we’re working on our StoryBrand and making the best out of it. In addition, if you’ve been following us on Instagram, we have a big launch coming this summer (si Dios quiere) and we’re taking this opportunity to shift our energy to focus on things we don’t usually have as much time to do, like this launch. We’re even giving our website a much needed facelift by the end of the year!
Administrative
- Cleaning out our hard-drives and updating photo storage: We have over 10 TB worth of photos, files and videos from when we started our business until now. During this time, we plan to delete any unnecessary or duplicate files, organize they type of sessions by year and hard-drive, and preparing personal photos for album printing. This doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but when you’re waiting for files to copy or using two screens to double check everything you moved over actually moved over – ? it takes about a whole weeks’ worth of focused time and about a year’s worth of patience!
Education
- This week we’re having a coaching call with the amazing Chelsea Nicole, wedding photographer + educator based in Las Vegas. We have been long time followers of her youtube videos and recently had the chance to be a part of her first course as Beta Testers – what an honor! We have gone through her course and let us tell you this – you’ll be mind-blown with all the ninja tips! When her course is officially out we will share all the details! Anyway, we’re having a coaching call with her this Saturday -eek! and we are soooo very excited! We also form part of Jasmine Star‘s Social Curator, a social media subscription with our favorite #girlboss! There’s so much content we haven’t been able to put to work for us, but we are going to go ? to ? work ? on this starting now! We’re also taking time to read more than usual! We try to read at least 15 minutes a day and we’ve upped it to 30, woohoo! At the moment I am reading Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller – I am in the last chapter – and David is reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Bruchard, both highly recommended.
Resources
- In this incredibly uncertain time, we want to be here for you! So we are also working on creating resources to help both the couples and entrepreneurs we serve. So far for our brides, we have published a blog post in which we guide them what to do if you have to postpone their wedding due to the Coronavirus and also created 2 free email templates they can use to notify their guests of said changes. For our entrepreneurs, we published this blog post sharing 5 Things We Are Doing in our Business During the Coronavirus Outbreak. Some resources you can expect from us soon are: Work From Home Productivity Tips, How to Plan a Purposeful Branding Session, and 3 Ways to Support Small Businesses without Spending a Dime. Is there anything you need help with -how can we be of service?
XOXO, David + Meivys
M Suarez Photography
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