Charting a creative path
Jeremy Chou started his career as an architect. He was successful and had a good job, but something was missing: creativity.
Initially picking up a camera for a creative outlet outside of work, Jeremy soon booked his first wedding. Then his bookings started to pickup, and after 30 months and nearly 50 weddings, he was able to leave his old job and run his professional photography business full time.
“Halfway through my second year in business, I realized I needed help – a lot of help,” said Jeremy. “I still had a full-time job at the time, and I couldn’t keep up with both the demands of my photography business and my full-time job at an architect’s office. It was between either hiring a full-time office manager or implementing a studio management system to help me run my business.”
Discovering ShootQ
After a lot of research, Jeremy discovered ShootQ and decided to implement it over hiring an employee. “It was between ShootQ and Tave, and ShootQ came out on top,” he said. “ShootQ was already integrated with Pictage, so I could get a virtual office manager and online gallery tied together. It was the best of both worlds.”
Jeremy has been using ShootQ to run his office and business ever since. “I setup the P3 automatic payment system, so I don’t have to chase clients for money,” said Jeremy. “They are billed and reminded automatically, so I don’t have to worry about it. Plus, you can’t beat the 1.5 percent processing fee!”
Building a business and a team
Jeremy took advantage of everything ShootQ has to offer to build his professional photography business, from Leads and Tasks to Booking, Contracts, Workflows and more. “Everything is right there in one place,” he said. “I can keep track of my associate photographer scheduling, and my associates have their own logins, too, so they can see their own assignments. It’s really awesome!”
“One of the biggest and most useful things for me is the financial tools,” said Jeremy. “Very quickly, I can see a snapshot of my finances throughout the entire year and historical data. It really helps me plan for the slow months and not overspend on the more popular months. I can also see what the most popular services for my studio are and where we are lacking. It helps me hone in on areas where I can improve.”
“My business grew much faster than I had ever expected, and I didn’t have the resources to support the increased demand,” said Jeremy. “ShootQ has been an invaluable part of my studio from the very beginning! Between implementing ShootQ or hiring a full-time office manager, ShootQ is a much more affordable option. It ensures all my clients have a consistent experience with me being their photographer, and it definitely helped my studio reach the high-end clients much faster.”
Managing a thriving business from anywhere
ShootQ’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model allows Jeremy to run his business from the cloud, whether he is at home, his studio or on the go. “I love it!” he said. “I can login from my laptop or the simple app for iPhone; it does its job. I can change a lead status to automatically respond via email without having to create one each time. It’s so much better now that I don’t have to stop what I am doing to type up an email. I can also prepare contracts, manage lead tracking and assign status to leads on my iPhone app.”
Improving customer service
“Before I implemented ShootQ, clients had no consistent experience with my studio,” said Jeremy. “It was all over the place. Some clients would receive more correspondence than the others. ShootQ really helped me improve my client service. It sends automatic emails and reminders, so I know what needs to happen and when. My clients love the automatic payment schedule via P3 (Pictage Payment Processing) because of its convenience. ShootQ has been great for my studio because I am not bogged down in front of my computer all day taking care of administrative tasks. It allows me to focus on growing my business for the future.”
Enjoying the benefits of ShootQ
“My business is definitely growing and expanding,” said Jeremy. “ShootQ allows me to do it all. I can take care of all my clients in a way I couldn’t before. I also just launched my associate photographer program this year, and we are already seeing great success. I honestly would not be able to do it all by myself!”
“I love what I do and share my story. I also love sharing the benefits of ShootQ – often,” said Jeremy. “I founded a Facebook group that specifically caters to professional wedding photographers in Southern California, and I host webinars and offer workflow workshops to teach other photographers how I grew my business to where it is today. ShootQ has definitely been a huge part of that.”
When asked what he does with all the time ShootQ saves him, Jeremy said, “Because ShootQ takes care of a lot of the more mundane administrative tasks for my office, I have more time to grow my business. I also have more time to be with my family. For example, my wife and I both volunteer a lot of our time at our children’s school PTA. I definitely live my life with a lot more balance now than I did before!”
Specialty: Wedding
Location:
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Challenge(s): Managing day-to-day tasks of growing business
Solution: ShootQ
Result: More time to shoot, new associate photographers and a consistent experience for all customers
Former Solution: Nothing – a very inconsistent process
“ShootQ has been an invaluable part of my studio from the very beginning! Between implementing ShootQ or hiring a full-time office manager, ShootQ is a much more affordable option.”
Jeremy Chou