I’m a part of multiple communities but what Lara Sheldrake has created with her network Found & Flourish is really unique!

I’ve met a huge amount of fantastic, supportive women in business to exchange ideas, to work work with or work for and something that comes as close to a team as I could get while working for myself.

Our local community has a WhatsApp chat and brunches every couple of months. These women are 100% my tribe and my safety net in business. So if you run your own business, have a look at what Found & Flourish does – and if you feel like you’d like some colleagues, join us (this is my direct sign-up link)!

This membership is kind of like an online course to learn how to run and market a photography business but it’s also a community of like-minded people who all struggle with very similar things. And most of us don’t have business or marketing degrees – we’re artists first, then business owners.

Julie Christie who runs this group is our mentor and guide on how to use our craft to make a living and do this feeling good about it. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but Julie made up for me not having any sense or even interest in the topic of business.

My business would probably not be my full-time income today if it wasn’t for The Photographer’s Voice! Through this community, I found business friends who are technically my competition but we are all so different, despite some of us working in the same genre, that usually our client base doesn’t massively overlap anyway. Instead, we inspire and push each other to be as successful as we can.

If you are a photographer, definitely check this group out!

I write weekly emails to my audience (not signed up yet? You can do that here if you wish.) where I share stories about running a business that i don’t talk about anywhere else. My email list is small enough to feel like a safe space – and since I get beautiful feedback every time I am most scared to press send on a message, I know that my readers are my people.

But coming up with something to say week after week is actually hard work sometimes. Not every email I send is about selling a product or a service, so I got myself some help for when I’m not sure what to say.

That’s what the email guru Liz Wilcox helps me with through her Email Marketing Membership. She creates templates and generates ideas for things to write about. So when I have writer’s block, I’ll ask her for help (by looking through a big database of suggestions).

Email marketing is famously the most effective sales tool and if you don’t use it, I’d suggest you look into that!

About a year ago I realised I don’t enjoy posting on Social Media enough to put any energy into it. So I hired a virtual Assistant. My VA is called Courtney (in my head, she’s Clem though because that’s her business name) and I found her through Found&Flourish.

Courtney takes all the content from my blog – there is a lot! – and creates bite-sized versions of it and schedules them for me. If it wasn’t for her, my Instagram would probably be pretty much inactive. However, I know that a lot of people are following me on Insta for ad-hoc updates, announcements, new project reveals and all the updates about my plants and sewing projects (both are the kind of stories I get the most feedback on).

I love writing long-form content like blog articles and emails but cutting them down and repurposing them for social media is not my thing. Even ChatGPT doesn’t work for me here (I know some swear by that to create any form of content). If that sounds familiar to you and you haven’t hired any help yet, I’d definitely suggest talking to a VA.

This is a new one – I’ve started to work with a fantastic accountant called Caroline Boardman this month. So far, my finances were all in my hands but I’ve had Caroline help me before with submitting my self-assessments. This is another connection through Found&Flourish by the way….

It feels like this is a huge step for me. I’m not giving up control but it’s a vulnerable part of my business to get some help for. But I know that having the security of someone who knows what they’re doing much better than me, gives me the time and freedom to look after the creative side of my business. It feels like I’m growing up – or rather my business is…

This one is actually a tool, not a person or a team…

I’ve held off as long as I could with letting AI have a part of my business. I don’t trust it enough and am scared of where this is all going.

However, AI image editing has come a long way and since I tried it a few months ago, the programme I use, Imagen AI, has gotten better and better at editing like I do. I still check and hand-edit every single photo I deliver to my clients but having an app get me 95% to the finished product really helps me speed up my workflow. It means I can deliver images quicker and put more time into anything that needs more attention to provide the best service I can as a photographer – whether that’s editing or anything else.

So, if you are a photographer, have a look at Imagen and try it for yourself. With this link, you get 1500 free edits to test and see if you like it.