Systems In Creative Business

Using systems in your business is easy. Systems will lead to more clients, a better experience for clients, fewer headaches for you, and a more efficient workflow.

Every creative business is going to differ in how it runs. My client onboarding will look different from your client onboarding. My day-to-day is different from someone else’s day-to-day. And that’s ok.

What’s important is that we have systems in place that ensure we do things the same way every time. These can be as simple as rules that need to happen when you have to get something done. Let’s use an example.

What happens when a client agrees to work with you?

If you’ve already worked with a few clients you’ve got some idea of what works and what doesn’t in the onboarding stages. I’m sure you’ve figured out that you should be invoicing 50% when they sign. But what else?

For my company, it always goes like this:

Client signs contract

Client receives invoice for 50%

You send the client an onboarding form

They fill it out with their project needs, likes + dislikes

You create a mood board and send that over

Client reviews and books a prep call in your calendar

Writing this all out makes the process seem super simple, and it is. But it’s still important to go through the steps in this order.

Sometimes clients ask you if we can hop on a prep call right after they sign. It will be up to you to explain the system you have in place and why it’s important that they fill out the onboarding form + get a mood board first.

By completing those things first, both parties will gain a deeper understanding of the project. Then during the prep call, you can both have a more in depth conversation and answer any specific questions they have. This way no one’s wasting anyone’s time on a call.

Maybe you don’t have an onboarding form yet. If there’s no system in place, that onboarding form could be 10 emails going back and forth to learn about project needs.

No clear system will lead to confusion in payment, when it’s due, and how they should pay it.

This is just one example of a systematic approach in your business. You can have a systematic approach to taking photos. If you travel, you can have a simple checklist of what gear you need to pack for every shoot (even this counts as a system!). You can have a systematic approach to edits and the review process.

My homework for you is to think of areas in your business that often repeat themselves, and to write out a checklist of what has to get done every time that scenario comes up.