When I first started out as a Toronto Wedding photographer, I thought it would be 70% shooting and 30% working behind the desk. Oh boy was I wrong! The more shoots I booked, the more I ended up sitting behind the desk managing day to day tasks and admin work, and I haven’t even taken into account the editing time! I thought I had my workflow down once I had canned emails set up for my Gmail, contract templates in Word and reminders in Google Calendar but none of it was automated and I still HAD to spend hours just DOING IT.
DUBSADO saved my sanity! I kid you not! I’ve tried (actually subscribed and cancelled) a few other workflow management tools – some with fancy interfaces and a gajillion features, but to be honest nothing beats Dubsado’s simplicity and user experience. Dubsado is very easy to set up, very intuitive and has everything I need to make my life easier. Here are the top 5 features that I love:
Workflow Management
You can set up a workflow to automatically send out emails, questionnaires, forms at a scheduled time. You only need to create the workflow once, and then apply it to as many client as you like! Unlike in Gmail where you have to schedule EACH email one at a time, in Dubsado it’s just clicking ‘start workflow’ and the workflow is initiated for the client! THAT’S IT! For example, my ‘wedding’ workflow contains the following:
- Send out email wedding questionnaire 2 months before wedding date
- Send out thank you email 1 day after wedding date
- Send out happy first wedding anniversary email 1 year after wedding date.
By having a workflow in place, it saves me emotional time and energy from having to SET REMINDERS JUST TO REMIND ME TO REMEMBER WHEN I need to schedule the emails (even typing that out was complicated enough). If I spend 2 min per email, and I need to scheduled out 3 emails per client and I have 30 wedding clients, that’s 180mins just on scheduling emails, when instead I can spent 5 seconds to select my workflow and click ‘start’. Dubsado wins!
Emailing is synced with Gmail
This is so so so important to me because it would have been a deal break for me if Dubsado’s email didn’t sync with my Gmail. When Dubsado sends out emails to my clients as part of the workflow, the sent email will be synced with Gmail’s sent mailbox! Isn’t that amazing?! All my outgoing communications are still stored in one single location so if I ever need to go back to look for an old email, I can do so in Gmail.
Drag & drop to easily create forms and questionnaires
The last thing I want to do is to spend weeks in front of the computer setting up a new system – who even has time for that?! Dubsado made it ultra easy to create contracts, form, questionnaires, etc. Everything is drag and drop and the interface, although simple, is extremely user friendly for both you and your clients. You can easily add images to your questionnaire, text boxes, check boxes, date fields etc. There are smart fields too where it automatically inserts info specific to your client. For example, once your client info is entered into Dubsado, when you apply your contract template to that client, the smart fields in the contract will automatically be populated with your client’s info such as their wedding date, venue, first and last names, etc. It’s way easier than entering that information yourself!
I have a wedding questionnaire that I send out to my clients two months prior to their wedding. Once my client has completed the questionnaire, Dubsado will send a notification email to me and I can now view the completed questionnaire in the system. All the questionnaires and forms are stored in Dubsado, I no longer need to search my emails for PDFs and word documents.
Easy to implement inquiry intake form for website
Before Dubsado, when a client emails me I have to manually log that client information into an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the wedding date, venue, names and other info. With Dubsado, I used it to create the inquiry intake form template and then copy and pasted the automatically generated code into my Flothemes website. Whenever an inquiry comes in via my website, the client information is automatically logged into the Dubsado system. When I need to create a contract for that client, I no longer need to open up my Excel to copy and paste that client info into the contract – everything is done automatically in Dubsado!
Client Portal for your clients to access documents
This is such a unique feature and I strongly feel that this is quite the selling point that sets you apart from other photographers. You will appear so much more professional and organized by just telling your clients that you have a client portal set up just for them so they can access their documents anytime. Their portal is very pretty and you can customize the look and feel according to your brand colours. All your client questionnaires, forms, contracts, invoices can be stored in one single location for both you and your clients to access. Dubsado not only works for your as a business, but it also helps YOU serve your clients better.
I’ve done enough trial and error with other workflow management tools and I’m so happy that I’ve found Dubsado. If you’re ready to give this a try, use the code RHYTHM or click here to get 20% off your first month!
