Honeybook
Honeybook… it sounds kind of sweet, maybe a little nerdy… but what the heck is it?? If you are a photographer and don’t have Honeybook, chances are you have definitely heard the name!
Honeybook is what I consider my client relationship management software. It keeps all of my clients / projects together in one place! Whenever someone contacts me on my website, their contact information is automatically saved and pulled in as a new lead within Honeybook. I can then send emails, questionnaires, contracts & proposals all through this one place – aka it keeps all my shit together so I don’t have to!
When I first got Honeybook about 4 years ago, it was the single biggest investment I had made in my business that was not physical photography gear. And it literally paid for itself within 6 months through referral codes!
My 3 Favorite Features
1.The Pipeline
You guys. The pipeline CHANGED the freaking game for me. Before I jumped in & got Honeybook I would literally just flag all of the emails that I had to respond to or follow up on. I would be scouring my email every single night and morning to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anyone, hadn’t missed any inquiry emails, and to make sure that clients had actually paid me. Let me tell ya, the anxiety was real. Now I have this beautiful (customizable) pipeline that imports all inquiries as prospects, and I push them through each stage until our project is complete! Here is a screenshot from my current pipeline:
I set mine up to pull in prospective clients as inquiries, which I then follow up on typically within 12 hours. Once we have agreed on the services I will send them a personalized proposal, which they then can then sign my contract and pay my retainer. They then live in the planning stage until we shoot their session, at which point they move on to session complete. Once all pictures are delivered I can then mark them complete! While it sounds like a lot when it is all written out, it flows through the system super easily & I can pull this up at any time to see how many projects are going on in each stage.
2. Templates
You can save pretty much anything as a template within Honeybook! Emails, questionnaires, contracts, proposals… you name it, you can save it. This has honestly saved me so much time in the long run! It does take some on the front end to set up everything the first time, and then it is smooth sailing from there.
3. Automatic Reminders
I used to DREAD sending those ‘Hey, hi, please pay me thanks…’ emails to clients days before a shoot. With Honeybook I am able to send a proposal that has the contract for them to sign electronically and also outlines the payment schedule, along with a built in payment system – which means almost all of my clients pay their retainer BEFORE the due date! For reference, I require a 50% non refundable retainer for me to hold a date for any project, and it is due 1 week after I send the proposal. The remaining 50% is due 2 weeks BEFORE their session date. For the few clients that do not pay before the due date, I set up Honeybook to automatically send them reminder emails! This comes in most handy before their actual session, so clients typically get a reminder email a few days before that 2 week mark before their session. When they pay for the retainer, clients also have the option to click a box that automatically pay the remainder on the next due date – easy for them & works for me!
My ONLY slight complaint would be the credit card fee. There is a 3% fee that Honeybook automatically takes out with every payment received. While the fee is a little high for my taste, the payment feature has honestly been so worth it – no more having to collect checks or being handed an awkwardly large wad of cash (yes that would happen back in college, what a time lol).
Interested in trying it out for yourself? You can get 50% off your first year when using my referral link! Questions? Shoot me an email at kirbykphoto@gmail.com I’m more than happy to answer!
Full disclosure: I do get a kickback whenever someone uses this link & signs up, but that’s just another in a long list of reasons why I love this company!
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