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17Hats Highlight

17 Hats is the company that I use and I really, really enjoy them. They've made my life so much easier. And, um, I think we're gonna be switching over to my computer. Now. I am going to say theseventies hats account that I'm in is like a dummy one because I have a lot of my clients personal information in my own. So these aren't gonna be my specific work flows, but it'll give you a really good sense of how it works. So you can see today says tune into Hannah Marie. Uh um I didn't put that there. I'm not tuning into myself. I'm not like that split personality. Um, was this attached to the computer? So, um, this is the overview screen. And when you come here, it basically tells you everything that you need to know. It summarizes everything in the left column. So right here you can see I have two new leads. I have 29 past due invoices. Whoever this fixer is like needs to get on top of her clients to pay. Uh, but that's really handy because then actually can automate it to remind your clie...

nts if they haven't paid yet it will just automatically send them an email. Um, but when you have that automated, do you need to be on top of, like, marking when they have paid? Because otherwise, they'll get that email after they've paid. Um, you have three hours of un build time tracked. So again, I don't typically use the time tracking, but if you did, it would be right there and 83 transactions to categorize. And that's in the book keeping. You have recent activity so I can log in right here, and I can see Okay, Awesome. Like Don, his son has accepted my quote or viewed it, Um, and it just gives you a rundown and everything that's happening. I also get emails when all of these things happen. But it's nice to just have them all there right in that place, and then I can see. Okay, my client has opened that contract like five times, and they haven't signed it yet. Maybe I should send them an email and say, Hey, um, I just want to make sure that you don't have any questions or concerns. Is there anything else I can answer for you and again that helps them to feel really well taken care of. Or maybe they haven't even looked at it yet. And it's been like two weeks, although you can also put deadlines on it. So I always say You need to book this within five business days and I'll hold the date for that long and then it expires, and it just automatically expires. So when you come on in here, you have your contracts. Oh, I was like I was trying to click with the, um, tapping the actual effect Like it. Okay, so here your contacts and it's super organized. You can search them up here. You can search tags, and it's really helpful for just keeping all of your client information in one place. Ah, you're leads. So if you have people who have contacted you, I actually have on my Facebook page and on my website contact form that is designed by 17 hats and Aiken branded to my company. So it has like my color on the click button, and I love that because as soon as somebody feels in one of the 17 hats forms and they don't even know what 70 nights it automatically generates, a hot lead in here, so I don't even have to input their information. Ah, here is what the projects page looks like. So any projects that I have going on right now, I can just see them all right here. And I can click on something if I need to check up on where they're at with it. My calendar. And once you have your workflow set, it will actually fill in your calendar for you to let you know. Oh, you need to email them. It's like six weeks out from the wedding. You need to send this email, and I can just either have it automatically go out, or I like to just review it before it goes out, just to make sure it's exactly what it needs to be saying my to do's no to do items. And again, this list is usually formed by your workflow. So if you have a to do item in your workflow and it's like I have to design this album, Thanet would show up here as well as on that main page, My invoices. So these are all the invoices, and as you can see, Syria's doing extremely well uh um, But I love it because you can see which ones over here on the right column are pending. Which ones are Castillo? Which ones were paid? So just helps you to keep on top of it. You can send reminders, and, uh, and it actually automatically links it with your book keeping, which is down here. So when you log into your bookkeeping, um, you can view all transactions or to be categorized. I like to be the to be categories because that's all I really need to see. And then I can just select a category here. So let's say, like Home Depot, I bought some things for, um my set. If I'm doing, like a creative shoot that I could just come in here and select the right, um, category. So let's just call that equipment rental for simplicity's sake. You can click that, and then you can click, verify, and then it puts it into that portion of, um of your bookkeeping. So then you can keep track of, like what percentages of everything are going on. And in your book, keeping you can come on up here to your reports and you can see a profit loss margins your sales tax. That's really great, because then you can know. Okay, I need to keep this amount aside for my taxes when they come up of coming receivables and aged receivables. Um, one of the suggestions that I loved from again I think it was the same business course that I mentioned earlier with the Duncans. But, um, one of those guys mentioned actually having different accounts within your bank. So there's one for taxes. So when you deposit your your, um, receive payments, then you can immediately put whatever a portion of that is taxes into your tax section so you don't even touching. It's just there for you. But this, I mean with my bank actually have to pay for each individual account. So I just like to do it here. I can keep track. Okay, there's $1000 that I need to be paying out for my taxes. So I just need to keep that in the back of my mind. And it's something that's really nice to be able to check in on. So one of the things that I mentioned is that weaken dio templates. So when we come here. You come on into the templates and it's really nicely organized so all your email templates will be up at the top and then your quote templates, your contracts, invoices and questionnaires. And it actually comes with a bunch of templates already done in there for your emails. Um, I changed a lot of them with the wording just to ensure that they're consistent with my own company's branding. And I see you just basically like opening up, edit it and then you can make it say whatever you want. So if somebody signed a contract, I would probably say, Hey, thank you so much. I'm really, really excited to working with to work with you. And I'm excited, Teoh. Whatever. And just say something personal and, um, and what you can do is, well, let's say if I can put in their first name these air tokens so I can say Hi, Sarah, and it'll automatically enter their first name for you. I can also say I'm really, really looking forward to shooting your family session in Project location on Project Date, and so again it looks really customized. And yet it's the same for all my clients The one thing that I watched for it is if I'm photographing and client every year, I don't want them to be getting like, the exact same emails over here. So I just like mental note. Okay, I need to switch this up a bit so that I can make it a bit more personal again. So these are the templates, and, um, are there any questions so far? I'm kind of like breezing through this. Yeah. Go for it. Related to the finance portion. Are you actually linking that than to your bank account and everything? And it's showing all of the expenses you have. Yeah, I totally missed that part. Eso it's completely linked to my bank account. My credit card. Um so it automatically imports it for me. So every week, when I going to do that, it often will again prompt me saying, um, is this what it is? And then I can change it, or I can just say verify. But it brings everything in for me. And then also, what you can do is link like if your client, um, paid in cash. If you accept cash, I mainly accept checks and online transfers Um, but then when and when something's coming up in my book being area, I can actually assign it to a contact and say, OK, this person is paid there thing, and then it links it to that account. Can I ask another question? It's really related to Leeds. Um, are you forcing everyone then to contact you view the forms so that their auto populating everything or like when people call you and what are you having to then import? Oh, yeah. No. So if somebody's calling me first, um, that I would definitely just create my own. I can just click this plus button up here and put in the information, and then you can just open it up in sake, client active and or a cold prospect or another. So if it's somebody that I'm not working with, they would go into the gray one. There's somebody other. Um, but yeah, I don't I want to make this is like my clients experience as simple as possible. So that means if they haven't used that forum, I'll just go into it. I'm gonna go for one more because it is related to this. Do with your marketing then that goes in the post. Um, are you able to create, like, your annual male marketing? Because all of their information addresses air in there. And so is there something that automates like over like, imprinted? We'll address address stickers. You know what I call like, mailing labels, or how is it is it is doing that for you were, by any chance, just curious. This is a pretty amazing stuff asking that too export context. Okay. And then it can Thank you. Yeah, that's a really good question. This company seven tats is only about, like, 10 or 11 months old. These guys are, like, brand new, and so they're really, really like it seems like every week or two every month they're coming out with amazing new tweaks to this and new, um, new features, and they're really, really responsive. So it's great coming in about 17 hat, specifically, one is is a coupon code for 17 hats. We just found out that there is one. Yeah, absolutely. So you're gonna just added this morning. Do you want to explain that? Yeah, sure. So the coupon code for 17 hats just head over to their website and the coupon code is creative life, and it is for 20% off your very first year membership. An annual membership. Yeah, and it's super affordable is $13 a month. This isn't like like some of them are like in the twenties or thirties. This is super accessible because they know that their target client, they know who their target client is. Um, they know how to get us. It's that's l'Opera, nure and often sell a printers and don't have a lot of money to invest in big things like this. But this will, like, totally change your business and allow you Teoh send emails by Napa by pulling up or whatever. Is there a fee for invoicing like doing your invoices through 17 hats? Or is that just part of Do you know what? I know that there is there a few for just invoicing. Yeah, so, yeah, so what? They're asking. I don't actually usually accept credit cards, and if I do, I use square just because it's easy and it's right there. I really encourage my clients to either send me online transfers or checks, and I am I allowed to tell them what you guys were planning for checks. I just found this out and it's really exciting and don't know what it's gonna be launched. So don't ask. Umm, but they're actually allowing, like, the photo import of checks into your 17 account. So, um, I think that's really exciting because it's easier to track checks I don't have to deal with, like, credit card fees. And I expect what I heard was that only $5 like, regardless of percentage, it's like the maximum you will be charged for importing your check is $5. So what about integrating pay? Pau Uh, or any kind of Yeah, you can integrate people. Yeah. Oh, question. With related Teoh save. You have a photography business, but you also have, say, boudoir. And so one of the recommendation was to have a completely separate brand on logo for that. So to accountings about separation and tracking, does 17 hats allow you to have multiple businesses or multiple brands? Um, that's a really good question. It's only one brand per account. However, if you have more than one brand, you can get multiple accounts per brand for free, See pay once and then Yeah, it was company A, B or C, but it's all under one parent company. I guess so. I only have one brand. So that's why I don't know the answer to that. That's all right. Thank you. Yeah. So were there any other questions online about your sort of motivation? Like you said, you have some things in place that help you get started in the morning. Same serial. Some of those, like, really practical things. But even with something that is end to end and comprehensive as 17 hats, do you still deal with staying organized or motivation or what are those issues? And how do you deal with the stuff that that can? Yeah. Well, my motivation comes from the fact that if I don't do it, nobody else is going to and I have to hustle. Um, that's like, I don't have other stuff to do these things for me. Um, and maybe one day I will. But even then, like, it's like Walt Disney. Like when he used Teoh. I'm dropping all these company names and I haven't checked with them, but I'll just assume it's OK. Um but I've heard these stories of when he was at Disney World or Disneyland and he saw garbage on the ground. He wouldn't go call somebody to pick out up. He would just pick it up. It is his company. Every job that's under him is still his job, even though he's well does it. So, um, yeah, my motivation just comes from that. Do I struggle with it? Yeah, of course. And I mean, the benefit of me not having kids and not having any other people relying on me is that if I did happen to stay up too late the night before, I can technically sleep in, Um or what I would do is if I'm replying to emails later at night. Just because I know I have a shoot first thing in the morning or something has If I do know that I want to sleep in that all, actually, right. Prepare those emails the night before, but I don't have them send until 9 a.m. Or like 903 or 907 because I don't want my clients thinking that I'm emailing them at night. I don't want them to think that I'm available to them at night because I'm not. If I'm choosing to do my work at night. That's different. But I use if it's the case which it isn't often I actually use. And I think they're called AB in Gmail called Boomerang, and it will send it out at whatever time. My schedule s O, I think, Did that kind of answer it? I Yeah, I just have to hustle because it's my company and it's my brand. And I know that my hustle is going to translate to my clients experience, and that's like the number one thing for me. So, um, I'm going to go back into these guys. So I showed you the templates. There's email settings to link your account. So when you have emails coming in, um, again, it didn't actually show it here because I don't think they have a real account listed. But on my account on my main page, it will actually show me, like here the emails that you haven't replied to, and I can just like reply to them straight here, which is really nice, because it's really easy for them to get lost in my inbox. And the other nice thing is that it's on Lee importing the emails for the contacts that I have in 17 hats. So it's not gonna show me like that advertisement that I haven't read yet. It's just my clients. Um, the other thing I wanted to show you was how the quotes work go into the workflow. I haven't touched on workflow yet. Okay, so workflow is like, my favorite thing about all of this. Uh, I can't believe that. I forgot about that. And basically, when you're creating your workflow, you can come in here, we'll go back to account settings. Well, actually can do it right here. Just click plus workflow, and I'll name it, um, family portrait. It's select a calendar Peron, Sarah's and save. So then this is my new family portrait's workflow. I click at, um the very first thing that I want to do is probably a to do list, which is or no, I would want to add my action. So in action is something that it's actually going to do for me, and I'm not gonna have to worry about it. Um, so I'm going to say at an action, and my action is send an email. Now, let's just say I in mind. I have all my emails there already, so I can just select from all my email templates. And let's say, let's schedule a meeting is actually, um, my very first email like, Was that my clients so that I can choose. Do I want to approve it before sending or send it automatically? Um, I do know a lot of photographers who send them automatically. Um, but mine I really like to approve before sending again just to add that extra level of, um, I don't know it just maybe it's the controlling in me. I just want to know that it's exactly what it needs to be saying. If I need Teoh, customize it anymore and this would say Activate zero days after activating this workflow. So that would happen immediately. I can also target it, Um, maybe 30 days before the project date or in the case of a family session, they have their styling consulate with me four weeks out. So maybe six weeks ahead, I'm going to send the email and say before project date. Ah, what, six weeks? We'll just say like, 45 days, 45 days before the project. It I'm going to send them an email and say, Hey, um, let's, uh, organize or let's schedule are styling Consul here. The dates I have available one works for you again. They don't want to be making decisions. So I give them three dates, usually one in the morning, when in the afternoon, one in the evening, in different times of the week, different days of the week so that they have variety there to choose from. And you know something like that. You can also take decision fatigue into account. If you have the opportunity to meet with them in the morning, that's way better than meeting with them at, like eight. PM because they're gonna be tired. And they're just gonna be like, Oh, I don't know what I wanna wear like this is a frustrating experience. Get to them in the morning and it'll be they'll have a lot of energy to give it to you. For that, it will be a lot more fun. So that's how you set up one of your action items. Soldiers say save. And then I can add another one. Um, I'll show you the other action items that are available. Senate email sent a questionnaire. Eso If you want to find out more about the family or more about the wedding date, whatever it is you want to find out about your clients, you can send the questionnaire, send a quote, sent a contract, send an invoice and within the quote, you can actually also include the contract and invoice. But I'll cover that in a second. So then you can also add it to do list. And that can be anything. So whether it's to dio um, the night before or the day before I have a shoot, my to do's are Make sure my batteries are plugged in. Make sure my memory card is like, clear. Just all of those two DUIs that my computer can't actually do for me. Things that I actually have to dio. And then, when done, do nothing When done, sent an email when done, sent a questionnaire, a quote, contract invoice, phone log or a project note. So maybe the to do list is, um, confirm the date with, um, and once I've confirmed that over the phone, then as soon as I've marked that is done, I can send an email saying Hey, it was great to chat with you today. I just wanted to confirm or, uh, review the conversation that we had. And we've confirmed our date for whatever. Then you can have that send out. You can have your templates ready. So if you want it to send an anniversary on the year of their when your university of their wedding, um, and again approve it or send it automatically, you can see like, this is a pretty, pretty hard core system right here. So pause item. If I have sent my initial contact email and it's saying, um, here's the information you requested And here's the process that I work through blah, blah, blah, and that I want to wait to hear. Okay, yes, I want a book with you. Then I can put that whole workflow on pause, and I'm not going to be getting notices saying, Okay, you need to be doing this because I'm just waiting to hear back. So that's the workflow. And like I mentioned everything in that if it's based off of the date, so if it's like, um, six weeks before their portrait session, it'll go into your calendar, saying, uh This is what you have to do now on like that six week mark. And then it also shows me right here doing the next 15 days. These are the things that I have to remember coming up. And then it can just keep me on on top of that and, um, keep me clear there, and then I have a little summary of my recent workflow. Are there any questions on workflow? Okay, so I actually, if, um, anybody is looking into 17 hands, I wrote a whole blawg Siris on it. The 1st 1 is how to tell if 17 hats is right for you specifically, um, and then the next three or how to set it up. So it's super easy, like and in it, I say, like I loved 17 has from day to, because it took me the first day. It was just like, Okay, there's a lot to do here to set this up. Um, but as soon as I figured out, um, I didn't do it the most efficient way because I didn't know what that way was. But when I learned what would have been the most efficient way I wanted to let you guys know. So there's a block post on how to write your email templates. What order to do things and to make it the most efficient same questionnaire I wanted to find. Let's click here. So this is already done. This is a current client workflow, and this is how it'll look, so you'll see these guys are crossed off because you've already done it. You can come and see. OK, the next thing that I need to do is February 13th 2016. Awesome. Does 17 hats work in Europe as well? Yeah, In fact, they just released. Um, they just announced a partnership with some sort of a banking thing that connects them with every bank around the world. Yeah, that's pretty cool. A lot of questions about that. So if you have specific questions about 70 naps go to 17 as check out their website and they can answer all your questions absolutely on there as well. Definitely. And, um, the other thing, too, is that they just announced okay, I always forget the name of this company, which is terrible, because I use though shootproof shootproof they just link with shootproof. So now you can streamline all of that to which I haven't had time to look into yet. But I'm sure it's going to be amazing. And that's what I mean, like every week, there, just announcing new things. So when your email, when you send out an email, um, to send a quote to a client, this is what it will look like so you can have your logo in the top left corner all the information that they need, the date that it was issued, the quote number, and then she can actually select whichever one she wants. So if you are offering a few different collections to your clients, they can just select whichever one they want. They can see the prices in the right hand column and everything that's included. And if they want to add on extra hours, they can, um, extra pages and album they can, or whatever other details you want to be able to offer. And then they just click. Ah, they've already accepted it. So then we convey the contract. It pulls up the contract. My personal contract has all of the information at the top in terms of their name. The wedding date and things like that. And again, I can either use that as a fill in the blank or I can use it as a token. So it automatically puts in the wedding date in their names, and it just saves them time. Um, you can see here this is a little a spot for initialing and again, you want to do that anywhere that you need them to see. So I do it near like the little part about not changing my images. I know that's a controversial topic and photographers, but I don't like my foot, my clients to be changing my images, so they have to initial there so that I know that they've read it. If they try to submit their contract without initialing, it'll take them back up and say, You need to initial here and then I just type in my name, which is apparently, don, uh, when I click sign contract, say, do you w and you can see that took me up to initial signed contract and then it's all done. The very next thing that they do is view the invoice, and this is again like as soon as you send this This is what's showing up for them. So it's super easy, and then they see the invoice and then they can pay it online by clicking this little guy or if you offer other options, you want to use checker, whatever it is, then you can just explain that in the email that you used to send this out and then they can choose to pay only the amount that's do or the full amount, and you can see the due dates there. Do you have any final thoughts for everybody as we, uh, as we wrap up, Well, I had one final thought on the There we go. Oops, they're just updating it and come back up here in a second. I was gonna leave you with this picture again because everything that I've taught you today is basically how I'm able to do that and, like, book my clients and run my company while I'm in California for two months. And, um, it's just a really lovely thing to be able to do. And I'm sure that when I'm a mother like I've designed my company so that I can continue to run it the way that it is when I have kids. Um, and I should say I've also organized it in a way that when I book a family session, I know that's gonna take me five days. But I know that also allows space for me to breathe so that if I want a book, a last minute head shot or something like that, I can fit it in, and it's not gonna throw my schedule out of whack.