We all love amenities that make our lives easier, whether it be the Drive-Thru at Dunks, online bill pay, or the E-Z Pass lane on the highway. In my business, there are services I use that I love so much because they ultimately save time and increase productivity.

Here are some must-haves for your business no matter how long you’ve been in the wedding industry!

1) Squarespace

Squarespace is a website platform It. Is. Incredible. After being unhappy with WordPress and its clunkiness, I found Squarespace almost two years ago now. Their designs are clean, modern, and simple. There is so much room for customization, it’s straightforward, you don’t need to know HTML or CSS to create a beautiful website. They automatically incorporate analytics, SEO, mobile optimization, storefronts and shopping carts, and blogging is something you can do in your sleep. At the end of the day, you get a gorgeous home base for my business and brand, for a really affordable price. Oh, did I mention they have the nicest support staff who answer all your questions within the hour, 24 hours a day? Yep!

2) Pic-Time

Pic-Time is my incredible gallery host. Every single client shoot gets uploaded to Pic-Time as a modern grid with a customized and branded header. Clients can “favorite” pictures, download their favorites, send album notes to me, purchase prints, products, and digital files (that you can custom fulfill through your own lab or choose one of theirs). It has custom domain mapping, so your client’s page can be clients.yourphotography.com/smith. They have unparalleled sales automation and email marketing built in to help you sell prints and products without lifting a finger. Use the code US8MRR to get a free month on me!

3) Later

Do you have a life? Do you want to post STRATEGICALLY instead of reactionary? With Later, you can upload photos, preview your Instagram grid visually, queue up carousels, pre-write captions, and even schedule the first comment full of hashtags. The posts can be published automatically or pushed manually. Once a week, I queue up the next batch content and don’t need to think about it every day!

4) PhotoMechanic

Want to save hours culling? PhotoMechanic. I admit – when I was recommended this software during a workshop in 2014 and it took me at least a year to buy it. Best $150 with free updates for life. You know that little lag time in Lightroom when your RAW file is loading? Eliminated. In PhotoMechanic, it processes the RAWs like JPGs, so culling is instant. You can use a star and color rating system or just delete. It cut my culling time in half. On average, I spend 10-20 minutes culling a portrait session and 40-60 minutes culling an entire wedding. They have a free trial – so stop procrastinating like I did and your newfound time will thank you.

5) Wave

Wave is my accounting software. Some people like Quickbooks, I jive with the clean UX of Wave! It’s FREE, and easily connects to your business bank accounts and credit cards. You can track and analyze your spending, categorize your purchases, view profit and loss statements, analyze cash flow, generate reports, and more. It’s a great way to figure out, “What did I spend on my business this month?” and truly learn your numbers. By the time tax season rolls around, you can give these perfect reports to your accountant for allll the write offs.

6) Todoist

I dedicated an ENTIRE blog post to Todoist and how I utilize it. It’s a free list app that helps you organize all your business tasks, projects, personal tasks, grocery lists, EVERYTHING. I don’t have to stress about WHEN a client’s project is going to be done, because the work has already been allocated into chunks on specific days. It’ll all get done in time! I would not be able to function without Todoist. Read more here!

7) GSuite

Formerly Google for Business – My old mail server was through my domain host, which was great, but actually only archived the latest 250 emails… I found out the hard way. I migrated everything over to Google for Business, which is basically a Gmail account ending with @website.com name. Everything is archived forever and connects to my calendar, drive, spreadsheets, and presentations. I love using the color flagging system and folders to separate clients from couples, vendors, and everyone in between.

8) Dubsado

Dubsado is a CRM, or client relationship management software. It’s the heartbeat of my business! It’s where all my jobs live – each client gets a “project”, and that’s where I view and send their contracts, questionnaires, proposals, estimates, invoices, notes, and more. You can implement automatic workflows, like reminding clients of upcoming payments, or creating lead journeys. It has built in accounting and payment processor, and tracks the progress of all your jobs so you know what needs to be done, when. It truly manages all your jobs and gives you every tool to be LEGIT and book more work!

I’d like to shout out mobile check deposit as a runner up to this list, because who has time to go to the bank when they can take a picture of a check and deposit it in bed?

What things in your life or business make everything run smoother? Love a service so much you just need to SHOUT!? Comment below to share!