Kris D'Amico Photography

August 30th, 2010 by Kris

Just quick post today, I’ve got several deadlines this week and of course I’m already behind. I did want to post up so advice that I’ve gotten from the collective wisdom of Google and the interwebs. When I started this photography business ten years ago, I started it with $450 and no real direction, so it was essential that learned how to buck up and make the few deadlines I did have as perfect as possible. As you freelancers and Sole Props know, when you’re the boss, you kind of have to be a jerk to yourself. Anyway, here are a few things that I do to stay on track.

• Every goal needs a deadline, client driven or personal. Otherwise you’ll never get to it. I like to mark some of my personal projects on my calendar  as a to do’s, just like I do with shoots and edit sessions. In conjunction with this I alway make a “time plan,” I can get more into that on another post, but essentally, I need to spend 2 hours on set one, three hours on step two, etc.
• Each set in the process needs to have it’s own deadline. Scouting, due next Tuesday, Pre-Production finished and crew booked by next Friday, so on and so forth. Break your goals down into sections and assign a timeframe to each.
• Be realistic about your goal setting. Just like you might tell a client, there’s no way with your time and budget that I can do that, you need to tell yourself that as well.
• Stick to your guns, if it’s due on Tuesday at noon and you haven’t started by Monday at 3, looks like you might have to be working a little OT. Be tough on your shorter goals, but you can be a little flexable on the overall project deadline. If you are too loose on your action points then you will loose the momentum and drive for the whole plan. Don’t let your small steps run over, which will in turn will make you miss your major deadline massively.
• Don’t be afraid to move your final deadline. Yes, there are instances where someone’s in town for 2 hours or whatever the case may be, but if you can be flexible in the end you’d be amazed how stress free life can be…

Ok, maybe that last statement is not 100% true…

Or, 50% true…

22.34%… whatever, go back to work.

KD