5 Tools Every Photographer Needs For Their Business in 2023

If you’re thinking of taking the next step in your photography or freelance business in 2023 there are a few tools that you will definitely need. These tools will help you elevate your side hustle hobby into a legitimate business.

💵 Novo

When it comes to running a creative business, you have to have a place to put your income. Yes, it’s true you could just pocket everything, but if you’re trying to grow, you’ll need a business bank account. Some people choose things like PayPal, CashApp, Square, or even Chase, but I have chosen Novo.

Novo is powerfully simple business banking. The account is completely free with no minimum deposits or balances. One of my favorite features about Novo is that it’s all completely online. 

This may not be helpful for someone who deals with a lot of cash, however, if your business primarily takes place online or most customers pay you in any other form of currency (including checks) having an online bank account is pretty sweet.

A few other great features include: no hidden fees, no monthly fees, free transfers, mailed checks and incoming wires, refunds ATM fees, and it’s backed with FDIC insurances. 

I’m not sponsored or anything but if you’d like to give NOVO a try, I would greatly appreciate it if you used my referral link. You and I both will get a small kick back if you decide that you like it. 

https://onboarding.novo.co/signup?referral_code=LarryGeorgeII

👨🏾‍💻 Honeybook

To all my freelancers out there, by now I know you’re probably sick of the ads, but do not sleep on Honeybook.

Honeybook provides everything you need to get business done. It has everything from professional invoices, secure payment systems, contracts and contract templates, scheduling, and some pretty powerful automations.

Send proposals, create brochures, and integrate it with your favorite tools like Gmail, Outlook, Calendly, Zapier, Quickbooks, and more.

You can also manage your Honeybook on the go with their mobile app.

Sorry to sound like an ad, but of all the other cms options out, Honeybook is the cheapest for freelancers who are new to the game or only part-time.

Right now you can save big and get Honeybook for just $1/month for 6 months.

You can use my link to get 20% off for one year - http://share.honeybook.com/larry42965

🧾 Quickbooks Self Employed

Freelancers listen up, I’ve got a tool for you and it’s called Quickbooks Self-Employed. This tool has been instrumental in helping run my business, especially during tax season.

Track mileage, sort expenses, organize receipts, run reports, estimate taxes, and even roll that information into filing your taxes if you use Turbotax. 

I currently have the cheapest plan and it helps a ton when I have to sort out my business expenses from personal expenses or document milage when traveling to and from a photoshoot.

Their tools also help me estimate how much I should have set aside for taxes so I’m not blindsided at the end of the year.

If you’re new to the world of freelancing and don’t have a ton of money to shell out on resources or tools, I definitely think this should be one of the things you don’t go without.

I tried to skimp out on this one year and it came back to bite me big time. Don’t make that same mistake. 

I don’t have any sponsorships or even a referral code, I just genuinely believe in the product. 

🧐 Google Analytics

If you are a creator on Beyonce’s internet, you need to have Google Analytics, especially if you have your own website. 

Google Analytics helps you get a complete understanding of your audience across devices and platforms. It gives you the tools to understand customer journeys and improve ROI for FREE.

It will help you understand how your audience is finding you outside of social media. All of this information is valuable to you because it will help you monetize off platforms. 

We can talk about why you should be creating a space outside of social media another day, but you definitely need to take advantage of this free resource. 

The platform can be confusing and intimidating but there are a ton of free resources out there to help you understand and Google even offers a free online course to help walk you through it. 

You don’t have any more excuses for not taking advantage of Google analytics.

🔎 BONUS: Google Search Console

Those of you who already have websites for your blog, brand or business should be taking advantage of Google Search Console. 

This helpful tool helps you analyze your website’s traffic and performance, fix issues and make your site shine in Google search results.

Once set up you can optimize your content with search analytics, get your content on google, get alerted to issues and solutions to help fix them, and understand how Google search sees your web pages.

Using this tool, I was able to fix a few broken pages on my own website and understand which blog posts were performing so that I could create more relevant content.

Pay attention to this tool, it may be moving to a different location, but it’s a game changer if you’re taking your website seriously and want to perform well on Google.