Using May Books to Organize Your Editing Business
When you edit for 15 photographers, you have to find creative ways to make sure you’re keeping everything organized. Getting each wedding delivered within your promised turnaround time is crucial in this business. Some of the photographers I work with shoot 10, 20…I even have one that shoots 50 weddings a year! With so many weddings constantly coming in, it can be very hard to keep track of when each wedding is due.
When you don’t have a good system in place, it is very hard to predict how busy each month will be. When you don’t know when the weddings will be coming in, you’ll find yourself:
- Losing money in the weeks you don’t get any catalogs, and
- Getting really overwhelmed when you end up getting 13 weddings in a single week
If you don’t know how busy each month is, you won’t know if you can take on more clients throughout the year. Not booking to your full capacity means you are missing out on building a profitable business! We definitely don’t want that. So today, I’m telling you my secrets for scheduling my work days, and keeping all of my weddings organized and delivered on time.
Friend…without further delay, let me introduce you to May Books
I — no joke — have four of these right now, and they are amazing! May Designs specializes in customized notebooks, stationary, and some other fun products. Their notebooks come in three different sizes, and they have tons of patterns you can choose from! They even have other business owners design a few of the covers every now and then. Right now you can get some of Emily Ley‘s patterns on their notebooks (though the inside designs you can choose from these are limited), and they are adorable!
After you’ve chosen your design, you can customize the front to say whatever you want! I love having my monogram on mine. I also have one that says, “To Do” and another that says “Notes”. You also have the option of leaving it blank if you want. Once you customize your color, you can choose from a variety of designs for the inside pages. From regular lines, to a monthly calendar…you can even make it a budget notebook! The possibilities are endless!
Folios
One of my favorite products they offer is the hand-crafted leather folio. Sure, it’s a little expensive, but I promise it’s worth it! It holds up to four books and makes it really easy to keep track of everything. As an added bonus, they are SUPER CUTE! Just think about it this way: the notebooks last a little while, but the leather folio will last for years and years. It’s well worth the expense! I am obsessed with mine, and wish I could buy alllllll the colors.
My Strategy
Now that you know what May Books are, let me tell you the strategy I use to keep everything in my business organized. I started using a similar technique about a year ago in my 17Hats calendar. However, I really wanted to find a way to have easier access to my calendar when I wasn’t on a computer. While I still use this technique in my 17Hats program, I adopted this method using my May Books so I could carry my schedule with me wherever I go!
The May Books I currently have include the 2017 Black and White Agenda: Months + Weeks (Jan-Dec), a Daily Planner, and two lined notebooks that I use to take notes for my business (webinars, classes, ideas for my business, etc.). The two I recommend that you definitely get for this system to work are the agenda and the daily planner. I also have these in the classic size so they can fit in my purse and the folio.
Color Coding
So let me address the elephant in the room: you see that mason jar filled with a plethora of pens on my desk (I mean…how could you miss that?!)? I swear I’m not a crazy pen lady! I assign each color to a client. Although I try to keep each person the same color each month, I still write down their names in their assigned color on the side. Whenever that photographer is shooting a wedding, I put a dot on the date of that wedding.
Once my client delivers the catalog to me, I schedule a day of the week to work on it in my calendar. I also flip over to my “To Do” book and write down the photographer’s initials and the name of the wedding. I will also make a note of what day the wedding is due.
Catalog Delivery
Once I am done working on the catalog and I send it back to the client, I check it off the calendar using my black pen. Then, I cross it off my “To Do” list in bright pink. (But feel free to use whatever colors you wish!)
I know it seems really simple when it’s all laid out and explained in detail. Believe it or not, this system took a while for me to come up with. When I had fewer clients, I didn’t have to worry about keeping weddings organized this way. It was easy to keep track of a small amount of weddings in my head. As my business grew and I started taking on more clients, relying on my memory just wasn’t going to work. Implementing this system was crucial! Even if you are at a point in your business where you are able to rely on your memory to get catalogs turned around on time, I would recommend giving this a try. It is really good to get in the habit of using a schedule like this now so you won’t have to figure out how to do it later!
*Also — little disclaimer here: I honestly feel a little bad showing you this month as an example. I ran out of colors and I just got more today, so not all of the weddings are marked yet. I still feel that you can get the gist of my process, even if my month isn’t totally mapped out right now on this calendar. Rest assured, all of the weddings ARE marked on my 17Hats calendar 🙂
May Books on Sale!
If you’re wondering why I made a special Thursday blog post about using May Books for your business, it’s because they’re having a HUGE sale right now on all May Books! Every book is 50% off and their folios are 10% off! You get all of the notebooks you need to start implementing this system within the next week! I don’t get anything from telling you about this. I just want to make sure you are able to take advantage of this awesome sale! If you aren’t able to purchase anything right now, don’t worry! They have sales throughout the year that you can take advantage of. I got all 4 of my notebooks for just $10 each (with monograms) during a sale earlier this year. It ends tonight, so make sure you head over there and grab your notebooks! Just click the image below!
These are so cute and perfect to fit in any purse.
Wow! May Books look awesome! Who doesn’t need a better way to organize our schedules? I also use 17 Hats and these may be just what I need to keep everything on me when I’m off the grid! 🙂
oh wow I have never heard of May Books before now. These are adorable, I am going to check them out now!
Glad you found something that works for you, and looks pretty too! Perfect for carrying around, if you don’t use digital devices!
These may Books are super cute and a great onhand in writing way to keep organized in addition to a digital calendar!
I have never heard of May books, but I am headed to buy some right now. Thank you so much for sharing!
These May Books are so cute!! Thank you for sharing, my post-it note covered office may thank you later! 😉
I’d say these May books are a must have! That leather portfolio looked so cute and classy!
I’ve never heard of May Books before!! Looks like those could be very useful for editors!
Your notebooks are super cute!
You are a woman after my own heart! These May books are ADORABLE! And look so useful!
These May books look amazing for organization. I def need to get these and get some for my business and personal life! <3
Wow, I definitely need these! May books sound like a great way to stay organized, and I love the vibrant colors on the covers. I especially love your color coordination in your planner, I love using colored pens to distinguish certain events.
it’s so fascinating to read about how you organize your editing business!i can only imagine it’s not easy, but it looks like May Books help a lot!