***All images in this post are copyright Susan Stripling.***

NEXT WEEK: Carey Schumacher

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How long have you been in business?  What was the process you went through to get things running smoothly?

I started my business as a part-time venture in early 2002.  I was full time within a little over a year.  In 2005 I opened my portrait studio in Tallahassee, Florida and in 2008 closed up the portrait shop and moved to Brooklyn, New York.  I feel almost like I started a new business from the ground-up here in Brooklyn since I no longer work from a storefront and made the conscious decision to drastically reduce the number of portraits I do per year.  Now I'm an almost wedding-only enterprise and I'm exceedingly happy.

I feel like my portrait business was always a growth in progress with employees and a commercial studio and a high-volume client base and I was always struggling to make it run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.  When I moved to New York I made the decision to work from home and (most importantly) work by myself.  I now do all of the work on my own and therefore have only me to answer to - and it's made me rethink and rework almost every aspect of how I do business.

What do you do to keep things simple in your life and studio?

I was extremely unhappy running a portrait studio.  I felt that it was the logical "next step" to add on to my wedding business but all it did was add a lot more work - and work that I didn't feel compelled towards.  I adore photographing weddings.  I like photographing children and families a great deal - but not at a high volume and I don't like running a storefront studio.

I know this sounds crazy and utterly simplistic but I just don't take on more work than I can handle. Sure it can be profitable to pile on the jobs (and hey, who doesn't like profit?) but at the end of the day stressing myself out to the point of tears isn't good for me OR my business.  I know precisely how long it takes me to edit a wedding or design an album and I FINALLY realized when it's time to say when and just where the profit is not worth the stress.

What do you do to separate yourself from your business?

I run it, it doesn't run me.   When my kids come home from school I stop working - it's just that simple. While I might plug in a hard drive and start a backup or get PhotoShop to begin a batch I am NOT at my computer when my kids are at home.  At night I DON'T do ANY work other than occasionally uploading a blog post or answering a few emails. After my kids go to bed is my time to myself to watch bad TV on the DVR while chatting with friends or just randomly surfing the internet.  When my brain is on business all the time it's not a healthy place to be - I have to remember that besides my children and my work I have to give MYSELF time to just be.

What three products or things help you stay organized?

About two years ago I switched from my Westhost-hosted POP email to Google Business IMAP email.  It sounds like a small thing but it revolutionized my email.  When I travel and send emails and sort my in-box I come home and know that my desktop email will look just the same as my laptop, it will sync up and remove deleted emails, file emails into labels that I've done on my laptop, and will be neat and organized for me.  I always have to be able to see the bottom of my in-box so I'm very diligent in keeping my email organized.  

I use a Mac-based program called Things to keep up with, well, everything.  There is an iPhone app that syncs with your desktop and without it I would simply be lost. It tells me when I need to finish deliverables for weddings, keeps me on top of album designs, and really lets me know what needs to be done and when I need to finish it.  

I also could simply not live life without my iPhone.  It carries everything for me .... and it even makes phone calls. :)

What plans do you have for your business this year?  How will your plans impact your family?

I used to do 100% destination weddings and traveled far too much.  This year I plan to continue cultivating a local market both here and in Philadelphia which has been absolutely incredible for my personal life.  I'm around a LOT more for my kids and no longer feel that horrible stress when your business starts to get in the way of your own life.  

Are there times that you feel overwhelmed?  What do you do?

Funny you should ask that now - I shot two weddings last weekend that were three hours apart and this weekend will do a triple with seven hours of driving in between each wedding.  I'm doing that while trying to get my daughters signed up for a new afterschool program and making sure that the dust bunnies in my apartment don't rear up and stage a coup.  This is when my no-work-at-night policy is helping; last night I saw the eight things in my Things list begging me to work on them but I had to just walk away and know I could get it done today.  I laid on the sofa and watched Gossip Girl and when I went to bed I wasn't thinking about work.  Sometimes I do get overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to do but then I sit down, update Things and make sure everything I have to do is written down and assigned a due date and honestly, that helps IMMENSELY in lowering my stress.

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***All images in this post are copyright Susan Stripling.***