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My hubby encouraged me to write this article because he thinks it is cool how much I use my iPad for my business. I contend that I am not that smart and surely there are plenty of people who are doing the same as me, and also much more. But, for those of you that are new to the iPad I thought I would share my workflow. Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to!
Let me start by saying that I’m doing this whole blog post on my iPad. Screen shots and text included. On Monday my doctor forced me to wear a brace on my right hand because my unorthodox camera grip has given me carpal tunnel . The brace makes typing incredibly difficult but typing on an iPad is easier. I don’t have to depress any keys and the iPad gives word suggestions as I type and adds punctuation saving me keystrokes. Not to mention I can sit in my favorite easy chair while I do this! I used my WordPress app to do the blog post body and the Photoshop Express app to fix the screenshots.
I should also share, as background, that I have a fabulous Sales Manager (Hi Kristi!) so some of the app choices I have made were dependent upon sharing data between multiple iPads.
My favorite picture viewing app is Portfolio. I’ve had it awhile, but just started using it full time and I love it! It doesn’t break the bank ($20) and it allows me to set up files for my Sales Manager (SM) to get remotely. Yes, I still need to use my iMac to process all my pictures. After I work my magic in Lightroom I export the finished images to my hard drive and to my password protected public folder on Dropbox. I then let my SM know that there are new files out there for her to download onto HER iPad. Since the files are big it takes quite awhile for those to download.
That process is a good one to do at night since it doesn’t work in the background and it takes awhile for the large files to download. Meaning you can’t do anything else while the images upload. Could I put smaller images in Dropbox? Yes, but I need the filenames to be correct and the more ‘versions’ of the images you make the more likely you are to have a discrepancy in file naming. Besides, what’s your hurry? This is a good time to go have a glass of wine or eat chocolate. It’s good to build breaks into your schedule.
Once the pictures are loaded my SM is ready to meet with the client. She meets with them at a coffee shop so portability is key to our operation. Yes, she could bring a laptop to show clients their pictures, but it isn’t the same experience. Being able to hand the clients their pictures and let them flip through them at their own pace, with a touch screen, is really amazing. (And let’s be honest, you can’t beat the cool factor!)
Portfolio allows us to let clients rate pictures and add notes (for example ‘Would prefer in B&W’) for each image. We go through all of the images marking their favorites. We can even compare two images, side by side, to help clients narrow down their choices. After images have been rated we can then limit the view to the client’s favorites images. That is so important because I typically show between 40-50 images. To be able to cut it down to the client’s favorites helps us figure out what collection and products would work best for them.
Once the collections and products have been decided upon we switch apps. It would be so nice if we could have all of our functions in one app, but I haven’t seen it yet. Our next app is called Quick Sale. It produces our invoices and helps me keep track of my sales numbers. Because neither my SM, nor I are any good at math we use Quick Sale. It can calculate the sales tax, take percentage and dollar discounts and it can also take notes on substitutions and such. I have an accountant and she uses the invoices I produce to keep track of my books and I use the data to compare how I’m doing quarter to quarter. I’m pretty sure Quick Sale can take credit cards too, but I’m a creature of habit so I use a different app/service for that. (I never said this would be the most efficient way to do business. Only how I do it!).
To take payments we actually use two apps. If my client pays via credit card we use iMerchantPro to handle the transaction. I am signed up with these guys through iTransact and they handle all my credit transactions direct from my website too. Gotta love consistency.
If my client pays by check I use my Chase bank app to photograph the check and submit the deposit directly from my phone.
To finish everything up my SM sends an email directly from Portfolio thanking them for their order and listing the details for their confirmation. She sends that email to the client and me so we all know what is going on and Portfolio automatically includes thumbnails and image names of the images they are ordering. My SM also sends me an email invoice for my records. I use The Air Sharing app to print it to my Brother wireless printer.
One other fun app that is helping me stay organized for business and personal is Tomorrow HD. It simply keeps track of the things you need to do today and tomorrow and let’s you cross off completed items as they are finished giving a nice visual on what I’ve accomplished in a day. This beautiful little app also has an iPhone version and they sync wirelessly so I always have a handy list of to dos at my disposal. Just in case I get a little free time!
Okay, the longest blog post is coming to an end. If you have any suggestions for how I can do any of this more efficiently PLEASE let me know. You can also email me if you need any more detailed information about the apps and how I use them. Believe it or not, but I actually gave you a high level pass at this stuff!