Software Solutions to Manage Your Business

The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

Todd & Craig talk all things software and systems to help you manage your real estate media business. Our brains weren't made to manage task lists. So let software do that, and more, for you.

Show Summary:

0:00-1:00 Sneak Peek

1:01-3:44 Intro: Spiro was built to help grow and scale Wow Video Tours; it was built out of necessity

3:45-16:08 The importance of software and new features in Spiro

• Todd has a background in software and is always thinking about efficiency- how can I get the most done in the least amount of time?
• In 2022, Wow shot over 12,000 tours; each tour requires a number of tasks
• How do you do each task and make the client feel taken care of? It requires systems
• Spiro just launched Task Workflows: you can now define the building blocks of each job
• Example: Each shoot requires shooting the house, uploading and organizing the media, sending it off to be edited, quality-controlling, and sending to the client; how do you make sure this all gets done for each shoot each day?
• Integrate your Dropbox account with Spiro so Spiro will create a folder for every job, organized into quarter folders within year folders
• You can add your editing teams to Spiro and assign a distribution to those editors so Spiro will distribute jobs to them for you
• Our brains are not meant to manage tasklists; let software do it for you
• Each task has a due date to make sure it gets done

• Email white-labeling: integration to send emails from your domain
• We are close to finishing variable pricing for add-ons
• Add-ons previously had fixed rates; they will soon allow for variable/tiered pricing

17:58- Other software Wow uses to manage tasks

• Wow receives most communication through email and phone calls; team members have a system to organize communication to prevent over-communication
• Remember: 2023 is going to be a tough year for your clients as well with inventory, interest rates, and other changing factors
• Celebrate their listings with them; make them feel like their part of your team because they are
• Position your business as not just their photographer, but their marketing department; let them know that your job is to help them grow
• The industry is relationship-based; if it is a cold transaction, they can go to anyone
• When you have that relationship, they will pay for your work; they will look beyond lower prices because they know you care about them
• Todd’s encouragement: think about how you spend your time
• Track how you spend time (can search “time tracking” for a log to print and use)
• Time is a variable that is the same for everyone that you can not buy more of; you have just as much time in a day as everyone else
• Don’t allow the market to become an excuse
• You can control what amount of time you put into your business
• Categorize each activity: low (can I delegate this, was it worth my time), medium (okay use of time, can not delegate it, have to do it), high (building business, will yield growth)
• Are you spending your time on activities that will yield growth? Eliminate bad habits and outsource what others can do for you
• You are accountable to how you spend your time

30:51-35:55 Other software and systems Wow uses

• Communication with photographers: Slack
• Office communication: Email or in-person communication (messages disappear in Slack so it’s not ideal for in-office communication)
• CRM for managing client contacts and communication: Pipedrive (integrate with JustCall- logs every phone call, records and transcribes it, and categorizes it by client, allows you to set reminders for follow-ups and write notes about the client for other team members to see; listening back to phone calls can also be helpful for growing in client communication)
• Let us know what software you have found useful
• No system is perfect; sometimes you have to combine or use multiple systems to fill your needs

35:56-37:40 Closing

Have questions? Email [e-mail]. Be sure to follow us on Social Media:

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Spiro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spiro-media

You can find out more about Spiro at spiro.media.