Happy Friday! While last week left me exhausted and ready for some relaxation over the weekend, I have to say this week was pretty great! We got all of our Christmas shopping DONE, and y’all… we only had to go to two stores! Online and free shipping for the win… can I get an amen? I can’t stand driving around town this time of year with how crazy it gets (unless I’m going straight to Starbucks for a peppermint mocha, let’s be real), so we made a game plan to tackle our lists online this year. I’ll never be going back to how I did things before! ???? Can anyone relate?!
We want to share a little tip with you guys today that may sound like a no-brainer, but is seriously SO important if you own your own business! Most small business owners already know that you can write off mileage when it comes to tax time, but until this year, we absolutely had not been doing that as faithfully as we should have been! We used to only keep track of our travel to engagement sessions and weddings, along with the occasional client meeting. However, we KNEW we were traveling so much more than that for work, and we simply didn’t have a good way to keep track of it all!
This year, we knew we needed to make a change so that we benefit from all those miles we traveled for our little company! We religiously kept track of every mile traveled for our business over the course of the year, and when I peeked at the current total the other day, I was stunned. Y’all, those trips to the post office, to the store for client gifts, to the bank, to your PO box, etcetera seriously add up!
We’re huge fans of simply making the DECISION to change your business for the better and then doing what you need to do to make that happen. So often, as business owners, it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the things we SHOULD be doing that we never actually sit down to figure out HOW to do just one! This year has been a year of developing solid and quick systems for our business for everything from blogging and emails to social media and editing… and, of course, tracking mileage! I promise… taking the time to develop those systems will absolutely save so much time, allow you to serve your clients even better, and run a more fulfilling business day in and day out.
As far as tracking mileage, we suggest finding the system that works best for you, not for other photographers! Just to give you a start, we have heard amazing things about all the different mileage-tracking apps out there, including MileIQ! I also have friends who literally keep a cute clipboard in their cars to track business mileage. Currently, we keep track of a lot of financial things, including mileage, in ONE killer spreadsheet Luke designed for us, and that works wonderfully for us and our business. The biggest thing is developing the HABIT of coming home from a shoot or a work-related errand and immediately entering it into that little spreadsheet!
Our encouragement to you today is to fight the overwhelm of all the things that need to be figured out yesterday, and just start with this one. Develop a system for your mileage-tracking, DECIDE to stick to it, and reap the benefits! Then, move on to your next system to tackle, be it your blogging calendar or finding a routine for quick email responses! ????
If we can help you with any of your systems, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments below! Xoxo!
