Here’s a few useful links, tools and articles which I’ve found to be extremely helpful since becoming self employed.

Books
There’s a series of books from 99u which is a creative initative from Behance to provide education for creatives. I think you may see these referenced on a few blogs, so far I’ve read ‘Manage your Day-to-Day’ and for those that are self employed, it’s given me some really valuable advice on time management, and allowing me to focus more effectively. The other books in the series are Make your Mark and Maximise your Potential, Making Ideas Happen, and all are focused on giving business, marketing, and thinking advice for creatives.

their website can be found here

Equipment Reviews, Tests & Comparisons
When looking for new photography equipment, specifically cameras and lenses, my first port of call is Ken Rockwell. With in-depth tests of equipment and comparisons Ken does an excellent job of summing up equipment prior to your purchase. For second opinions, try out Snapsort (good comparisons), and also Shotkit. Shotkit is probably worth a look in itself, as it offers reviews from Professional photographers, and they even do a book allowing you to see what different professional photographers use.

Equipment
I have purchased alot of equipment since starting my business, and I’ve used Wex Photographic quite extensively. The great thing is they do used equipment too. Photography equipment is not the cheapest thing in the world by any means, and for certain items it doesn’t always matter if they’re brand new or not. Certainly if you’re wishing to become a professional photographer that’s one thing, but if you’re wanting to photograph your own products then there’s a limit to how much you’d be willing to invest, and believe me it’s not all about the camera, or indeed the rest of the equipment.

Finding Time to Keep Learning
Personally I find it very time consuming keeping up with whats happening on twitter and other social media, although I do still this to an extent I’ve now started to use Feedly, which is a blog reader. Recently I’ve streamlined my emails too by cancelling loads of newsletter subscriptions, and have instead added blogs to my chosen feed reader service. Its called , really easy to use, available on desktop and phone, and it lets you decide when you have the time, to catch up on learning new information and reading new articles. You can create your own categories, ie business or photography. It’s great.

Workflow
When I first started my business I made the change from using Photoshop exclusively to manage and edit my photographs. As anyone will know who’s used it, it really is an excellent piece of software. But it’s not in any way workflow centric, which when you’re managing many images on a regular basis you really need. I still use Photoshop and Illustrator when creating layouts for website design. But when it comes to photography, particularly as I really would like the images to be naturalistic, Lightroom is really a step forward. Takes a little time to get used, but it’s definitely worth it. Particularly as photographers who don’t need things like Illustrator, only need to pay around £9.00 per month for Photoshop & Illustrator. Many don’t like the payment model, but at that price it’s a bit of bargain really.

Tethering Software
ControlMyNikon is a relatively inexpensive piece of software to ‘tether’ your camera to a laptop or similar device. When producing many images in the studio it becomes an essential part of the workflow. This one has loads of features, including handy things like being able to activate the shutter on the camera via sound (believe me can be really useful when you’re hands are full). There are lots of other options, and certainly newer prosumer cameras have this ability built in. If you have an older camera or a newer professional camera, they can be very expensive to tether. This software offers a way round this. My personal choice has always been to use Nikon cameras, but there is Control My Canon available too, amongst others.

Mind Mapping
XMind software has really helped me when I’ve been stuck with direction for the business. It allows you to draw up either a good old mind map, and even allows you to do timelines and the like. It’s kind of the next step to doing it by hand with a piece of paper, and brings in all the advances such as being able to delete, replace and move.

Style & Inspiration
I’ve always had an interest in things made in the early to mid twentieth century, including art deco furniture and basically all the style that surrounded it. I particularly like metal too.

there’s an excellent magazine focussing on these areas, it’s called Mid Century.

Creative Blogs
CreativeBoom, again something that I subscribe to using Feedly, it gives inspiration, tips, resources and interviews all revolving around the creative industries. A little while back they had an article entitled ‘How to get your work featured on 45 of the best, art, design and photography blogs’ which I reckon has got be worth a read for most.

Social Media
I think many small business owners would agree that times becomes very precious, and quite scarce at times. I’ve personally found it difficult to keep up with the day to day studio work, whilst also posting to social media. I’ve just begun to use Co-Schedule, which if you already use WordPress for your website, is really excellent as it syncs with your website or blog and allows you to use your blog content and push it out to your social media channels. It does this via a user friendly, visual calendar that you can fill up with posts, as you get time to do so.