Keeping Track of Inquires, Sent Contracts, Bookings, etc.

[Ian Atkins]

I need a better system to keep track of dates.
I need a way to pencil in dates that people have inquired about, asked contracts for, and booked/secured with a deposit.

What method/program works best for you guys?

It would also be nice if there was a reminder feature to for final payments, highlight video discussion, etc.

[Leon Bailey]

I use Tave, which is a studio management system. Switched over from ShootQ it's great and I do not regret doing so. It gives you a 60 day free trial. Everything you mentioned, they have. CHECK IT OUT

[Ian Atkins]

Thanks for the reply!
Can you please clarify why you made the switch? They both look appealing, so it would be nice to know the pros/cons of each!
Thank you

[Leon Bailey]

Originally Posted by Ian Atkins

Thanks for the reply!
Can you please clarify why you made the switch? They both look appealing, so it would be nice to know the pros/cons of each!
Thank you

I switched from ShootQ due to the price. ShootQ was higher and I could only use one brand. Since I do video production and wedding videography it was a pain because If I wanted to separate it on ShootQ it was $60 compared to Tave being $30. Con wise for Tave at the time I signed up which was like a year or so ago, is no longer a con. It has become a lot more customizable compared to when I had ShootQ. I liked ShootQ, but it was just overpriced for me.

[Clive McLaughlin]

17 Hats!

Don't have time to explain why. Just google it and youtube it. Also, I can give you a referral code.

[Peter Rush]

Anything out there that charges an old fashioned 'one off' fee - I have an inbuilt dislike of renting my software - apart from the fact it's extremely stable it's one reason I'm still on Premiere CS5.5!

[Mike Watson]

Having looked over both of the platforms mentioned, it seems that you're "renting" the cloud space - the ability to access from your phone, tablet, laptop, edit bay, etc. The ability for employees/freelancers/clients to see at a glance where you're at and what's booked.

It seems you could easily set up a system based on a spreadsheet and existing gmail labels to do something very similar for free. But you'd loose the flexibility. Which is what the subscription model offers you.

[Jim Michael]

Take a look at Evernote. It's rather free form, so you could come up with your own system. Plus it can be used for other organizational purposes as well. There is a free ebook on Amazon that describes how to use it.

[Danny O'Neill]

+1 for Tave here. I can honestly say we wouldn't be where we are now without it. And once you tap into automations you will wonder why you ever did things manually. I wake up and it's emailed invoice reminders, taken payments, secured bookings, got in touch with 7 day old leads, sent pre wedding questionnaires, touched base with upcoming weddings, sent shoot details to shooters, sent song suggestions and edit details to editors and produced reports that help us make business decisions.

[Clive McLaughlin]

17hats is very similar Danny!

One thing that bugs me though is the inability to create automatic actions based on working backwards from the wedding date. I can't tell the software what to do one week/one month BEFORE.

Can Tave do this?

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

+1 for Tave here. I can honestly say we wouldn't be where we are now without it. And once you tap into automations you will wonder why you ever did things manually. I wake up and it's emailed invoice reminders, taken payments, secured bookings, got in touch with 7 day old leads, sent pre wedding questionnaires, touched base with upcoming weddings, sent shoot details to shooters, sent song suggestions and edit details to editors and produced reports that help us make business decisions.

Can it edit as well? :) Sounds like an impressive piece of software though.

[Paul Mailath]

I've been a Shootq user for years, love it - any system like this will take getting used to because while they are very customisable - you will have to adapt as well.

Wether it's Shoot or Tave (there are a couple of others as well) - I think they are a huge benefit, Sure you can try a spreadsheet or evernote lots of other tools but you'll be spending a lot of time adapting somethin thats not really suited to the task.

I have a background in IT and could have written an effective back office system in excel or access but why reinvent the wheel? My time is better spent shooting or selling not writing code.

I can highly recommend shootq but there are alternatives - take a good look and I'm sure you'll see the possibilities

[Steven Davis]

I would probably be a buyer at 14.99 a month. It seems pretty expensive, although impressive indeed.

[Leon Bailey]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

+1 for Tave here. I can honestly say we wouldn't be where we are now without it. And once you tap into automations you will wonder why you ever did things manually. I wake up and it's emailed invoice reminders, taken payments, secured bookings, got in touch with 7 day old leads, sent pre wedding questionnaires, touched base with upcoming weddings, sent shoot details to shooters, sent song suggestions and edit details to editors and produced reports that help us make business decisions.

Yay!!!!! :)

[Danny O'Neill]

Originally Posted by Clive McLaughlin

17hats is very similar Danny!

One thing that bugs me though is the inability to create automatic actions based on working backwards from the wedding date. I can't tell the software what to do one week/one month BEFORE.

Can Tave do this?

Sure can. I have one which simply sends the pre wedding questionnaire 6 weeks before the wedding. I then have follow up automations which run 3 and then 1 week before to chase them if they still havent done it. If we get to the 1 week mark it then also emails us to tell us to phone them and creates a to-do.

I have one with a bit more intelligence which checks in with the couple 1 week before but only if we dont have any meetings schedualed in the next few days and havent spoken already in the past 3 days. This one ends up getting a lot of people saying "Oh hi, just to let you know this has changed...". Very useful.

Tave is in no way expensive for what it can do for you and for your business. The new sales workflow has generated even more conversions than before and before it was pretty good.

Sure, you can get away with your free google calendar and email, this and that but honestly, it runs our business for us! Anything you do manually it could potentially do for you and in our case it does more. We've improved our client interaction and it takes no effort from us.

If you give it a try then you really need to make full use of it. Import all your leads and jobs and go for it. You want it to run your studio, not just do a part of it.

For those that may have missed the email they have an update coming in the next few days or so which means when someone books they can now select add-ons at the time of booking.

If your website is running wordpress you can easily enable the tave plugin so all enquiries generate leads in the system so you can send price lists or respond at the click of a button.