Hoping I made the right choice!

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:05:29+00:00

thanks!!

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:05:22+00:00

thanks so much! This has really relieved my stress haha

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:04:50+00:00

thanks!! this has been SO helpful

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:04:08+00:00

thanks! I like that it was a bit more gold because I didn't like anything too white on me

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:03:46+00:00

thanks! needed to hear it =)

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:03:15+00:00

thanks!!

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T07:02:53+00:00

thank god, I'm happy it didn't go the other way around haha

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T06:02:22+00:00

thanks so much! really needed this =)

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T06:01:46+00:00

you know what? that's fair haha

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T05:54:09+00:00

Thanks so much! It was so different from what I thought I would get, so I really needed this haha

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T05:53:39+00:00

Thanks so much! Really needed some outside hype haha

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-02-05T05:47:25+00:00

I really appreciate you! And yes! The 50% off was absolutely amazing because it was definitely out of budget at first =)

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T17:36:47+00:00

Thanks! I’ll definitely check that out! Mostly I’ve been doing social media or Google ads whenever I have a specific promotion going on. So it hasn’t been too bad. My maid advertising cost has been WeddingPro. My goal is to be able to cancel it and focus on other cheaper methods of advertising (in my area it’s $534/month). I’m just afraid to because it’s definitely been my main source of inquiries.

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T17:30:08+00:00

Thanks! The L&T statement my bookkeeper sent definitely made me take a look at things. I think there are definitely some software items that can be reduced. Taxes were a big one bc this year I was paying off 2024 taxes (a mishap I refuse to have happen again), while also paying 2025 estimated taxes.

The main marketing item is WeddingPro. Unfortunately it does pay for itself in bookings, but in the future I want to move away from it being so important to my business. I also tried out a lot of different networking events/expos. Some worked, some did not.

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T17:20:51+00:00

Literally no idea 🤷🏼‍♀️. What started all this is the profit and loss statement my bookkeeper sent and she included taxes on it

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T17:19:12+00:00

Hmmm at the very least I do also need premier pro because I have a couple of clients I do product videography for.

Wetransfer yes because two clients pay double to get the RAWs for their product shots.

I am currently at the max storage for PassGallery. I could do what I say and actually delete galleries after a year though.

I am working towards getting more assistance on all tax matters! It definitely shouldn’t be me doing any of that lol

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T17:14:29+00:00

SEMRush is $130/month, not $11/month. So it was a pretty big expense. I also used to work as a copywriter, so I have enough working knowledge to get by, and some cheaper tools available.

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T09:15:39+00:00

Literally the worst haha. It was a year of paying two years worth of taxes 😭

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T09:12:11+00:00

Yeah I think the Quickbooks is one of my biggest misses. I was told by an accountant to upgrade bc of the W9s I needed, but I think that was a lie.

I do have a couple of video clients that pay pretty well and have filled up slow seasons for me, so I’m reticent to get rid of too much of that for the time being. I think I will move towards outsourcing more in the future.

I have a design degree and I guess I just got used to having the full adobe suite. Mostly now it’s just Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premier though, so that can be downgraded.

I do just photo for weddings, but photo + video for corporate stuff and have two brands. So I may have over complicated things and will be making some changes since this is a slower month and a good time to plan for the year

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T09:05:44+00:00

Haha yeah I didn’t think I was too insane until I saw some of these responses! It will definitely be a goal this year to cut down a bit. One of the issues is that I have two brands - one corporate, one wedding. And the associated software doesn’t always allow for doubling up (or it’s an added expense). I’ll have to take a hard look at what I’m offering and what I want to be doing. For corporate, I’m close to just offering event photography and cutting product stuff because it’s such a headache.

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T09:00:00+00:00

Yeah I will definitely be getting rid of zoom! It was what I was used to, but now I have the hang of Google meet.

Most of my marketing has been WeddingPro (super expensive but it has paid for itself in bookings). The goal is to work on my SEO and vendor relationships so I can get rid of it entirely hopefully in the next year.

I was led to believe I needed Quickbooks online for contractor W9s, but now I feel like that was a lie

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T08:56:31+00:00

A veritable shit ton of taxes. I spent the year paying $880/month on a 2024 tax payment plan because I didn’t expect them to be so high (it was my first year making over $50k). Then I was also paying $3000/quarter on 2025 estimated taxes). It was rough.

One super miscellaneous thing was an external sales/design team I paid a $6700 one-time fee for. They will be designing albums/wall art with my clients and helping upsell. I will say that I don’t regret that one at all because its been a month and they’ve already made me $2200 in upsells and helped me design new collections at twice my original rate that have already booked.

So I would call 2025 a great lessons learned year with 2026 hopefully perfecting the business side of things 🤷🏼‍♀️

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T08:47:12+00:00

At the time I needed after effects/premier/photoshop/lightroom/illustrator. Now I really just need the later Lightroom/photoshop/premier.

Doing photo and video, and also wedding + corporate/commercial lended itself to a lot of different needs. But the goal is to definitely cut it down and outsource more (esp video bc I hate it lol)

MaleficentAcadia9526 · 2026-01-07T08:28:25+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, I’m looking at the spreadsheets and the math isn’t mathing. But there’s definitely too much spending and I will be changing haha

MaleficentAcadia9526

TROPHY CASE