Studio Ninja Vs Tave Vs Dubsado.. How do you choose a CRM and which is the best?

If you’ve been hanging around any of the Facebook Groups for photographers you' might have stumbled upon discussions debating Studio Ninja Vs Tave Vs Honeybook and all the others. These are all Studio Management Softwares, often referred to as CRM’s (Client Relationship Managers).

I remember how confused I was by this entire thing when I first started. What do I even need it for and how is it different from say Quickbooks or Xero? So today we’re here to clarify that for you, and help you to work out which option might suit your studio best!

Before that though, I wanted to let you know that bookings are open for our next Business Foundations Challenge!

If you want to learn more about the systems you need to set up a profitable pet photography business and all the other crucial aspects to success like finding clients, knowing to say and when to book those enquiries, and what to shoot to maximise your sales- then this is for you!

Listen to the related podcast episode

Back to CRM’s.. do you even need one?

If you have just a couple of clients here and there, your workflow is super simple and you’re not planning to really grow too much- then you can get by using things like Google Sheets/Excel and your Google Calendar. You’ll just copy and paste names and addresses onto invoices and manually send contracts with something like Adobe. But as your business grows, having everything in different places and having to manually copy and paste, will certainly start to slow you down- not to mention, you’ll likely find it hard to stay organised that way.

You’ll also find that your client’s experience can be much smoother when you implement a CRM. Instead of expecting them to print, sign and email a contract for example, they can simply sign electronically.

THESE ARE SOME OF THE OTHER TOOLS YOU CAN REPLACE BY HAVING A CRM

❌ Google Sheets (address book, email list, payments & workflow)

❌ Todoist (track tasks and deadlines)

❌ Gmail Canned Responses (email templates)

❌ Square (invoices and payment9 reminders)

❌ HelloSign (electronic contracts

❌ Google Forms (questionnaires)

WHAT CAN STUDIO MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE DO FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

✔️ Keep your leads (enquiries) organized

✔️ Manage job statuses within your workflow

✔️ Automate critical tasks, reminders and emails

✔️ Provide payment options

✔️ Create and send questionnaires and electronic contracts

✔️ Generate invoices and useful reports for performance tracking (but often not suitable for tax purposes- for this you need book keeping software like Xero, Quickbooks or MYOB)

A little word of warning. Be cautious of any software stating that it’s suitable for book keeping purposes. Be sure to check that you can track tax appropriately, customise invoices as required by your state department, input expenses, categories them against approved categories and so on. Most likely you will need a seperate book keeping software. If you decide that’s the case, be sure to choose a CRM which integrates with your preferred book keeping software.

HOW TO CHOOSE A STUDIO MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

The point of a CRM is to keep you organised, and save you time. If set up well, it could almost replace an admin assistant. But to do so, you need to choose the right platform for you and your needs. Here are some things to consider when making a decision.

• Interface & Set Up
  Is it user friendly? Does it work well on mobile? Is it fast to load? Do you need a 3 month course to learn to use it or can you work it out as you go? Do they offer a migration service from another platform?

• Included Features
  Not all systems are equal! Some are all-inclusive and offer absolutely everything (online galleries, scheduling, book keeping and more!). Others are just the necessities which might be exactly what you need!

• Syncing & Integrations
  For features that aren’t included, do they sync and integrate with a platform that does offer this? Eg. Google Calendar (to avoid double bookings), Shootproof/PicTime (for automatically adding orders as invoices) , Xero (to avoid double-handling invoices) etc

• Simply to find and filter data
  The ability to see how many referrals, bookings, sales etc you currently have to help you plan your marketing

• Workflows & Automation
  Track the progress of each client workflow to make sure that you never miss a step. Automate regular check-in emails or set up reminders to let you know when important deadlines are coming up.

• Language
  Many CRM’s only offer English, be sure to check that your native language is supported! If you have international clients (or you live somewhere like Quebec!) you may also need it to be multi-lingual with the ability to set a different language per customer within their portal!

• Client Notes
  Replace the sticky notes! Add anything about the client to an area that they can’t see.

• Support of multiple photography brands
  If you have another brand for say, weddings or family portraits, the ability to use one system for each of your photography brands will be important.

• Studio size
  Do you need to manage schedules for multiple staff and locations now or in the future (because moving systems is painful!)?

• Support & communication
  Moving to a new platform can be overwhelming. You want to have great support in doing so, with quick response times. The best way to learn about this is often by joining their user group on Facebook prior to getting started.

• Price
  And of course, the cost is important too! Prices start at about $20 a month for basic systems and for

WHICH FEATURES DO YOU NEED FROM A CRM?

What you need may differ from fellow photographers. For example, if you do IPS, a sales gallery isn’t needed for you! If you always book clients on the phone, you also don’t need a built in scheduler. Take a look at some of the most popular CRM’s and their included features below.

Lead Capture & Management, Send Invoices and accept payment via PayPal or Stripe, Calendar Sync, Email & Contract Templates, Custom Workflows, Questionnaires are basic features available on all of the below listed platforms.

	Studio Ninja	Tave	ShootQ	Honeybook*	Dubsado	StudioCloud	Sprout
Basic features	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Automatic payment collection	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
Proposal & Quotes	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Multiple Brands	Upgrade	Upgrade	Upgrade	✔️	✔️	Upgrade	Upgrade
Google Cal and Gmail Syncing	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	Upgrade	✔️
Appointment scheduler	❌	❌	Upgrade	✔️	✔️	Upgrade	✔️
Integration with bookkeeping software	✔️ Xero & Quickbooks	❌	❌	✔️ Quickbooks	✔️ Xero & Quickbooks	✔️ Quickbooks	❌
Expenses tracking	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Client portal	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️
Mobile app	✔️	❌	Apple only	✔️	❌	Upgrade	❌
Multiple languages	✔️	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	?
Multiple currencies	✔️	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️
Email marketing capabilities	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Upgrade	✔️
Built in Online Gallery	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️
Online gallery integration	✔️ Pic-Time, Shootproof & Fundy		✔️ Shootproof	❌	✔️ Cloudspot	❌	❌
Zapier Integration	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️
Customer support	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Set Up Assistance	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Paid Migration Service	❌	✔️	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️
Free Migration Service	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	❌	❌
GDPR compliant	✔️	✔️	?	?	?	?	❌
Approx. Monthly Price	$20		$29	$39	$40	Free	$49

NOTE: *Honeybook is only available in the U.S and Canada.

THE WINNER?

STUDIO NINJA
USE CODE: PPPI50 for 50% off your first year!

The simplest, and cheapest platform is by far Studio Ninja.

They are a studio management system which is confident is saying “this is what we do, and this is what we don’t do! Since we don’t do this, we integrate with a platform that specialises in that!”

This might not seem so important at first, but if you spend your time setting up and using a system, you need it to work! You don’t need a “kind of book keeping software” that your accountant says ins’t adequate (for example)!

They’re also the only listed CRM which is multi-lingual- great news for those of you in non-English speaking countries!

I particularly love the very easy and quick set up, but if you find it overwhelming, the team offer a FREE migration service!

The only thing they are currently lacking is an online scheduler, but they do have a built in calendar which integrates with Google Calendar. If this is important to you, because you always book clients online without a phone call, consider Dubsado, or if you want a built-in gallery too, Sprout is your best bet!

Use code PPPI50 to save!