Two years ago we bought and renovated our first house. We have redone every surface except our shower area. The artist in me fell in love with the original tub. It’s fairly simple but has a cute little curve on the outside, a stark difference from all the cheap, boring rental home bathrooms we’ve had for years. Unfortunately to the non artist, our tub is stain from hard water and years of wear. There are remnants of non-slip textures that are not only ugly but don’t even keep you from slipping.

So I looked into having our tub refinished. I emailed a company, they sent back info and then I forgot about it for a year. Well I didn’t actually forget about it, I mean a tub that ugly is hard to forget. But life is busy and I did nothing, even though I still wanted it done.

This week I was on facebook and an ad from the tub refinishing company popped up. I made a small comment. They wanted me to send in a photo of my tub so I put it on my mental to do list but realistically I wasn’t going to get around to it  soon.  Next thing I know they contact me directly and ask if I’d like an appointment for them to come look at my tub the next morning. All I had to do was say yes, so I did.

I am now on my way to getting my bathroom refinished. I’ve wanted it done but calling to schedule an appointment was getting in my way. Uploading a photo was getting in my way. But when they made it so easy that all I had to do was say yes, I did it.

When we have people that contact us for portraits, how easy are we making it to book? Do we call them once and leave a message, don’t hear back and assume they aren’t interested? When we post something online is there an easy way for people to connect with us? What barriers to people have to get them booking and what can we do to eliminate them?

I want you to think of three people now who you can call to see if they are interested in booking. Maybe someone who has told you in passing they are interested in family portraits. Maybe an email you got that you never heard back from. Maybe a client you haven’t seen in a while. Stop what you are doing and take just 15 minutes and call three people. That’s less time it takes to catch up on facebook.

P.S. I just contacted three people. Booked a session. Left messages for the other two. Pretty good for a few minutes of my time.

P.S.S. Scratch that. I just called a 4th. Left a message. Now returning calls can be a little bit of barrier, so I’ll go ahead and text them too and see what happens.