Hello & welcome back! Today I’m giving you all the details on how we handle payments for our business using Honeybook. We are obsessed with Honeybook & are so grateful that it helps us manage payments for our business. So let’s dive into how we go about scheduling & structuring payments, offering discounts, and more!
The Ultimate Program
We LOVE Honeybook! We’re able to attach payments to our contracts, structure payment schedules, send reminders, take payments directly from Honeybook, and everything. Honeybook makes handling payments so much easier.
Plus check out our overview on Honeybook!
Structuring Payments
For the majority of our sessions we have a two step payment process
A Non-Refundable Deposit
This is always something we make clear from the beginning, that this is a non-refundable transaction. The deposit & finished contract covers any work we do leading up to the session and most importantly, it saves the date in the calendar.
Final Payment
This is the last payment & the timing can vary depending on which session. For instance, seniors sessions only have one payment while weddings have both. Weddings are a big investment, which is why it’s split into two payments & the final payment can be completed any time up to one month before the wedding.
Discounts
In the end, you decide where to draw the line and how you distribute discounts. Ultimately, you still want to show your worth. Within Honeybook we are able to show our normal package setup and then include the discount at the bottom. This way they can see the deal they’re getting as well as everything we’re still doing for them. Here are the discounts we typically give.
Family & Close Friends
We actually prefer to not photograph our loved one’s weddings so that we can be apart of them. However, we typically do engagement sessions for them whether they’re discounted or a wedding gift.
A New Venue
Typically we charge a travel fee when we’re going to venues. However, if there’s a venue we’ve never been to & are dying to go to, we may waive the travel fee. We make this very clear & tell our clients that we’re taking out the travel fee.
Payment Reminders
When it’s close to when their payment is due, Honeybook sends them a payment reminder. These are a game-changer! First, they’re automatic so you don’t need to track anything or keep spreadsheets. Second, talking about money tends to have a weird taboo tied to it. So we like to remove ourselves from any talk about money. These reminders are sent from Honeybook and feel like an automated message rather than directly from us. PLUS (even though this is rare) if there’s a client who continues to not pay, Honeybook will continue to remind them and keep us in the loop too.
We hope this was super helpful for you and handling payments for your business! Check out our YouTube channel for more educational videos and click HERE for a 50% off discount for Honeybook.
