Services We Love

Our business grows every year, often beyond my dreams and expectations. We’re excited about growth, and to continue to deliver a great client experience we use a variety of business solutions to keep things running smoothly. Some of the tools we couldn’t live without include:

• CRM (Client Relationship Manager) –  Every year we work with hundreds of clients from around the world, so it’s essential to keep track of every client, contract, email, and inquiry. We use Dubsado for everything from lead management to project management, new contracts to client follow-ups. We couldn’t care for clients and complete the projects we do without Dubsado to keep track of all of it! Get 20% off your first year with our our code. 

• Online Photo Galleries – We share images with clients every day to select favorites, review album designs, and approve photo restorations. We rely on SmugMug for all these workflows and more because it offers privacy controls, lots of configuration options, and unlimited storage.

• Payroll – Running payroll, calculating payroll taxes, and paying worker’s compensation insurance are not how I want to spend my time. I’d rather spend my time training my staff, working with clients, and delivering great work. That’s why I love using Gusto for payroll. It only takes about five minutes every two weeks and I’m confident my staff is getting paid on time and I’m fulfilling all the requirements for payroll tax, W2s, and worker compensation insurance. Get a $100 Visa gift card when you sign up through our Gusto link. 

• Email – We have thousands of people around the world who are interested in the work we do, and we use occasional emails as an affordable and effective way to stay in touch with them. I’ve used countless email marketing systems over the last 20 years, but when it was time to support my own business, I chose Mailerlite and love it. Save $20 when you sign up for Mailerlite through our link.
• Bookkeeping – Of all the back office tasks of running a business, bookkeeping is my least favorite. I ran my business off Excel spreadsheets for years, but when we finally adopted Quickbooks it actually saved us money and made my life easier. I wish I would have signed up sooner! Save 75% off your first three months using our Quickbooks link. 
• Square – We use Square for all our credit card transactions, including in-person credit card purchases, over-the-phone transactions, and online through Dubsado. Nobody loves transaction fees, but Square actually makes our lives easer with a great client transaction experience, easy reporting, and automated overnight transfers. 
• Digital File Transfer – We work with clients and partners around the world, so we use WeTransfer as our exclusive platform for sending large digital files. Email is fine for small attachments, but with WeTransfer we can send really large files (up to 200GB), set expiration dates, and view download receipts. WeTransfer is super easy to use and gives us the visibility we need to keep projects moving fast. 

• Evernote – As a creative business owner my mind is always flowing with new ideas for partnerships, blog posts, courses, and more. It’s too much to remember, so I capture my ideas in Evernote. I can access Evernote from my laptop in the studio or from my phone on the go. It’s so powerful that I’ve written entire courses by voice dictation while traveling. If you want a single place to capture and organize your notes and ideas, check out Evernote.

• Creative Software – For all our photo organizing, photo editing, video editing, audio editing, graphic design, social media, and more we use the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan. Nothing else offers such a comprehensive and professional toolset. 

Interested in working with Chaos to Memories?

If you’re near Chicago and ready to get started, come visit our Wheaton Studio Monday – Friday, 10-5. Please bring your memories with you.

Contact us for more information, shipping instructions, and to get started on your project.