
End-of-Year Planning for Family Photographers: How to Forecast Your Business Expenses
The Systems and Workflow Magic PodcastShow Notes
If you’re listening to this episode around the holidays (or WHENEVER you are listening in to this), I want to encourage you to do something that will instantly bring more clarity into your business for 2026 (and for ANY YEAR): forecast your business expenses. In this episode of The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast (also available as a YouTube video), I’m pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly how I forecast my business expenses for 2026 using my Bookkeeping Template for Creatives. I’m not starting the new year guessing my overhead. And friend, forecasting is NOT “predicting the future.” It’s taking the best data you already have (like your 2025 expenses + recurring subscriptions) and making an informed plan so you can price confidently, set realistic goals, and run your photography business (or creative business) sustainably.
Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode ▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/end-of-year-planning-family-photographers/ ▸ Snag The Bookkeeping Template For Creatives Here: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/bookkeeping-template ▸ Get 25% OFF on Flodesk here: https://flodesk.com/c/DOLLYDELONGEDUCATION ▸ Join the Family Photographer's Marketing Society: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/the-family-photographers-marketing-society ▸Need a bookkeeper? Check out my amazing Bookkeeper here: https://www.willabbybookkeeping.com/
Connect with Dolly DeLong Education 💻 Website 📱Instagram 🎥 YouTube
Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode: ✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools 🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me @dollydelongeducation so I can cheer you on! 🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.
forecast business expenses 2026, business expense forecasting for photographers, bookkeeping for creatives, photography business expenses list, how to calculate overhead for photographers, pricing family photography packages, photography business budgeting system, Google Sheets bookkeeping template, small business expense tracker spreadsheet, annual vs monthly subscriptions for business, photography business profit planning, tax percentage for small business owners, how to track subscriptions for business, systems for photographer finances, backend systems for photographers, financial planning for creative business owners, plan business expenses for the new year, bookkeeping template for small business owners, how to forecast expenses using last year’s data, sustainable photography business systems Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast
Picture it: it’s Wednesday night of a packed October week, minis are on Saturday, and you can’t remember if you texted those families. Then Saturday rolls around, and your camera battery is sitting at 12%. Crap...you forgot to charge your batteries because your mind is frazzled!
Nobody will care about your business as much as you do. True. But that doesn't mean nobody will care at all. This week I'm sitting down with Hannah Allen, owner of Outsourcing with Love, to talk about how family photographers can start handing off parts of their business without living out one of those horror stories we've all heard.
You don't sell courses. You don't sell PDFs. You sell sessions, and every email list tip online seems to assume you have a shop tab full of digital products. In this episode, I'm spilling the tea on three ways family photographers can grow an email list when all you have to sell are sessions (like THAT is the only thing you do!!!)
Your December roster (aka your clients) were decided back in September (because of marketing). That means right now, in September, you're deciding what February looks like. If your marketing falls apart every October and January shows up with an empty calendar, you don't have a time problem or a discipline problem. You have a decision problem, and that's much easier to fix. I promise
It's 9:47 PM on a Sunday night. You open Instagram, tap the plus button, type three words into the caption box, delete them, and somehow end up two hours deep in another photographer's feed with nothing posted. Friend, you are not out of ideas, and you are not uncreative. You're asking yourself the wrong question, and in this episode (watch it on YouTube or listen right here on the podcast) I'm spilling the tea on the question I want you to ask instead.