Set up your studio in about ten minutes
The six things worth doing first, in the order that gets you to a paid booking fastest.
There is no setup wizard to sit through. Your account is created the moment you first open the dashboard, and you can poke around straight away. What you'll find on the Home page instead is a card headed "Finish setting up your studio" with six steps — this is that list, with the reasoning behind each one.
You can do them in any order, but this is the order that gets you to money soonest.
The six steps
- 1
Set up your profile
Settings → Profile. Your name, brand name, bio and photo. This is what clients see at the top of your booking page. Saving your profile for the first time is also what triggers your welcome email, so it's worth doing before anything else.
- 2
Connect Stripe
Settings → Payments & Billing → "Connect Stripe". Nothing can be paid until this is done — not deposits, not standalone invoices. It takes about two minutes and the money lands in your own Stripe account, not ours.
- 3
Add your services
Settings → Services. A service is a thing a client can book: name, price, how long it takes, and how much deposit you want up front. You need at least one before anyone can book you.
- 4
Set your weekly hours
Same tab, under "Weekly Availability". Turn on the days you shoot and set start and end times. If every day is off, your booking calendar has no selectable dates at all — this is the single most common reason a booking page looks broken.
- 5
Share your booking link
Copy it from the Home page — it's the pill under your earnings. Put it in your Instagram bio, your email signature, wherever people already ask you about availability.
- 6
Send your first contract
Documents → Contracts. A default contract template is created for you when your account is set up, so you can send one immediately and edit it later.
Steps 3 and 4 are both under Settings → Services, but they're different things. A service says what you sell; weekly hours say when you're available. Setting one without the other leaves your booking page unable to take a booking.
What happens automatically
A few things are already done for you before you touch anything:
- Your public booking page exists from the moment you sign up, at signshoot.com/your-name.
- A contract template is created and set as your default, so any booking can have a contract attached without you writing one.
- You're on a 14-day Pro trial. No card is required, and when it ends you drop to the free plan rather than being locked out.
Common questions
Do I have to finish all six steps before I can take a booking?
No. The strict minimum is one service, at least one enabled day in your weekly hours, and Stripe connected if you want the deposit collected online. Everything else can wait.
Can I hide the checklist?
Yes — there's an X in its corner. It also disappears on its own once all six are done.
What happens when my trial ends?
You move to the free plan. Nothing is deleted. The free plan caps you at 2 bookings a month, 1 service and 3 portfolio photos, and takes a 3% platform fee on payments.
Didn't solve it?
Signed in? Open a ticket and we'll reply in the thread. Otherwise send us a message.