Automating tasks is all the trend these days. This includes automating image editing. Imagine getting retail-ready photos in just a few clicks. Who wouldn’t want that, right? 

If you considered automating your photo editing process but are hesitant to invest in it, you’re not alone. While automating photo editing is tempting, is it worth the investment? 

This blog post will explore the cost-benefit analysis of automating your photo editing process. 

The hidden cost of doing it yourself

As a business owner, I’m sure your business means the world to you. Many owners are so passionate about their work that they’d do everything themselves, if they had infinite time (and chances are they’ve tried!) 

Unfortunately, every business owner has the same 24 hours a day at their disposal. And because time is scarce, your time as the head of your company is especially valuable.

When you edit large batches of photos yourself, you take on a repetitive task that imposes an opportunity cost on your business — spending a lot of time on post-production leaves you with less time for high-growth activities. 

You may save a bit of money by not outsourcing your photo editing or using an automated platform. But in return, you squander the time you could have spent growing your business. Instead of spending your energy on lower-growth tasks, why not focus on ways to 10x your company?

When you invest your time into high-leverage activities like meeting with potential clients, optimizing your marketing strategy, and creating new products, you can grow your business and increase your revenue significantly. The potential is out there — but it demands your time and attention.

How much is your time worth?

Let’s say you had two tasks you needed to finish: (1) one that paid $100 and (2) another that paid $1,000. If you knew you could do both equally well and they both took the same time and effort to complete, which would you pick?

Needless to say, you’d pick the $1,000 job, right? Your time would be worth $1,000. The reality is you wouldn’t spend time doing a task worth $100 because you know you could make so much more.

It’s the same concept when you automate photo editing. Just look at the math:

Say it takes you 10 minutes to edit one photo. That means you would edit six photos in an hour. But could you do something else with one hour of your time? A rule of thumb is that if you make more than it costs to automate something, you should automate. 

At Pixc, you can remove the background for $2.00 per image (even less if you become a Pixc Member). That’s $12.00 for six (6) product photos. At this rate, it’s almost guaranteed that you could create more than $12.00/hour of value with your time. 

So, how much is your time worth? If you value your time at $75/hour. When editing photos, you bring your rate down to $12.00/hour. Now, if you automate photo editing, at the very least, you’ll net $75-$12.00 = $63.00/hour. Making $63.00 compared to $12.00 is a no-brainer! 

Furthermore, the cherry on top is that you can create more value than anticipated. If you spent an hour creating a new product concept for your store, you could see thousands of dollars in new revenue down the line. Not to mention, it will only take about a minute for Pixc to complete the 6 photos. 

Sounds much more enticing, doesn’t it? 

That’s the value of freeing up your time.

It gets better: Direct cost savings when you automate photo editing

Even if you don’t do your photo editing yourself and have an in-house design team to handle this for you, it is still more beneficial cost-wise.

The math doesn’t lie:

If you need 1,000 photos edited and it takes your graphic designers 10 minutes to edit each photo, it’ll take 166 hours total to finish the batch. At $23/hour for an experienced designer, that comes to a labor cost of $3,818.

When you automate photo editing lets you get your batch of 1,000 photos done much more inexpensively. At Pixc, for example, you can have 1,000 images edited for $2,000 (or $2.00 per image). That’s $1,818 saved in direct costs alone!

Of course, when your design team is freed from having to perform repetitive photo editing tasks, they can turn their attention to creating revenue-growing content: social media art, product conceptions, infographics, and more.

Other Benefits of Automation 

In addition to cost savings, there are a few other benefits of automating photo editing. 

Increased production output

Automation platforms are created to work faster and longer than humans. This means an automated photo editing service like Pixc can result in quicker turnaround times and more photo edits. 

Back to the example above, your graphic designers may take 166 hours to edit – that’s never the case with automation! Turning to an automated service could edit those same 1000 photos roughly in 2 hours. 

Furthermore, imagine how many other batches of photos you could edit in 166 hours with automation. Could you keep up taking that many product photos?

Availability 

Automated online services are available 24/7. They never get tired and are ready to work when you are. Human resources have different flexibility. Your graphic designer may be focused on other projects, and you may have more demanding business tasks that prevent you both from giving photo editing the time it needs. However, even at night, the platform will edit your photos when you automate the process. 

Try Pixc and see how we can save you time and money

Automation is probably a familiar concept to you. You may have automated your social posts by using a scheduling tool to post your content at specific times automatically. Doing that has undoubtedly made your life easier, and automating photo editing is no different. 

At Pixc, we’re really good at editing photos — it’s all we have been doing for over a decade. That’s why we’ve been able to build an automated photo editing platform that produces quick, high-quality product image edits at top efficiency. That translates to amazing photos for you at an affordable price.

So, try Pixc today and see what we can do for you! Start by taking advantage of a free photo edit.