The situation

Wedding photographer in Toronto, 15-20 inquiries/month from Instagram and referrals. I want to track what actually converts.

— diagnosis —

Verdict

You don't need a CRM. A free spreadsheet and one reply habit will tell you exactly what converts — no subscription required.

Why

You're handling 15–20 inquiries a month from two channels: Instagram DMs and referrals. That's at most one lead every two days, all solo. There's no team stepping on each other, no handoffs, no pipeline complexity. You don't have a tool problem — you have a tracking habit problem.

What you actually need

  1. Google Sheets, free — one tab, seven columns: date, name, channel (Instagram vs. referral), wedding date, quoted price, status (new / follow-up / booked / lost), and loss reason. Fifteen seconds per lead.
  2. Calendly, free tier — embed a booking link in your Instagram bio and referral follow-up emails so every inquiry lands in one place with a timestamp, removing the "I forgot to reply" gap.
  3. A habit — the 48-hour rule — every inquiry gets a personal reply within 48 hours and a follow-up if they go quiet after 5 days; log both actions in your Sheet.

Do this today

Open a new Google Sheet right now and create these seven column headers: Date, Name, Source, Wedding Date, Quote, Status, Loss Reason — then backfill every inquiry you can remember from the last 30 days. After one month of data you'll see whether Instagram or referrals close at a higher rate, which is the one conversion insight you said you wanted.

What to ignore

You do not need HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive, or any paid CRM. Every sales rep pitching you those tools is sizing you for a suit you won't wear — their entry tiers start around CAD $25–50/month and are built for sales teams managing hundreds of deals. At 15–20 inquiries a month as a solo photographer, you'd spend more time learning the software than shooting weddings.

What doing nothing costs you

A conservative 15% slippage on 18 inquiries a month means roughly 2–3 lost leads monthly from slow or forgotten follow-ups. Assuming a CAD $3,000 average wedding photography booking, that's potentially CAD $72,000–$108,000 a year quietly walking past you.

When to revisit this

When you bring on a second shooter or associate photographer who also handles client communication and you're both working the same inbox.