Pricing Challenges
My next big dilemma is this: What in the world do I charge for my services? I’ve been avoiding this topic for a while now, hoping that some how a miracle will happen and I’ll just know what to do.
Well, that hasn’t happened yet.
So, I’ve begun do do some research by finding out what the photographers in my area are charging, and offering as their services and/or packages. Along with some Google searches on the general topic, it seems that I have found a few resources that might help make this decision a bit easier.
The first is a guide by Stacy Reeves, aptly named The Single Greatest Guide to Wedding Photography Pricing That Ever Was and Ever Will Be. Sounds amazing, huh? 
While this guide is directed at wedding photographers, it seems that there is plenty of good information and insight that would be useful no matter what your area is. You can download this fantastic guide here for free. Whoooo…the magic words!
The second is a set of Excel spreadsheets by Bill Millios of Hopeland Studios that coordinate with the above mentioned guide. These, again, are free and can be had here.
The third is a Cost of Doing Business calculator from the National Press Photographers Association, which can be had here. This is a great start to help you calculate the annual costs required to run a photography based business and includes those important things like, you know, a salary.
After my bit of research this is what I’ve come up with as dilemmas and thought points as I travel down this twisty path:
- It may be possible that sometime in the not-so-near future I might want to make the leap from part-time to full time, so I need to start pricing myself as if I was full time and dependent on the income now. In the future it will be hard for my built up client base to swallow a big price increase and I’d really be doing a dis-service to the photography community by undervaluing my work.
- I need to find the balance between what people will pay vs. what I think I’m worth. How does one do that???
- It’s a scary thing setting prices…what if no one buys? What if I’m ridiculously overpriced and potential clients see me as an overstuffed, big headed photographer wannabe? Conversely, what if I’m amazing and I undervalue myself? After all a service is only worth what people are willing to pay, and if I price too low then I’m missing out on potential profits.
- How do I price myself to be profitable so that I can successfully combine my business life with my personal life, neither wanting for work nor having to work like a dog to make ends meet?
- When building a pricing schedule do I do a-la-cart and custom packages or do I take the pre-set package route? What are the pros and cons of each?
I’d love your feed back on your experiences or thoughts on pricing your business or any other good resources you have found. Let’s help each other get a grip on this whole pricing craziness!
And on another note- your entries to the Strangers on the Street Photo Challenge are due tonight! Send them to me at meghan dot senkel at gmail dot com. I can’t wait to see what you guys have come up with! Excitement!!
I have seen some people post portfolio building prices. Something that says tehy won’t last but maybe six months and a sort of get it while you can. then you know, you take that off of your site later? Or you could always do a coupon of some sort, where you have them handed out and you have regular prices but then if the customer has the coupon, then it starts off cheaper?
I think Misti’s ideas are great. Basically I would set the prices you want to be paid and then offer folks a discount for portfolio building or whatever. You could also tell folks that you’re open to working out a package that works for them specifically… We should have a googlewave or Skype chat specifically about this sometime.
I am both an expert in pricing research and a painter and I still struggle setting a price tag for my work
. I see from your post you are asking the right questions and did some benchmarking. One thing I strongly advise is to cut on the “what will people think about me” to turn it into “what will people think about my company” For any artistic activity it is difficut to make some distance between you and your art. Whilst to set your price you need to have that distance.
For example your biggest limitation as a full time photographer will be your time (as for any consultant) Days have only so much hours so there will not be any room to increase time you spend at your activity to increase your income. Seeing things that way leads you to think about the price you set as a trade off between time spent (linked to number of customers) and income.
You could choose to have very high prices and very few customers and plenty of spare time.
You could also choose to have very low prices, a lot of customers and little of no spare time.
What people think about your company because of your price is then not so relevant…
As Misit says, keep in mind you are allowed to change your prices over time and you can always charge a different price to loyal custmers and new comers
Good luck
Hope this helps
Kind Regards
Anne