Pricing Your Portraits: High-Profit Strategies for Photographers

by Jeff Smith (Photographer)

Overview

Portrait photographers agree that one of the most important yet shrouded aspects of running a successful business is accurately pricing your products for profit. Some charge too little, then scramble to photograph and edit photos for throngs of clients, only to become overwhelmed and burn out. Others price too low initially, just to get people in the door, but soon mark up their prices and lose clients to new photographers who charge rock-bottom prices. There are still others who price themselves out of the game right out of the gate.

Jeff Smith, owner of two thriving portrait studios teaches you how to tackle one of photography’s most vexing problems—working out a pricing structure that allows you to cover your costs and clear a profit that you can live comfortably with. Smith begins by showing you methods that he—and countless other pros—have used in a misguided attempt to reap a great cash flow, helping you avoid time-and-revenue-burning missteps. Next, he walks you through the process of figuring out where your money goes—How much should you shell out for new equipment? What falls into the category of “overhead?” How much do you need to pay your staff and yourself?—and then moves on to show ways to cut costs, price individual prints and packages, maintain your desired business volume, retain existing clients, and delegate tasks in order to work smartly toward profitability—all while enjoying your work and achieving professional and creative satisfaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608958719
Publisher:	Amherst Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/12/2015
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jeff Smith: Jeff Smith is an award-winning portrait photographer and the author of Corrective Lighting, Posing, and Retouching for Digital Portrait Photographers; Outdoor and Location Portrait Photography, Step-by-Step Posing for Portrait Photography and many more. He lives in Fresno, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Not to Price Your Portrait Photography 7

Don't Follow the Leader 7

You Might Not Be Following Success 7

You Might Not Have All the Information 9

Pricing 10

Practical Example 10

About This Book 16

1 Profit 17

What Is Profit? 17

Pricing 19

Insecurity Leads to Underpricing 19

Money Buys Respect 20

Your Skill Level 20

Costs 21

A Repeatable Process 21

Fantasy or Nightmare? 22

Time Is Your Most Limited Resource 24

Volume 27

The "More" Syndrome 27

Adapting Is Critical 27

New Businesses: Marketing to Manage Volume 29

Established Businesses: Pricing to Manage Volume 29

2 Cash Flow 30

Planning Pay Cycles 30

Contracts 30

Payment Schedules 31

Sitting Fees 32

The Problem with No Sitting Fee 32

The Customer Isn't Always Right 35

Advantages of a Sitting Fee 36

Product Orders 39

Financing 39

Communication Is Key 39

Consider Delegating 40

When Problems Occur 42

Bad Checks 42

Late Payments 42

Extra Photo Requests 42

3 Costs and Overhead 43

Time 44

Hourly Rates vs. Hourly Wages 44

Time Management 45

How Much Is Your Time Worth? 46

Equipment Costs 48

Cameras 49

Lenses 50

Lights and Modifiers 51

Make Purchases Based on Results 52

Learn to Use What You Have 53

Regularly Review Your Costs 54

4 Elements of a Profitable Workflow 56

Develop a Style That Clients Want 56

Check in With Your Clients 56

What All Clients Want 56

Tailoring the Shoot to the Individual's Needs 59

Bigger Faces Mean Bigger Sales 59

Improve Your Communication with Clients 63

Collect Information 63

Implement What You Learn 64

Understand Your Unique Demographic 65

Learn to Be Consistent 66

Master Previsualization 68

Plan Your Portraits 68

Practice-But on Your Own Time 68

Know That Limits Boost Efficiency 69

Conflict Avoidance Is Not a Workflow Strategy 70

Communicate Your Policies Clearly 70

The Bottom Line 71

Sell Immediately After the Session 72

Get It Right-In the Camera 72

Minimize Post-Processing 72

Control Imaging Casts 74

Select the Correct Lab 74

5 No Simple Solutions 76

The Profit Profile 76

Consider ALL the Variables 76

More on Sitting Fees: Practical Examples 77

Location Sessions 78

Family Portraits 80

Portrait Sessions 82

Weddings 82

The Final Word 83

Did You Factor in Your No-Show Rate? 84

6 Sales Models and Pricing 85

Print Sales 86

It Takes Guts 86

Total Control 86

The Image Itself, Not a Piece a Paper 87

Learn to Love the "Business" 87

You Can't Price for Your Potential Clients 87

Perceived Value 88

Reality Has Nothing to Do With It 89

What Creates Perceived Value 91

Your Studio's Brand Identity 92

There Are Limits 93

Different Types of Sessions Have Different Perceived Values 93

Retail Markup 95

Don't Be the Cheapest 96

Selling Digital Files 98

When It Works 99

Why, More Often, It Doesn't 100

Pricing for Digital File Sales 104

Billing by the Hour 105

For Weddings 105

For Portraits 106

7 Selling Your Photography 107

Selling Larger Portraits 109

Profit and Marketing Benefits 109

The Right Decision for Their Home and Budget 109

Selling Is Serious Business 110

To Sell Large, Show Large 111

Shoot to Show 115

Sell Additional Products and Groupings 116

Develop a Sales System 116

8 Are Your Prises Working? 119

Sales-Per-Clicnt Averages Don't Tell the Whole Story 120

Calculate Your Sales Per Hour 121

Less Is Actually More 122

My Top Two Rules 110

Conclusion: Go Back to the Basics 124

Index 125