SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

How to Price Your Services/Products as a Photographer

8/27/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
© vicky - Fotolia.com
Normally you'd expect the challenge with pricing to be the biggest issue with photographers who are just starting out. Unfortunately, it comes up with almost as many seasoned veterans when they're about to do something new or thinking about raising their prices.

The idea to do a post on the topic is all thanks to a few new members of the GoingPro group. The question on pricing repeatedly comes up, so it's a great time to keep everybody focused on a topic so seriously related to revenue/income. It's even more important when you consider we're heading into the seasonality of the fourth quarter and opportunities to better support your profitability.


It starts with the very first easy to understand challenge - consideration for everything it took for you to become a professional photographer.  It kills me when I hear new photographers excited, because they can get an 8x10 from their lab that's relatively inexpensive. Then they get excited about what they think is a big profit margin, putting it out there at $24.95!  Sadly here's a sampling of everything they forgot to include in the cost of that print:
  • Gear
  • Computer
  • Printers
  • Supplies
  • Furniture
  • Software
  • Packaging
  • Charges from your vendors
  • Rental gear
  • Education - workshops, CDs, DVDs, online programming
  • Insurance
  • Rent/mortgage
  • Phone Service
  • Mailing
  • Utilities
  • Website
  • Internet 
  • Car
  • Gas and Maintenance
  • Legal Counsel
  • Accountant
  • Taxes
  • Dues/membership
  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • Additional labor
  • Travel/Entertainment
And last on the list, let's not forget about the value of your time. I remember years ago Bambi Cantrell talking about the value of her time to give up her weekend with her family to photograph a wedding. All of you pay a serious price for your passion to be an artist, especially when it comes to being a wedding photographer.

I don't want to spend a lot more time talking about pricing when there are three terrific resources out there already. Just click on any one of the three banners below and you've got access to Bryan Caporicci's guest post a few months ago, Sal Cincotta's video on pricing, and David Ziser's explanation from his blog, Digital Pro Talk.

Picture
Bryan Caporicci
Picture
Sal Cincotta
Picture
David Ziser
1 Comment
Tim Tilden
9/12/2014 07:39:00 pm

I found this video by Mark Wallace a good starting point for understanding what you need to do.

http://youtu.be/nDVTO7QDHgs

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Your walk is just a click away
    Picture
    Picture

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 130 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Alzheimer's
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Business Breakthroughs
    Clean Up Series
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    F64 Lunch Bunch
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    Hump Day
    In The News
    Lessons Learned
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mark's Corner
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
Photofocus

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us