starting my small business

MeganChristine · May 3, 2015

Hey all. I've been into photography for probably 10 years or so, always wanted to make money doing what I love. Well a couple weeks ago I started to get my business going. Created a Facebook page, ordered business cards, set up a small studio, bought a new camera, etc. Now my question is this... how do I figure out what to charge?

also, there's a couple photographers in my area who will charge say $100 per session with 15 pictures on a disk. BUT, I helped put another photographer who charged say $100 per session and people had to order pictures and she also made money off of her customers buying prints. which is the best way to do it?

and say I choose the second option, anyone have any print websites that produce good quality(aka they don't cut half my pic or change the colors) at a decent price?

Any help is always appreciated

funwitha7d · May 3, 2015

KmH said:
What

hopefully the quote works, from another thread last year on this forum

funwitha7d · May 3, 2015

hopefully I am allowed...seemed like really good info but im not a prof photographer from KmH

What country are you in?
Is your business a sole proprietorship, a LLC, or a sub-chapter S corporation?
Will you be keeping the business financial records or have you hired an accountant to do that for you?
Which accounting method will you be using - the accrual accounting method or the cash accounting method?
Which insurance company(s) are you using for your business liability insurance, for errors and omission (E&O) insurance, and for equipment insurance?

Copyright release is not a good term to use, from a legal perspective.
At the end of the day, the copyrights to the photos you make are a valuable asset you own and copyright is a bundle of rights.
You can rent those rights in a piecemeal manner.
Also copyright is federal law here in the USA, so it's the same in all 50 states and for each business - www.copyright.gov

Instead use the term - use license. In retail photography a use license is often called a print release.
A use license/print release is a type of photograph rental agreement.

Unless you enjoy taking on the risk of spending time and money on lawyers and court costs, yes - you need a well written contract that every customer signs, and valid model releases on file. Also note that there are other details regarding model and property releases you need to know about:
A Digital Photographer's Guide to Model Releases: Making the Best Business Decisions with Your Photos of People, Places and Things
Having a qualifies attorney review or write all your legal documents is highly recommended.

Model release law varies by state in the USA so using a generic one you find online might backfire on you.
FWIW - minors do not have sufficient legal standing to sign contracts nor model releases - their parents have to sign for them.

Starting & Managing a Business | SBA.gov

Contact your city government to discover what their requirements are for starting/registering a business.
Contact your state government to discover what the state requirements are for starting/registering a business.

Last edited: Mar 29, 2014
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MeganChristine · May 3, 2015

I'm definitely no where near contacting an attorney etc and making it a legal business. I'm just starting out and would prefer to build up clients before I go into all that extra stuff.

funwitha7d · May 3, 2015

sorry, it seemed like good info but what you were after

BrickHouse · May 3, 2015

Doesn't the "legal business" thing need to happen before the "build up clients" thing?

limr · May 3, 2015

BrickHouse said:
Doesn't the "legal business" thing need to happen before the "build up clients" thing?

I'm inclined to agree. Legality of a business isn't "extra stuff." At the very least, start looking for a contract and model release form. It will make life easier. Just search for all the threads of people who came here looking for advice on how to deal with a client who skipped out on payment, who is demanding a lower price or reshoots or more images on the CD...oh, and "No, there was no contract, what should I do?"

tirediron · May 3, 2015

MeganChristine said:
I'm definitely no where near contacting an attorney etc and making it a legal business. I'm just starting out and would prefer to build up clients before I go into all that extra stuff.

Let me know how it works out for you when your local municipality/state taxation office comes after you for $5000 -10,000 in unpaid taxes. Oh, and since I'm sure insurance is "extra stuff" have fun in court when a client's child trips and injures his/herself on a shoot and sues you for a $100,000!

Vtec44 · May 4, 2015

MeganChristine said:
Any help is always appreciated

I've been a photographer for a while now (graduated from a state college with an art degree) . I started my business in 2012 by legally formed a company, filed my paperwork with the city, county, and state. I also opened up a business bank account and have business insurance. Prior to starting my business, I was working full time and saved up the money. Your city hall should be a good point to start the process as far as the basic paperwork. For more complicated paperwork, services like We the People - Legal Document Preparation Services Legal Form Preparation for Individuals Businesses can be a good resource.

As far as how much to charge, the two main business models are: low price but high volume and high price but low volume. There are pros and cons to each. For you to charge a high price but low volume, you have to somehow differentiate yourself with the rest of the other photographers. People will not pay more for something that they can get somewhere else cheaper. Perceived value is the key.

You need to know to cost of doing business, ie monthly expenses, time, equipment lifespan, insurance, etc, to calculate out approximately how much to charge.

Psytrox · May 4, 2015

If you want to keep things very simple, you can do the shoots for free, and charge only for prints. Have it printed, at a local printing service, and either demand payment before hand, or send them the photos with an invoice, and give them the option to return photo's that they are unhappy with.

There is obviously a risk that they wont pay you anything, but at least you save 200 usd on lawyer writing you up a contract

Overread · May 4, 2015

"I want clients before I do the legal bits"

See the problem with that thinking is that whilst its nice to get the idea of building a customer base before investing and committing to company is that there's always 1 more customer. You will keep saying to yourself "ahh it costs so much, I'll just get a few more clients" and before you know it you've got the taxman knocking on your door and suddenly you get hit with vast costs that crush you.

Best to start off how you mean to continue; it also means that your costs of doing business will include all your legal costs and such from the beginning. That means that you'll know how much you need to charge in order to cover your running costs.

As said above your local council should have some good advice and information packages on this subject; some even operate small business start-up schemes (as do some banks). IT's important to ask because sometimes there are hidden costs or things that you've just not heard of which are very important. Furthermore sometimes doing things the right way can be cheaper than the wrong way as there are ways to offset some costs and sometimes scale affects what you should and shouldn't have to pay.

IT costs money to make money and starting up a business is an investment. You can save up by working a regular job (you can even use that to phase in your photography business - work it on the days off from your regular work) and the early days of any new business are often run at a total loss. It takes time to build up client bases and to get advertising working (even if you advertise before the official opening day - which you should - it will still take time). So you need savings to not only cover your startup costs, but also to run your company for a period of time without profit.

As for what model you take that is really up to you.
A high booking fee can dissuade many customers, however it also means that the customers you do get pay you the majority of your income in one go. One easy to take payment which then doesn't rely upon photo sales of prints.

A low booking fee on the other hand can mean you get more customers, but you've got to offset that against prints and digital prints because that is where your profit will be. You'll have to be good at selling because you'll have to convince them to part with more money than just the sitting fee to make your profit. And you also have to accept that sometimes they will come and only want one photo.

No sitting fee is the extreme end, however comes with a downside that with no initial investment you might get more flake customers; that is they'll call up or email and say "Yeah book me in this Monday" and then never show up. By having a fee you give them a reason to turn up.

You can also play with deposits and other such things.

astroNikon · May 4, 2015

A county assumed name is $10

Then you file with the state in order to submit and charge taxes .. yes you can ADD tax to a sale or just take it out of a flat cost to make it easier for the Customer.

And insurance cost isn't much ... have your asked an insurance agent by chance ?
A lot cheaper than being sued for a variety of potential issues, especially those insane customers who keep asking for more and more and more and more and more, and will sue when they don't get what they want saying they were misled (no contract).

or do it the easy (and sometimes really really hard way) and ignore all of it.

You've done everything to start your hobby. If you call it a business you might have some City Zoning Ordinances problems (even with a hobby). And a hobby .. no income taking from it. Call/Read IRS documents or talk to a business tax accountant.

sm4him · May 4, 2015

In addition to what everyone else has already said:

Psytrox said:
If you want to keep things very simple, you can do the shoots for free, and charge only for prints. Have it printed, at a local printing service, and either demand payment before hand, or send them the photos with an invoice, and give them the option to return photo's that they are unhappy with.

There is obviously a risk that they wont pay you anything, but at least you save 200 usd on lawyer writing you up a contract

I disagree with this. First of all, whether you charge for your services or not, you absolutely NEED to have a contract if you are going to have "clients." Even if those clients are just friends, you need some sort of contract that spells out what they can expect and what YOU expect from them (payment, use license, etc). Just one example of something that happens All. The. Time.
Jane Photographer does a photo shoot for her friend, Sarah Social.
Jane just takes the pictures because they are friends, no need for a contract. Jane gives Sarah a bunch of pictures on a disk for her to use.
Sarah Social says "Wow, these are great!" then goes through photos, picks a few she likes, then promptly runs them through her OWN photo-editing app, applying gawdy filters, blown-out sun glare effects, changing backgrounds--and then posts the resulting really awful photos on all her social media sources.
Jane says, "Hey, you can't edit my photos like that!" Sarah ignores her, or says, basically, "Sure I can; thanks for doing this!"
A "discussion" ensues.
Jane Photographer and Sarah Social are no longer friends.

Seriously, no matter WHAT else you do--if you are going to start shooting clients:

HAVE A CONTRACT.

Oh, and the other part that I disagree with. Do NOT tell ANYone that they can "return" photos they don't want. No. No way. Because once those photos are in their hands, I guaran-dang-tee you that if they return any to you, they WILL still have their own copies of them. If they are prints, they'll scan them or have them printed; if they are digital, they'll simply save them, then give you the storage device back with the original photos.

Overread · May 4, 2015

Just a thought:

Tax only has to be paid above a certain earning point; thus its potentially possible that you could work and earn small scale without having to incur significant business costs. As such knowing the legal situation is to your advantage as you could do some small scale work without having the costs ontop in quite the same way - things though like insurance might be needed still.

A lot of it is about protecting you from the pitfalls; because if you fall down one that's it - without proper support and approach you're sunk and the dream becomes a nightmare.