Cost of Doing Business: questions

[guitarmy]

Hey guys and gals.

I'm trying to figure out my CODB and have a few questions for some of you. I figured some other people might be interested as well.

First, prior to contacting any insurance companies, I'm wondering if anyone can give me a ballpark figure as to what to expect for business insurance? I'm in Canada, I'll be doing business as 'Tenfold Photography' (one person), and I'll be doing on-location as well as in-studio shoots (out of my basement studio). Hoping to do mostly commercial work, but will fill the gaps with portraiture and so forth.

Second, I'm not entirely sure I know how to incorporate CODB into my project bids/quotes/pricing structure. What I have been doing is gathering all costs for running Tenfold per annum, and breaking those costs down into what they would cost me per hour (based on 48 working weeks in my year, with 4 billable 8-hour work days per week - one for accounting). < don't know if this is realistic

So then I have each expense broken down into hourly rates. Add them all up, and I have my CODB (hourly). Then my gameplan was to estimate how long it would take me to do a proposed project and factor in my CODB first (so, say my CODB hourly was $30 incl. salary, and a project is set to take me two hours incl. editing, my CODB for that project would be $60).

Does that make any sense to you guys? It seems really low to me. I'm thinking that I need to consider the fact that I will NOT have shoots 4 days of every week, and that while an actual shoot/editing might take me two hours, I have to factor in drive time, the fact that it might take up my whole morning, and so forth.

If you're doing it a different way, or have suggestions for me, please share! I'm a noob in this department, but I'm taking the business side very seriously. I want to start on the right foot in hopes that I can get the heck out of this office job one day. Thanks!

 

[jstuedle]

I figure up the cost of each product I sell, what goes into the delivered product. For instance, a 8X10 print from your lab = $x.xx, how many sheets of paper to process quote, bid, conformation and packing slip plus ink = $0.xx. Stamps, envelopes, packing and shipping materials = x.xx. Whatever else you can think of add it, no matter how slight. Now multiply X 5.5. Yes, 550%. I found this to be realistic if you have a good product and feel confident in your abilities. Anything less and you will be fighting the bill collector, believe me. I got this formula from a very good pro with over 30 years experience, Larry Peters.