the way I have my pricing set up is packages as in
10 digi copies and a 16x24 canvas print for $XXX
is that a bad way to do it? should I just charge a flat hourly rate and then try to make all the money with the photos?
It's one way this is my way of thinking on what you are doing with this package:
That's fine if it works for you. Personally I DO NOT
want to sell digi files for many reasons.
1. Print quality control. They are GOING to print at the Wal Mart Kiosk. Go have some of your prints made at the Kiosk. Then order the exact same digi file in the exact same size from your lab. You'll be mortified.
2. Profit. Selling digi files shoots your profitability right into the toilet. You give it away. If you are selling the digi's primarily your pricing should compensate for that. You are selling 10 digi's with a small canvas for we'll say $250. Take out CODB (we'll stay cheap) $100 and the price of the canvas $90 and you have just made a whopping $110. Where as if they wanted prints from say 4 of those files they could have purchased another couple hundred bucks worth of profit to you. With your $75 fee and the $110 profit you are making probably about $minimum wage.
3. Packages rarely fit. Well, yours do. they get it all and a canvas to boot.
4. Selling the digi's like that devalues YOUR work and puts the value on the $2 print they can get from a lab or store. You just put all of your talent and work into $100. Damn you're cheap! My education alone is worth more than $185 and my CODB is far more than $50. I'd suspect yours is also. Probably more in the $150-200 range.
5. Read this post
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-shop-talk/304517-uh-well-just-read-i-cant-title-one.html
Those are only the big things that come to mind right this second.
Options:
Everyone's pricing structure is done to fit them. Mine won't fit you, nor will anyone else's. It's YOUR business. You have to find what works for you. However, there are some basic things that go into figuring your price-no matter how you structure it.
1. CODB (cost of doing business.) For me that does not include my time or talent, just my cold hard costs.
HERE is a good CODB calculator for photographers.
If you have a zero in any field you need to REALLY ask yourself what's wrong and why. For your office/studio etc there really is a cost there even if you are working out of your home. If you didn't have that home, desk, corner, computer, etc you couldn't do what you do. It's taking up space in your home that could go to something else if you weren't doing this. If you are using your personal phone, computer, internet, VEHICLE etc there really is a business cost to that. If you didn't have them, could you do the business as you are now? Nope. Yes, you have already paid for your camera so it's not an expense-wrong. You need to be paid back by the business for that expense AND you need to be putting aside $ for the eventual need to get a new camera, the equipment that you will need to purchase, etc. This camera, computer, software, etc is not going to last forever. You WILL have to purchase another, so that needs to be considered.
2. COG-Tammy explains the complexity of cost of goods better than I do on a whole. I figure it simply at first without any charge for my time or talent. The cost of printing, shipping, boxing, etc. Cold hard invoices from suppliers. It SHOULD include the price of the image, but that gets too complicated for me to figure and I chose to simplify it by figuring the cost of the image into my time.
3. YOUR time. Included in that is the hourly-which you have to have a good grasp on how much time goes into this OTHER than the shoot. That includes the time you spend getting your education, creating your flyers, contracts... everything you create, taking calls, answering emails, taking care of ANYTHING that is related to how you are going to arrive at a photograph. Your session is only maybe an hour, but you have drive time to get there and back, the time to upload and sort, processing, proofing, final touching, prepping for and ordering, receiving, sorting, delivering, archiving, maintaining your computer files, maintaining your accounting files... EVERYTHING!!!
What is your time worth? I hope to God it's more than minimum wage or you might be better off going to Wal Mart and being a greeter. Or working in PictureMe! MUCH easier! You are a professional businessman as well as a professional photographer. It would not be unrealistic for you to throw out $50 an hour.***REMEMBER*** You have to pay ALL of your taxes and benefits out of that $50. Medicare, FICA, Social Security, State, insurance and any other benefits that would be paid by the employer!!! So... $50 an hour is now down to a net of somewhere about $25 if you are paying your own insurance and benefits that an employer would offer.
I mentioned education in there-that is an investment that will be paid to you over time. Like when a teacher goes to college to get their teaching certificate. They don't immediately get paid back for that when they land a teaching job. Think about it as if you were taking out a student loan for that time. We'll say an associates degree costs you $20,000 and that's the amount of education you want to equate with your work. How long do you think it will take to pay that back? (off topic-if it's a real student loan? probably till you are 96!) What I am getting at with education is to spread the initial huge hunk of education out over time to get paid back. You will also have continuing education every year for the rest of your life. For example my push to go to WPPI.
All of that combined is what you HAVE to make to break even. You must be paid for your time, you must pay for the costs of doing this business. I MUST make a minimum of $350 off of a session to break even and pay myself my minimum. PROFITABILITY is above and beyond that. I am not in this business to make my absolute minimum, I am in business to profit and
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