New special :)

[YoungPhotoGirl]

Trying to raise customer base again and slowly gain more customers in Boudoir.

 

[Designer]

Why are you bouncing from being overwhelmed to offering a special?

Maybe what you need is a solid business plan.

 

[YoungPhotoGirl]

Why are you bouncing from being overwhelmed to offering a special?

Maybe what you need is a solid business plan.

Because as I said I took a years break. I have a 3 1/2 year old to consider, and its actually really hard to continue business if your not actually doing any work.
If you don't want to give me advice that's fine, my business plan was perfect for me to have been so successful I am mostly asking of those who have any experience with coming back into the industry after a break, because its different than starting fresh

 

[Braineack]

I cant imagine the effort being worth it at $40 a pop. I started having a hard time spending 2-3 hours making $175 a pop with a huge line of customers demanding a product from me.

 

[Steve5D]

..its actually really hard to continue business if your not actually doing any work.

I don't understand this.

You said you were overwhelmed. Perhaps Designer was assuming you were overwhelmed with work. That's certainly the assumption I made. If that's the case, your comment about being able to continue to do business while not doing any work is confusing. You were working, yes?

Was it your personal life that overwhelmed you? That would be perfectly reasonable; it happens, especially with kidlets...

If you don't want to give me advice that's fine, my business plan was perfect for me to have been so successful I am mostly asking of those who have any experience with coming back into the industry after a break, because its different than starting fresh

I think what Designer was saying is that if you were so successful, and now have to offer an extremely low price for a boudoir shoot, then maybe your business plan was good only for the short term and, therefore, may not have been a very good plan to begin with. The market hasn't changed so much that your old successful business plan would now be obsolete. Why not just go back to adhering to it?

If coming back after a break is different, the only difference lies in the fact that you now have experience, where you didn't when you first started. Otherwise, coming back after a long break is very much like starting anew.

There's a very basic tenet when it comes to sales: It's always easy to lower your prices, but never easy to raise them. If you had a reputation for doing this type of shoot for, say, $100.00, and now you're doing it for less than half that, the odds are good that you will never be able to successfully raise your price back to that $100.00 price point.

That's something to strongly consider...

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

How long are the mini sessions supposed to last? Do you have to rent something out to do this? Are you using the same location for all of the clients or are you traveling to each one's homes?
I don't see anything wrong with doing a mini special, about 2 times a year I throw a mini session weekend. Hosted at a local park close to my home offering 8-12 images on a cd, 20min worth of shooting time at $40 a session (max. 4 people in a session) it's a good way to keep your faithful clients coming back for a short session and gives new potential clients a reason to try you out without the fear of losing a big bulk of change down the drain. Also, because it is one venue I just pack a lunch and I park myself there for 6 hours, I don't really lose any money doing things this way. In fact I pull in quite a bit for a mini shoot day and with the subjects changing every 20min, I'm not getting bored.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'm thinking along the same lines as Steve and some of the others, that whether for someone starting out or for you getting back into photography, a business plan might be a good idea. edit - After rereading your posts, I'm not understanding why you're saying your past business plan was perfect but now you seem to be trying to figure out how best to proceed; maybe you could use a plan for that. How and where did you market yourself before that was so successful? would some of the same things still work?

If you've already been successful it may not be a good idea to drop rates too much - customers might wonder why the boudoir sessions are so inexpensive when their portrait or family sessions cost more. If boudoir is a new area you're starting maybe it would be better to offer a special for a shorter time period; this seems like you'd be doing these sessions most of the summer and not making much at it.

American Society of Media Photographers has resources available to professional photographers. I'm not sure what might apply in your country.

 

[Derrel]

I will not even uncap a lens for $40. I just bought a full tank of gasoline for my small American car. Cost me $50.76. Yesterday I spent $139 in the grocery store. I can't imagine why you're offering a $40 boudoir special. That's just so, so very low-priced unless you're selling prints later in one-on-one proof viewing and direct, person-to-person sales sessions. $40 will not even buy a tank of fuel. I "get" the idea of trying to raise customer base, but only at a price point that doesn't devalue your work, or your reputation. To me, here in the USA, when I see a $40-$50 session fee + CD of images price quoted, I immediately think of Facebook fauxtographers with one camera, one zoom lens, natural-light only, and everything shot horizontally. A $40 session WITH images just seems to me to have a very low "perceived value".

My experience is that selling PERSON-to-PERSON is the only consistently reliable way to really realize the sales potential of photos. I worked as a photographer where clients were shown proofs projected BIG, and we sold a lot of high-dollar canvases. We averaged $17,000 to $24,000 in sales per WEEK that way. Every week. I just do not get the $40 AND the pictures concept at all.

 

[tirediron]

I have to agree with Derrel - I could maybe, just maybe buy off on it if you were offering just a $40 session fee, but even then, that seems awfully low. While I have exactly zero experience in boudoire work, my immediate thought is that this is not a genre which lends itself to "mini-sessions". To me, these are family in the park, etc, but to do boudoire, I think you should allow time - your clients are going to care what they look like, and even just moving around on a bed or couch could mess up hair which will take 10-15 minutes to sort out. To be quite frank, this whole thing is something I would file under "Bad plan".

Edited to add: Oh, and I would bin that "worried about your body shape" You want to make this positive and fun, NOT give the client something to worry about that they may not have even thought of!

 

[pixmedic]

the cheapest we have ever done what could be called a "mini session" was $150.
lasted about an hour, and the client got 15 images on disk.
That deal was for a coworker. (one of my supervisors)

maybe...maybe...if someone called and had 10 people lined up that only wanted, say, 5 images on disk...and they would all use the same backdrop and lighting scheme...
i could probably work them out a deal like $50 a person or something like that. probably only 15-20 minutes of shooting for each person.

Now, im not saying you shouldn't do your sessions cheaper. It really doesn't bother me either way. I am a firm believer that if I am not willing to shoot at a certain price point, I have no right to complain about someone who does, because their clients arent clients i would have taken anyway if they weren't willing or able to pay more money.

If you can line up a bunch of people for same day shooting, then you will probably find that you have made some money, even after expenses like gas, time, editing, etc etc.
The last bit of wisdom i will leave you with is this....If the big fish arent willing to shoot below a certain price, then that just opens up a market for people that are.
The argument of "well, if the people shooting cheap weren't doing it, those clients would have to pay more for us to do their pictures" is the biggest load of bullmess you will ever hear. Plenty of people simply don't have the money, and many "Pro" photographers would rather see those people have zero pictures, than stomach another photographer doing it cheap.

I had a point in all of that mess somewhere...I think.
It was probably something pretty deep and philosophical about forging your own destiny, and not letting other people drag you down...
Im sure you got it. Just pretend like it was helpful.

 

[imagemaker46]

My guess would be that the finance side of this business is being supported by another family income which is why the fee can be so low.

Establishing a solid photographic business is tough these days, walking away from one and then trying to re-build it is the same as starting over. I would assume that client base in the boudoir business would be similar to the wedding business, basically one off shoots, so there wouldn't be the opportunity of contacting any former clients with the new deal. In other fields of photography, if a person takes a year off, their former clients quickly find replacements and rebuilding is just the same as starting over. Good luck trying to get it back, but these days, you walk away from a business, you have to work harder to get it back. People just assume that you quit for good.

 

[Steve5D]

Edited to add: Oh, and I would bin that "worried about your body shape" You want to make this positive and fun, NOT give the client something to worry about that they may not have even thought of!

I had the exact same thought...

 

[pixmedic]

I think nowadays, the number of people whose sole income is photography is rare. (and getting smaller)
even photographers that are doing "well" in the business very often have other jobs for things like health insurance, 401k's, and any number of other benefits that you might not get being self employed. Plus, photography is one of those job types that lends well to being a second job since often times you can make your own schedule. (to some extent) it is easier to work around an existing schedule.

I really don't understand why there is this stigma placed on part time photographers. Why is it any different than having any other part time job to supplement income?
I have RN friends that moonlight as a Paramedic a few days a month for extra money. Are they any less of a paramedic because it is not their "main" profession?
Would you refuse to buy a house from a part time real estate agent if the house and the price were right?

 

[tirediron]

I think nowadays, the number of people whose sole income is photography is rare. (and getting smaller)
even photographers that are doing "well" in the business very often have other jobs for things like health insurance, 401k's, and any number of other benefits that you might not get being self employed. Plus, photography is one of those job types that lends well to being a second job since often times you can make your own schedule. (to some extent) it is easier to work around an existing schedule.

I really don't understand why there is this stigma placed on part time photographers. Why is it any different than having any other part time job to supplement income?
I have RN friends that moonlight as a Paramedic a few days a month for extra money. Are they any less of a paramedic because it is not their "main" profession?
Would you refuse to buy a house from a part time real estate agent if the house and the price were right?

^^ This! ^^ It's not about how often you do it, it's about how WELL you do it.

 

[Braineack]

I think nowadays, the number of people whose sole income is photography is rare. (and getting smaller)
even photographers that are doing "well" in the business very often have other jobs for things like health insurance, 401k's, and any number of other benefits that you might not get being self employed.

Well now, people can choose to stay at home and take pictures...