New to this need advice on how to price a party

[pminor74]

Hi everyone! Very new to this forum thing and hope to get feed back. I was contacted by a previous client and she has asked me to come and take pictures at her daughter's 18th surprise birthday party. I do not have a problem with this however I am not sure how to price the event. I have known this family for 14 years and they are really my 1st family that took a risk and let me do their family photos about a year ago. They turned out well and I have gotten several jobs because of them. She wants me to come and shoot for about 2 hours and then put the shots on a cd. That is my other problem I am not sure what to charge for the cd.

Please help on me on this!!
Pam

 

[Bram]

Cool always nice to get paid for your work, also welcome to the Forum.

To answer your question I would go by how many photos you put on the disc. If they all want copies or just the birthday girl wants a copy. How much tim you spend on editing I would also consider when pricing, You take 2 hours to shoot, and let's say another 2 to edit. I would charge cheap since you k now them for so long, also was the session you did with them a year ago paid or not?

 

[pminor74]

Yes, they paid me last year. But I charged them next to nothing. The mom is wanting to know the price of the cd before hand. The cd would be of the party and I would hand it off to her mom. I more than likely would just color correct all pictures and delete the bad and only crop the ones that I felt need special attention. I will also more than likely do this child's senior pictures as well. What I keep in the back of my head that all of her friends will be there and that will give me more business for senior photos. And thank you for the warm welcome

 

[Bram]

Alright so you want to throw out a price, considering you may get more business out of it. I would probably go with something like $50.00 or double for the 2 hours of the party and the work combined. When thinking of the price you need to calculate alot of things, like time out of your day, time spend shooting, and time spent editing, and then ofcourse the price you pay for the CD which is probably $39.99 for 100. lol. I don't know what they paid for the previous encounter, you stated next to nothing. That can be $100.00 that can be $20.00

 

[pminor74]

over 2 hours of shooting and many editing bc I was a lot slower back then.. All together they spent about 100. where I know any where else would have charged about 500. if not more. I have also gotten about 4 additional jobs off of her one session of family shots.

 

[DirtyDFeckers]

I don't think you should charge them any less than you would charge anyone else. You have to be able to differentiate between business and friendship. Charge them the local market price for your time, and maybe give them a small discount on the CDs. Make it worth your while.

 

[KmH]

No one here can tell you how much to charge.

What is your time worth to you, per hour? How much is one of your photos worth? What cost-of-doing-business and cost-of-goods-sold expenses (fixed costs) do you need to also cover with your charges?

Does Texas require you collect sales taxes?

Do you have what Texas and Houston consider a legal business?

 

[pminor74]

Texas does require sales tax. I have a DBA. So yes I have a legal business. I am still new and know that my photos are good but I will be honest I always look at others and doubt myself. It is a business that is ongoing of learning. That is why I decided to get on a forum however now I am really doubting myself. I look at some of the things on here and the terms and now I am not so sure. I started doing this for my single parent friends. I was a single parent once and never could afford anything but the cheap pckg at the super center. So I keep my prices affordable so any family can afford it. After a year it is starting to pay itself off. I enjoy it and brings me smiles and it relaxes me. I want to learn more but it seems I can't find in photo classes down here to take so I can learn more to make more.