MLeeK
TPF Noob!
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- Oct 20, 2011
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We've been talking about business and pricing structures and all of that a LOT lately and I know there are a few people asking a million questions about this stuff. Here's my take on things:
Packages? Ala Carte? Sitting Fees? Print Credits? Units? Sheets? Artwork?
One of the biggest confusions is how to sell your products and how to price them so that they're attractive to a client. Every photographer does things a little differently and there is no one right way for everyone. What I do isn't going to be wholly right for you or anyone else. It could be a little right or totally wrong! None of the pricing structures are WRONG, you just have to figure out what is right for you.
If you are at the point of creating packages I assume you have figured out your CODB and your cost per shooting hour. You know what you have to make per session to get paid and you know where your profit margin kicks in. If you don't know that it doesn't mean STOP RIGHT THERE and don't go on. It means that you can figure out what you want to do here, but the actual price isn't going to come down from my wisdom (or lack there of.)
Let's start with the session itself. Let's face it, there is a lot of time that goes into shooting a session from start to finish. Easily 20 hours for many of us. There is a lot of cost that goes into shooting a session. You have to pay those bills and pay your wage. You ideally want to profit as well.
Seeing how you already know your CODB and break even pricing you already know how much you have to make from this session to cover the bills. One of the basic ways to break even is to charge that amount for you session fee. It's payable before the shoot is done and it covers your costs and possibly your time invested. Pretty simple. You take the shots, they pay the cost for taking those shots and if they order anything after that it's your profit. Pretty smart! It's a pretty standard practice.
Another way to do things is to give a portion of that fee as a 'credit.' The client pays say $250 and $50 is a credit toward the purchase of products. This is pretty brilliant too-your fee is paid, but the client also thinks they get something out of the deal besides just paying for your time. This combats the clients who feel that paying the $250 session fee is a waste of money when they get nothing out of it.
My way is to charge a sitting fee, say that $250 and they get a $250 credit. WHAT? Well, my pricing is set up so that I get my minimum break even price and I know that my selling skills and the way I am set up I am selling something far beyond that $250 fee. I am still getting the same break even amount in the end as well as my profit, but the client doesn't ever realize that. I've set my business up so that I am losing nothing if they don't order, but I am not making any profit either. I am ok with that because I know my sales will average far above that mark.
However you want to set up your session fee is fine for you. Just know that you have got to get that break even amount up front, otherwise you run the risk of not making it. That's not something you want to take a chance on not getting.
Packages? There are many blog posts and forum discussions out there on to package or not to package. And beyond that what do I put in my packages? It's totally up to you. Packages are attractive in that they appear to give the client everything at a great price. Clients love that idea! How do you decide what goes into that package? Well, you sit down and think about it. What will the average client be ordering? For me and my high end portrait work it will be an artwork piece. For a newborn photographer maybe it's prints for the mom and dad, a wall piece, announcements, prints for grandparents and lots of wallets. For a family Christmas session it's probably a wall piece, Christmas cards and maybe prints or wallets for the grandparents and other family. Just be careful to think to your profitability with these packages. My suggestion is to perhaps package the session with the wall piece and let them order the other pieces ala carte or vice-a-verso. Package the small prints and then sell the wall piece separately. Whichever way is going to maximize your profit AND your saleability.
Most families have a plethora of grand parents these days. It's a pretty good bet that at the very least one of the grandparent factors are divorced and there will be an extra set or two. I suggest that you have packages that include only the 'traditional' family with two sets of grandparents. The additional sets of grandparents are add on sales. OR have a package for the traditional family and then for the larger family. Regardless of packages you will still have to have an ala carte price list where your clients can 1. see the value they are getting with the package and 2. order extra pieces they may need.
Units or sheets- I found that no matter what package I made, people wanted to pick it apart and make their own up out of the pieces. I couldn't fit everyone into a few neat little packages. However I loved the idea of a discount that goes with wrapping things up in packages. A package read 4-16x20 prints, 2-8x10's, 4-5x7's and 24 wallets. But then I'd get those who didn't want the 16x20's but needed more 8x10's, blah blah blah. So in comes the idea of 'sheets' or 'units.' A sheet or a unit is an 8x10 in any way you can divide it up. 16x20 is 2-8x10's. So packages became a set of units. 5, 10, 15, 20... however you want to divide it up. Great for the photographer who wants to package, but can't make packages fit everyone.
Ala Carte-Each piece has it's own price and you just order from the menu. This is my pricing structure. HOWEVER, I have to mention here that I am not in business to sell 16x20 or smaller prints. Those aren't what my business is, so "prints" don't much matter to me. So, ala carte pricing works with that concept well. Problem is I LIKE the idea of the attractive package discount so, what to do? Well, MY answer is to have levels. If your order is $500 you can begin to buy digital images and I begin throwing in freebies. At $1000 you get a significant discount of those digital files and, of course, I throw in more freebies... This all goes into my "give it away" philosophy in How To Blow Any Client Away.
You can set up your freebies to be structured any way you want.
If it's written in black and white the client read the menu they see that at $500 they get the option for digital images and this and this free, etc. I ALWAYS suggest that you keep a few of your perks 'hidden.' Again my How To Blow Any Client Away post.
Or you can set up your perks to be mostly hidden and totally up to you. The amount of structure you create is up to you. It could be that you like to go into the session with and say something like "I'll tell you what, when you hit the $500 mark I will throw in _______ ."
As long as you know your costs and what fits within your cost guidelines for the level/package you can give away anything you want to. That's me, I really do leave it up to a whim a lot. Once I hit the $1000 mark I know I have made my minimum and I can begin to give away the digital files free of charge regardless of the published discount on digital images. I also know that when I have sold every last dime I can possibly sell to a client it won't hurt me to throw in a few digis. I am also aware that if I withhold some of the digi's I set my self up for an add on sale down the line when ever I need a little injection of cash. I simply run a sale to all of my past clients offering their full session of digi's for a great price.
Are these the only ways to do things? OH HELL NO! There are probably a million variations and some completely different things out there that I haven't seen in my adventures. Hopefully some of the other working pros can give much more than I have here!
The bottom line is you have to find a variation that works for you. You have to cover your costs and get paid. You want to profit and you have to set yourself up to do that.
Packages? Ala Carte? Sitting Fees? Print Credits? Units? Sheets? Artwork?
One of the biggest confusions is how to sell your products and how to price them so that they're attractive to a client. Every photographer does things a little differently and there is no one right way for everyone. What I do isn't going to be wholly right for you or anyone else. It could be a little right or totally wrong! None of the pricing structures are WRONG, you just have to figure out what is right for you.
If you are at the point of creating packages I assume you have figured out your CODB and your cost per shooting hour. You know what you have to make per session to get paid and you know where your profit margin kicks in. If you don't know that it doesn't mean STOP RIGHT THERE and don't go on. It means that you can figure out what you want to do here, but the actual price isn't going to come down from my wisdom (or lack there of.)
Let's start with the session itself. Let's face it, there is a lot of time that goes into shooting a session from start to finish. Easily 20 hours for many of us. There is a lot of cost that goes into shooting a session. You have to pay those bills and pay your wage. You ideally want to profit as well.
Seeing how you already know your CODB and break even pricing you already know how much you have to make from this session to cover the bills. One of the basic ways to break even is to charge that amount for you session fee. It's payable before the shoot is done and it covers your costs and possibly your time invested. Pretty simple. You take the shots, they pay the cost for taking those shots and if they order anything after that it's your profit. Pretty smart! It's a pretty standard practice.
Another way to do things is to give a portion of that fee as a 'credit.' The client pays say $250 and $50 is a credit toward the purchase of products. This is pretty brilliant too-your fee is paid, but the client also thinks they get something out of the deal besides just paying for your time. This combats the clients who feel that paying the $250 session fee is a waste of money when they get nothing out of it.
My way is to charge a sitting fee, say that $250 and they get a $250 credit. WHAT? Well, my pricing is set up so that I get my minimum break even price and I know that my selling skills and the way I am set up I am selling something far beyond that $250 fee. I am still getting the same break even amount in the end as well as my profit, but the client doesn't ever realize that. I've set my business up so that I am losing nothing if they don't order, but I am not making any profit either. I am ok with that because I know my sales will average far above that mark.
However you want to set up your session fee is fine for you. Just know that you have got to get that break even amount up front, otherwise you run the risk of not making it. That's not something you want to take a chance on not getting.
Packages? There are many blog posts and forum discussions out there on to package or not to package. And beyond that what do I put in my packages? It's totally up to you. Packages are attractive in that they appear to give the client everything at a great price. Clients love that idea! How do you decide what goes into that package? Well, you sit down and think about it. What will the average client be ordering? For me and my high end portrait work it will be an artwork piece. For a newborn photographer maybe it's prints for the mom and dad, a wall piece, announcements, prints for grandparents and lots of wallets. For a family Christmas session it's probably a wall piece, Christmas cards and maybe prints or wallets for the grandparents and other family. Just be careful to think to your profitability with these packages. My suggestion is to perhaps package the session with the wall piece and let them order the other pieces ala carte or vice-a-verso. Package the small prints and then sell the wall piece separately. Whichever way is going to maximize your profit AND your saleability.
Most families have a plethora of grand parents these days. It's a pretty good bet that at the very least one of the grandparent factors are divorced and there will be an extra set or two. I suggest that you have packages that include only the 'traditional' family with two sets of grandparents. The additional sets of grandparents are add on sales. OR have a package for the traditional family and then for the larger family. Regardless of packages you will still have to have an ala carte price list where your clients can 1. see the value they are getting with the package and 2. order extra pieces they may need.
Units or sheets- I found that no matter what package I made, people wanted to pick it apart and make their own up out of the pieces. I couldn't fit everyone into a few neat little packages. However I loved the idea of a discount that goes with wrapping things up in packages. A package read 4-16x20 prints, 2-8x10's, 4-5x7's and 24 wallets. But then I'd get those who didn't want the 16x20's but needed more 8x10's, blah blah blah. So in comes the idea of 'sheets' or 'units.' A sheet or a unit is an 8x10 in any way you can divide it up. 16x20 is 2-8x10's. So packages became a set of units. 5, 10, 15, 20... however you want to divide it up. Great for the photographer who wants to package, but can't make packages fit everyone.
Ala Carte-Each piece has it's own price and you just order from the menu. This is my pricing structure. HOWEVER, I have to mention here that I am not in business to sell 16x20 or smaller prints. Those aren't what my business is, so "prints" don't much matter to me. So, ala carte pricing works with that concept well. Problem is I LIKE the idea of the attractive package discount so, what to do? Well, MY answer is to have levels. If your order is $500 you can begin to buy digital images and I begin throwing in freebies. At $1000 you get a significant discount of those digital files and, of course, I throw in more freebies... This all goes into my "give it away" philosophy in How To Blow Any Client Away.
You can set up your freebies to be structured any way you want.
If it's written in black and white the client read the menu they see that at $500 they get the option for digital images and this and this free, etc. I ALWAYS suggest that you keep a few of your perks 'hidden.' Again my How To Blow Any Client Away post.
Or you can set up your perks to be mostly hidden and totally up to you. The amount of structure you create is up to you. It could be that you like to go into the session with and say something like "I'll tell you what, when you hit the $500 mark I will throw in _______ ."
As long as you know your costs and what fits within your cost guidelines for the level/package you can give away anything you want to. That's me, I really do leave it up to a whim a lot. Once I hit the $1000 mark I know I have made my minimum and I can begin to give away the digital files free of charge regardless of the published discount on digital images. I also know that when I have sold every last dime I can possibly sell to a client it won't hurt me to throw in a few digis. I am also aware that if I withhold some of the digi's I set my self up for an add on sale down the line when ever I need a little injection of cash. I simply run a sale to all of my past clients offering their full session of digi's for a great price.
Are these the only ways to do things? OH HELL NO! There are probably a million variations and some completely different things out there that I haven't seen in my adventures. Hopefully some of the other working pros can give much more than I have here!
The bottom line is you have to find a variation that works for you. You have to cover your costs and get paid. You want to profit and you have to set yourself up to do that.
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