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What
will I charge for my photographs? This is one of the
first problems that a person has when they are asked to
do work for friends, relations or acquaintances.
Many
acquire price lists from professional photographers or
from other freelance photographers and work on the basis
that I am better than him, so I will charge more, but
I'm not as good as them so I cannot charge that amount.
This
of course is like the blind leading the blind and if none
of these people are aware of their true costs you have
a whole bunch of photographers pricing their work at often
below their basic cost.
I
have no argument with somebody that sells their products
for less than what it costs them, providing they know
that they are doing this, because if they know, it is
a conscious decision to sell at that price.
Many
people take the price of the materials and double it feeling
that they have made 100% and therefore are well on the
right side, nothing could be further from the truth because
that is taking no account of any of their overheads.
I
have prepared a spreadsheet, aimed at people just starting
working in photography, it does not take into account
many of the overheads that a normal business has to carry,
however there are many things listed of which the normal
freelance photographer totally ignores, and then wonders
why after 10 years their working partner is still subsidising
their hobby.
When
you fill the spreadsheet and I do ask you to be honest
with the figures that you are placing in the necessary
sections because if you cannot be honest with yourself
then you don't have much chance with anything else you
are going to tackle.
Download
Spreadsheet
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When
you put in your salary it should be realistic and be at
least what you are earning for wages if you are fully
occupied in your trade or profession. I have a photographer
friend who is an engineer by profession and he has always
aimed at earning more from photography that he could as
an engineer.
The
number of sittings you wish to do a week again you must
be realistic with what quantity you put down and you must
have the marketing setup to provide that number of sittings
Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. It may be easy to get
three or four family groups a week, that you can photograph
outside in the gardens, during the fine months, but come
the wintertime you better have something else prepared,
or set your sights on a realistic average for the year.
The
spreadsheet will tell you how many dollars you require
in profit per sitting, and you must remember that your
material costs and other money that you pay out must be
added to this. Even so there's been nothing added for
insurance, petrol, telephone, electricity, stationery,
business cards or anything else that you will require
to be in business on a full-time basis.
Even
if you intend to only work part-time, you should do this
basic spreadsheet as if it was a full-time situation.
If,
when you look at the price you require per sitting and
you decide it is too great and you decide that you can
only charge 25% or 50% of that amount you are substantially
reducing your income by that same percentage or alternatively
working the correspondingly longer hours. This is of course
your decision, and it is a situation that can only be
maintained whilst you have money in the bank and you should
be making plans to change your situation so that you are
able to make the charges that are necessary to continue
his career. This is usually achieved through more education
in photographic techniques and usually, more important,
a broader knowledge on the skills required to run a successful
business.
Is
quite possible in preparing these comments I have overlooked
something basic which I have assumed you know, if this
is the case please e-mail
me and I'll update this advice immediately.
Ivan
P.W. McLellan hon FNZPPA
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