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So often as a professional photographer, I meet people who tell me I have their dream job. “I love photography!” they tell me. “I really want to start my own business.”
The same words came from my own mouth 5, 6, 7 years ago. All the while, I had done my research and knew that the life of a photographer would be more desk-work than shooting, spending more time staring at my computer screen than through my viewfinder. I was okay with that, and for the most part I actually enjoy running my own business, back-end duties included.
It took years of practice and calling photography a hobby before I was ever comfortable enough to take on clients. And it took time after that point to actually start charging them. And from then, I finally moved away from ‘portrait building’ pricing to actual ‘this is my job and I have to pay the bills‘ pricing.
As much as I prided myself on being a reasonably priced photographer – one who wanted people to order professional prints, yet one who also gave away the digital files because “that’s what the people wanted” – I found myself realizing something. The work I was putting in was not being compensated by what I was charging.
Other photographers charge $40 for a print, and $1000 for an album, but that won’t be me, I thought. I charged insanely low amounts for my wedding albums, hoping that clients would see that I wasn’t trying to overcharge them. But by the time I spent several hours designing the layout, uploading the individual pages, paying for the album from the lab, paying shipping costs to get it to the client, and paying my state sales and use taxes on the album, I was literally losing money. I paid a significant amount out of pocket for each album I had to order because I had glossed over those additional expenses, as well as my time.
And those digital files? I started to make the realization that when I hand over all of the digital files for no extra charge beyond the session fee, I am losing money on the time spent editing each and every one of them. People could simply get those files I’d included in my low portrait session prices, and print 100 copies at Walmart if they wanted. My hard work was not only being degraded by awful consumer print labs, but I had just given that work away to be reproduced infinitely, completely free of additional charge.
My people pleasing nature had bitten me right in the ass, and my business was drowning me. My fear of being on the wrong end of the “Ugh, wedding photographers are assholes for charging that much for one day of work!” comments had driven me to running my business like a non-profit. As much as I love photography and feel incredibly blessed to be my own boss, at the end of the day this is a business, and I need to treat it as such.
So I sat down to do some simple math. How many hours do I work on my business every day? This includes time spent blogging, answering emails, paying taxes, driving to events, shoots, and meetings, time spent IN events, shoots and meetings, drafting proposals, updating my website, updating my portfolio, reading and taking notes to improve my work, etc. How many hours do I spend on just one wedding? From the initial email response to the emails that follow, the in-person meetings and phone calls, preparing for the engagement shoot, the shoot itself, the editing, creating the gallery, going over questionnaires prior to the wedding, the wedding day, culling wedding photos, editing wedding photos (so many hours right there) exporting and uploading to the gallery, creating the album ordering the album, shipping the album, etc. How much do I spend in business expenses, both general and wedding related? My monthly expenses alone go toward my CPA, my web hosting, my email hosting, my gallery hosting, dropbox, my client management software, studio rental, and my sales and use taxes. I also have expenses that come up as I run and expand my business, like ordering packaging supplies for prints, shipping items, ordering office supplies, replacing my equipment, buying new equipment, paying state and federal small business tax, which I can tell you is no small number. I pay for gifts to send clients, workshops and business coaching to keep myself improving, marketing supplies, external hard drives to archive photos, software upgrades, furniture and decor for the studio, coffee and meals for clients, coffee and meals for myself when I am out and about between shoots and meetings, and so on.
I fully expect you to skim that paragraph and think “Okay, I get it…” and I don’t blame you. It’s a long, boring list. But after calculating all of the unpaid hours spent working, and the expenses I incur over a year of running this business, I realized I was not charging enough to ever actually keep a profit. And just as you all work to earn a paycheck, I do, too. Or I should be, rather. So I crunched the numbers and came up with new pricing.
Why am I telling you this? No, not to complain. This has been my choice and my learning process and I’m grateful for it. I’m telling you because I like to be transparent. I have no reason to hide behind my numbers and just expect you to accept them. I’m not out to rip you off so I can buy a brand new wardrobe and a fancy new car. Running a business is expensive, and I don’t have bi-weekly checks to look forward to like I used to. After working every day and paying for all of the above, my paycheck comes when a client books me for their portrait session, their wedding, or editorial shoot. And the prices I show to clients for my work isn’t just for a one hour portrait shoot, or an 8 hour wedding: when you hire a professional photographer, you’re not only hiring them for their experience and talent, but you are also paying for some of those back-end costs that come with running a business. If you don’t believe me, consider this: a pair of Beats by DRE headphones go for $199, but cost only $14 to make.
Unfortunately, there are many photographers out there who, like myself until recently, are not charging nearly enough to run their business and actually pay themselves. It takes a lot of thought and courage to take the leap (fear of upsetting clients or scaring off potential customers is the recurring thought), it’s got to be done. As photographers, we must recognize our self worth. As clients, we hope you recognize it, too.
Photographers, what are your thoughts? Have you gone through this before, or is it on the forefront of your mind as we speak? Also, I’d be over the moon if you shared this post!
I am booking only 9 more weddings for 2016. Nine. Hopefully by now you’ve read something on my site or blog that sparked an “Oh my God, she just GETS me!” response. So let’s make some wedding photo magic happen, girlfriend. Sign up to be a part of my email tribe and you’ll get the first copy of my wedding planning guide “I Wanted Cheesesteak: A Quirky Wedding Planning Guide in A Sea of Sameness” – and then send me a note to tell me all about your upcoming wedding.
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I make whimsical art for color-lovers and California dreamers. I'm based in Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C. where there are most decidedly no palm trees in sight.