Read and Learn About the Business of Photography
One of my favorite all time quotes is:
“The defect of equality is that we only desire it with our superiors.” -Henry Becque
Have a great Friday, and be sure to check back tomorrow for some special fun!
Cheers.
Jerry Frazier
Los Angeles Wedding Photographer
http://www.jerryfrazierphotography.com
I hope that some of you who read this blog regularly are also members of the Digital Wedding Forum (www.digitalweddingforum.com). If you are a member, you are already aware of the convention which will be taking place in January. Unfortunately, for me, I can’t make it this year. But, I highly recommend this convention for anyone who is a wedding photographer, or considering going into wedding photography. I think there is still room available.
To learn more, go to the website and check it out. DWF
cheers.
Jerry Frazier
Los Angeles Wedding Photographer
http://www.jerryfrazierphotography.com
The topic of how much to charge comes up all the time. In the old days, wedding photographers used to charge very low upfront fees, but depend on print and album sales to increase the overall price of the services. This is essentially the pricing model for portraits now. However, now, what we do is charge upfront for our services, and then, we don’t worry about back-end sales. Basically, brides and grooms are pretty cash poor after the wedding, so it’s best to get as much as possible up front.
The pricing model I am going to share assumes that 100% of your studio profit is from weddings. This model is essentially my view of how to price your services as a wedding photographer.
Let’s assume that you need to keep, after taxes and all expenses, $60,000 annually to live the life you want and be comfortable. Let’s also assume that you plan on shooting 30 weddings per year. You can do more, but you can’t do less than that in order to live the lifestyle you want. So, if you say $60,000 / 30 = $2,000 per wedding. We’re off to a great start!
Now, add in the products that you provide in your packages. If all you do are shoot and burn packages, keeping your cost very low, you’re almost done. However, if you add prints, 2nd shooters that you have to pay, albums, or anything at all, add that cost in. So, let’s say that my direct cost per wedding is $700. Now, my price per wedding is $2,000 (my money to live) + $700 (direct cost) = $2,700.
See how easy this is?
For the last step, you have to add in all of your overhead costs. These would include your insurance, gas, website registration, advertising, business cards, association dues, rent (if you have a studio), computers, software, gear, subscriptions and all the things associated with your business. Let’s pretend that the cost for all of that over a year is $15,000. Keep in mind that advertising all by itself could exceed $10k. Gear can eat up a good chunk of your budget too. But, for simplicity, let’s stick with $15k for overhead just as an example. Your overhead per wedding now would be $15,000 / 30 (the # of weddings you plan to shoot) = $500 per wedding.
Add it all up:
$2,000 per wedding (yours to keep to pay for your mortage, car payments, food, vacations, and enjoy life),
$700 in direct costs,
$500 in overhead expenses =
$3,200 per wedding.
This all looks very easy, doesn’t it? Well, it is that easy.
If you have packages that vary in cost, just take an average of what most people buy. If you don’t know what most people buy because you are starting out, or because you have restructured your packages and pricing, then take a SWAG at it. (note: SWAG means Super Wild Ass Guess).
A couple of points:
The above theory assumes that you are starting out, and that you are not really established. If you have a good client base, you can charge way more than this model will allow, but this is a good point to start from.
The above theory assumes that you do not have other income. If you shoot portraits, commercial, or sports, as an example, you may be able to use that income and therefore don’t have to charge as much. For instance, if you net $30,000 from your sports photography business, then in order to live your life nicely, you can cut the number of weddings down from 30 to 15, or you can simply drop you price (although, I don’t recoemmend being a cheap wedding photographer – it’s very hard and demanding work).
Cheers.
Jerry Frazier
Los Angeles Wedding Photographer
http://www.jerryfrazierphotography.com
I was thinking about a band I like alot yesterday: Beastie Boys. I had heard on the radio, that despite the popularity of a song such as “Fight for Your Right”, they absolutely, positively refuse to play it as part of their live performance. Their reasons for not playing it is that that song simply doesn’t represent them at all anymore. They have evolved beyond that.
From my perspective as a fan, I want to hear that song. I identify more with their older music, and not quite as much with their newer music. I like the newer stuff. It’s great. But, I fully identify with their older stuff. So, Beastie Boys have effectively alienated me (and many others like me) from their fan base. I probably would never go see them play live unless I knew they were going to play a selection of older music.
If Beastie Boys continued to play their older music, they would keep a fan base of aging boomers. But, they probably would not pick up too many newer fans.
Most musicians seem to teeter the line a bit; they play some older music, play some newer music, and try to appease everyone while continuing to grow their fan base. Aerosmith, for example, still plays “Dream On” at concerts. I think “Dream On” is from their first album (or maybe released as a single after their first album). And, I heard Steven Tyler say that he wrote that song when he was 15 years old, and he has no idea what it’s supposed to mean. The point is that they diversify and move forward, but also celebrate where they came from by playing the older music too.
The worst situation is to be like Lynyrd Skynyrd, where all you have is your old stuff and nothing new at all.
All artists evolve. It is inevitable. Whether you decide to be like the Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, or god forbid, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the decision is a personal one, but just understand the effects that your decision has on your business.
Cheers.
Hey folks. I hope everyone had a great turkey day! I know I did. I even managed to stay on my diet, and eat good. The trick this year was to stay away from all the snacks (crackers, cheese, etc).
Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while, but I have a bunch of new ideas and plans, and I am the type of person that tries to do everything all at once, rather than focusing on one thing at a time. I also have a personality that requires that I just jump in head first, rather than move slowly toward a goal. I don’t tip my toe in the pool to see how cold it is, I just jump in; especially if that’s what I am going to do anyway.
I have launched a new business. It’s called The Walka. You can read about it at www.thewalka.com
It is a service for busy wedding photographers that hate doing post work. If you do not like post work, or feel like you could spend your time in another, more productive, way, then check out the website. If we’re a fit for eachother, shoot me an email and we’ll get busy.
I don’t know how much work we can handle. We’ll see. But, throw some our way, and live, shoot, play.
Cheers,
Jerry
