I decided to change things up by moving Q&A Mondays to Tuesdays. I’m sure you’ve got questions, and I’ve got answers. If you have photography questions or questions about the business side of photography, leave me a comment and I will answer it as best I can. If you want help tailored especially for you and your business, you can check out my one on one coaching packages, or my new online course Brand Brilliantly.
I can’t wait to see what questions you have for me!
Q&A Tuesday 1.17.17
Hi Kim,
I have been planning on becoming a pet photographer for 5 years now and I’m not young. I have taken classes, (several), receiving coaching, and built a portfolio but have yet to become a 100 percent committed. Pricing has me stuck for sure. But does my “being stuck” means it isn’t my passion?
Hi Paula! Being stuck doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t your passion. Pricing has a tendency of being a large roadblock for a lot of photographers. It can seem really overwhelming to start charging for your work in the beginning because you aren’t sure people will pay for it, and sometimes you would be fine just giving it away. Pricing doesn’t have to be difficult though. The easiest way to price is to see how much each product is for you to make by adding up the material costs (the physical costs to make your product) and the labor costs (your time you put into making each product – retouching, packaging, meeting with the client, etc) and then marking them up by a factor. I use a factor of 4 because PPA recommends having a cost of sales at 25%, which means that for every dollar you make for your products, it should cost you only 25 cents to actually make it. It’s pretty simple math. The hard part is getting all of your costs put together from your lab costs per product, packaging costs, and then determining what you want to pay yourself per hour.
Here’s another question for you… why don’t you think you are 100% committed to becoming a pet photographer? Is it just the pricing or something else as well?