Hi, this is Vanessa Joy here with
Adorama TV, and I'm going to talk to you a
little bit about pricing and packaging.
If you know anything about me I will
always say I know so many amazing
photographers, but just because they're
amazing photographers doesn't mean that
they're making a living as photographers,
and putting food on their table! So I
want to give you some advice so that
you're not a starving artist! First when
you're creating pricing and packaging
you want to play the psychology.
What does that mean? That means that you
want to list your highest package first,
what that does is what people look at
the top of the line, the big, the wow, in a
way almost price shock them, so the rest of
what happens below your highest package
doesn't seem so unattainable, and then if
you have a client that's the kind of
client just wants everything, they'll see
that first package, and then all the rest
below it will be less than what they
want, and will end up going with the first
one!
Second, when you're creating your packages you
can't be lazy, you do have to do the
math. So! If you're going to create some
rough estimates on what your pricing and
packaging should look like your prices
should be three to five times your cost
of sales. So let's just say your cost of
sales is a hundred dollars which
obviously if you're wedding photographers,
it's a little bit higher than that! So your
cost of sales meaning - your second
photographer - meaning what you pay for
post-production and album designs, for
running your business, things, overheads,
like your online galleries, and your
website. Things like that! If your cost of
goods let's just say is a thousand dollars,
well then the minimum that you should be
charging for your wedding packages are
three to five thousand dollars, again
rough estimate, but make sure you
actually do the math. Don't just create some
packages, and throw some numbers there, and have no
idea what your cost of good are, or how much
profit you're making. Third, when you are
getting all of that money in, with your
pricing it seems like you're making a
ton of money, but like I just said you
have a huge cost of sales, and on top of
that you have huge taxes to pay because
if you are a freelance photographer and
you're working for yourself you're not
automatically getting that money taken
out of your pay check, so you have to
prep for that for the end of the year,
either by saving the money, putting it in
the account, forgetting about it until
you have to pay your taxes at the end of
the year. Or you can pay estimated
quarterly. This is what I do, and I pay a
little bit every quarter so that it's
not such a huge bill at the end of the
year. Work with an accountant, definitely
work with an accountant for things like
that, and I do recommend working with a
book-keeper as well, to just keep
everything on track.
Another thing to think about when you
are looking or you're creating the
packages that you want to book. Create
packages that you have everything that
the client wants. For me, that would be
digital files, full-day package, and a
wedding album. But don't have every
single package have all those things in
it, because there won't be any incentive
for them to book higher packages over
the lower ones, my lower packages, which
you are welcome to go see, if you go to
www.vanessajoy.com/wedding-collections
you can see collections d and e, have
almost nothing in it. They have only
eight hours of coverage, either no
wedding album, or a small wedding album,
and then neither of them have digital
files in it, only collections ABC has those
digital files, full day,
nice size wedding album, and then as you
know higher, you've got parent albums and the
engagement session in there - so great packages,
that are more advantageous as you go
higher. And then finally the best piece
of advice I have ever been given and I
wish I knew who gave it to me 'cause I
would thank them up and down. Anytime,
anytime someone books your highest
package raise your prices, because they
would have paid you more!
It's a really great indication that it's
time for you to move up a little bit, once
you've booked your highest package, and it can be
through little baby steps. It can be
just $100 dollars here, $250 there, but
that method of raising your prices every
time someone books your highest package will really
help elevate you, even if it's a little
bit here and there. i hope you enjoyed
this! Make sure that you hit the
subscribe button there on the bottom
here on AdoramaTV. I'm Vanessa Joy
with Breathe Your Passion and I will see you next time!