Lesson Info
7. Products & Pricing
Lessons
Lesson Info
Products & Pricing
it took me a long time to find out the right way to press my work because I didn't value what I did. I didn't have a value. And do you know for me it was it was really important. I needed to work after my Children. I didn't have that luxury of being a stay at home mom. I needed to contribute financially to my family and my home and my mortgages and my bills and all those things. So I fell in love with photography and and people started to pay me money for it. So when I learned to value my my craft and what I did, I started to to learn how to price it appropriately. And I just, I have great associations around me back home in Brisbane and that would be amazing associations here. That would be great seminars, things like that, where people are prepared to help. Um and there's also some amazing photographers out there and if you just contact them, there are more than happily share with you the information. But when it comes to just setting your pricing, um I didn't realize in the beginnin...
g that you needed to take into consideration things like your overheads, I didn't know how much that cost me every year. I didn't, even though I work from home, I still have overheads, I still have all my equipment. I have to contribute to my electricity that I use because I use heating and all of those things. Um I didn't know how much any of that cost me. I didn't know how much my products cost me. I didn't, I mean I knew how much my products cost. Maybe it's sorry, I didn't know how much it actually cost with all of my package included and and how much money I was actually spending in all these areas. I was just pricing things thinking that that's what the appropriate price was for those things. I didn't know all the other things that factored into it. So now I know that I have to cover You know, after take into consideration equipment that I might need to buy in the next 12 months, I have to cover all of my bills. I have to be able to cover all of my, my products and all of my packaging and all of that equipment, all of my software, cameras, lenses, you name it everything, even the clothes that I shoot in. I have, I have specific clothes that are shooting that I only wear for sessions that are comfortable that yet Nice. So props buying props, I have an allocation of money now because I didn't know how much money I was spending every year on props and I get excited every time I walk into a shop and like I put a baby in that. So I needed to sit down and work out everything I was spending in a year before I could do that and tax, you know how much tax I have to pay to the, to my local government, all of those things. So I had to work out how much money I needed to cover that, I had to work out how much money I wanted to pay myself as a wage. How much I thought I deserved to earn from doing this particular job because I in my previous life I actually earn a really decent wage. I was a personal assistant for a large corporation prior after my retail and hospitality days. But anyway um so yeah I was earning money and I went from earning no money to gradually increasing the amount. So everything I had to add up and then I had to work out how many days of the week can I work? So I can work 3 to days. There's 3 to 4 potential shoots every week but I can't work school holidays. So I needed to minus those days. So I can only work X. Amount of days every year and divide that by how much it costs me to run my business. And that's how I figured out this is the minimum, this is the minimum I need to charge to cover all my expenses and pay my wages and that's what I deserved because I worked my butt off to get to where I am. So I've set my pricing and my products up um So that my minimum package, if I can shoot the amount of sessions I want to shoot and book in for that year and times that by my minimum package, anything on top of that with my other three packages that cost more, anything on top of that is an added bonus to me. So, which is awesome because I'm here to make money. I'm here to contribute to my family. I need to contribute to my mortgage and I need to be able to take my family on a holiday and spend time with them and do fun things because without my business, um, we wouldn't be able to afford any of that stuff. So it's really important to learn what it costs you to run your business. How much would it cost you to pay yourself and how many sessions you need to have and how much money you need to learn from that session to be able to cover all of your expenses. So, this is what my clients get to see. And obviously it's got beautiful images on it. This is one of my products and what the beauty, the beauty of my products is. When I found them, they really suited my style. My they suited my brand. Um and I fell in love with them instantly. So it was something I wanted to offer. And it's something that not a lot of other photographers offer in my area as a package. So it's having a point of difference. So they can't, they can't sort of get a lot of my stuff. I mean they can, but yeah, it's having a point of difference. And finding something that really and offering something that you really love. Okay so my session fee is $200. And if they have a maternity and newborn session only charged him 250 because my maternity sessions actually don't go that long. Um I make that nice and quick because they're usually quite uncomfortable and they're not gonna buy 50 million maternity images. They really want those newborn shots. So it says here that your session fee will be deducted from your choice of package and will include 2-4 hours of custom styled photography in my Kenmore Hill studio with 20 final images presented in an online gallery for you to order from. It's pretty straightforward. Not too much reading because I found when I was bombarding my inquiries with so much information, they weren't reading it and they were coming back to me constantly with questions like why are these people emailing me? It's all there in the information. They don't have time to read it. So making it simple and giving them the right information is really important. Okay so next slide so my packages more pictures gets the, gets them really excited because they're pregnant and they can't wait to meet their new baby or that kind of stuff. So my first package includes a large canvas. Um And I have a description of my canvas. It's not just any canvas, it's not a canvas you can get um you know at a cheap price. Um and it's printed on museum grade archival canvas and it's sprayed with a protective laminate so it doesn't fade. That's really important when you do order your canvas prints to make sure that they have all these these qualities. And my canvas has actually come with a little swing tag on the back and they have a year guarantee. So they're amazing quality and I wouldn't sell them if I didn't think they were. And I've been using this particular company in Australia called brilliant prints for all my canvas and all my printing until this year. I now use another company as well. But brilliant prints have been doing such an amazing job with all of my My products that I've never had a complaint never once. So I'm so amazed at the service that I get from them. And it's finding someone that can give you that quality and that service as well which factors into it. So yeah they can buy my canvas, my canvas print package and it comes with 10 high res digital files on a USB. So if we get back to the very front picture, my little U. S. B. S. A little wooden custom USB s with my name, my business name engraved on them. So that's also something quite cute and tangible that they can have. Um So yeah then then there's the image box set and this is the one that was on the front cover and it's covered with this beautiful fabric. My albums are actually covered with the same fabric so it all suits and goes together and it has 30 prints in it 36 by fours because it's going to include the black and whites as well. I want them to have both. So they're basically it's like a proof box but a gourmet proof box and it's it's gonna it's printed on beautiful um fine art paper. And it's actually because because it's loose and it's not in an album and it's not under any protective, like it's not in a mat or in plastic or anything like that. It's actually sprayed with a protective varnish as well to protect it so it doesn't scratch and doesn't fade and can be handled. But it's on this beautiful museum grade fine art paper. So when when you pay your session fee here we go. Is it up? So your session fee is actually deducted from your package. So you only ever paying those 44 prices whichever package you're only ever paying that. But the session fee I take as a deposit so that you know that comes a bit later on with all that session information and all that kind of stuff. But that session fee that guarantees their session and I think I was saying yesterday that if something was to happen, you know it's very um very uncommon but it can happen um for any reason that they have to cancel and they've paid their session fee, I would quite happily return that to them if they can't go ahead with their session for whatever reason.
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Newborn Photography