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Pricing Structure

Now first of all the way your pricing structure arrives with your client is going to obviously then hems have some sort of impression so I make sure that I send it as a pdf I don't send it as a word document or ajay pig I send it as a pdf because some people can't open certain where documents in his file issues I wanted to be as easy for my client to open as possible so I send it to them in the email as a pdf there are other ways off doing it there's some really cool flip rocha type of ways our online that that you can that you can use where it looks like you're flipping the pages of a magazine I'm thinking of investigating to do that kind of thing but right now I still send mine as as a pdf so when I send it to my client it arrives as a document with a covering it has a cover so this indicates to the client that they are going to be more than one pages now I've converted my pricing from euros and pounds and ran's in south africa so I've converted these two dollars so it would be the e...

quivalent in terms ofthe what we're charging in europe for for my weddings so my entry level pricing would start off a twelve and a half thousand dollars and can you see it's clean there's a little bit of information it's enough to let her know what she's getting she doesn't need to know any more right now, right? So wedding day coverage eight hours, two hundred images I don't need to tell her what size those images are going to be because I might be restricting myself later in the design off the off the flat mount album remember that my primary album is a flat mount album and then I sell the parents albums and the additional storybooks ahs, an upscale handmade italian leather wedding album italian because it's important okay online album hosting, which means I'm going to put your your album online for people to choose from in terms of the purchasing of the images and then custom retouching. So I'm gonna tell them that every single images retouched and it's included in the pricing structure the reason I choose eight hours is because it's just not long enough to cover an entire waiting she comes to have a look at what what I have to offer. We've had a discussion she's seen images online of the guys getting ready she's seen images off guys, you know, playing football in the morning or, you know, on the mountain bike something like that and she's she's thinking, oh, that would be cool if we could get my husband involved so he can go and do some stuff in the morning you can't really do that with only eight hours, so your first pricing plan or your first option is going to be almost attainable, but it's not really going to work and psychologically, I do know that there are people who have, like an l, a cart type of facility in terms of building up what? What you offering your client and you have a baseline price? You don't really know how much money you gonna make out of that? Um uh, I just want to go back just thought of something I was going to go back to the last segment when we talking about reprints, if you're selling reprints, you know, you know, you're saying that the disk debate we're talking about giving your higher his files to the client and that if you're selling your images when you're shooting, you thinking about selling if you're shooting, burned to disk and give the client a desk, if you miss, that emotional shot doesn't really matter if you're shooting to push post waiting sales you shooting a lot better, you looking for emotionally valuable images? Because if you just give your client three hundred images and they don't really, you know you don't care which images they re print, you're not pushing yourself to shoot emotionally valuable images, so bear that in mind with regards to giving people high res files right, so that was just a little side anecdote there okay, so that would be my first option also if you have a pricing plan where you've only got one option, what if your client had a lot of money to spend in terms of their budget let's say you had a pricing plan that was five thousand dollars and your client had budgeted ten thousand dollars now for you and I we're thinking way saved five thousand there thinking I had tend to spend I want to spend ten you know you're not dealing with clients who can't wait for sales you want your dealing with clients who buy clothes during the rite to season because they can afford it not like us who wait for the sails and then you get this really cool jacket but not summer okay, so it's looking let's look at the next pricing option so some people only have one pricing option I believe you have to have a minimum off three now just from understanding marketing there was in the states. I don't know if this has been legend or not, but it's a great story in the states there there was this burger company that had option's off a double burger or a single burger and everybody was coming together and, you know, the sail off double burgers wasn't really going that well and the head of big meeting and you know somebody suggested maybe we introduced a triple burger and everybody looked at them is like why I'm gonna introduce a triple burger nobody's even buying the double burgers as soon as they introduced a triple burger the sale of double burgers went sky high nobody bought the triple burgers but nobody was buying the single bogus either but they were buying double burgers so you need to have at least three options when you go to starbucks. Okay? You obviously what you wait and you know, maybe go for a smaller one, but if you go to starbucks, which which coffee do you normally take, you know when you take the middle one right? You don't want the small one in the big ones too big? I don't have the middle one, so have at least three pricing options. My second option would go from twelve and a half to sixteen thousand dollars and now we've got unlimited time, so we've gone from eight hours to unlimited time. Now you gotta ask yourself seriously what is unlimited time? Basically, from the moment she opens her eyes in the morning till the moment she closes them at night, you can stay awake longer than her that's unlimited time you're not going to be shooting for twenty four hours because she's not gonna be awake for twenty four hours so unlimited time you're looking at what twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen hours but you're going to make a lot of money so you know, staying awake for that amount of time and working really, really hard keeping the energy levels up you know during that amount of time so when you say unlimited time it's not really unlimited but you haven't got any restrictions and you don't have that awkward moment where you go up to the client and ugo I've done my eight hours now is anything else you'd like me to do? You know it's it's a little bit awkward you don't ever want to have to deal with that type of environment so unlimited time that's that's where you want to be going three hundred and fifty images so in terms of going from two hundred to three fifty it seems like a massive jump but my capital outlay is one hundred fifty images which is very negligible in terms ofthe how much it's gonna cost me to produce the final product one hundred fifty more images it's not that much more expensive for me right there that's why I have where the question was are their physical prince or are they digital when you say digital, I know what you mean three hundred fifty images I'm saying images because you will receive those images whether they're printed in the book or they let laying flat in the storybook they are images so in a storybook you could say that that's one photograph the double page spread so if there's fifteen images on that double page layout that's fifteen images so I'm going to give you three hundred fifty images plus miners a lot of the times it's more like plus but I'm going to give you if if you have it in your flat mount album I know that that other slide with how I wrote down which goes on which page you're not going to really remember that slide visually but on the side there were images that were extras those images are prince that she's going to get as six by four prints and she will get those as in addition to her book. So you saw yesterday I shot a shot off the groomsmen one smiling one one blue steel toe I'm gonna put the smiley one into the into the book and then the second one's going to be um as an extra get given as a print okay handmade italian leather album it's bigger in terms of volume than the first one. So instead of being a hundred pages that might one hundred twenty pages so that gives me mohr opportunity to put in the images that are shot off the guys getting ready because that's where your your extra hundred fifty pictures are going to come in you're gonna be shooting the guys in the morning and the individual shots of them and then generally you're dealing with the wedding which is a little bit larger so you've got a lot more guests that you can put into one hundred fifty images you're going to find those you know pretty easily online album hosting that doesn't cost me any more custom retouching that costs me her image so it's going to cost me one hundred fifty images worth of retouching more then I've got a thing called the moments box I'll show you an image of what the moments box looks like in a second but basically it is a custom made I've got a carpenter who makes them out of wood and you have these matted images that you put into it you can put it on your coffee table take it to book club the bride's love it you can get these products from a lot of different companies now you know what different products are available to you just need to decide which products sit well with your brand you don't want to be making mass pads for your clients or ceramic plates okay right then I got another option which is a twenty thousand dollar option that's going to include the engagement station in the engagement album then you waiting day coverage unlimited time same as the last one three hundred fifty image is same as the last one to parents albums so now we can now he's starting to get story books out to the parents online online hosting custom retouching and now three parents books, which means three moments box which means one is going to go toe one said to the parents of the other said to the parents and they're going to keep the third one yes guessing you're gonna touch on this but how many pages aaron the engagement album and I wasn't going to touch on that but well in the parent books uh this here this year is and and I do the engagement album as a storybook album because the wedding is the grand excuse me my stripes taking over the strength uh the wedding is the grand event so I'm going to do the engagement book as a storybook which is just like this this is a genuine leather cover and pretty much this is the story book from care and chris is waiting in the waiting with the horse so yeah, this is this is the the engagement album and this is how they would receive this and it's this big and this one I think has forty double page spread you can have a look at it in a minute it's yeah, but you've seen you've seen these kind of these images here and we, uh we went onto was quite sweet and it is that out of africa tommy he'll figure type of look that is going on there which is obviously become a bit more stylized yeah, this this whole thing was shot within three hours I think it was the ray you no more you watch t oh, yeah yeah that's this is this is an engagement book and this is what's going to go to the client this size this amount of pages just like with the uh you know, with the package they know how many images they're getting. Are you telling them that with the engagement session they get x amount nor do you just put it together and the album is the only option years? So is that a typical story book out of this is like a coffee table it's a coffee table type of book with that looks like it's handmade italian leather? So is the other one even nicer. The other one is the flat mount book way it's physical photographs I don't want to use the word pasted because that but pasted into into the into the onto the pages and still like rice paper in between it's quite old school that's why it's tangible with rex? I don't want to reveal too much, but I'll show you I'll show you what it looks like a little later we're all good okay, so the rest of it pretty much the same uh, right the engagement session and the engagement story book I'm still going to make money out of the engagement session because the parents are going to buy images they might buy another storybook for the for the grandmother or you have to understand that the engagement station happens six months before a year before the wedding so it's new and it's fresh to them so they're goingto by images from from that engagement session so you're still going to make you know a couple of hundred a couple of thousand dollars depending on your I mean I've had reprint orders that have bean massive like that have exceeded how much they paid for the wedding like you should have gone for the super duper package anyway you and you'll see the type of client that that I deal with in terms of what we give the final the final product and what she receives ok we're all good so that's there third pricing structure the fourth pricing structure is twenty five thousand dollars an engagement session anywhere in the world who it sounds like super impressive but really what's the most expensive capital outlay that you're gonna have to get anywhere in the world how much is the most expensive ticket it's going to cost you two thousand dollars all right you're gonna go into the most exotic beautiful fantastic destination should beautiful engagement pictures in an amazing location and what you're going to do then is make sure that you're going to shoot a style shoot in in, in the same location so that you've got work for your book to make yourself attractive to affluent clients. So if you're going to go and shoot an engagement station in venice, make sure that you take an extra day to find a great make up artist, making sure you got a great dress going. Shoot a gorgeous couple in the most beautiful surroundings put on your website lifting your game and you shot an engagement session in venice. Now you're starting to attract the right kline's. I mean, anywhere in the world to get anywhere in the world these days is not expensive and a few book far enough in advance. I think two thousand dollars you can get that down too. You get that down to, like a thousand dollars or if you go back in the creative life archives, you can find out how to travel on the cheap think there was, like, last week or something. Is that drive? Okay? Yeah, there was there was some great tips on that on that presentation. So yeah, I mean, it's not going to cost you a huge amount of money ended other opportunities for you in that, uh, the engagement album, yeah, wedding day coverage, unlimited time, unlimited images, so you're not saying three fifty you saying unlimited images now, what is unlimited images? The same thing it's like there's a buffet? How much can you eat it? It's like it's? Not unlimited? There is a limit because you can only shoot a certain amount off emotionally valuable images, so unlimited images sounds basically what you're saying is I'm never gonna have any restrictions unlimited time, unlimited images, there's, no restrictions, I'm going to make sure that I'm producing the most amazing product for you, no restrictions, whatever you want day after shoot. So you've got the day after or the post waiting shoot? Maybe I should change toward post wedding shoot, you got the post waiting shoot, and then we've got the italian wedding album four parents albums, four parents albums are the reason is for parents albums, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, without trying to step on any toys and trying to be politically correct. Anything but often when you've got hi affluent people with a lot of money, divorced parents. So you've got different albums that are going to different people, and you're going to construct that album so that it is pertinent to that family so that the ex wife is not in that book or than the ex husband is not in that book? Yes, ma'am, when you have unlimited images. How many pages are you still offering and one twenty same as the previous one is previous and then with the bridal party albums are you just giving way haven't got there yet we'll get there right we're getting a bridal party albums that means that every person in the bridal party is going to get their own individual book those are a lot smaller probably around that size uh I don't know inches uh maybe six by six or eight by eight forty six by six is a right I work in centimetres so it would be fifteen by fifteen I think it's six by six pretty much that big maybe a little bigger bridal party albums each bridesmaid each groomsmen custom made for them so it was their experience at the wedding okay online album hosting custom print retouching three moments boxes and then this thing this is the clincher unlimited reprints and those are prince not framed images or canvasses unlimited reprints now when I first decided teo introduce this package my wife was like you've lost the plot unlimited reprints well you know what is that about but think seriously about what type of client is going to pay two hundred sorry already I'm thinking how much the waiting cost two hundred fifty thousand for the winning side twenty five thousand dollars what type of they are not out there to bankrupt you it's not their intention to say you know what we want five thousand copies of this of this image that's not the type of client you're dealing with because if you thought that you're not your own target market straight away if you thought that unlimited reprints we're going to bankrupt your company then so unlimited reference how much can it really order they're gonna order for for the grand parents they're gonna order for you know them they're going to order a substantial amount but they're not going to go out on bankrupt you so in a way I've included that in my pricing structure anyway which in terms of getting the images from the from the lab you know if they're gonna have uh sixteen twenties or even bigger than that that doesn't cost me that much money but I'm securing a twenty five thousand dollars waiting so those are my pricing plans in terms of how much I charge and I don't think anyone could want more than that so I think if somebody's god if I had more needs I don't really see how they wouldn't be fulfilled within that yeah when you say unlimited reprints just to clarify you don't mean canvas prints or books you mean like physical prince yeah machines ical yeah non framed yes okay whatever side you want okay all right we're good so those are my pricing options one two three four one two three, four and we've got four pricing options now what we're going to do is we're going to explain to the client so we haven't put all this noise into freak decline out about how fantastic I am and how many awards I've won and me me me me me you've asked for a quote this is the quote this is how much I'm going to charge when she flips to the next slide on the next part I'm not going to explain to her if she wants to know I'm not going to explain to her what it all entails so the engagement shoot is going to be this or the wedding day coverage is that and in the wedding day coverage I say I will personally cover your entire day you paying me to be there? I will be there which brings me to you very, very pertinent point psychologically which I think I'm gonna ask you collars yeah on and off for a specific reason that I don't want to ask you and I think it might initially make you feel a little uncomfortable so I apologize for that in advance but that's what? You're here for that's what you're here for right? Okay, so um they're not talking about the wedding album the parents engagements online hosting print retouching all of that I tell them about it, then I'm going to now give her tips for how to choose your photographer clearly I'm pointing her in the direction towards me I'm saying this is how you choose your photographer. Choosing our photographer is one of the most important aspects of your wedding planning blah di blah di blah, di blah look at their reputation, their advertising, which is drawing them towards me the cost I'm advising them about the cost. I'm saying you guys must be careful of dubious photographers offering cheap packages. A good indication of how much you should be spending is ten percent of your wedding budget, so I'm saying you should be spending about ten percent on your waiting budget, so by that I'm kind of giving them an indication as to whether I'm the right person for them or not. Then I'm saying your instinct you should meet set up a meeting I checked with them use you'll be spending a lot of time with him or her on the wedding day, and you need to feel feel confident in the ability is the reason why I say him or her because what I'm saying is, I might not be the right photographer for you, but I'm at peace with that that's cool, I'm not making myself look desperate, I'm saying, you know, this is how you choose your photographer, you might be with him or her all day, it might not be me. But this is how you do it. So even if they are not going to use me, they still leave with a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling by saying, well, this guy's still help me out by pointing me in the right direction. He's he's helped me in this emotional nightmare that is coordinating my wedding. So that's, what a moment's box looks like that's fallen over just to show you what's inside it, but basically you've got sort of ten or fifteen matted prints that sit inside the box and the box has got a little frame on the top and you can put that on your coffee table on your way cabinet or take it to book club and tactile, you know? But would you yeah, yeah, all right, so just talking about pricing because pricing is a massive, massive subject you two or three days just, you know, on pricing alone, I've seen some of your work and and it's good it's not much different to a lot of photographers who are charging a lot more money than what you're charging. So my question to you really is she's already moving around? My question to you is, um uh, I get a waiting in sacramento and two days before I'm about to fly. I break my leg and I end up in hospital and I can't fly and I'm in trouble now and I remember that I met you and I'm thinking, right? I liked his work, he can pull it off he's got the ability uh, a call us richer. I met you a couple weeks back it creative live and I need you to help me out, man, I'm shooting a wedding in sacramento for twenty five thousand dollars and I've broken my leg I can't make it, please, can you shoot that for me? I don't need any money from it as funny, my client, to be happy you're going to get paid twenty five thousand dollars to shoot that waiting for me. So my question first of all for you is how much is the most amount of money you've ever been paid to shoot any waiting? Four thousand four thousand dollars so this is, like five or six times that amount of money, okay, your four thousand dollars sits still teo, your four thousand dollars waiting that you shot are you going now? I find you said you're going to get paid twenty five thousand dollars to go and shoot this wedding? How does that make you feel anti? Yeah, you're jumping up and down, okay, are you going to prepare? For that wedding any differently what the week leading up case I find you on the way downstairs and look, I'm supposed to be shooting this wedding on set today are you available and you like yes, I'm available right? I don't want any money because you're thinking ok he wants me to shoot it from second shooter and he'll get the cash so yeah whatever you say nonna you're getting the money how are you going from wednesday until saturday what's going through your mind what do you thinking is gonna be any different to the way you approached your four thousand dollar wedding? Absolutely it's going to be different and much, much different. Why what you gonna do while on a research? The venue? Yeah. Um if I could like you said stop the client if I can't buy facebook uh, maybe getting concept the coordinator uh, may have to rent some equipment, some additional equipment. Uh, make sure they're part of shoes are shined up ready to go. Gonna go by you go by the prada shoes before of peggy, right? Okay, so you're gonna invest, you're gonna invest in your unit based in your in your company yeah, right, okay, the way you deal with the client is going to be any different because my client ends and you're now representing my brand well I'm sure I called applying up and speak to the client and make sure that she and he understand the reason why we're doing this yeah introduce myself to the client maybe even show a day before just say hi yeah meet the family yeah right and then on the day how much how much effort you putting in now that you're shooting twenty five thousand dollars oh in ninety nine percent okay why weren't you doing that for your four thousand dollar winning huh? Why aren't we putting in the effort? Why don't we researching why aren't we lifting out game why don't we you know it's like all something we're just waiting for it to happen it's not gonna be like that I don't want to go on and on and on about how hard I work but I think the people that creative life here have have seen that and I think you guys have seen that with regard to the last guy I work very hard to in sure and and I don't want to dramatic size that because you know there are people out there like like I said this is first world problems like hard work so hard you know these guys that are in minds three three kilometres underground working for ten dollars a day so I know that what I do is not hard work but I worked very hard in terms of my normality and that's that's. What it takes. You've got to continually be doing that. You should be doing that for your two thousand dollars waiting to three thousand dollars. You should be researching, making sure that you shoot that waiting as best as you can with as much if it is, you can. Because that's, the only wedding that's ever happened for that client, you know, maybe it's. The tenth wedding you've done this year. But you've got to approach every single job with, as much as you know, as much of you and as much passion as you can.