Become Better Photographer: How to Create Pricing for Photography with Vanessa Joy

*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with Vanessa on Instagram  @VanessaJoy.

Struggling to have ends meet financially, as your craft doesn’t bring enough income? Maybe this episode with photographer Vanessa Joy and AdoramaTV could give you some ideas how to turn it around into a profitable and happy career/business! Today we are going to explore how to set prices for your photography services. 

Tip #1

Vanessa shares with us – “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!”

Tip #2

“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.”

Tip #3

“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.”

Tip #4

“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.”

Tip #5

“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.”

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Watch the full episode with Vanessa Joy and Adorama TV: