Pricing

Calculating your prices

The important part of pricing is knowing your overheads (i.e. your fixed and variable costs)

Don't forget your fixed costs;

Equipment, initial costs plus repairs and replacements

Rent and rates

Stationary and printing costs

Lighting and heating

Professional fees

You can now see the value of your cash flow forecast in determining the above costs.

By all means do your market research and find out what your competitors are charging but don’t let this have an overall control of your own prices. Be aware of the standard of work that is being produced for a given fee make sure that you are producing work that is worthy of the prices that you intend to charge.

Produce a price list that gives the client a choice of products and a wide range of prices to choose from .

Remember:

The sort of client that you attract initially will be the type that you can expect to be your future customers from recommendations

Most clients go for middle of the range prices, so make sure that you have a high top price to enable customers to come down to what you consider your best selling service.

Collect samples of price lists to give you an idea of the presentation and type of coverage that is offered to the client. Don’t do this locally, but travel to surrounding areas and obtain samples of varying standards of work and from varying standards of environment. Include in your samples, lists obtained from high street studios and photographers working from home.

Don't just try to compete on price, but be innovative in your services and presentations. Attending seminars and workshops will give you new ideas and inspirations. The author regularly attends programs to keep himself motivated and frequently visits the USA to attend programs with top name speakers, arranging for some of these speakers to come over to the UK and present their work and ideas to British photographers.

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