What to charge for photography consulting?

[OviV]

I have been asked by a company to help them setup a simple studio for shooting their products. The products are 3 dimensional art pieces and they just want to be able to get images that show sufficient details and that they can post on their website. Hiring me to shoot the products is out of the question as they have too many and can not afford all the time involved and the ongoing photography as they produce more products. They want me to suggest equipment and techniques and walk them through a few. I have no idea what to charge for this as I typically arrange a price for a shoot but have never done consulting like this. I am really not terribly exited about this as I would prefer to shoot but it is a friend of a friend.

Ovi

[liza]

$200 per hour.

[Monito]

Since your equipment is not involved, I would not advise charging your ordinary dayrate, especially since consulting is basically just time.

Presumably as a professional, you have training, even if only self-taught, so if we assume a $50,000 year as a low end professional person's income, net, then add at least 60 percent to cover things like health care and accounting and advertising, we get $80,000 at 2000 hours a year, yields $40 per hour. I would charge a minimum of $50 per hour, but strangely, you might be more likely to get the job if you asked $100 per hour, since there is an unconscious reaction that "if a person asks for a lot of money they must be good". But if you are billing at the elevated rate, you need to be efficient with the time and not try to squeeze every conceivable 15 minute increment out of it.

Alternatively, you could explain to the client the estimated hours to analyze the objectives, research particular aspects, generate spreadsheets and prepare documents (no need to breakdown the estimate, just give an indication of the back office work) in addition to the tutoring and your rate (say $100) and then propose to them a fixed price contract for the advice, at a 10 percent discount line item since it is a package deal, and 3 percent off for payment within ten days of invoicing, 33% retainer fee up front. Make sure they know that any extras they come back for advice on get billed at the hourly rate.

Basically it boils down to the personal connection with the client. If you are confident and convincing and know your stuff, you'll be able to get a higher rate. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Monito]

I would add, that the higher rates account for the fact that you can't bill 2000 hours in a year and have to spend much time on business development (marketing), business records keeping, and professional development (reading photo forums :) )

[vwpilot]

A whole heck of a lot, considering you are giving away all that gives anyone a reason to actually hire you.

Do you ask your accountant to come over and show you how to do taxes so you dont ever have to hire him again?

Do you ask an architect to come over and show you how to design a house so that you can keep doing it on your own?

Do you ask your local mechanic to come over and show you all the tricks of the trade so you dont ever have to take your car in for service?

To me, it would have to be worth a decent amount of money to do this. There are plenty of places that someone can go online and learn all that you can teach, then practice and be able to do it. To sit there and teach someone how to do YOUR job is just not a fair thing to ask and not something I would, personally, be interested in doing without a serious amount of money to make up for all you will lose by not doing the work yourself.

I'd say a normal day rate of $1500/day or more is not out of the question.

[Monito]

Nothing is being given away that the other people couldn't teach themselves.

Also, the home truth is that even if they are given a studio, they still have to do the work and still have to have talent and still have to have all the grit and determination to take care of all the details to do quality work, or else they will end up hiring a photographer anyway.

Design them a sweet studio because you may end up in the long run being hired to work in it. :)

[chtgrubbs]

Nothing is being given away that the other people couldn't teach themselves.

Also, the home truth is that even if they are given a studio, they still have to do the work and still have to have talent and still have to have all the grit and determination to take care of all the details to do quality work, or else they will end up hiring a photographer anyway.

Design them a sweet studio because you may end up in the long run being hired to work in it. :)

But obviously they are not going to be able to take the time (months maybe) to learn what he is going to do for them. Generally in the business world a consultant charges many times what the practitioner does, since there is not going to be a long term earning potential. I would charge 3-4 times my normal rate, and then offer them a partial rebate if they decide in the long run to have him do the shooting for them. But they could him do all the set up and calibration work, and then hire a student for $10/hr to do the grunt work.

[vwpilot]

Nothing is being given away that the other people couldn't teach themselves.

Also, the home truth is that even if they are given a studio, they still have to do the work and still have to have talent and still have to have all the grit and determination to take care of all the details to do quality work, or else they will end up hiring a photographer anyway.

Design them a sweet studio because you may end up in the long run being hired to work in it. :)

Then I ask you again.

Do you ask your local mechanic to come out and teach you what he knows so you dont ever have to take your car in to him? I mean, he wouldnt be giving anything away that you cant learn on your own.

Do you ask an accountant to come over and teach you all the new tax laws each year so you dont have to hire an accountant to do your taxes?

Did you ask an architect to come over and show you how to design and build a home so you can do it on your own next time?

They may seem extreme examples, but its the same thing. They are asking a professional in a field to come over and do everything they need to set up a studio so they dont have have to ever hire him again.

His job is a photographer, not a consultant. Let them learn it on their own or hire a pro to do the job. If they insist on this route, it would have to pay pretty well to make up for all the lost work down the road.

[OviV]

The way I see it, they are not going to hire a professional photographer because the quality they are looking for (they showed me a competitors website of what they are looking to get) is not really professional quality. They are more interested in getting adequate exposure and sufficient detail without much post processing. I won't produce substandard images as that reflects on my work and they can not afford to hire me to produce what I consider to be quality work. So this is a good compromise. I will charge more than my usual fee, however.

Ovi

[Monito]

Then I ask you again. Do you ask your local mechanic to come out and teach you what he knows so you dont ever have to take your car in to him? I mean, he wouldnt be giving anything away that you cant learn on your own. Do you ask an accountant to come over and teach you all the new tax laws each year so you dont have to hire an accountant to do your taxes? Did you ask an architect to come over and show you how to design and build a home so you can do it on your own next time?

No, of course not, because you and I are a little wiser to realize that there is no turnkey solution to replacing a professional.

They may seem extreme examples, but its the same thing. They are asking a professional in a field to come over and do everything they need to set up a studio so they dont have have to ever hire him again. His job is a photographer, not a consultant. Let them learn it on their own or hire a pro to do the job. If they insist on this route, it would have to pay pretty well to make up for all the lost work down the road.

By giving the client what they want, even consultation, the photographer will not lose out in the long run. There will be some lost work in the short run, but they will have to hire a real photographer soon enough, whether they have a studio or not.

It's as much about helping to grow the client as anything else. They will give the pro a good recommendation to other clients for photography (and yes, maybe more consulting). In time, the client will either grow in size and come to realize that professional photographers are needed to achieve professional quality, or will fizzle out. Muddling through and staying the same is unlikely.