am just starting a business

[momoe]

I just launched my website and only do on location shoots as I do not have a studio. this is not my full time job but has led to some income and some increasing demand for me to do some work for people. I have already done some pro bono work to get my base images but i am ready to start charging for real now. my plan is to charge $65 for an hour shoot on location of their choice. it will be more if it is beyond a set milage. and $100 for an event like a soccer game etc. this includes a reasonable amount of post processing time and making the proof disk. they will pay for prints separately or purchase the disk for a fee. my question is how much do i mark up the images? am I under or over charging? is it any benifit to make it an LLC? how much money do i need to earn before i start keeping books like its a real business? it's still a hobby thats paying me a little now. I only ask because I dont know. I'm looking for advice so please dont blast me like I have seen some people do in other threads.

thanks and here is a link to my site.

http://520photo.webs.com/

[Tigershark]

If you are in the US and live in a state that has sales tax you better get your business registered and start paying sales tax to begin with. If you are earning money you need to be keeping books

[momoe]

If you are in the US and live in a state that has sales tax you better get your business registered and start paying sales tax to begin with. If you are earning money you need to be keeping books

whats it cost and how do you do this?

[sapearl]

LLC is a good way to go as another layer of protection. I've been sole proprietor for some time with no problem, but have been remiss in switching over. My accountant keeps nagging me about it.

+1 on getting a vendor's license too, or whatever is necessary where you are to get registered as a business. You need to be collecting sales tax and all that other good stuff. Isn't the admin part of the trade fun :rolleyes:....not really. - Stu

[natalieegbert]

whats it cost and how do you do this?


It depends where you are, I just did all the registering and stuff myself. It cost me 9 dollars to register my business name here in Iowa. Then I had to get online and get a pin number for my state sales tax. That cost nothing. So cost me 9 dollars. But your state may require more then mine.

[mickdaniel]

There's a good list of best books on photography business (http://photography.pro/books/business) on photography.pro. ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography is a good one.

[momoe]

thanks for the advice everybody, it really helps

[PhotosGuy]

sales tax Until things change here, you don't have to collect tax on labor. Why not use a printing site that collects tax where necessary & save yourself that headache?
Online orders question (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=501332)

A lot of pros here use PrintRoom @ $99/year
Exposure Manager. Mike R likes it: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=7316228&postcount=2

[ThomGascoigne]

I just launched my website and only do on location shoots as I do not have a studio. this is not my full time job but has led to some income and some increasing demand for me to do some work for people. I have already done some pro bono work to get my base images but i am ready to start charging for real now. my plan is to charge $65 for an hour shoot on location of their choice. it will be more if it is beyond a set milage. and $100 for an event like a soccer game etc. this includes a reasonable amount of post processing time and making the proof disk. they will pay for prints separately or purchase the disk for a fee. my question is how much do i mark up the images? am I under or over charging? is it any benifit to make it an LLC? how much money do i need to earn before i start keeping books like its a real business? it's still a hobby thats paying me a little now. I only ask because I dont know. I'm looking for advice so please dont blast me like I have seen some people do in other threads.

thanks and here is a link to my site.

http://520photo.webs.com/


You need to keep books from the very start, I didn't do this and I've regretted it ever since. Much easier to learn to keep books with smaller amounts from when you are starting out.

For prints I charge 3 times the amount they cost me. So if the print cost $1 to produce I charge $3 for it. However if the customer is buying a large amount of prints I may offer a discount. Having said that you should think about factoring in all the time and money you have spent on doing the work. Goodluck!

[ThomGascoigne]

It depends where you are, I just did all the registering and stuff myself. It cost me 9 dollars to register my business name here in Iowa. Then I had to get online and get a pin number for my state sales tax. That cost nothing. So cost me 9 dollars. But your state may require more then mine.

$9! oh man I have to pay $150+ every 3 years for every business name I have.