No freebies

I have officially done my last 'family friend' freebie and let my wife know that, very clearly, she can no longer offer my services for free. She arranged for some friends to come over last night so I can do studio shots of their 4 month old. First, I don't want to shoot kids, ever, for any reason. Second, she talked me into doing it for free. What can I say, I love my wife!

Anyway, the idea was that I would seal the deal to shoot their wedding this summer at my normal rate. They had complained that another photographer who shot a sister's wedding jacked up the price to some 'unreasonable' level as compared to what her previous rate was. My prices start at $600 and go from there. They were complaining that the other photographer wanted $125 after doing the previous wedding for, get this, $50! So, my rate was on another planet for them.

I will be attending the wedding, and will sit in the audience and eat the food.

Also, I was able to practice using some new lights, so not all is lost. But this was my first brush with out of touch pricing and un-informed consumers.

I make it a practice not to do business (my business is not photography) with family and friends. This makes it so much easier for friends to remain friends.

Probably every business person I know, including photographers, and myself in the past, has gone through something similar to what you're experiencing.

Was it also your 1st brush with an out of touch wifey??????

In general I avoid friends and family like the plague. I don't care if it involves hiding in a dark room with the shades drawn while they knock on the door for 2 hours... You're doomed either way eventually. Either you do it for free and other friends and family you never knew you had line up or sooner or later you're going to get that one person who thinks you were "just kidding" when you handed them the bill.

I am currently going through the latter with a web client of mine I knew back when I was a child. I figured the 20+ years it'd been since we were acquaintances would make it ok. It apparently did not and I got the phone call explaining that money was tight and the words "I'm sure you'd do it for free" came out of his mouth, I kid you not. Funny though I did get a substantial installment 24 hours after I changed the index to a lovely "this site is currently suspended" message.

Oh well lesson learned there too. So now my DNS (do not service) list goes as follows:
Family
Friends of family
Friends
People I've shared a beer with
People who know me well enough to know where I live
People I know well enough to know where they live
People who randomly mention their finances - good or bad
Kids under 6 or pets

And this list gets longer every year... lol

I find allowing cut-rate pricing to cause more problems than "free."

The best thing is to have your list of services and prices already created and ready (preferrably online, but not necessarily public) so that you can immediately direct people to it when you want to.

That way, when you get someone of one of those groups asking for service, you can immediately decide whether or not this is someone you're willing to give a totally free gift to. If so, then say, "Great, hey, I'll do it for free for you!" If not, then say, "Great, here is a link to my pricelist! Take a look and give me a ring back!"

Normally, I would not recommend just sending a prospective client to your pricelist (which is why my pricelist isn't actually public)--when you're actually trying to gain the business, it's better to talk about the value of your services at the same time you're talking about prices. But in this kind of case, when you don't really want that "business" anyway, it's an easier way to put them off if they were looking for a bargain.

But if you do want to give them a gift totally free, don't talk about money at all--tell them up front you're doing it for them free. Here is why:

People do not understand a "real good deal" when it comes to photography. If your weddings are normally $5,000 and you charge them only $500, they don't see that as a $4,500 gift--they resent the fact they had to pay you $500, and they will still expect you to do your normal $5,000 job.

If you do a $5000 wedding for them totally free, they might not actually value it as a $5000 gift (because as far as they can see, it didn't cost you anything) but at least they will acknowledge it as a gift.

But if they aren't that close as friends for you to give them a gift that dear, then just buy them a toaster and a Hallmark and call it done. Go to the wedding as a guest, eat cake, drink chapagne, and have fun.

tomj wrote in post #14314349
Probably every business person I know, including photographers, and myself in the past, has gone through something similar to what you're experiencing.

Yup. Knew it going in too that I would reach that point. It's the year of turning the corner and boudaries are being set...

BufordFZ1 wrote in post #14314373
Was it also your 1st brush with an out of touch wifey??????

I can not, under any circumstances, answer that in any way. Truthful or otherwise!

JDPhotoGuy wrote in post #14314441
Oh well lesson learned there too. So now my DNS (do not service) list goes as follows:
Family
Friends of family
Friends
People I've shared a beer with
People who know me well enough to know where I live
People I know well enough to know where they live
People who randomly mention their finances - good or bad
Kids under 6 or pets

And this list gets longer every year... lol

That list very similar to the one I'm operating under after last night. Funny thing is my wife asked me where my camera was a few weeks ago at a family function..."It's at home." She asked why, "I'm not here to work..."

RDKirk wrote in post #14314622
The best thing is to have your list of services and prices already created and ready (preferrably online, but not necessarily public) so that you can immediately direct people to it when you want to.

But if they aren't that close as friends for you to give them a gift that dear, then just buy them a toaster and a Hallmark and call it done. Go to the wedding as a guest, eat cake, drink chapagne, and have fun.

I have a price list for all of my services (actually different lists for different clients, portraits, seniors, weddings, aviation, etc) ready to show at any time both on-line and in-person. For weddings, I have package rates and hourly alacarte rates. They wanted hourly...and less than the minimum.

It was very clear I would be enjoying their wedding cake and chamagne. Unless I book an actual client that for that day. It's hard a difficult thing to stick to your guns and say to people you know, "Hey, this is a business. I'm not doing this for the giggles (although I do happen to enjoy it)."

I did have the opportunity to explain to them why it's not a $50 for 8 hour service. They saw all of my equipment, studio lights, camera, lenses, my office and editing gear. I explained to them that there is over-head for my PO box, advertising, business cards, senior rep program, printing, materials for books, frames, etc, insurance, business taxes, sales taxes. At $50, I would be on site for 8 hours, edit for 2-3x that and pay for the costs of what is included in a basic package (not much actually, but still more than $50 worth of materials). I would actually be paying them for me to be there. And $50 only pays for 4/5ths of a tank of gas these days...

I call is pro bono. I do it sometimes to get my foot in a niche.

Nmcgrew wrote in post #14314630
...Funny thing is my wife asked me where my camera was a few weeks ago at a family function..."It's at home." She asked why, "I'm not here to work..."

I get that a lot. Went to a school function to watch my daughter induct others (National Honor Society) and had 7 parents ask me that same question. Ended up calling my wife and had her bring my "ready bag"...oh well. I guess they like my work.

Kevan wrote in post #14322011
I call is pro bono. I do it sometimes to get my foot in a niche.

I have found that doing a lower-end wedding for bargain basement prices only leads to offers for more low end weddings at that same price point. It's not worth it.

So far I haven't gotten to the breaking point with friends and family yet... though I make it clear that any free-for-friends-n-family works goes on the back burner if there's paying work that I have to get done. So far, I've only had a few lighthearted complaints about that policy, most are very understanding.

My favorite story about shooting friends and family is when one of my best friends (best man at my wedding) brought over his brother and sister with their families, to make some nice big family photos to give his mom for Christmas. Well, we did the shoot, it was really rough, the 2-year-old was all over the place. They paid my usual hourly rate (even though I didn't ask for it, I didn't turn it down either) and paid my cost for prints. As we were wrapping up, they told me, "Oh, sorry about the mess.. we're not allowed back in the Sears portrait studio any more, last time we were there the baby knocked over both their backdrops"