Price Increases

This is another darn pricing post, I'm sorry.

Currently, my photography is priced very low. I recently sat down and wrote out my cost per client and what I would need to make per session to reach a certain goal. My current price for the session alone is $75. I am looking to make the jump to $150, but I don't know if that is too drastic since it is a 100% increase in price.

I don't want to be pedantic but it is only a 100% increase in price - make sure that your maths are better than this when you are calculating your taxes

On a more serious note - what other income do you get from a session?

Do you sell prints, canvases, acryllic art etc. or just give them the disc?

Nightstalker wrote in post #16482347
I don't want to be pedantic but it is only a 100% increase in price - make sure that your maths are better than this when you are calculating your taxes

On a more serious note - what other income do you get from a session?

Do you sell prints, canvases, acryllic art etc. or just give them the disc?

Duh! How embarrassing. I'm thinking about too many things.
I do not just hand over a disc, I sell prints and canvases and I do sell a USB drive at an additional cost.

Don't be in too big of hurry to reach specific income/pricing goals.

Your prices should increase when the quality of your work will allow. If you think people will pay the new price, then go for it.

One thing you might think about, is finding a SCORE volunteer to help with business planning and all of the ins and outs of pricing.

$150 is still pretty cheap. What do you charge for prints and such? How's your business, busy or quiet? I noticed your website says you're 14 - you're doing pretty well for your age! I've moderated my post a little because of that, made it a bit less blunt.

Your work isn't bad especially for your age, but you have quite a bit to learn about posing and lighting. For example the slim girl with the baggy t-shirt leaning forward toward a wall, that made her look larger than she probably is. Don't price yourself above what you're worth. Also, your SEO needs work, read up on search engine optimisation (google SEO). Your website is slow for me (I'm in New Zealand), but it works in a strange way - if I look at an image in your portfolio then hit back it takes me to the seniors/families/babie​s screen. That should be fixed especially since I can't open multiple tabs to see lots at a time. I think there are some controls but they're not obvious. You'll have a high bounce rate - google the term if you don't understand it.

There is a lot of good info above. I'd add the following tip about marketing: when you raise your prices, expect that some of the clients who have hired and referred you will drop off because some of them were hiring based on your low costs. Your job is to find ways to market to people outside of this circle. I shot my first wedding for $250 and 3 years later charge 10x that--so it is definitely possible to raise prices over time. The way I successfully found clients outside of the regular circles was through SEO. See Tim's post above.

Just. Do. It.

Even if you "out price" your worth, as some call it, 1 of 2 things will happen:

1) You'll experience a lul and some frustration, and you'll do nothing but sit idly and burn, and eventually quit or drop down in price again and "accept it".

2) If you're stubborn and driven as you raise your price you will equally spend time to do what you gotta to to get where you have to get asap.
You will continue to invest in yourself and your education and business at an accelerating rate.

Aside from considering what it costs to stay in business, and natural business costs,

When I consider pricing I also consider "what is $xx worth".
(in terms of what the customer spends $ on regularly)

What is $75 worth? A Video game? A few DVDs? A date night?

What is $150 worth? A cell phone bill…, Cigarettes, months worth of junk food, cable TV bill, pair of nice jeans, sneakers, iTunes …

you name it…. this is what the average person values and spends money on, at least in part

Do you feel the service you provide is worth as much as those things? Do you feel that what you do can impact someone's life equal to the above mentioned things?
(hint, it should be)

You can always increase,but bring up the value too and sometimes you can do it without any cost from you.
Eg. you can offer a gallery with the images or maybe extra 15-30 minutes while taking pictures

Many huge companies do this. They "repackage" the same items they've been selling for years and charge more -just because of the new packages and "features" yet, all that was already there.
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