How did you determine your price structure?

This isn't about what to charge, but how to charge it.

Come this spring I'm going to try to hit the ground running and make some money with my camera at least until I can get a 9-5. I'm living on unemployment and it kind of sucks a bit. At least this way I can work for the money until I get a 9-5.

Do you find it more effective to:

a) Charge a moderate session fee, rely on individual print/package sales after the fact.

b) Charge a larger fee up front and include a set number of prints

I was thinking of charging +/-$150 and letting that include around a $60-$70 print credit (based on my individual pricing) or making up a package that is included in that price. That way they are locked into at least that amount, and can buy more prints individually.

I do realize that that is cheap compared to some markets, but for this area it's actually pushing it a bit.

Any suggestions?

True price setting in any business is usually cost based, then profit and market based.

i.e. in order to make money as a business you have to first cover your costs of doing business, then make what profit you can dependent on your market, morals etc.


The hard part about a service based business is translating your costs into a fee, as your costs and your work can be variable and are often independent of time or resources/materials/eq​uipment.

Here is how I figure my pricing out, I've ended up with an ideal hourly rate that I base things around.

Start with your known and controlled fixed costs:
Vehicle
Computer
Studio
Budget for gear and equipment
Other fixed fees (web hosting, bank fees, loan repayments etc).

Work these out over 12 months, don't guess at it, get out receipts etc and spend the time to figure out actuals.

Then you can start working on variable costs, but these will be averages, guesstimates and just plain made up.
Travel time, processing time, general time for business admin etc.
This is your cost of doing business.

Now figure out what you are worth as an hourly rate. Do you consider your time to be worth $20 and hour or $200 an hour? How much does the business need to pay you in order for you to survive?

Add this to your cost of doing business, depending how its structured this could be your profit margin, or you could add extra on top (don't forget Tax etc either).

Then see how your prices compare in your market. If they are too high, reevaluate them, if they are to low, reevaluate. You may need to look at a different market, or you may have just discovered a competitive advantage.

To properly make a price structure you must properly understand your business.

What are you cost?
Gear, time (shooting, pre prod, post prod) car, house, food, electricity, clothing and everything you touch to do a photoshoot.
How many shoots will you do per month?
How many hours per shoot?

Then you can quickly draw an hourly rate...take that hourly rate and multiply it by 3.
1 part is income taxes, 1 part is cost, 1 part is profit.

simple but scary exercise. This way, you will also see a lot of people that are paying to shoot clients since they don't take anything in consideration and just go for pricing.

Moppie wrote in post #11768135
True price setting in any business is usually cost based, then profit and market based.

i.e. in order to make money as a business you have to first cover your costs of doing business, then make what profit you can dependent on your market, morals etc.

The hard part about a service based business is translating your costs into a fee, as your costs and your work can be variable and are often independent of time or resources/materials/eq​uipment.

Here is how I figure my pricing out, I've ended up with an ideal hourly rate that I base things around.

Start with your known and controlled fixed costs:
Vehicle
Computer
Studio
Budget for gear and equipment
Other fixed fees (web hosting, bank fees, loan repayments etc).

Work these out over 12 months, don't guess at it, get out receipts etc and spend the time to figure out actuals.

Then you can start working on variable costs, but these will be averages, guesstimates and just plain made up.
Travel time, processing time, general time for business admin etc.
This is your cost of doing business.

Now figure out what you are worth as an hourly rate. Do you consider your time to be worth $20 and hour or $200 an hour? How much does the business need to pay you in order for you to survive?

Add this to your cost of doing business, depending how its structured this could be your profit margin, or you could add extra on top (don't forget Tax etc either).

I'd insert here: Determine your most probable "billable hours" by year, month, and week. Unlike an employee, you can't actually make money 40 hours a week and you probably won't work 52 weeks per year.

Moreover, you're going to have to spend considerable time marketing--drumming up more business--that isn't "billable" time.

Depending on what kind of photography you do, your actually billable hours will be considerably less than that. If you figured on making $20 per hour and you only have, say, 20 billable hours per week for 50 weeks per year (a hell of a schedule for a wedding photographer), you have to bill enough more to average out to that $20 per hour.

Also evaluate your product and services in comparison to the market. Determine your unique "value proposition" --why in the world should someone do business with you rather than anyone else? Find that--or develop it--and market it.

My minimum includes a solid number of prints. It brings a profit I can be happy with if that's all they buy, and I don't have to play the sales pressure game.

I don't get as many sessions as the lower priced folks, but at the same time I don't risk bringing in less either.