![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/Sep\/PettiCollage1.jpg\")
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Thank you to the sweet commenters who left notes on yesterdays oil paint.?? I loved it so much??and was pretty anxious to post.?? You just don’t capture moments like that very often.?? Problem is…that is now going to be a tough act to follow!<\/p>\n
Tori will be having her 6 month immunizations today.?? Better start the Tylenol.?? She is a tad late as she just turned 7 months.?? She thinks she’s at least 3.<\/p>\n
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Okay – so what have I done here?<\/p>\n
Here is my progress on the business so far:<\/p>\n
1.?? Have settled on a name.<\/p>\n
2.?? Working on a simple website<\/p>\n
3.?? Working on pricing…info…packages..etc<\/p>\n
What is causing me to lose sleep?<\/p>\n
Pricing.<\/strong><\/p>\n I had it all determined in my head earlier in the week and then I started questioning myself.?? These are TOUGH choices to make.<\/p>\n On the one hand, I want to charge a substantial enough fee to make it worth the time I spend.?? Because I don’t “have” to do this – I just enjoy photography – that makes it easier because at this stage of my life, growing a business is not my goal right now.?? Gaining experience, improving my skills, paying off my equipment debts, and having some fun is what I am “in this” for.??<\/p>\n However, making it worth it for me, and worth it for other people may be two very different things.<\/p>\n Scenario 1<\/strong><\/p>\n Initially, Jim and I discussed setting a price for a basic 1.5 to 2 hour package that includes:?? 20 to 30 post processed pictures (this is the typical from all my market research) and presenting those pictures both in color, black and white, and a few of them with different coloring effects for fun.?? The base price would INCLUDE the disc with all pictures and a full copyright release.?? This is pretty much unheard of in this industry.<\/p>\n Advantages<\/strong>:?? 1.?? Parents get all 20 – 30 of the images.?? 2.?? I can set one price and make just one simple package.?? 3.?? I don’t have to take extra time managing printing.?? (Might charge additional fee to print if someone wanted and I would use a pro lab – more details as to what that advantage is but I won’t go into that right now).<\/p>\n Disadvantages<\/strong>:?? 1.?? Could be bad marketing if clients have shots printed at a non pro lab that doesn’t produce high end results.?? 2.?? Could be bad marketing if pictures are put into photobooks that look like??low end??drag and drops.?? 3.?? Not a good way to win friends and influence people in this particular industry?? where other photographers are concerned because very few will sell the disc without charging an arm and a leg?? 3.?? And this is my biggest concern today….it hinders me from being able to evaluate client need and expectation and my own performance based on their perception.?? If I just give a disc to someone, I may get little to no feedback.?? I’ll then wonder if I met the clients expectations.?? I don’t want to overcharge anyone for what they are going to get but I don’t want to undersell my time either because as a homeschooling mama of three – my time is precious right now.??<\/p>\n Scenario 2<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not release disc.?? Charge a lesser session fee and charge for prints.??<\/p>\n Advantages<\/strong>:?? 1.?? I avoid the disadvantages of the first scenario.?? 2.?? I get to manage the end product which allows me to inspect what I expect as far as outcomes are concerned.?? 3.?? This helps me understand my clientele better – what they like – what they don’t – how much they like it.?? When they evaluate proofs and then place an order, I have a better idea of how successful the shoot was based on how easy\/difficult it is for them to choose and how much they order.?? 4.?? This gives more flexibility to client in what they invest.?? If the end product wasn’t what they were looking for, the initial investment was lesser and they don’t have to purchase much or anything.?? 5.?? It MAY give me the opportunity to earn more because most photographers make the vast majority of their income in the prints and not the session fee.<\/p>\n 2.?? Disavantages<\/strong>:?? 1.?? I have to manage the proof presentation and print ordering process which will take more time.?? 2.?? I may earn less if people don’t invest much in the prints – therefore, depending on my lower session fee – may end up not making it worth my time.?? 3.?? This could get really expensive for the client if they liked a lot of the proofs.?? Printing cost wouldn’t\/couldn’t be super cheap or again…it wouldn’t be worth my time.?? As Dad said, “It isn’t like you are cornering the market on photography – people can go to Walmart or to any other photographer if they wan’t to”. :)??<\/p>\n After discussions with Jim, we both think I would need to earn about $25.00 an hour initially to make it worth my time.?? The goal being to increase my price over time as I gain experience.?? A two hour shoot with set up time, travel time,??and post processing time would end up taking at LEAST 5 to 6 hours of my time.?? This would amount to about $125.00 to $150.00.???? From what I researched online, this is a very common session fee but it is??not all inclusive.?? This price is ONLY the session fee and does not include any amount of printing.?? Again, printing is where??photographers really make their money.?? I don’t intend to charge $125.00 AND THEN charge printing because I am not a pro…yet.:)?? So it would either be $125.00 out the door all inclusive package OR a lesser session fee, no disc, and then make money with printing.?? So can’t decide what to do.?? Charge the above amount and release the disc or charge a lesser amount and hope to make up the difference in printing cost??? Which scenario is to the advantage of both parties???????<\/p>\n As I said, I am working on the website and these decisions may just take me a couple of months to sort out.?? As a result, I probably won’t take on much work until next year.?? I have several promised shoots for friends and family this year anyhow to keep me busy.?? Hoping that if I have several successes, it will boost my confidence and help me feel better about making pricing decisions.?? I want my work to be worth what I charge.????It is still yet to be seen if I am worth what I need to make it “worth” it to me to do.?? Follow that??? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I also want to include one or two holiday shoots that will probably have a limited session fee, short shoot time (30 min) and no disc release – I’ll do the printing.?? The first one will be in October and I am taking example shots for that hopefully this week.<\/strong>?? Idea is to reserve a couple of days in mid October and schedule a limited number of families.?? This will be babies and children only – not family groups and it will be on a specific fall themed background in my home.?? If all goes according to plan, I’ll give information on that next week for anyone interested.????<\/p>\n Here is what I do know:<\/strong><\/p>\n My focus will be on:<\/p>\n *?? Newborns And<\/strong> I will be really excited to offer painting!?? Because it takes about 3 hours, it will be expensive – again a time issue.?? I hope to be the photographer for the pictures that I paint but I may paint existing pictures taken by another photographer as long as they have a copyright release.?? There will be a sliding scale for pricing because all paints are not equal – trust me.<\/p>\n I will also do:<\/strong><\/p>\n *?? Families I do not want to do:<\/strong><\/p>\n *?? Large family groups I WILL NOT do:<\/strong><\/p>\n Weddings?? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n That’s more than enough rambling for one day.?? Off to teach school now.?? All problems and issues do not need to be resolved today.?? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n ??<\/p>\n ??<\/p>\n ??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thank you to the sweet commenters who left notes on yesterdays oil paint.?? I loved it so much??and was pretty anxious to post.?? You just don’t capture moments like that very often.?? Problem is…that is now going to be a tough act to follow! Tori will be having her 6 month immunizations today.?? Better start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mamas-diaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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