For Photographers

Invoicing Basics

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A photographer won’t get paid unless they send an invoice to the customer. For some silly reason, most businesses refuse to send out cheques just for the fun of it. After a photo assignment is completed, send an invoice. There’s no grace period required. It’s not necessary to wait a few days, or weeks, to avoid looking greedy.

Your invoice must contain your legal business name, contact information, invoice date, invoice number, and your tax number(s). It also must also have the customer’s name and contact information.

The invoice should spell out what the photo assignment was. Don’t expect the photo editor to remember every assignment. Also, the customer’s accounting department won’t know what your invoice is for.

Sometimes the person who hires you is not the person who will receive the invoice. So make sure you know to whom the invoice is sent. Always ask the customer if they require a Purchase Order number or any other reference number included on the invoice.
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Canadian GST / HST Tax Form

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This article was posted in 2012. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has since made changes to the GST/HST filing process. Back in 2012, taxable and non-taxable (zero rated) sales were included together. Starting in 2016, taxable and non-taxable sales have been separated. This means that the GST/HST form mentioned below is out of date. The CRA has not published an updated form because it wants you to file GST/HST only online.

 

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2010 made it mandatory for businesses to file quarterly GST/HST tax returns electronically. Electronic filing is fast and easy but the instructions were, and still are, poorly explained. Fortunately the CRA continued to mail a paper copy of the tax form so you could read the instructions on the paper copy when filing your GST/HST electronically.

About a year ago, the CRA stopped sending the paper copy of the GST/HST tax form. So now, when filing a tax return electronically, you have to remember, or guess, each step of the tax return. For example, you’re simply asked to enter a dollar amount for Line 108. Uh, what is Line 108 for?
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Dialing For Dollars

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Freelance photographers usually get paid by cheque and occasionally by cash. Some photographers, including myself, also accept credit card payments through PayPal via the photographer’s web site.

PayPal just announced its new PayPal Here system that will allow a business to accept credit card payments using a smart phone. This is similar to the up-and-running, two-year-old Square system.

There are differences between PayPal Here and Square but there’s only one difference that matters to Canadian photographers. PayPal Here will be available in Canada and Square is not.

Square says that it’s looking into expanding outside the USA but it’s been saying that for two years. Perhaps the competition from PayPal will force Square to get moving.

[Update October 24, 2012: Square just announced that it’s available in Canada.]

Apparently, the Square system is/was capable of being used for credit card fraud. By contrast, the PayPal Here card reader is encrypted.

Accepting credit card payments on location could be a big help for professional photographers. Some business customers and government clients can pay on-the-spot with a corporate credit card. But not being able to accept credit cards on location often means a photographer has to wait weeks or months to get paid by cheque.

[Update March 18, 2013: PayPal Here is still not available in Canada.]

 

Topic Of Conversation

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Why do people shop at dollar stores? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? Of course not. It’s only because of the prices.

Why do people buy coffee at Starbucks? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? It’s certainly not because of the prices.

Consumers choose to shop at a particular store for a variety of reasons and price is not often the primary motivator. Instead, customers search for the best value for their money. Value is always in the eye of the buyer, not the seller.
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Reach For The Top

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That Sears, Walmart and some grocery stores have portrait studios should be of no concern to commercial photographers. The fact that these stores do family portraits for as little as $7.99 and business portraits for $29.95 is meaningless.

Don’t worry about it.

These cheap photo stores are not your competition, unless you’re trying to do $7.99 children’s portraits and $29.95 business portraits.

Don’t worry that some other photographer charges $35/hour or that they give away all pictures and copyrights for $199. Unless you’re trying to run your business into the ground, this photographer is not your competition.

Your competition is the photographer who charges more than you because they have what you want.

Always compete up not down.

 

Added April 2013: Sears and Walmart portrait studios shut down.

 

Fauxtographer

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If a professional photographer was featured on national TV, you might think the publicity would boost that photographer’s business. Well, not in this case.

In 2009, the BBC ran a news story about a commercial photographer and his business practices, or should we say, his lack of business practices.

This publicity caused the “fauxtographer” to take down his web site and disappear. Good riddance. Such scammers make all professional photographers look bad.
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