The business side of photography
Over the past two months, I’ve had the experience of trying to sell some used photo equipment online.
Most professional photographers try to keep up with technology by upgrading whenever a new tool comes out. Many photo businesses have to stay current to remain competitive.
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This very long and meandering post is intended for new photographers. It outlines some general concepts behind setting a price on photography services.
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
– Woody Allen
First rule: Never give a price over the phone or off the top of your head.
Second rule: You’re running a business. You’re supposed to make money by charging more than your costs.
Third rule: Like all businesses, you tell your customers what your services cost, not the other way around.
Fourth rule: Never base your prices on Cost + Profit Margin. Always base your prices on value to the customer. Charge for what you know, not for what you do.
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I photographed a week-long tennis tournament last week for the event organizers. The media relations folks were, as always, fantastic. They were friendly, helpful and always available. They answered every question, sorted out every problem, had all necessary tournament information available and arranged every interview. They even handed out free pizza and beer at the end of each day. On very hot days, they’ve been known to hand out ice cream!
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I just finished post-processing 1,017 images. Many of those, but not all, will be used for marketing and public relations both in print and online. At this time, the client isn’t able to do any post-processing except to crop and resize the pictures.
Since the client doesn’t know which images will be used in the coming year, all these photos had to be processed now. About 2,300 images were originally shot and those were edited down to 1,017. Yes, I probably should’ve edited it down a lot more but I wanted the client to have a broad selection to cover all future possibilities.
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A couple of weeks ago, Editor & Publisher posted statistics from its sister company, Nielsen Online, showing the average time-on-site for the top 30 newspaper sites in the USA. These numbers compare June 2008 with June 2009. Go ahead and take a look.
Some news sites like NYTimes.com experienced a 50% drop, whereas the Boston Globe’s Boston.com enjoyed a 300% increase. With only four exceptions, all the news web sites had numbers far below the average time a reader spends with a daily newspaper. According to the 2008 Readership Institute Study, the average American newspaper reader spends 27 minutes with a paper.
What does this show, if anything?
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The phrases “added value” and “extra value” are tossed around by many businesses these days. Some companies use these terms not because they know what they mean but because they’re nice-sounding catchphrases that might lure in customers.
Value is determined by the customer and not by what a business might say. If a customer needs 24-hour service, then free parking is not an added value. If a customer wants a salad, then an “extra value” meal with large french fries has no extra value.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
– Warren Buffet
Adding value means a business goes beyond customer expectations. This is a relative scale because different customers have different expectations and needs.
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Three weeks ago, the BBC College of Journalism released a 92-page document titled “The Future of Journalism”. The information in the report is the result of a journalism conference held in London in late 2008:
Today, as technology changes the lives of both journalists and their customers, assumptions about what journalism is and how it is practiced are being re-examined.
The eight chapters include:
If you are a journalist, this might be of interest to you. Although, ironically, much of it is old news so the report might serve as reminder.
If you’re a corporate photographer, this document might be worth reading or at least skimming. Your business clients have news and information they want to get out to the public and the news media. So perhaps there’s something to be learned from this report.
