business practices

Pricing ups and downs

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Many (most?) photographers struggle with pricing their services. Price too high and customers will think the photographer is gouging them. Price too low and customers will think the photographer does inferior work. Either way, the photographer loses.

Some photographers think that if they lower their existing prices, their business will increase. Their plan is to charge less and make up for it with volume.

But this means the photographer is going to do the same work and provide the same level of service, all for less money. Then they’ll do it many times over again, always for less money, and somehow it’ll earn them more money. But these photographers fail to understand three things:
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Working for free

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Photographers, do yourself a favour and read this article by US brand strategist Patty Soffer:

Freebies are the scourge of freelance workers everywhere. Beginners notwithstanding (yes, we all pay our dues) many are tempted to work for free because they believe it will lead to paying work. News flash: it won’t. It leads exactly nowhere. When the un-payer decides to ante up, they hire someone else because they want to work with professionals who value themselves. Clearly you don’t if you were willing to give it away for nothing.

– Patty Soffer

 

When someone asks you to work for free, it means they think your photography is worthless. When you work for free, it means you agree.

The best situation is to charge what your photography is worth. But if you must offer a discount, rather than work for free, simply charge less than what your photography is worth but more than what it costs.

 

Grammatically Correct

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Today, March 4th, is National Grammar Day in the USA. However, here in Canada, we don’t got no Grammar Day to write about.

A few days ago, I had reason to review and edit photo captions from a number of photographers. The spelling and grammar were atrocious. The photographers should have been extremely embarrassed that they weren’t smarter than a fifth grader.

All of these photographers work for daily newspapers and they assume that someone else at their newspaper will correct their captions. But after checking some newspaper websites, this was not always the case. A photographer’s poorly written caption was often copied verbatim onto the website.

Every self-employed photographer knows, or should know, that good grammar and proper spelling are essential business tools. Grammar and spelling add to a photographer’s credibility and professionalism.

 

Flash Forward

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Over the past two months, I photographed in a few Toronto offices, from small to mid-sized. Here are a few random observations:

• Businesses seem to be much more paperless. I can recall when offices had entire walls, and even hallways, lined with filing cabinets.

• Fax machines are pretty much obsolete.

• Just over half of the offices I was in had their employees working on laptops. This may make sense in terms of cost and portability but one wonders about the health cost. Many employees’ necks and shoulders were hunched over as they were working on their laptops.

• No desktop computers meant that the office lacked the familiar sound of keyboard (and mouse) clicking. I guess this sound will disappear like that of a typewriter.
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Precedent Setting

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Everyone knows the saying, “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” While this is true, it goes further than that.

As with any business, a professional photographer should remember that when dealing with a new customer, everything the photographer does sets the precedent for all future interactions with that customer.

For example:

  • how the photographer answers the first phone call
  • the number of spelling mistakes in the first e-mail
  • showing up late for the first assignment
  • improperly dressed for the assignment
  • missing the deadline on the first job
  • poor quality on the first job
  • pricing below cost or working for free

Each “first” interaction with a customer sets the standard for that customer’s future expectations.

Precedents are quick to set and slow to undo.

 

Trash the risk

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Last week, a Quebec woman drowned while being photographed in her bridal gown during a “trash the dress” photo shoot. A “trash the dress” is where a woman is photographed a few days, weeks, or maybe even months, after her wedding while wearing her bridal gown in a wet, dirty or otherwise unorthodox location. One would have thought that this fad disappeared after the 1970s but it became trendy again a few years ago.

The family of the victim released a statement which seemed to place blame on the photographer:

These character traits made [the victim] very trusting in others. … One thing we are certain about is that [the victim] would have never put her life at risk. Her love for life, for her husband and for her family would never allow it.
(…)
She trusted [the photographer’s] recommendation for the location and felt safe enough to attend the photo shoot alone with the photographers. She followed their directions and put trust in their professionalism.

While no lawsuit against the photographer has been launched, (the funeral has yet to be held), one might guess where this is heading.
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Making Contact

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My web site offers three ways for prospective customers to contact me: telephone number, e-mail address and a contact form.

I thought that most people would use the e-mail link. My assumption was that people would prefer and trust their own e-mail software more than a plain web-page contact form.

Over the past three years, 5% of potential customers used the telephone number, 30% used the e-mail address and 65% used the contact form.

Forms can capture not only the person’s name and e-mail address but also any other information you might need. However, asking too many questions risks turning a simple contact form into an interrogation and frighten customers away.

Contact forms are easy to implement. Web hosts usually include CGI-based e-mail forms. Blog software either has contact forms built-in or there’s a free plugin available. There are a few third-party-hosted form services.

Contact forms do attract spammers and there are ways to minimize this nusiance. But any spam that does come through a contact form is far outweighed by the benefits of having such a form on your web site.

 

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