The business side of photography
If a photographer wants to gross $100,000 per year, all they have to do is:
Make $50/hour, forty hours per week, fifty weeks of the year.
Or, do just one $275/day newspaper job every day of the year.
Or, shoot just one $1,925 corporate assignment per week.
Or, just one $3,850 wedding every other week.
Or, complete just one $8,340 advertising job per month.
Or, shoot just one $100,000 international marketing campaign per year.
Easy right?
What’s the definition of an optimist?
A freelance photographer with a mortgage.
What’s the definition of an optimist?
A freelancer who opens a savings account.
What’s the difference between a freelance photographer and a savings bond?
One of them eventually matures and earns money.
There are several e-mail scams aimed at photographers. Most start with the sender of the e-mail saying that they came upon the photographer’s web site and they love the pictures. The person will have some sort of urgent photo assignment in the photographer’s area and wants to hire the photographer right away. The person will offer to pay in full in advance.
If the photographer falls for this, the scammer will send a payment cheque for far too much money. When the honest photographer points out this “mistake,” the scammer will apologize and ask the photographer to refund the excess money as quickly as possible. The trusting photographer will be told to wire the money asap. The scammer’s original cheque will later bounce and the photographer will lose whatever money they sent to the scammer.
Another version of this scam is that after the scammer has sent a (fake) cheque, they will say the event has been cancelled and they need the money wired back to them as quickly as possible.
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Earlier this week, British journal Occupational Environmental Medicine published an article with the catchy title: “The psychosocial quality of work determines whether employment has benefits for mental health: results from a longitudinal national household panel survey”.
This Australian study looked at the relationship between the mental health of 7,155 people and the quality of their employment. The study suggests that a bad job may be worse than no job at all:
Overall, unemployed respondents had poorer mental health than those who were employed. However the mental health of those who were unemployed was comparable or superior to those in jobs of the poorest psychosocial quality.
The study concluded:
Work of poor psychosocial quality does not bestow the same mental health benefits as employment in jobs with high psychosocial quality.
Of course, most photographers already knew this.
This is why professional photographers don’t accept bad contracts or ridiculously low-paying jobs. It’s never wrong to turn down a bad deal. Bad deal => bitter photographer => stress and poor mental health.
Photographers, who love what they do, must respect their profession by charging proper fees. Doing anything less harms the photographer both financially and mentally.
It’s common practice for news photographers and editorial photographers to pitch photo ideas to newspapers and magazines. In fact, many publications expect this.
A smart commercial photographer or corporate photographer could do the same thing with clients with whom they already have a working relationship. But in this case, just pitching an idea isn’t good enough. The photographer must also sell the reason for the proposed photo coverage and the benefits of that coverage.
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First basic rule of business: cash in must exceed cash out.
Revenue from assignment – cost of assignment = gross profit
Gross profit – overhead expenses = net profit (before taxes)
Revenue from assignment is what the client pays you, not including taxes.
Cost of assignment is expenses incurred to do the assignment.
Overhead expenses are expenses that have to be paid whether or not you have an assignment. For example: camera gear, computers, software, car, insurances, utilities, cell phone, rent, etc.
Net profit: if there’s any money here, remember that you still have to pay income tax plus all your normal living expenses.
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Should you ask how your corporate or commercial photography business can win more clients, the usual answer is to be different than other photographers. Of course, this is easier said than done.
When most photographers use the same cameras, lenses, computers, software, lighting equipment, and template-based web site, and all are capable of producing the same quality images, how can you be different?
In the old film days, it was a bit easier. Back then, being different meant a photographer might have the skill to follow-focus on fast-moving objects, they knew how to use a lightmeter to accomplish great lighting techniques, they had the necessary darkroom experience to make custom prints, they used larger format cameras, or they had a unique style of photography.
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