{"id":381,"date":"2018-03-27T16:15:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T23:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/?p=381"},"modified":"2018-03-27T16:15:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T23:15:24","slug":"when-to-raise-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/when-to-raise-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Raise Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
In our last post, we considered 3 Reasons NOT to Raise Prices:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n So, should you ever<\/strong> raise prices? Of course! Every successful professional needs to raise prices; it’s not a question of IF, but WHEN.\u00a0 Simply take the same reasons and flip them on their heads!<\/p>\n Always be on the lookout to offer more value and command a higher price point!<\/p>\n Let me tell you a story.<\/p>\n Before going professional (and way before Instagram<\/a>,) I just had my little photography-enthusiast account on Flickr.<\/a> I would post my personal photography; Streets, Flowers, Coffee, Amateur Portraits… basically anything and everything I took pictures of.<\/p>\n I shot my first wedding for free, which I believed was very fair, considering my inexperience. The couple was actually kind enough to donate something for my services anyway! With one wedding under my belt, I felt I could reasonably charge for the next one.<\/p>\n I agreed to shoot the next wedding for the astronomical price of… wait for it… $96.00!\u00a0 Which to this day, I was never actually paid.\u00a0 I decided it was a fair trade for learning a lesson (Have a contract) and for adding another wedding to my “portfolio”, which was still just directing people to an album on my Flickr page.<\/p>\n I wanted to have a dedicated online portfolio, but also didn’t want to spend any money on it.\u00a0 A common paradox. So I created something simple and free on Carbonmade<\/a>. Back then, they had a free plan with ads. Today, you might create a free site with a company like Wix,<\/a>\u00a0or Weebly<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Let’s Pause Here:<\/strong><\/p>\n Like many “Make a free website” companies, my site:<\/p>\n Put yourself in the mindset of my next potential customer.<\/p>\n How much could I expect<\/em> to charge for the next wedding,<\/strong> when:<\/p>\n There’s a lot more that I could add to this list, but these are the biggest detractors of value when looking to charge more:\u00a0 An apparent apathy toward your own work, signs of unprofessionalism, and inconsistency of work.<\/p>\n Fast forward to today:<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, working with my wife, I’ve shot closer to 200 weddings. It’s our primary source of income.\u00a0 Experience alone allows us to charge much more than I did for my third, or even tenth, wedding.<\/p>\n But, can you imagine if, at this point in our business, we still had a free website, emailed prices from a free hotmail account, and had a gallery with brides next to pictures of food and vacation pictures?\u00a0 Would that affect how much we could expect to charge?\u00a0 Absolutely.<\/p>\n Throughout our years in business, we gained necessary and valuable experience, yes. But, we also took lots of our profits and invested them in creating a website that:<\/p>\n (Note: We currently use Squarespace<\/a> to host our main site, and Bluehost<\/a> or HostGator <\/a>to host all our WordPress sites.)<\/p>\n This kind of presentation, combined with years of skill and experience allows us to charge wayyyy more than $96.\u00a0 It’s not perfect, and there are still improvements we could make.\u00a0 But that’s the whole point!<\/p>\n As you keep shooting and gaining experience, you keep building a more and more valuable product: Yourself.<\/strong> Stay alert to all the ways you can package and present your growing worth.<\/p>\n Ask yourself:<\/strong><\/p>\n Revisit these questions from time to time, and see if you can take action on at least one or two items each month.<\/p>\n How about when a potentially big-spender comes along? Do you raise prices? You could just inflate the price on all your services (bad) or you could offer them more value for their spending power.<\/p>\n As we considered in the last article, arbitrarily charging a wealthy client more for the same product<\/a> is shady and wrong. That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the situation to offer more value.\u00a0 If your client can spend more, simply give them more options to spend on!<\/p>\n Here are some ideas:<\/strong><\/p>\n Offer more personalized service and extras:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Send a small and awesome gift, customized for your client!\u00a0 They’re spending extra on you, so why not invest a bit on making them feel extra special?<\/p>\n Deliver Faster:<\/strong><\/p>\n Just like an “Expedited Shipping” option is available for people that are willing to pay a premium to have their product come faster, can you offer a faster turnaround on your products?\u00a0 Faster developing time? Quicker shipping for their album or products?<\/p>\n Here’s where good old-fashioned research comes in.\u00a0 You have so many ways to find out the average for similarly priced photography services in your area, and you can use that information to see how much you could potentially be making, in your part of the world.<\/p>\n Web Searching:<\/strong><\/p>\n If you’re a wedding or portrait photographer in the US, you can find a lot of information simply by Googling “Wedding Photography” + the name of your city, or nearby areas.\u00a0 Expand your search to use Yelp or Google Maps, which will show local established businesses.<\/p>\n Find out the dollar average in your area for similarly skilled photographers and try to put your starting services within the range or higher, assuming it balances with your personal business expenses.<\/p>\n Now, don’t just copy another photographer’s pricing dollar-for-dollar! You have no idea what their personal finances may be, or if they are even profitable.\u00a0 You’re simply doing this exercise to see what other, respectable, skilled photographers are asking for their services. What are customers in this area generally willing to pay?<\/p>\n Too Low? <\/strong><\/p>\n Not happy with your search results? Sometimes your local county may not be the most profitable area. It may also be a good idea to search for more affluent cities or counties nearby.<\/p>\n Is it wrong to want to work in a richer area than your own?\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 Millions of people commute long-distances every day because they are earning more in another city than they would earn working at their local neighborhood business.\u00a0 Changing work areas for greater profit is not a new concept.<\/p>\n Photography is a luxury service, so it makes sense to market to individuals that have more flexible finances and purchasing power vs. bargain-hunting clients who are looking to save every penny possible.<\/p>\n As a professional photographer, you will always need to be alert to areas in which you can improve your skill<\/strong>, improve your presentation<\/strong>, or market to a more ideal client audience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n One, or ALL of these factors combined will give you the power to raise your prices!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every successful professional needs to raise prices; it’s not a question of IF, but WHEN.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[29,13,31,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prophotoguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
When to Raise Prices:<\/h2>\n
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When your experience and presentation match a higher price:<\/h2>\n
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To offer a wealthy client a more valuable product to consider:<\/h2>\n
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When your ideal clients CAN afford it:<\/h2>\n
Conclusion:<\/h2>\n