The Photographers Pricing System
Get paid what youre worth for portraits and weddings
Alicia Caine
The Photographers Pricing System:
Get paid what youre worth for portraits and weddings
Alicia Caine
Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com
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Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education.
Copyright 2016 by Alicia Caine
Project Editor: Valerie Witte
Production Editor: Danielle Foster
Development and Copy Editor: Linda Laflamme
Proofreader: Kim Wimpsett
Composition: Danielle Foster
Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry
Cover Image: Shutterstock.com; Copyright: Stocked House Studio
Cover Design: Aren Straiger
Interior Design: Mimi Heft
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .
Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
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ISBN-13: 978-0-134-18167-7
ISBN-10: 0-134-18167-0
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America
To the Profit First Photography communitymy people.
Youre an epic glitter bomb of glory.
Acknowledgments
My heart is overflowing with gratitude to be given the honor of sharing my experience and knowledge. My hope is that it gives even just one of you a life-changing experience in your business that begins a ripple effect with others.
First of all, Gordon, my husband and champion. Id be still working at McDonalds if it wasnt for you. Thank you for trusting me with every single insane idea and letting me be more of myself. I love you forever and always. My children, Jordon, Trinity, Joshua, Alessandra, Caleb, Bradley, and ThaliaGrace. I cant believe that I get to be a mommy to such incredible souls. You fill my heart with so much joy.
My personal assistant, Kim Rodgers. The best of best friends who sees me better than I see myself, has seen me at my worst, and continues to stand beside me. Your enthusiasm for everything I do never ceases to humble me. Thank you for just being you.
My Profit First Photography team, Angela Lindley, Natalie Gowen, and Suzanne Haverkorn. I am honored to call you friends. I hate the miles that is between us all and cant wait to have my island someday so we can all live on it together.
Kresta and Daniel Morgan, for giving our little family hope when we were feeling at our lowest and welcoming us into your life and home. You truly are the most epic of friends.
To the wonderful Peachpit Press team that shared their talents and gifts with me to birth this baby of mine: Danielle Foster, Kim Wimpsett, Aren Straiger, and Mimi Heft.
Valerie Witte, my project editor. Thank you for being patient with me and my inability to ever figure out the whole FTP thing. You made this experience an incredible one for me and a dream come true. Linda Laflamme, bless you for sticking with me and my wonky grammar and often ridiculous use of punctuation.
Christ, may you be glorified through this work.
And last of all, to you readers. Thank you for trusting me, allowing me to share my heart and my experience with you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you. My business is built around the hopes and dreams that I have for you, and it never ceases to delight me when I get the opportunity to be a part of your epic stories.
Introduction
Confession: Im not an amazing photographer. Im not naturally creative with my art, and I am better at duplicating technical skills than I am at creating original pieces of photographic art. Im not known in those circles as a rockstar photographer. I spend more time on my iPhone camera than I do with my Canon Mark III.
My heart has always been for business. My first camera (a Canon 20D) was a way for me to document my life and family, but that camera brought me to the point of being a business strategist for nontraditional photographers. It was a means that I pursued and that led me to my true passion: teaching what I learned the hard way so others dont have to go through the fog of figuring out how to make a business out of photography.
Let me explain. In 2007 with very few camera skills and even less business experience, I made the wildly audacious decision to start a business of photographing babies and children in natural light. At the beginning of the year, I was getting $200 sales, and by the end of the year I was getting $1600. By the end of my second year, I had my own natural-light studio space and was averaging $8000 per client with a high-sales, low-volume business model. So how did I go from $200 to $8000 sales in just two years?
By constant refinement of my pricing! I refused to commit to pricing that wasnt giving me the results that I needed. Instead of studying business books on pricing, I studied my clients. I began to test ideas on them and get their feedback on what they wanted and what they werent willing to pay for. Then I calculated a dollar amount that I knew my business needed to produce to be able to be profitable and sustainable. Pricing became a process of commonsense thinking mixed with strategy and a crazy spirit of persistence and tenacity.
After being sought out by other photographers, sharing my pricing system with them, and seeing them get the same results in their business, I knew I was onto something: a simple system that has evolved into the book you now hold in your hands.
How this book can help
But, The Photographers Pricing System is so much more than just a book on how to create pricing. It is about pricing for your perfect client and ensuring long-term profitability and sustainability for your business. Heres a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what you can expect:
is where you ground yourself. When you look at your situation realistically for what it truly is, youll better find answers and solutions to the things that werent connecting or were failing to work.
, builds on your foundation to reinforce the profitability and sustainability of your business. Youll learn how marketing and pricing go hand in hand, as well as the importance of research to identify your ideal clientthat person who not only values you and your art but is willing to pay your price to have you serve his or her needs.
, is where you crunch the numbers for your collections, prints, albums, and specialty items. All the prep work you did laying a foundation in earlier chapters will make this process easy. This chapter is also the one that you will keep coming back to each time you (and your business) are ready for growth.