----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Re[2]: Cheap bastards? -was: Down off my "high-horse"... with a
> ...and the thing you're doing wrong is charging too little. Low end pricing > gets you low end clients. Weekend warriors shooting $500 weddings are going > to attract riff-raff clients who basically want something for nothing. This > is why, as a "shooting on the side" guy, I only freelance for studios atart > at midrange pricing. > Don't even have to deal with PITA MOBs, because it's the B&G that arrange > things and sign the contract. Even if the folks are contributing, you're > working for the person that signs the contract. One of the things that was mentioned by the originator of this thread was that she is trying to eke out a living in a low population area. I recall she mentioned something like 40,000 people in a 200km wide market base. Even if she were the only game in town, there just isn't a lot of market there. I think she will have a very hard time following all the advice we have given her regarding pricing. She has already set herself up as the person to go to on the cheap, so raising her prices to industry standards (whatever they are) is going to be a long, slow process of a few percentage points at a time, and having to put up with a lot of resistance from people who know what she charged for work in the past. It's doable, but not overnight, and in the meantime, she will probably have to put up with a few tightwads. Being expensive in a small market isn't easy, but is worthwhile. One of the most expensive photographers around here lives in the town of Moose Jaw, which has a population of around 45,000. He has priced himself really well, and had achieved a nice balance of income vs. workload. I did a seminar with him one time. One of the things he mentioned was that a 10% price reduction means that you need to do 40% more work to turn the same income. I don't know if this is 100% accurate, but it is food for thought. William Robb
