On Dec 26, 2010, at 7:25 PM, John Sessoms wrote: > From: "Ken Waller" > >> Kenneth Waller >> http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "John Sessoms" <[email protected]> >> Subject: RE: Someone asked about prints of event photos >> >> >>> > From: Larry Colen >>> > >>>> >> I got an email that someone had asked the event organizer about >>>> >> prints of my photos from the dance workshop a couple of weeks ago. >>>> >> >>>> >> In several years of doing photos at dance events, this is the first >>>> >> time that this has happened, and I've got no idea what, if anything, >>>> >> to charge beyond the cost of printing and shipping. >>>> >> >>> > >>> > In the business portion of my classes it is recommended that the selling >>> > price for prints should be at least 4 to 7 times your cost of the print >>> > (where "cost of the print" includes what you have to pay for the print >>> > itself, any matting and/or framing, packaging, shipping ...) in order to >>> > recover your overhead costs. >> Around here that would lead to some very costly prints, especially if you >> don't do the mounting, matting & framing yourself. >> >> I generally charge twice my cost. >> >>> > >>> > More if you actually want to make a profit. >> So 4 to 7 times your cost doesn't make you any profit? That's a hellova >> overhead. > > No shit. That's what I thought until they showed me the spread sheets & I saw > all the little things you never think of as being costs. Even when you don't > have a studio. > > The way it works out, your costs for a few small prints are larger than your > costs for a lot of large prints. It's backward from what you'd think (from > what I thought anyway). You need 7x costs to break even selling small prints, > while you can charge less - 4x costs to break even if you're selling a lot of > large prints.
That's why I don't sell anything smaller than 5x7. And the minimum order of 5 x 7s is four prints -- a full sheet of paper. > > Seems like the real thrust of the lesson was you can't make enough money > selling small prints because no one wants to pay as much as you need to > charge to break even. > > I still don't really understand it that well. We don't get to our core > business courses until the final semester next summer. But that's what it's > all based on, photography as a *business*. That's why I'm going to school, so > I can learn the business of photography. > > If you want to stay in business, you got to at least have more revenue than > expenses. That's assuming you have another source of income to support > yourself. If you don't have another source of income, you got to make a > profit before you can pay yourself. > > In my case, I do already have a small "outside" income that covers my basic > living expenses, so I can afford to take less profit & still have a good > living from my photography business. I'm looking for about $2,000 a month in > "income" == profit, and to get that I expect to have to generate about $8,000 > - $10,000 a month in revenue. In this economy, you'll have to shoot two weddings a week in season, and hijack several wedding parties on they're way to the church. > > And because I'm more or less going to be a wedding photographer, I expect > I'll have to work hard 6 months of the year to make the revenue $20k a month > to balance the other half of they year when there's not many weddings taking > place (i.e. $0.00 revenue). > > Realistically I hope to start out generating $2000 a month revenue my first > year, and to make $200+ a month "income" out of that. Realistically, you have to pray for a big turnaround, invest a lot in marketing your services, and wow all the brides with your art. That doesn't mean it can't be done. But it doesn't happen very often. > > I can already take good pictures. You'll have to take fabulous pictures to make that plan work. > What I'm getting from school is how to do that with maximum consistancy, i.e. > 99+% "keepers" > > ... more than just "keepers" really, I want to consistently produce photos > that will please a customer so they'll come back again and again or recommend > me to friends & family ... and buy lots of big prints so I can still make a > profit while selling at a lower percentage markup. > > Side note: If they buy the big prints, you can then afford to discount the > smaller prints somewhat. It's when all they want is the small prints that you > really have to jack your prices up to cover your costs. > > I expect to learn the business aspects necessary for me to earn a living from > photography. Which in turn is a means to an end of being free to travel and > take the photographs *I* want to take. > > Let my photography business support my photography hobby. That's a realistic goal. Good luck! Paul > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
