And John Shaw has said the best way to sell your images is to write stories
& use the images in the story.
Kenneth Waller
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christine Aguila" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Someone asked about prints of event photos
When reading about photography as a business, knowing how to market and
"work the phones" is often--and I mean very often--stated as 50% of the
business. Skill in photography accounts for the other 50%.
I have yet to read a book on the business of photography that hasn't
stressed the point about working the phones and marketing. Cheers,
Christine
----- Original Message -----
From: "paul stenquist" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Someone asked about prints of event photos
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
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