In my business groups, one question I see come up constantly is how to charge your worth. This isn’t just about the dollar amount, but also about the pricing structure that works for your business.
Although I can’t tell you what will work for you, here’s what has been an effective approach for me:
Write down all of your expenses, everything!
Fixed Expenses (expenses you will incur regardless of whether you have clients, sales, etc…) - Examples: Website, Insurance, License, Continuing Education, Overhead Expenses, Camera Equipment, Lighting, Marketing, etc…
Cost of Goods - (expenses related specifically to your clients) - Examples: Packaging, Products, Snacks, Props, Labor, etc…
Determine how many days/hours a week/month/year that you intend to work. You deserve a vacation too!
Determine how much time you spend with each client (log everything from phone consults, time spent emailing, set up for your session, clean up, ordering, packaging, delivering, etc….)
Once you know how much you want to work (example 40 hours a week x 46 weeks) and then divide that by how much time you spend with each client you will know how many clients you can handle per week. I spend approximately 20 hours per week working on stuff related to one portrait session, with my assistant, I am able to take on 3-4 clients a week. 3 clients a week x 46 weeks is ~138 clients per year.
Once you determine how many clients you can work with, you will determine your salary by 1) deciding your ideal salary and then 2) adding your expenses to that number. Let’s say your ideal salary is 100,000 and you determined that your expenses are around 30,000 per year. So to net 100,000 you would need to make 130,000. Now divide that by the number of clients. Example: 130,000/138= 942.03. So in order to make 100,000 per year you would need to average 945 per client.
I heard once that a “business” is just a hobby if it isn’t making you money—so go on and be bold enough to figure out the pricing that will work for your business!
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