Getting Screwed

A friend of mine, Dan is almost a full time photographer. His photo income varies from 50% to 90% of his income. He wrote custom software a few years ago and he still gets paid for support and changes.

In Canada, Hockey is very big, and now it's the Stanley Cup. The For the first time in many years the Canucks, Vancouver's hockey team, won it's first round, and will go to the second round. Since the Canucks are doing so well, many people and corporations have jumped on the band-wagon. There are many Canucks parties and events sponsored by various companies.

Gathering Information

A phone call. A live one, I have a "could be customer" on the other side. They are interested in my work, they want to do a photo shoot. The keywords are '''they want''' to do a photo shoot with me. It doesn't mean that it will happen. There are those little pesky details like rates, rights... It's so easy to forget an item that I made a spreadsheet.

Freebies -- Part 2

As I have said in many postings, I don't like to give discounts. What I give frequently are "freebies".

Something given without charge or cost, as a ticket to a performance or sporting event or a free sample at a store.

— Dictionary

But what's the value of a freebie?

The value of the freebie is what the customer perceives as its value. Giving away $5000 worth of freebies makes you think that customer owes you something when in fact the customer thinks nothing of it.

So should you still give away freebies?

Earn More

You finally got a customer, a live one. She paid the $300 or $750 to book the photo shoot. She selected the "grand session" that includes 4 photos 8x10, 8 photos 5x7 and 1 photo 11x14. You came, you made the photos, you processed the photos and now you either go to her place to deliver the photos or she comes to your studio to pickup the precious photos.

Do you give the photos? or Do you start with the real "sales pitch". If you answered start with the real "sales pitch", you've just doubled or tripled your profit without increasing your rates.

What do I bring?

1.

Discounts

Discounts are never an easy thing to deal with. They very much change, depending on the mood, the business environment, the type of work, the industry and what I can get away with. I have set a policy, many times, but the policy change on regular basis.

As I get busier, I give less and less discounts, but give more and more extras. I wrote about this in: Discounts

  • On stock: I have already spent the money on the photo shoot. I have spent the time processing and key wording the photos. I will give up to 20% as a discount. Never gone past 20%.

Discount: YouTube Video

This YouTube video is fantastic. It's 2 minutes and 20 sec, short, sweet and discounted...

When this happens:

  1. Do I really want that photo shoot? Then I'll give a discount, but never theirs.
  2. I try to give something else instead of a discount: extra print, extra rights...

Discounts

I hate discounts. I sell both prints and licenses for my photos. I regularly get asked for discounts. So I hate discounts (I love a discount when I buy something, but that's another story). Asking for discounts is part of the human nature. Look at all these people who are asking for deep discounts or even want your photos for free, when it's not even their money! They have no problem asking for perpetual rights and unlimited number of prints but they still want their salary and would never work for free.

Deadbeats

What's a deadbeat? It's somebody that owes you money, and is not paying it. You took the photos, you've delivered the files, you've delivered the prints, and they won't pay.

Is it your fault they haven't paid?

  • Did you invoice them when you delivered the photos? This means that you have a proper accounting system. According to a study done by the Association of Chartered Accountants in the United States, more than half of the independent contractors, like photographers, do not get paid because they haven't invoiced their customers.
  • Is the invoice correct?

Customer Finally Sees The Light

It's been a long term problem for me and my customers, they buy a photo, actually it's usually a series of photos, I get paid, then they decide the photo is so great, so beautiful and so wonderful will use it for their marketing piece and sell millions of dollars.

I come back to them to ask for more money and now they are not so happy with the photo. The photo is not worth 2 cents, it's a piece of shit. How could I do such a bad photo, and con them in buying and using it? Now that I want to be paid more?

I usually try to explain usage, rights...

Costs In Producing Photos

Do you know what your costs in producing photos are? If you don't know what your costs are, how do you set your prices?

  • Pick from a hat?
  • Match the competition?
  • Under price the competition?
  • Set a price that sounds good?

Actually, only professionals have costs in producing photos! Amateurs, aka non processionals, have zero cost in producing photos.

Non-professionals have a 0, zero cost. It's not me who says so, it's the CRA, the Canadian Revenue Agency aka the tax people, say so. Other tax collection agencies have very similar rulings.

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