Increased Income: Fees vs. Hours
All photographers [like everybody else] want to raise their income. There are two basic ways:
- Work longer hours
- Raise your rates
Photo District News did a survey of more than 1,000 wedding photographers and found that:
..our survey respondents' personal incomes rose steadily as they increased fees up to and well beyond the $3,500 overall average shown in a previous chart. Personal income also increases as volume (number of weddings shot in a year) rises, but the gains appear less pronounced and less predictable beyond 35 weddings per year.
- You can raise your income by increasing your volume up to a point [increasing the numbers of weddings up to > 35 weddings/year].
- You can raise your income much higher by raising your fees and keeping the same volume.
- This was a self registering survey.
- No audit was done to verify the income figures.
- Their findings assume that you can keep the same volume of work at a higher price.
- When you raise your prices, you are changing your clientele. Your customers that pay $7,500 for a wedding will not be paying $12,000 for a wedding. It does not matter that you do provide a much higher service and a superior product.
- My nose, my gut and my experience say that the same findings apply to all type of photographers and all freelance/consultant professions.
- If you raise your prices or raise your volume, you will have to change your marketing to attract new customers.
- In spite of the challenges caused by raising your prices, in the long run, you are better off raising your prices.