I have decided to stop shooting and burning CDs.
I would like the focus of my sales to be prints and albums.
I need a new price list to reflect the cost of sales and to be profitable.
Does anyone know of any FREE business worksheets that will help me determine my new price lists? I have searched and every resource I have found has been costly.

Thank you!
Reyna Zack Photography

Originally Posted by reynazackphotography I have decided to stop shooting and burning CDs.

Why?

Originally Posted by Glort Why?

Because you can sell more.

sell a cd for $100 or sell prints and albums for $1000. :)

Originally Posted by reynazackphotography I have decided to stop shooting and burning CDs. I would like the focus of my sales to be prints and albums. I need a new price list to reflect the cost of sales and to be profitable. Does anyone know of any FREE business worksheets that will help me determine my new price lists? I have searched and every resource I have found has been costly. Thank you! Reyna Zack Photography

In general a descent price for an 8x10 is between $30 and $50. Some can charge much more, there is a girl that was on creativelive.com that charges $150 for an 8x10 and she seems to have a $4000 sales average and has a staff of like 30 or something with second shooters.

I use to offer sheets, an 8x10, two 5x7's, four 3.5x5's but recently I change that to prints. So its $40 for an 8x10, 5x7, 3.5x5, 4x6, 6x8, what ever they want. Same price for a set of 8 wallets.

What I did to figured out my pricing was to figure out what I needed to make in a day for a portrait to be worth while including the expenses of a portrait, and that was my first package price. For me that is $150/$200 right now. About $15 of that will be gas because I offer portraits within a 60 mile radius with out mileage and $5 is prints and $5 is postage. Then each package doubles in price. $150, $300, $600 and $1200. ive recently changed my pricing to $200, $400, $800 and $1600 but the appointments I have scheduled did so when I was using the other pricing so I havent had a chance to test the new pricing. Each package includes my sitting fee, but many like to separate that.

Each package is designed to pull people to the next package. The 2nd package has more prints than the first one making them a better value, plus it includes $100 more in double sided wallets *rep cards*. then the 3rd package includes bigger things like a wall portrait. Then the 4th includes awesome things like press printed books.

Most seem to go for the 2nd package plus additional things from the a la carte. Lately more have been going for the 3rd package.

I try my pricing to $20 a picture for the bigger things like albums.

Originally Posted by GerryDavid Because you can sell more. sell a cd for $100 or sell prints and albums for $1000. :)

Haha, yeah, whatever.

My current price for a cd of my glamour sessions is $1200.
I can't remember the last time I sold a print for Glam work but I sell a disk every single time.
And... I don't edit ANY of the images either. I only do that when they get back to me with a list of the numbers of the pics they want.
Probably less that 30% of clients do that because I rely on shooting the pics right in the first place than photofiddling them to get them right or make the clients look good.

What sort of percentage of the time would you pull $1000 for portrait prints and albums Gerry?

Most of the time when someone offers a cd from a portrait they are only charging $100.

Do you have any examples of these unedited glam photos that the customers love so much? :)

I have sold a $1200 package once, but that wasnt for glam, it was for a senior portrait, and in these parts that is a really good sale. Most consider $150 to expensive.

as I said in my previous post most people end up purchasing my 2nd package and getting items off the a la carte list. but I am starting to sell more 3rd packages. My short term average is $700 if you dont count my senior models which get a good deal to get me more customers.

Great comments, I appreciate it.
But does anyone know of an actual worksheet that I can work off of? Otherwise, I feel like I am randomly pulling numbers.
The point is, I want to profit, but I also want to be reasonable.

Thanks!

There isnt really a calculator for this sort of thing. Its all dependent on your skills, marketing skills, local demographic, and all that. Just figure out your business expenses *camera, lense, computers, software, rent, cell, travel, advertising* and what you want to make in a year, month, week, etc. keeping in mind depending on your subject there could be slow periods of the year. dont forget to factor in the time it takes to make each product, talking to customers, meeting customers, picture sales and delivery. :)

At first I didnt use packages and didnt have a minimum and wasnt making what I needed each time. Things got better when I started using packages and offered more products, particularly press printed albums from a pro lab. :)

Originally Posted by GerryDavid Most of the time when someone offers a cd from a portrait they are only charging $100.

Not true. Our photographer out of Georgetown, Texas only sells the CD in a package that is (roughly) priced at a $1,000, give or take. And that's for only 20 images. Fully edited of course.

Originally Posted by reynazackphotography Great comments, I appreciate it. But does anyone know of an actual worksheet that I can work off of? Otherwise, I feel like I am randomly pulling numbers. The point is, I want to profit, but I also want to be reasonable. Thanks!

How many hours shooting? How many hours editing? What hourly rate do you want? Add all that up, and then apply a retail markup (typically 3-4X). One hour shooting, four hours in post, $40 an hour, equals $200. Times three $600. If you're any good at what you do no reason you can't charge more.

Originally Posted by mercphoto Not true. Our photographer out of Georgetown, Texas only sells the CD in a package that is (roughly) priced at a $1,000, give or take. And that's for only 20 images. Fully edited of course.

Not true? youve done a survey? I havent but just saying thats how most weekend warriors work, a cd of unedited files for $100. :) I didnt say all photogs that do it only charge $100. :)

Originally Posted by reynazackphotography Great comments, I appreciate it. But does anyone know of an actual worksheet that I can work off of? Otherwise, I feel like I am randomly pulling numbers. The point is, I want to profit, but I also want to be reasonable. Thanks!

I have never seen a calculator and I wouldn't use one if there was.

Heres my quick and easy calculator for those who can't put a value on their work.....
Think of the very lowest price you'd tolerate but not be all together happy with. Think of what you would be absoloutley stoked with ( within reason.) Average the 2 and add 10% and that's your number.
That's as good a calculator as you will get.

I would be goverend by your area and competitors more than anything and equate that to the standard of work you are doing along with the market you want to target. That's what no calculator can work out.
You can probably charge $10 for a 5x7 and be profitable. You can also charge $50 or more and still get sales. It would be a huge mistake however to Price the Print at $10 and offer it to the $50 market however because they will not value it and won't buy it either.

I have seen people chime in on pricing about taking into account material costs and fuel and equipment, insurance, rent, vehicle servicing, the cost of wear and tear on shoe leather blah, blah Blah.
So what? That might tell you costs but you are still going to have to figure you markup and if it's too high o too low for the target market you are after, then you are back to square 1 straight off.
In the big picture costs are irrelevant.

I have worked on getting costs on my target markets lower than 99% of shooters I'd say. Does that mean I'm going to offer my product cheaper than anyone else? Hell No!
I work out what the competition is doing and make sure I am higher than average. Why?
Because I do a better job than they do.
I must. People wouldn't buy my higher priced work if I wasn't. Or would they? Who cares? I'm doing damn well and that's all I'm interested in.

Why the heck would I want to make less money than I can just because my costs are low? Or because the other guy may not know how to price himself or his work might be different.
That's weekend warrior thinking.

I just came home not an hour ago from a place that has a min $40K worth of work. I'd not be surprised if it comes out closer to $50K actually. When I rang initially, they told me that had been using the competitor and never had a problem. The competitor charges $15. I charge $35. I guarantee his costs are way higher than mine.
I booked the gig.
Twice. Once in a few weeks, again in 3 months time.

The reason I got the deal was because my product is superior, my workflow and methods are more appealing and even though I'm the ugliest muther on earth, I know how to sell and what my Clients want from me. None of that, which is more valuable than anything, else ( except being ugly!) can be accounted for by any formula.

I guess in a nut shell, the thng is, how can you calculate the value of art in a calculator?

My advse is to see what others are charging in your area and make an assessment of what market they are aiming at. Go on the high side of what you think would be reasonable ( because most shooters think like customers not Business people) and go with that. Don't worry about loosing work because you are too expensive, worry about the money and sales you are going to loose if you're too cheap!

There is NO spreadsheet that is going to allow you to punch in numbers and get a perfect answer because there are too many variables on the intangibles. I'd bet the best and most exy shooters would come out with a very low price if they worked on any number crunching calculator.

Really, If you can't price your work, Give the game away now because how are you going to ever have any sort of successful business? If you can't put a value on your own work, how do you expect the customers to?

Originally Posted by Glort I just came home not an hour ago from a place that has a min $40K worth of work. I'd not be surprised if it comes out closer to $50K actually. When I rang initially, they told me that had been using the competitor and never had a problem. The competitor charges $15. I charge $35. I guarantee his costs are way higher than mine. I booked the gig. Twice. Once in a few weeks, again in 3 months time.

What type of place is this? :)

And what is a gs portrait? glamour?

School.

Green Screen.

so elementary school class pictures? :) or something different?

Originally Posted by GerryDavid so elementary school class pictures? :) or something different?

Must be something Different.
We don't have elementary school here, never heard of it.

Hi,
I think what you are looking for is a way to determine your cost of doing business.
This is a very informative article, and if you click on the link within it, it will take you to a worksheet which will enable you to figure out your cost of doing business.
Hope it helps, and good luck!

www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/cdb/

elementary school is usually kindergarden to grade7, then highschool which is 8 through 12. Here we have primary school which is just kindergarden and grade 3 or so. :)