I wish someone had sat me down and had a real heart to heart with me when I started my photography business. I would have a much larger bank account now and a lot fewer wrinkles if they had. So, here’s my heart to heart with you. I hope you will let this advice sink in and then take action on it.

“Here’s my heart to heart with you.”

At some point along the way I was made to feel guilty for making a living doing what I love. I don’t know where it came from honestly. But it’s always been there. Work should be work. A paycheck is only earned if you suffer to get it. Right? Umm, wrong. There is nothing wrong with loving what you do for a living! It took me a while to come to grips with that fact.

I absolutely love this career. I have given my life and body to it so I must. And as I did that over the years I got wiser and figured out that if I was going to last in this industry, then I better start making some money at this photography thing! I made a lot of mistakes with pricing myself to make a profit and a living from my senior photography business. And now that I am priced right a few things have happened.

I pay myself twice a month based on what I need to make to live a nice life, not an extravagant one, but a nice one for sure.
I am able to save for retirement each month. This feels so good knowing that I’m saving for my future.
I get rejected by inquiries because of my starting prices. And I’m ok with that (but it does still sting a little bit).
I hear through the grapevine and straight from my clients “she’s expensive, but she’s worth it”. To me, there’s no better compliment. Maybe I am expensive. I’d rather be called that than cheap and just ok ;)

It took me a long time to get bold enough to charge the prices I do for my photography sessions and portrait collections. I had to develop some thick skin and get used to telling people my prices with confidence and then shutting up! Here’s what ultimately helped me to do that - my relationships and health started to suffer. I knew deep down that I couldn’t keep going at the pace I was going while bringing in so little. So I doubled my prices overnight. Two years later I did it again ;)

And now I run a 6 figure studio photographing 40 seniors a year, paying myself and saving for retirement. It can be done y’all - whether or not you have somebody in your corner. I promise you that. And I would love for you to do it a lot faster than it took me to get there! So let me let you in on some mistakes I’ve made and some I see other photographers making so that you can do what you love not as a side hustle but as a full time career.

Stop making these pricing mistakes in your photography business if you are not profitable. If you are not making money in your photography business it is probably because you are making one of these pricing mistakes. Making a living from photograph…

Here are the top 5 mistakes to avoid when setting prices for your senior photography studio:

1. Not accounting for income taxes - Yay for taxes, right?! When I first started my business (16 long years ago) I was young and pretty naive when it came to making a profit. I didn’t even think about the money Uncle Sam would get from my measly profits. But wow. He sure did take a lot! I learned my lesson the hard way when I actually did start making a living from my photography business. And now I account for that percentage I’ll have to give back to the IRS. If you don’t know what tax bracket you’re in it’s easy to figure out with a simple Google search for the current year’s income tax brackets. Be sure to add this percentage on to your profit (a la carte price - cost of product) before calculating your final a la carte prices.

2. Basing your pricing on your competitors’ pricing - Ok, first of all, how do you even know that the photographer down the street calculated their pricing right?! AND how do you know how much it takes to run their business?! And ONE MORE THING . . . how do you know how much they want and need to bring home as a salary?! Here’s a big secret: YOU DON’T! Nobody knows, unless you’ve had a very personal conversation with that competitor. So let’s make a promise. Don’t pay too much attention to how much your competitor is charging! OK?!! Set your pricing based on your business, not theirs.

“Set your pricing based on your business, not your competitor’s business.”

3. Not saving for retirement - I’m not sure what it is about our industry that makes us think that we don’t 1) deserve to make a salary just because we love what we do and even more than that 2) save for retirement. Our bodies are just not gonna last with as physical as this job is. It’s a hard truth to face, but it’s one that we have to deal with. I personally do not want to be working until my 70s. I’d like to have no mortgage, a retirement fund and vacations to Disney World with my grandkids! How about you? So, when it comes to pricing, please make sure that you are making enough to not only bring home a decent salary but enough to put back for your later years in life.

4. Not understanding the cost of doing business and the cost of goods sold - This is a pretty big one. Without understanding these numbers you surely are going to have a tough time making enough to bring home a paycheck and save for retirement. Simply put, the cost of doing business is everything it takes to keep your doors open (whether you have a physical studio or not). This includes things like your salary, retirement, health insurance, income taxes, mortgage / rent, liability insurance, utilities, mileage, vehicle maintenance, phone, internet, equipment, software and subscriptions, etc. It adds up you guys! The cost of goods sold is the amount that it takes to produce a product - printing, shipping, editing, packaging, etc. In order to run a profitable business your cost of goods sold needs to be less than 15% of the price of your product. 10% would be even better! If an album costs $75 plus $2 per image (30 images) to edit plus $10 to ship then the cost of goods on that album is $145. That’s easily a $1250 album.

Before you tell me that you don’t pay for editing . . . yes you do! Even if you are doing it yourself. Editing should be paid for regardless of who is doing it :)

Feel guilty for charging that much for a $75 album? This is where I’m going to tell you to put your big girl panties on and do it anyway. Do it for your kids. Do it for all the long nights you spend editing and creating instagram stories. Do it for every time you tell your little boy “just 10 more minutes”. Do it for your health. Do it for the vacation your family deserves this year. Do it for all those other expenses you need to cover. And do it so that you can retire one day and enjoy the rest of your life like anyone else with a “real job”. Ok, off my soapbox now :)

“Do it so that you can retire one day and enjoy the rest of your life like anyone else with a ‘real job’.”

5. Including digitals in your session fee - Oh this is gonna be a hot button. But that’s ok. We can still be friends if you include digitals in your session fees. I’ll still give you a hard time about it though! Haha! You guys, the digital files are the thing that our clients want the most. Do not give them away! The shouldn’t be any of the following: "free / discounted / bundled / included”. Your work and your time to create that work is VALUABLE! Including files in your session fee will kill your sale. Fix it by doing this: create a starter print collection with no digitals, a second collection with a few digital images, a third collection with a lot of digitals plus prints (this is your happy price collection) and a top collection just out of reach to make that third collection even more appealing. Don’t give away those files you guys!!!

My hope here is that if you saw a pricing mistake (or two, or three) that you are currently making in your business that you will fix it TODAY! You don’t have to wait for January 1st or a new graduating class. Make the changes. You and your family are so worth it!

Are you finally ready to take your photography business seriously and make a living from it?

* DON’T MISS THIS! *

If you need somebody to come along beside you and help you do business the right way so that you can bring home a paycheck, spend more time with your family and save for retirement then you need Studio Secrets.

The doors open November 4th for something very special for a handful of photographers who are ready to get laser focused on their businesses.

Studio Secrets is a 6 month business coaching intensive where we dive deep into your business together. It’s not a DIY course on one or two topics. This is EVERYTHING you could ever need to know (and all the tools & resources) to run a senior photography business - branding, messaging, websites, pricing, sales, marketing, social media, senior model teams, systems, workflow, automation and SO MUCH MORE! And bonus - you get me to lead you through it in our hot seat calls and a private community to bounce ideas around with.

If you’re ready to turn your expensive hobby into a thriving business be sure you are on the wait list.

Plus you save $500 on launch day - November 4th. Woohoo! I can’t wait to work with you!