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Price Lists (Q&A)

If you don't have a price list, clients will not come, you know build it and they will come make a lot of people put off having a priceless because it's just they can't think about it it does their head in its agony every time they're trying to set trying to decide how much they want to charge but if you think about it, why don't we thoughtfully and smartly come up with your pricing once and then you don't have toe agonize over every single time you get an inquiry it almost subliminally makes you not want to get enquiries because you dread having to think about what to charge them or you're resentful because you're not charging yet but yet you don't want to do another paid shoot, so this is a big chunk of people that I'm talking about right now and you're shooting yourself in the foot because subliminally you don't want people to call you for a shoot because you don't want to agonize over what to charge them or you don't want to resent not charging them so you stay stuck in that horrib...

le, horrible place so let's just go ahead and create a price list if you haven't already, even if you're not sure if it's good it better have one, then they're not have one at all um and it also is going to sense of reason why it's important um eliminate the resentment you feel when you feel like you're not being paid enough so it's up to you to set your pricing you can't do it from a mindset of what you can afford or what you think you'll be happy with we'll talk about that in the second because you're lying to yourselves well I guess I'd be okay with two hundred but you're really thinking about not what would make you happy but what's the least you'd accept and then when someone goes okay two hundred it is you're like oh so um you want to eliminate your time wasted on price shoppers so like I said, you never want to compete on price you don't want to be a money you don't want to be just like I don't know b um abc photography studio two hundred dollars for easy carlos you have a questions on this um when you get enquiries dugan enquiries howmuch is for this how much is for that how do you reply you send them your prices in a book and that's it and if they don't conduct you back you know they lose a customer yeah hold on one second I want to see what we're going to cover before okay lunchtime um that's a good question yeah people want to know how much it costs and that's a smart question you don't want to like dive into something without knowing how much it costs but you want the client was so excited about what d'oh been following you for about a year. Your work really speaks to me. I loved x y and z my husband are doing this and that he'd like to come. So we were just wondering how much does this cost what's included? That's, the plan you want not? How much do you charge? Not not that client. Um, so when I get the email, those emails the first one, I just send back a little snippet of what I d'oh send the link. Teo the page on my website that's all about your chute. Now it goes down and then my about paige a little bit about me and then sessions start at three thousand and includes just like short phrase. And then I'm so happy to discuss customizing your chute. You can give me a call number I've got your contact details also when would be a good time to chat. And so that's all that I d'oh um and yeah, mostly people contacting me are really into it and want it pretty bad. Yes. Okay, so I followed your vlog. I love your work, but obviously, mama for family couldn't necessarily throw out three thousand dollars for a shoot. But I really want to invest to you offer pricing plans do you offer to break it up yeah yeah we do payment plan options and stuff like that I break it up into three payments prior to their shoot or do you do pricing plans after prior to their something yeah I like to make it as easy as possible and you know we'll talk about how the economy affected my pricing it used to be that it was all paid up front and um I had three packages small medium large and everyone wanted to be in the middle and it was all paid up front um then when the economy went south I wanted to still make the same money but I made it easier um so I started incorporating payments which is really helpful for people and if you don't accept credit cards you really should make it as easy as possible for them and then I went to offering was my small medium large package remained the same prices but I just added an extra large to make everything seem so people are still buying that their film we're frugal down low set in the middle um so that was a bit of a strategy so it's always great to have an anchor package we're gonna talk about that in the second maker is like a really high priced package and you'll book that too but it just makes everything else look like cheaper on the e mail. Do you have, like, a saved one, that you're just sit like a blanket one that you're sending out? And then is it different for the kinds that you get that right, like a my husband and I and then the ones that are like, yeah, it's a price it's different? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I definitely say, I just started having my studio manager do this for me because I was not getting back to people in a timely manner sometimes was five, seven days took me to get back to people, my emails out of control. So I have her taking this over, and, um, it depends if they're curvy girl there a mature woman if there recently divorced, but whatever their situation is. There's a script for that. And if there's a, uh what do you charge there's? A little mini script of space is like feel the session fee pretty much as faras pricing upfront. You reveal the session if even then it's still your product cost? Yeah, like I'm not going to go into all that. And then I'll just say, I think we have a line investments go. From you know, three to seven thousand it depends on how elaborate your shoot is where we shoot at albany wardrobe outfits what the end result is how big your book is how many pages if you want all images on cd you don't go I don't go into that just say it varies based on this from three thousand seven thousand and the specific you give the specific when they call yeah we talked a little bit more and she's like I'm definitely down they sometimes don't they really want specifically one so they can afford the session and that it comes with a little something that's ok and then I'll send them the prices like even look at it more details when we don't really chat about on the phone like I can just send it to you if you want more details and at a son that sometimes they don't they don't even ask but I'm not trying to hide anything I absolutely want them to see the pricing but you'd be surprised how many times you said they don't look so also like I said having an effective prices you will but more clients it's just a necessity so don't be so caught up in it that you don't have one or that it constantly changes and um smart priceless will increase yourselves and you will enjoy your career so much more okay yeah and you'll avoid burnout and stay inspired so I wonder if we should go into pricing strategies how much revenue minister we have five and okay let's just take questions then and then we'll get into this is juicy topic and it's kind of complex so we'll wait into it when we get back on the the scripts that you're sending out do you like I've seen some photographers do like like a pdf file I thought some of your pictures with the prices of the defeat is that what yours is kind of like minds pretty okay, I actually have a lot of really pretty way to get to see some of it or like gosh, right, yeah, I guess I could, but I'm doing this new and my designers working on it now she's doing like a whole catalogue that's cool, but you said just putting some money into that too. Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah. So you know, everyone that I mentor gets that as part of my mentorship package and it's not for self for anyone else because it's the one I haven't even started using it yet. Yeah, it's pretty sexy. I would say definitely this is so important have a really beautiful looking, priceless and gorgeous and the best samples you can afford that's another thing I'd rather you have by investing money invested in gorgeous samples rather than a lens seriously question from a tri c ab thirteen my clients never call me it's. Only an email. How can I get them on the phone? Right? I would just send them a short bit of information and say I'd be happy to discuss, um, customizing your session on the way. Here is my number. You can call me this time. What works for you and my contact form? It has your phone number. Um, so I suggest giving him a buzz or like I said, asking when's a great time to chat. We can talk so much more about it and more detail on all. I usually say all the juicy details and answer any questions you have, um, because, you know, I'm not gonna sit there and just take out a long, detailed email. Plus I want to get him on the phone. Juicy sounds good. Yeah, juicy details. Do you use any kind of back and, like, management kind of program that manages your emails or any kind of look model releases that you have when you feel like that? Or is it just, um I don't right now. Um, I, uh my assistant's awesome. My studio manager, I'm like, so using I was still using binders and like, this is not working. Because I do like tactile like I want to be on the computer but she's like okay but here's gonna work better so yeah we're changing things um yeah do you do the product catalogued one day you just have a pdf version and you're talking to them at the buying session or are you emailing that to them after they say give me a call monday we could talk about more of the details with buying session passion only ok hand that one um it's like it's a book it's a book but you meet them before the show you know I never have I don't even think one I mean except for the women I already know who I wind up shooting like but in terms of you know booking like maybe you give your prices after the session as well in the book you were talking about that booklet that you have is that for your prices fell but I haven't even started yet yeah but it's going to be at order session in what you show them before the order session is like a pdf versions yes okay so there's there's not sticker shock with you you're really a list you're not really going over it until the buying session but you are giving them a list of your price right? Right exactly and usually they'll say I really think um like I said we were talking about what products they want they're like so yeah, I think I would like a book so if I wanted a bigger book or maybe more images how much do you think that's gonna cause I just give them like well that'll be about a thousand dollars more about five hundred people who want the session's gonna spend like around five thousand everything on disc you know? So I give them nothing forget down to the dollar and you know all that jazz page by page think when you get to a certain spends level it's just you know you want to be so piecemeal with it you said that you keep everything out in the open and honest about what your pricing are and it's not you're not tricking them later because I like you I want to say that I would like to do that as well because I don't want anyone to have that sticker shopping that kind of feeling when you go buy a used car and you feel like you're being sold here you're being tricked I don't ever want um my clients to feel that way yeah that's a downer that's a real downer. So yeah it's not your client like don't try and book someone and then I uh doing the family sessions like I sent you the priceless I learned quickly that even though you sent priceless, that doesn't mean so it's you have to reinforce it verbally and like I said, I just threw out a ballpark I think this is what people invest generally this is like the average this is if you want you know everything a lot of people just do the starting session and that's totally great so that's the worst feeling on both sides and like I said, any negativity I want to put the kibosh on um yeah long and short of it in that initial like email response that you kind of have a little bit of mention of the pricing and everything you do you have any mention of like, privacy stuff? Um not on that email not that fast just yet okay, so is that like a phone call thing or even after that after the first during the first phone call, we'll talk about it and really quick on that this is kind of off I forgot to ask you before do you get model releases for all of your clients? You don't have to do you know I don't know now I'll talk about it with them um but no follow up question to that. Do you have them sign a contract that is such a good question? I'm not currently I'm looking at that though I think it's gonna be more and more important for me as I photographed more and more profile people uh at a higher investment level, so I'm going to be