Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling, and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, then you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast.
Hey, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And today we're talking all about how to confidently price your photo sessions. This is a question that I literally get all the time in our Facebook community, which if you're not a part of our Facebook community search Rebecca rice education, you'll find us you can join totally free. But you know, this question comes up all the time. And so I figured let me just record a podcast episode because I answered this all the time. So we can answer it once and for all. And I think that it'll be really helpful for you. Now before we get too far,
I wanted to let you know about a free class that I have for you guys all about marketing your mini sessions. So I can't believe it. But spring minis season is already upon us. If you have not started marketing your spring minis yet, I would get on it pretty quickly here in the next couple of weeks at a minimum because Spring is almost here, you guys. And so if you're wanting to finally book out your spring minis for the first time, or maybe you have booked out in the past, but you want to maximize your profit maximize your time, then this free class is for you. So you can go it's linked here in the show notes if you want to type it in. It's Rebecca rice photo.com/minis-class. And you can go watch that learn some amazing marketing secrets to be able to finally book out your mini sessions. So like I said, completely free. Go check that out, because I know it'll be helpful. Okay, so let's get into pricing. I titled this episode how to confidently price your sessions. Because I feel like there's so much hesitation when it comes to our pricing. I mentioned that people are always asking about their pricing, because it's one of those things that you know, we always wonder, okay, well I'm reprice is too high, is there a reason why I'm not booking well, all this stuff. And so I wanted to give you some very practical things to consider to do when it comes to your pricing. Because I know that we can get your pricing set. And once your pricing is solid, you can focus your energy not on whether your prices are too high or too low, but on marketing, which is really where the money is at. And we'll get to that in a little bit. I don't want to get ahead of myself. But the very first thing that you want to do when you're looking at pricing your photo sessions is to run your cost of doing business. Now, if you've never run your cost of doing business before the numbers may surprise you. If you're like Rebecca, what does that even mean? Basically, it is discovering how much you're actually making per hour for your work, not just the time that you're shooting, but the time that you're driving to the session, setting up editing, communicating with clients, delivering galleries, all of the things that go into making a photo session happen. So I have a YouTube video and we'll link it in the show notes for you. Or you can go onto my YouTube channel and go find it all about how to run your cost of doing business where you can like literally see as I write out the equations, if you will, it's not like super math heavy, so don't worry, but it walks you through what you need to do to run your cost of doing business. Because I think one of the biggest mistakes that I see when it comes to photographers trying to figure out their pricing is when they look and say well, nobody in my area is charging this much. Or the photographer down the street who's been in business for 15 years charges this much so I can't charge that much. You guys that is a big load of baloney. Okay, not true at all. You want to set your pricing based on your cost of doing business not based on the people around you. If that puts you as the most expensive photographer in the area that is oh k and if you think that everybody around you charges less you're probably not looking hard enough because I can guarantee that there will be other people in your price point once you run your cost of doing business. It's so funny whenever you know somebody will say to me oh but everybody around me charges $50 or, you know, whatever, then I will do a quick Google search. And I will find tons of photographers that charge a reasonable amount for their photography, some are charging 1000s. Like, it's just crazy. So I look in their area, and I guarantee it, people are charging more than you think. Or their packages are structured, where there, what you see is their low photo session cost doesn't include anything, and they're selling all their packages for $800, in addition to whatever they paid for the session fee. So those are all things to keep in mind, if you're, you know, doing research or things like that, but you want to run your cost to doing business first and foremost, before committing to any kind of pricing. Because at the end of the day, we I don't know about you, but I'm in this business to make a profit. And so I want to pay myself a wage that is reasonable for my work, I don't want to be working for $10 an hour, I want to pay myself accordingly. Because the time that I'm spending with clients, and communicating and all the things is time that I'm spending away from my husband and my kids, and so I want to be compensated for that time, your time is worth it. So run your cost of doing business, go watch my YouTube video so that you can see exactly how now the second thing that I would talk through when it comes to your pricing is to simplify. And I'm talking specifically about like your package options. My last round of mastermind pricing collections was a huge topic of conversation where, you know, we went through and we're adjusting pricing guides and how people were structuring their pricing and things like that. And what I found is the majority of our members in the mastermind were overcomplicating things, that it sounded really cool on the website, but it was very complicated as a potential client to come in and see like, what are the options and so I would always lean towards less is more, okay, less options, less packages, will get you farther than having way too many options. And so, ideally, start out with just one package. If possible. You know, for me, I have my portrait session package. And that's for any type of session that somebody wants to do with me, we're talking families, birthdays, couples, maternity seniors, whatever, any kind of portrait session, I have one session fee. And it includes the full gallery, it's very simple to understand. I've seen photographers in the past, they will have, you know, one pricing for their family sessions, one pricing for seniors, one pricing for maternity one for couples, and it just gets so convoluted that I'm like, isn't necessary. And the pricing is only different by like $25, that I'm like, it doesn't even make a big difference between all of the options. And it's confusing to people. And so I would say just pick a number that's somewhere around all of those, maybe pick the highest of all the ones that you just listed. And that's your portrait session pricing, the things that I would consider like to have a separate option for for sure would be newborn, because that does take more time. Unless you're doing lifestyle newborn, it depends for me, my lifestyle newborn cost the same as a family session, because typically it takes about the same amount of time I tell them 30 to 60 minutes or lifestyle newborns because they're not posed. And I prepare my clients to make sure that baby is fed and changed when we get there. Of course, if we need to take a nursing break, or a changing break, that's fine. But for the most part, it doesn't drag on for hours and hours. If your newborn sessions are longer on purpose than maybe consider doing, maybe you do two hours or whatever, maybe consider doing a higher pricing for that. And then the other one that I would think of is I guess two more one would be extended family sessions that probably needs to have its own pricing, depending on how you structure it. And then seniors, if your senior session is longer includes multiple locations, multiple outfits, then I would consider having a different pricing for that. But if you're kind of in the place right now, where you're not necessarily specialized, you're shooting a lot of different things, try to simplify into as little options as possible. And it'll go a long way when it comes to clients booking. And the third thing that I would mention when it comes to your pricing is to commit to keeping your prices for at least six months before changing them. And this can sound terrifying, because if you're like Rebecca, I upped my prices by $200 and I am getting nothing. What I can tell you is most of the time probably like 90% of the time when photographers are not booking, it's not a pricing problem. It's a marketing problem. And so I wouldn't touch your pricing for at least six months and really look into your marketing to say what could the reason be? You know, I would Look at your marketing and look at your client experience. And your client experience includes how you're communicating from their initial inquiry, is there something in the booking process that is keeping people from completing the booking process, things like that. But commit to your pricing, don't just like panic and change it, because you need to give it time to see if it truly is a pricing problem. Most of the time, I can tell you, it's a marketing problem, or a client experience problem. And nine times out of 10. It's a marketing problem. And so commit to your your, your new pricing, and then really zone in on your marketing. How do you need to market differently to the people in that price point? And does your client experience justify the pricing? You know, as you raise your prices, your client experience also needs to be elevated. And so things like including a client experience Guide, which is like my version of a style guide, including maybe a questionnaire or there's some specific like emails or blog posts that you send clients to be able to serve them, well, maybe you have a client closet, I don't have a client closet, so don't think you absolutely have to have one. But you know, maybe that's something that helps, you know, elevate the experience. I know photographers that include hair and makeup for the mom in their sessions or whatever, look through your entire client experience and make sure that it's up to par with the pricing and market the heck out of it. Because if you're not marketing, well, pretty pictures will only get you so far, marketing is what really makes the difference in being able to book and those of you that are like, okay, Rebecca, teach me how to market it. Well, here's your little sneak peek, I do have something coming very soon. Very as in, like, within the next month, if you're listening to this episode, when it goes live, that will be very helpful for you. So follow along on Instagram at Rebecca rice photography, if you don't already. And that's all I'm gonna say about that, but pricing confidently. So to review for one, start with running your cost of doing business to simplify your packages as little options as possible to make the process easier to understand for your clients and easier to convert. And then commit to keeping your pricing for at least six months before changing it. And then if you go to change it, I would consult somebody talk to somebody, a business coach, somebody that can look objectively at your pricing and let you know if you It truly is a pricing problem. Or if there could be something that you can change in your marketing or your client experience. So I hope this episode is helpful for you. If you have questions that I didn't answer about pricing, feel free to find me on Instagram at Rebecca rice photography, and I would love to help answer your questions. Shoot me a DM it's really me and my DMs. So I will, you know be happy to respond to there however I can to help with your pricing. But now is a great time to set your pricing and kind of reevaluate everything as we're getting into, you know, spring season and all of that I would get it set now so that when you get to spring season, your prices are set you can get through the season and reevaluate in the fall, if needed. So I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions and we'll go ahead and sign off for today. We'll see you next time with another episode. Bye guys.
