Welcome to minis Made Easy, the podcast that's all about making your mini sessions simple, profitable and stress free. I'm Rebecca Rice, and I've helped 1000s of family photographers, just like you, build thriving businesses through mini sessions. Somewhere along the way, my students started calling me the queen of minis, and I'll gladly own it, because I love showing photographers how to maximize their time and profits while working smarter, not harder. Whether you're brand new to the world of minis or you've been running them for years and are ready to level up if you're in the right place, from pricing and marketing to posing and workflows, this is your one stop shop for everything minis. So grab your favorite drink, get cozy, and let's dive in. You're just one episode away from transforming your business. You
music, Hello friends. Welcome back to another episode of the minis Made Easy podcast. I am so glad to be here again today. You guys. We have such a great episode in store. So last week we talked about how to price your mini sessions, running your cost of doing business, all the things. If you have not listened to last week's episode, you need to listen to that one first. So pause here go listen to last week's episode, because this week's is going to be building upon what we talked about last week. So I don't want you to be confused. I want to make sure that you are tracking with us. And so pause here. Go listen to another one. It's not that long, and then come back. Today's topic is one that it actually stems from a question that I get asked a lot, so I have my mini sessions pricing, but now my full sessions pricing doesn't make sense. What do I do? And basically, photographers will run our costume business like we did last week. And for example, let's say that they realize that they should be charging $150 for their mini sessions, for, you know, a 15 minute mini session, and then they realize that, okay, like my minis is 150 but now my full session price doesn't make sense, because I was charging 200 for an hour, like 150 for 15 minutes, 200 for an hour, like that does not make sense. And so in today's episode, we're going to walk through how to take what you're charging for your mini session and price your full session so that your mini session pricing makes sense. Are you following me? It seems a little bit confusing, but stick with me, because I promise it'll make sense here. So essentially, we are going to talk through why full session pricing is foundational to mini session, pricing and share strategies for how to make sure the two are aligned going forward. Okay, so to kind of make sure that we're off on the right foot, I want to, number one, define the difference between a full session and a mini session. This is one of those things that I feel like is a hot topic in our industry, because a lot of people have different definitions for what a mini session is, and so my working definition that way, anytime you hear me say mini session, you know exactly what I'm talking about. My working definition of a mini session is a session that is 10 to 15 minutes long. It has limited number of images included, typically three to five. It is shot at a single location that you the photographer chooses on a single date, that you the photographer chooses so many sessions. Should never be one off sessions. They are always like stacked in a time block on a single date at a single location. Okay? Full sessions are the opposite, right? Full sessions can be for me, they're like 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes people take a little bit longer than that. They are at a location that the client chooses. So typically, we give the client a list of locations or different options, and the client chooses the location a full session is fully customizable, right? So they can if they want to bring props, or if they want to have this, that or the other, it's fully customizable, and it is more of a premium experience, okay? So the experience that they get with a mini session is like a slice of the cake, the experience they get with the full session is the full cake. And so that's the main difference here. And so full sessions are definitely important. Okay? Number one, they allow you to serve your clients, like I said, with that full service kind of premium experience, and they also set the standard for your overall pricing structure, we have this idea of perceived value where, you know, I give this example, if you've got two handbags, they look exactly the same from the outside. They are the same brand, they're the same material, same everything, okay, exactly the same. But. Only difference is one of them has a price tag for $50 and one of them has a price tag for $500 if you were just to look at those two handbags in front of you, which would you assume is the higher quality product? Even if they look exactly the same from the outside, you're going to assume that the higher quality product is the $500 handbag. Why? Because of the price tag. That is perceived value. We are perceiving that that bag is more valuable just because of the price tag. And so that comes into play some when we are looking at our overall pricing structure for our other offerings outside of our mini sessions. Okay, so a big mistake that I see photographers make when it comes to their pricing in general is, number one, they price their minis too low. And then number two, once their minis pricing is correct. So like, if you listened to the last episode and you got your minis pricing where it should be, then their full sessions pricing does not make sense and often needs to be raised for that the reason of perceived value, which we'll get into. My goal for this episode is to make sure that now that your mini sessions are priced what they need to be, which we talked about last week, that now your full session pricing needs to be where it should be, to make it all make sense, to make sure your perceived value looks good, all the things. So when we're looking at pricing out our full sessions for alignment with our mini sessions, there are four steps that we're going to be taking. Step one is you need to identify your target client. Okay, who is this full session for? What are their interests? What do they value? What is their budget? Because we want to keep into account like maybe your ideal client is not somebody that's trying to book $1,000 full session, which is fine. Maybe it is. Maybe your ideal client is trying to book $1,000 session. I don't know it depends on your individual target client, but you need to know and understand your client and what they value, because you're going to need to know how to position your full sessions as a premium experience for those clients. So we've identified our target audience. Step two is that you're going to need to create a pricing structure. And I said that there are four steps before there are three steps. I was looking at my notes like, Wait, where is the fourth step? Okay, there are three steps. So step one is identify your target client. Step two is create a pricing structure. So a good rule of thumb is to set your full sessions at at least double your mini sessions price. So for example, if your mini sessions are you know you've run your cost of doing business, you've understood that your mini sessions are $150 then your full session should be at least $300 if your mini sessions pricing comes out, you need it to be 250 then your full session price should be at least $500 okay? And I say at least because there are other pieces that come into play. If your full session has, you know, higher expenses because you're editing more images, it's going to take you more time you are running them through an AI editing software. You're doing additional retouching, whatever it is, maybe it includes a client gift or other touch points or things in their client experience, because the experience from a mini session to a full session is not the same, and so you need to kind of take a look at that of like, is it going to take you longer in post processing? Are there other additional expenses that were not included in your mini sessions that need to be thrown in there to help you understand if you need to raise that price even more? Of course, it's okay if you are raising your price even more, but you want it to be at least double your mini session price, just for that perceived value, for helping it make sense. And then after that, your final step is to communicate value. Okay, so we're going to highlight, and this is this communication happens in your marketing. Right when you're marketing, you need to communicate the value of a full session so that people, a understand the difference between a mini session and a full session, but B, so that you can actually book them at the price that you're wanting, because your pricing, you've got to explain what value they get out of it for that price. And so it's not just a number of images that are included, like, Oh, great. You get your full gallery. Okay, what does that mean? Okay, in your full session, you can explain that they get a longer shoot time that it's fully customizable and personal to them and their family. They get a questionnaire so that you can get to know them. There's more variety in their location. They do get all the digitals or whatever you're planning to include. You want to communicate
the value in your marketing, and then the second piece for communicating the value is. You need to educate your clients about the difference between full sessions and mini sessions, because here's the deal, not all sessions can be a mini okay? And I think this is like one of the biggest hurdles that I walk through with clients, is when a client wants mini session pricing for a full session experience. And I have to explain to them the difference that they're wanting this full session experience, why they cannot get that for the mini session price. And so for me personally, and you have to decide this for your on your own, but for me personally, there are certain types of sessions that I will never do as a mini session. Number one is a smash cake session. I don't care how fast the family says it's gonna be, I will never do a smash cake session as a mini session, even if they provide their own cake, even if they bring the balloons, they bring whatever, I do not care. We are not doing that as a mini session, because there's no such thing as a fast smash cake. The parent is thinking, you know, it's not gonna be that long for my kid to sit down, smash their their hands in the cake and then put some on their face and get some pictures. Okay, true. But what the client is not thinking through is, what if the kid has a meltdown? What if the kid doesn't like the cake and doesn't like to be dirty? What about afterwards, when you have to then clean up the smash cake, because there's other mini session clients that are trying to use that exact location after them, like there's so many factors that I say absolutely not. We'll never do a smash cake as a mini session. And then the second type of session that I will never do as a mini session is a lifestyle newborn session. I don't shoot pose newborns. I try that. It's not for me, but I will never do a lifestyle newborn session as a mini session, because mini sessions are stacked in a time block, and I shoot a lot of my sessions outside, even if we did an indoor studio, though, I would have to change the setup to be conducive to a lifestyle newborn session, and I do not have time to change a setup around for that specific session type. Plus, with newborns, we've got to leave time for outfit changes, diaper changes, nursing, if they're, you know, having hard time settling like there are so many factors that come into play in a newborn that I say absolutely not. We will not do that as a full session. And so that is something that I work to communicate. A third type that's like kind of questionable is extended family session. And I say kind of questionable because I will do, and this may surprise some people, but I will do extended family session in a mini with some exceptions. Number one is they have to book at least two spots back to back. Okay? So if we are doing 15 minute minis, I require that they book at least two spots, because I could do an extended family in 30 minutes. I cannot do an extended family in 15 and so they have to book two spots back to back. And then two is they have to come so prepared, like I have to know exactly who's going to be there. I have to know what groupings that they want ahead of time, if there's anything specific or special or whatnot, that way, when our time starts, I hit the ground running, and most clients won't ask for this. So don't freak out of like, oh my gosh, is this like a thing I'm gonna have to do? No. Most clients won't ask for this. In all of my years of shooting, I've only had one like family that did this consistently, and it was because they all lived in town. It was two sets of sisters and their parents, and everybody lived in town. They see each other all the time, which really helped with just, you know, the flow of things. And so they would always book two sessions back to back. And I would essentially do one sisters family, then the other sisters family, and then we would do a handful at the end with both the sisters and the grandparents, and they always came so prepared. Their kids were a little bit older. It was just something that I felt really, really comfortable with. If it was like 60 people that again, would be like, one of those things where I'm like, no, no, that can't be a mini session. Or instead of two spots, you need to book four spots, or whatever. Either way, it's not a better deal for them. Like, they would be better off booking the a full session with me and so, but I wanted them to know that, like, that's kind of an option. So either way, we're communicating the difference between a full session and a mini session. So if a client comes in and they're saying, I want to do a mini session with you, I want this prop, this setup, blah, blah, and it's like nothing like what you already are providing. Then they need to book a full session for that. That is not a mini session. Now, something I will do a mini session for is pregnancy announcements. I will do minis for maternity sessions like that kind of stuff is very easy to do and does not require much more. Would I prefer for them to do a full session totally? Because the amount of detail that they're gonna get and personalization and whatnot is just different. The experience is different with a full session. But if they truly like are on a budget, and they need to do it as many I understand that, and I will cater to that. So the big piece here is just over communication, the more you. Communicate, the better it's gonna go. So some takeaways here. Number one is you need to set your mini sessions pricing so that you're pricing for profit. Number two, then you use that mini session pricing, double it at least, and that's your full session pricing. You can always go higher. You need to take a look at other outside factors and things that may need to be considered for pricing your full session, and then over communicate in every single piece what the differences are between a mini session a full session, what experience they're getting that's different in a full session than they would get with a mini and so on. I really, really encourage you to take a look this week at your pricing structures. If you haven't listened to last week's episode and you're a rebel and you're like, No, I'm gonna listen to this one first. They gotta listen to last week's finally, because you're gonna need to do that first. But take a look at your pricing structure. Make sure it all looks good as we head into mini session season for the spring. The second thing I would say is, if you're not signed up for PrEP week, prep week is happening in two weeks, you guys. I can't believe it, I guess, like a week and a half, and I'm so so excited. It's so close. We have so many photographers signed up, and this is going to be an amazing opportunity. You're not going to want to miss it. It's completely free, really quickly, the overview, in case you've missed it, it's a four day challenge where we are going to together, walk through prepping each day, a piece of our mini sessions, so that by the end of those four days, we are ready to launch those spring minis. You are priced appropriately. Your workflows are set up. You've got everything on the back end. You've got your marketing calendar in place. All the things your client experience looks great, all this stuff, we are going to be prepping together so that there's accountability. You're not just trying to do it by yourself and plan ahead, but we're doing it alongside hundreds of other photographers. But then also, you have me and your ear guiding you every step of the way to make sure that this is the year that is going to be the most profitable, the most successful mini sessions that you've ever had. And it starts with planning ahead. And so join us for PrEP week. We've got it linked in the show notes for you. I don't want you to miss it. We've never done this before, and I don't know if we'll do it again. I think it depends on, you know, how much response that we get. So far, we've gotten some great response, but you know, there's still, we're still a week and a half away. So if you want this, I'm telling you, you don't want to miss out. This is going to be amazing, and it'll really set you up to have 2025, be the best year that it can be. So join us for PrEP week. It's gonna be awesome. I hope this episode was helpful for you, and I can't wait to be back next week with another episode here on the minis Made Easy podcast. Bye, guys. You
