Best Business Practices for Photographers [146]
In response to the "cheap one now, paying one later" query, I've found myself, as I see the end stages of the negotiation arriving with a breakdown point being price, making the following offer:
Client: "I'd really love to have you do this assignment; I just don't have $500 for it. The most I can pay is $400. We do plenty of assignments in your area, and I'm glad to have your name because I am sure I can make it up to you next time."
Me: "My fee to shoot that assignment would be $500, and we're about 20 percent apart. How about this? Since you're sure to use me frequently in the next year, why don't you pay me the $500 for the next four assignments, and the fifth one will be free. I'll even memorialize that in the contract and keep track of it in each subsequent contract. Because you'll no doubt need me that often, at the fifth assignment they'll all have averaged out to $400, and your photo budget will be where you say it needs to be when the end of the fiscal year arrives."
Think that has ever worked? Nope. They get it. I get it, and I am polite about it. And sure, you bet—if I make that offer and someone takes it, I'll keep up the terms of the agreement. What I'd want to know is, who have they been using for all those previous assignments in my city, and why aren't they using that person now?
Often, I've had calls from clients in which the dialogue is along these lines:
Client: "Wow, your website is great; I love your portraits. How much would you charge for a portrait?"
Me: "Let's see, a few questions first—tell me about the magazine. Name, circulation, is this for the cover or inside, and did you have a budget you were trying to work within?" (For a corporate client, it'd be, "Tell me about what the portrait is for," and then a follow-up about annual reports, website, PR, and so on.)
Client: "We're Widgets Today, we publish monthly, our subscribers are in the trade, and we have a circulation of about 14,000. It's a portrait for inside the magazine. We fairly frequently have assignments in DC, so we are glad to know about you now. Oh, and we normally pay $250 for this type of assignment."
Me: "Have you been pleased with the results of the other photographers you've called in DC?"
Client: "No, not really, which is why we're happy to find you. I really like your style and use of light."
Me: "Thanks! The thing for me is, I think part of the reason you've not been happy is that the photographers you're working with and paying $250 to have not been producing satisfying results, and I hear that happening often. I am happy to send along an estimate for the assignment, but the concern I have is that you're expecting the quality of the work I produce for $250. I'll do the best I can with my estimate, but I don't think I can make that figure."
Client: "Okay, well, send me the estimate, and I'll see what I can do."
Then, I do my research and find that with that circulation, a fair rate would be $650 plus expenses for an inside portrait, so I send that along. Those who have been doing the assignments for $250 would be surprised at how many times clients assign the photography at the rates I am providing.
Recently, I negotiated a license from a series of images I produced of a helicopter in flight. It was air-to-air work, which has its own set of challenges. One of the parties associated with the aircraft (not the original assigning party) wanted to obtain the images. They'd appeared on the cover of two aviation magazines and therefore had a value established for them from their perspective. Here's the actual dialogue