Best Business Practices for Photographers [36]
The beauty of having a job that pays the bills is that you can choose clients that are paying you appropriately, and only when they are paying you appropriately. When I started out, everyone wanted everything for free (or cheap). But consider this: If you have a job that is paying you $40,000 a year, that equates to about $150 a day [($40,000/52)/5], as to what you're worth in the eyes of the person paying you that annual salary. Next, add in what you would have to charge a client that was hiring you to rent your digital camera, two lenses, and a flash (about $150), and you're near about $300 as a really, really bottom-end valuation of what you bring to the table, which doesn't take anything else into consideration.
Next, step out of the role of salaried employee using that same $40,000 a year figure to calculate what you need to earn each month. Now, say to yourself that if you're really lucky, just starting out, you can do two assignments a month, or 24 a year. That then equates to about $1,666 a day [$40,000/24], plus camera rental of $150, or about $1,800—again, not considering much else expense-wise.
So, as a salaried employee employed full time at a business, this means that when someone calls you, and you have to take a day off from work (didn't you feel that sniffle coming on last night?), it's worth somewhere between $300 to $1,800, easy. And furthermore, since you don't have to take the job, you can afford to say no when they want to pay less or they want all rights.
As you grow your intermittent number of photo assignments, you'll have fewer and fewer vacation and sick days to call upon. Consider this: If you have two weeks of vacation and six sick days a year, plus three personal days, that's 19 days you can take, without any problems, to do assignments. At some point, you are getting consistent calls from your newfound clients—who respect you and your fees—and as you grow this type of client (rather than the cheap ones who want everything for nothing), you can then consider trading your job for the freelancer's life, but not until then. Or, you can simply remain semi-pro, filling your evenings, weekends, and occasional vacation/sick day with work that pays properly and respects you and your copyright. Furthermore, you can be at peace in the knowledge that you are not doing harm to your colleagues. And, moreover, when you are downsized out or laid off, you will have a backup base of clients to earn money from—at a rate of income that will sustain you! And this applies not just to staff photographers, but also to general employees in other non-photo-related fields.
In fact, you could actually do your local colleagues a favor—whatever you can discern they would charge for an assignment, charge 20 percent more, since you don't have to have the assignment. You can make your colleagues look good by comparison, and when you get that job, you are being paid a premium for the work you'll do, and you'll grow a list of intermittent clients who will pay for you as a premium photographer.
Planning (and Prolonging if Possible) the Transition
When establishing your salary and benefits, it is fair to start with what you are earning now. In addition, your personal economic equation—from mortgage to car payments to other expenses—is tied to what you've been able to afford up until now, and whatever you can eke out in personal expense reductions will end up being a cushion as you make the transition as smoothly as possible.
Of critical importance will be the reality that you don't want to try to make any major purchases—car payments, new homes, refinancing, and so on—for at least two years, maybe three. Bankers