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By Root 4067 0

as 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. You must factor in the reality that even the most successful freelance photographers do not work eight hours a day every workday of the year. Your client, who perhaps might earn $60,000 a year, knows they earn about $30 an hour. When you tell them your rate for the assignment that they know you will accomplish in one day is $2,000, they will do the math. I have listened to the pause on the other end of the phone when I have spoken with them, and in that pause, they did the math in their head and have, on more than one occasion, said, "Two-thousand dollars? For one day?" They have done the math and arrived at the mistaken conclusion that I earn $10,000 week—$520,000 a year—in creative fees. Thus, I generally do not tell them an hourly rate—I convey to them the costs for the complete assignment, including post-production and delivery charges.

A few final notes to keep in mind:

When the economy ebbs and flows and stands for a spell in a valley, lowering your rates is a really, really bad idea. The economy will rebound, and those clients you lowered your rates for will come back to you and expect the same low rates. If for some crazy reason you decide you're going to lower your rates, at the very least make it clear that these are your summer-season rates, low rates through the end of next month, "we offer 10-percent discounts if you book by the end of the wedding expo" rates, or "prepay your child's sports team portrait and save 10 percent over orders placed afterwards" rates.

Plan a schedule for when you will actually raise your rates. The government pays their employees a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) almost every year, simply to keep up with inflation. If you plan a schedule of fee increases comparable to a COLA, which can be somewhere between three and seven percent depending upon the year, you will be able to keep up with your own costs of living and of doing business. Otherwise, you will look back and realize you've been charging the same rates that you were 10 years ago.

Chapter 7 Pricing Your Work to Stay in Business

How do you establish your prices? This is seemingly an age-old question, and certainly one that perplexes many of the more experienced photographers, who, when asked, simply shrug their shoulders and respond with something like, "I sort of just guesstimated."

If this is you, don't be alarmed—you're not alone. That doesn't mean you're free and clear; it means you need to reverse-engineer your rates to see whether what you've been doing meets your long-term goals. You also need to know which types of assignments are revenue positive and which may be, without your even knowing, revenue negative. (Yes, that means taking a loss on a job.)

Although 10 years ago resources were few and far between to help you come to reasonable and logical conclusions about rates, they are abundantly available now in books, online, and in software specially designed for photographers.

First things first, though. Repeat the following phrase out loud three times. If you're reading this in midair while flying over country, say it anyway. If you're reading by bedside light and your significant other is asleep, say it anyway. But if you're in a church, then…wait. Why are you reading this book in church? Anyway, say this:

"I am a profitable business and must remain so. If I am not, I'll be waiting tables soon."

"I am a profitable business and must remain so. If I am not, I'll be waiting tables soon."

"I am a profitable business and must remain so. If I am not, I'll be waiting tables soon."

Now, no disrespect to wait staffs all across the country, but I doubt very many of them aspire to be wait staff for the rest of their lives. For most, it's a waypoint during college, while they wait to be discovered and become a famous actor or perhaps someday own the restaurant. Regardless of their goals, yours is to remain a photographer.

Second, in keeping with the mentality of the mechanic who repaired your car in five minutes (as related in the beginning of Chapter 3), the amount