Article Read Time
Never allow your client to believe they have an “option” to buy photographs. Make them understand that they have an “obligation”.
One of the critical decisions you will make as a working photographer is what to charge for your work. Pricing models and calculations are covered in a previous article, so that won’t be rehashed here. Understanding why you need a minimum order requirement, however, doesn’t take a lot of nitty gritty math.
Most photography businesses have a single operator. That means that there’s only so much work that can be done in any given time period. Because most businesses operate on the calendar year, that’s the period of time we’ll use.
In oversimplified terms, pricing boils down to knowing:
1. How much money you need to make
2. How much time you are willing/able to work
3. How many clients/projects you can take on
4. How much each client/project must bring in
Points 1, 2, and 3 determine Point 4.
Let’s briefly remember what each of these points means.
How much money you need to make
At the very least, a business must cover its expenses. Don’t forget that those expenses should include your required salary. It isn’t unusual for startup photographers to take little or no salary from their business if they have another source of income. Just because it isn’t unusual doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. If you consider your salary from the very beginning, your pricing will be more accurate throughout the life span of your business.
How much time you are willing/able to work
One of the reasons that people start businesses – photography in particular – is that it generates as much or as little business as the operator is willing to take on. Many photographers choose to work part time on their business. This can be because it’s an additional job or because family or other obligations limit the time for revenue generating work. Others choose to work full time hours to maximize the number of projects they can take on.
How many clients/projects you can take on
Regardless of how many hours in total you choose to work, the number of hours per client will stay pretty consistent. By the time you factor in time for consultation, photography, post processing, presentation, preparation, delivery, and all the communication time scattered throughout, you will know how many clients you can comfortably handle in the amount of time you’re willing to devote to your business.
How much each client/project must bring in
Once you know how much money you need to make, and how many clients you can handle, you can divide your clients into your money requirement and come up with the required value of that client.
Let’s use some modest figures based on wage averages.
If you need to make $70,000 a year to cover expenses and desired salary, and you can only commit to 20 clients a year, each client needs to bring in $3,500. ($70,000/20=$3,500)
Keep in mind that this is a very simplified explanation. A lot of these figures will vary based the type of photography, market conditions, and other factors. If physical products are involved, you will also need to consider this in your expense figure, especially if these figures are variable by client. The principle is still the same – you must be able to place a minimum value on each client you serve.
The obvious example: Packaging
A practical example is wedding photography. The overwhelming majority of wedding photographers offer their services in packages. Whether it’s called a collection, investment, or some catchy flavor name, it is a package of specified services for a specified price. This usually includes a set number of maximum photography hours, and certain minimum products. A la carte products and services are offered on top of the minimum price.
This minimum price is the exact definition of a minimum order requirement. Regardless of whether the client spends money over and above the package price, the photographer knows that his or her expenses are covered.
Other types of photography lend themselves to package pricing. Portraits, school and league photography, short sessions (because I really don’t like the “mini sessions” misnomer and wish the term would disappear) are examples of work that can be packaged. In fact, almost every type of consumer (non-commercial) photography can be packaged with minimum order requirements in mind.
The point is that those packages should be calculated on a minimum order requirement, whether you call it that or not. That is exactly what it is.
The opposite extreme: Where it all goes wrong
The problem comes in when photographers don’t set the expectation from the beginning. Business models that charge a session fee separate from the actual end products are often the victims of their own optimism. These are the photographers who come into peer groups asking for advice on clients that are indecisive, non-responsive, or “cheap”.
It is not unheard of for clients to get to the presentation and ordering process and stall. Some genuinely don’t see past the actual photography itself, thinking they’ll deal with buying photographs at some later point in time. “I’ll decide once I see the photographs,” is a customer comment complaint I have seen from photographers more times than I’d like.
Never allow your client to believe they have an “option” to buy photographs. Make them understand that they have an “obligation”.
This seems like a novel concept to some photographers. When asked why they chose not to make these expectations clear with their clients, the reaction was consistent. “I didn’t want to scare them off with pricing.”
If you hear yourself in that response, be assured that you are victimizing yourself, not your client.
Photography by profession, masochist by choice
Some photographers seem to live in a constant state of hopefulness. They hope that their photography will speak for itself and the client will be overwhelmed with desire to own them – own them all. The session fee/booking fee is supposed to be the investment that makes the client keen to get their money’s worth by spending more money. Unless that initial fee is enough to cover the required minimum value of that client – which is seldom the case – running into the black or the red is totally up for grabs with each client.
It’s pretty much the same as rolling the dice to see what the client decides to purchase. That’s called gambling and it is not a sustainable business model.
Stop rolling the dice. Make it clear to your client that the actual photography is only the beginning of the purchase process.
It’s easy to be terrified of your own pricing if you don’t understand how you came up with the numbers. It’s also easy for a photographer to transfer their doubts to their client and shoot themselves in the foot in the process. Once you understand that you must make a certain amount of money from each client, you can confidently – and unapologetically – quote your minimum order requirement price up front.
A minimum order requirement can be implemented a number of ways. Whether you offer packages, or build the purchase figure into your contract another way, be clear what the client’s obligations are.
This solves more problems than your imagination can possibly create. The result will be a better experience for both the photographer and the client. The biggest benefit, though, will be in your bottom line.