Asking the Right Offer Questions

Online groups are a great place to test an offer or get feedback on how to deliver an offer.  However, I often see people asking questions that won't be very helpful for getting good feedback, so I wanted to address one of the most common questions that gets asked, and what a better question to ask would be instead...

THE UNHELPFUL QUESTION: "How much should I charge?"

This is question will quickly deliver a variety of responses that may not be helpful.  It's often followed by comments like:

• Do you know what your expenses are?
• Have you done your numbers?
• What area are you in?
• My so-and-so charged this.
• I would pay this. 
• I've never bought that before, but I could afford this.

None of these are going to be as helpful to learning more about how to deliver an offer or identify an ideal client.  What they accomplish instead is just delivering a wide range of opinions that may not apply to you or what you're offering.

THE HELPFUL QUESTION: "I'm planning to offer a (product/service) photography package, for (estimated price) $950, in (specific location) Sedona, AZ and I'm curious what else you would need to know to help you make a decision about wanting this offer?"

This question delivers an example of an offer you'd like to test, and asks questions that help reveal the hidden fears, concerns, and questions that people need to have answered in order to move forward.  With this question, you can better understand the need-to-know factors that go into whether or not clients feel ready to take action on an offer.  The types of questions that follow are much more helpful for refining your offer or understanding client needs:

• How much time will it take?
• Can I see examples of previous work?
• How many images will I receive?
• Can you do it in a different location?
• What do I need to prepare in order to begin?
• Do you offer payment plans?

These questions reveal actionable and answerable items that can be delivered with your offer in order to bring client clarity to a product or service.  Try using this question the next time you want to test an offer in a local group or marketplace in order to get more helpful information that will ultimately make your offer easier to act on!

Anne Ruthmann helps creatives find smarter solutions to common business problems as a Creative Business Strategist and author of the Pricing Workbook for Creatives.  Her wisdom is steeped in the experience of managing her own creative businesses since 2004.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Why It's Hard to Talk Pricing Publicly

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm happy to talk pricing and pricing strategy.  I love digging into profit strategies with small business owners during consultations.  It's like digging for hidden nuggets of gold within their business.  Unfortunately, it's not as easy to do this in public forums.  A strategy that works really well for one person may be a complete waste of time for another person based on who they are, what they sell, and what kind of people are valuing their work- which is why it's really difficult to talk pricing publicly.

Each individual has their own unique world-view of what ideal creative pricing looks like to them in the scope of their experience:

• One person may need to support a 5 person family on their creative income, and have a stay at home partner who can provide a lot of household or business support.
• One person may have a full time job for income and only be doing creative work on the side.
• One person may say that they only take projects for $10,000 or more, however they may also mean that every project they do requires a team of 10 people who are all working overtime to turn a project around in an amount of time that is usually unheard of to an individual doing it all on a solo basis.
• One person may say their rates are $150 a project, which might seem unfathomably low for your costs and overhead, but what they may not be saying is that they do 6 of those projects in one day and then do extended sales sessions or additional licensing from those projects that add an additional $1350 in profit after each project.
• One person may say they give away all files in a $3000 package, but they may not say that those files are only good for viewing on the web and not printing larger than 4x6 or putting in an album.
• One person may say they only include 20 album pages $3000 package and files are extra, but they may not say that they'll include the files if someone enough pages to their album.
• One person may say they include all the RAW files in a $3000 package, but they may not say that the editing of those files is extra or only included when they order an album.

All of these are examples of why discussing pricing is so difficult in open forums or even privately among other creative professionals.  

What works well for one person may be a terrible idea for another person's way of working.  Someone who hates sales would quickly fail by setting up their pricing in a way that requires them to do more sales and someone who hates working solo would total fail by setting up their pricing in a way that requires them to work solo.

We can never assume that the way someone else has set up their pricing is the same way we would or should set up our own pricing.  Which is also why you can never judge another professional based on their pricing alone- because you have no idea what goes into their pricing or what each term means in the way they define it.

This is also why the "what should I price this at" question is a terrible question to ask in forums.  You can get 10 different answers all based on how different people work and live, and none of those answers may even be applicable to you and your situation!  Super frustrating, and it doesn't lead to more clarity, only more confusion.

It is far better to figure out the numbers based on your business and understand how to price your service and products based on your actual costs, products, delivery, and costs of doing business so that you aren't jumping on a bandwagon that will send your business off a cliff!

Anne Ruthmann is a retired professional photographer in New York City. With over 13 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, architecture and interiors. She loves to travel the work and spend any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

3 Responses to Low Budget Requests

Rather than getting frustrated with people for not understanding your costs of doing business or not valuing the time and talent you invest into your work, stop assuming what they should understand and start educating to help provide more awareness around what professional rates should look like.  In order to be compensated at a professional level, it's important to respond to every unprofessional rate request with a more professional option.

Here are 3 different responses you can use when being asked to work for unprofessional rates:

1. Provide a more appropriate appropriate price for the request:

Thank you for your interest in working with me!  Based on everything you've outlined in your request, it appears that the appropriate pricing for that would really be $$$$.  Would you like to change the nature of the request or change the budget to a more appropriate rate for everything you'd like to accomplish with this photoshoot?

2. Describe what you can actually do for that rate:

Thank you for your interest in working with me!  At the budget you've described, I can provide two hours of documentary coverage at that rate, which that will allow me to produce approximately 60 images to choose from for this type of event, from which you're welcome to select 12 favorites for high resolution commercial licensing.  Would you like to move forward with this offer or discuss additional options?

3. Explain the price difference between professional and amateur:

Thank you for your interest in working with me!  I'm afraid that price is quite low for the professional resources and experience I provide- my normal rate for this type of project is $$$$.  Were you looking for an insured professional who can guarantee results, or did you want to work with an amateur who is still learning and may not have sufficient experience with this type of request?

(*This could be misconstrued as snarky, so use with caution and make sure you have the ability to provide an amateur resource like craigslist or a photo school of students who need to practice on clients.  Being able to provide an amateur resource if they want one shows that you're still a professional and willing to help others find a solution more appropriate to their request.)

If these responses don't seem to fit your situation, try this basic response recipe instead:

Step #1 - Express thanks

You'll notice all responses start with gratitude for the client's interest in your work.  We are truly lucky when people reach out to us individually to work with us.  In some cases, we may be the only creative they got the courage to contact directly.  If they were referred by an existing client or seen our work and fell in love with it- it's important that we honor their interest in working with us.  

Step #2 - Provide more appropriate information

In order to get people to adjust their perception or idea about what to expect, you must offer an updated set of information that helps them understand what they're requesting when it comes to working with the professional they're requesting it from.  Only when you provide more accurate information with regard to what it will cost or how much can be delivered within their budget, can they begin to adjust their own expectations and perceptions about what they can request from a professional.  Sharing is caring, and it's far more professional to care and share than to diss and dismiss.

Step #3 - End with a question

Every price inquiry response should end with a question to help continue the conversation.  I find it important to leave yourself open to continuing the conversation so that you aren't shutting the door to opportunity, but merely providing a window into what a more professional arrangement looks like while giving the client a chance to respond and negotiate their own interests further rather than shutting down alternative options or possibilities that meet closer to your mark.

If you see any colleagues struggling with unprofessional pricing requests, I hope you'll share this resource with them so they can stress less and work smarter about dealing with it in the future.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Stop Being Taken Advantage of by Demanding Clients

Into every creative's life a demanding client will fall.  Many creatives have a hard time drawing a line in the sand when it comes to working with demanding clients, which is why your fee and business should be structured in such a way that you anticipate every client will eventually become a demanding client.  The more you anticipate and practice responding to requests outside of your agreement, the easier it becomes.

The demanding client lifecycle generally looks something like this:
1. Client negotiates with Creative for reduced rate
2. Creative agrees based on something Creative thinks they'll gain from working with Client
3. While Creative is engaged in work, Client makes little requests here and there
4. Creative agrees to little requests, because they are at first easy to accommodate
5. Client turns little requests into big demands on Creative
6. Creative feels stuck because they have previously honored little requests without additional fees, and haven't implemented a structure for being compensated for additional requests
7. Client gets frustrated and more demanding that Creative is becoming less responsive
8. Creative gets frustrated that Client is becoming more demanding
9. Client thinks Creative is a flake and unprofessional
10. Creative thinks Client is evil and inconsiderate

If you take steps early enough in the process, a client may never reach the point of being considered a demanding client.

Here are the solutions to avoid clients becoming demanding at every step of the process:

- Don't agree to work for any less than full rate. It is far better to charge full rate, and have the opportunity to do a tricky job over again, than to work for a reduced rate with a client who expects full rate service.

- Have a written agreement for exactly what is delivered and how it is delivered.  This needs to make it blatantly clear to the client what is being delivered in what time frame and how many revisions will be allowed on work.

- Prepare client expectations that additional requests have a working fee attached.  By anticipating that the client WILL make requests above and beyond the work you have contracted for, you can be prepared by offering either an hourly rate for additional requests, or a revision rate.

- Notify client immediately when their requests fall outside of original agreement.  As SOON as a client makes a request that falls outside of your agreement, the client needs to know and be presented with options for moving forward.

At any point in the process, I suggest using this wording with a client to address additional requests:
 "This request will require additional time and expense that weren't planned into the original quote.  I've included an invoice to cover the time and expense to honor this request.  If you'd like to add any additional requests at this time, please let me know so that I can be even more efficient in addressing additional requests."

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over a decade of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Cost to Start Photography Business

I've previously shared what the recurring overhead costs of a photography business can be, but many people want to know what the investment would look like if they started from scratch, so here's a breakdown of costs I would expect someone starting a photography business to incur...

Liability Protection: $600- $800
This usually includes $1-3million of liability insurance to work on-location for events, portraits, and commercial assignments.  Some venues require a certificate of insurance before you are allowed to enter the building with photography equipment of any kind.

Photographic Equipment: $4000 - $9000
In order to be a professional, you can't just have one camera, because if that one camera fails on the job, than you've lost the rest of the job you showed up to do, so every professional needs two working cameras for every job.  There are a lot of other things you also need duplicates of as well: backup batteries x2, extra memory cards x2, backup lighting x2, additional lenses to cover a variety of focal lengths.

Computer Equipment: $2000
While it's tempting to cheap out or hack a computer together, most professionals find that they need a well designed machine that is optimized for processing speed and large storage transfers.  On top of that, there are usually hundreds of gigabytes of photos taken each year which also need backup drives, and perhaps even online cloud storage solutions in order to make sure that images are safe even when drives fail.

Software: $400
Most photographers use Lightroom and/or Photoshop to process their images, along with several other softwares to manage their accounting and/or customer service.  You may also want a website, custom domain name, hosting, etc.

Accountant: $400
While you can do accounting on your own, you will come out much further ahead in many different ways if you have a professional relationship with an accountant who helps keep your business on good financial and tax grounding.

Accessories: $500
A camera bag to protect your gear and help you travel with it safely, a random new lighting accessory, a reflector, light stands and umbrellas for your flash, or other items you may need beyond the basics.

Education: $2000
While this could be an optional expense because there are many free resources like this lovely blog available to help beginning photographers, I find that people who are in the first few years of a photography business tend to spend a lot on education.  Even if they went to school for photography, they quickly realize that there are many more things to learn and understand in the real world that weren't exactly taught or relevant in their university setting.

While everyone's initial costs can be vastly different based on the rate that they acquire equipment before they start a business, this provides a guide for those who want to be prepared and plan ahead.

This brings the initial investment total to somewhere between $7900 - $15,100... and the recurring annual expenses may be closer to around $16,000 before taking a salary from your business.  If you take out a loan to purchase equipment in the first year- remember that many of your initial jobs will simply go to paying back the cost of investing in your business.  This is also why many people do photography part-time while working other jobs.  If you have a solid business structure and profit margin, you should make enough in your first two years to pay back your initial investment so that you can start seeing a profit in your second or third year, even if you work part time.  Otherwise, photography will be a very expensive hobby until you cross that profitable threshold in your business and finance management.

That being said, you don't need all of this equipment to begin building a portfolio of work that you create for yourself before taking clients, and you don't have to invest in everything at once.  In fact, its best to create a portfolio and expand your creativity with equipment that you already have, and then add equipment needs slowly and only as necessary.  Your eye should be able to make a great images that people want to purchase regardless of what equipment you use.  However, if you're planning to charge someone else to create images for them, backup equipment and liability insurance will be part of the professional expectations.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Why $300 Should Be A Professional Photography Minimum

I've run the numbers from here to the moon on what it takes to operate as a professional photographer for myself in multiple areas of the world, as well as for dozens of other photographer owners who've consulted with me, and one thing remains the same no matter how the numbers are crunched... it never makes sense to take a gig/job/headshot/portrait for less than $300.

The biggest reason for this bottom line is to make sure you've covered your costs, backup, insurance, and fail-safe options that allow you to operate as a professional, no matter what life throws at you.

For example, let's say a photographer charges $200 for a portrait shoot and they've collected half up front upon booking the shoot, but two days before the shoot, their apartment is robbed and camera equipment is gone.  The insurance deductible to replace everything is $500, but the photographer's credit cards are maxed out, and they were counting on this portrait shoot to provide a little cushion to get by.  The client can't reschedule their shoot because they need the images for a conference presentation in two days.  The photographer doesn't want to disappoint the client, so they need a back-up solution, and fast!!

The photographer figures they can use computers at the local library for processing images and uploading, but since the camera and lenses are in some thief's car trunk, they have to rent a kit to be delivered the next day.  How much will that cost?  About $240 for a very basic kit without any additional lighting, which is $40 more than the client is even paying for that $200 shoot!  On top of that, the photographer needs to pay for mileage, parking, and the online services to help make that shoot happen.  That $200 shoot may also have included all of the files as well, so there won't even be additional sales on the back-end to help pay the insurance deductible to replace equipment.  The price point has created a no-win situation for the photographer who can't operate as a professional and a disappointing situation for the client who counted on the professional they hired.

When creatives charge less than it takes to even RENT the gear needed to do the job, it puts the creative business in an UNPROFESSIONAL position of not being able to serve a client who has expected professional service.  When not charging enough to have easy access to backup equipment, is almost better to not charge anything at all, because at least then it won't attract the expectations that come with being a professional.  Once money is exchanged, a professional exchange is also assumed.

Now yes, there is always an exception.  For example, photographing 4 Rental Property Shoots for $75 each in one day with minimal post-production, which still ends up at $300 for one day of work.  Or doing 10 mini sessions at 15min each for $50 each in the same time and location, with the same amount of post-production as it would normally take for one $500 session.  Most often the frequent exception to the $300 minimum is in the case of guaranteed volume within the same day.

There is one more exception for the advanced professional - those who are really great with post-shoot sales can consistently take a $0 - $200 booking fee and turn it into an average of $1200 in revenue during a sales process after the shoot, with plenty of sales acumen to make up for a client who walks out and pays $0.  When a creative knows how to generate more revenue after a shoot, even when the starting price is low, they are also probably operating a business in such a way that they're already covered for emergency situations from previous sales.  However, this is not the case for most people who are in the under $300 category.

Now, when I wrote about this bottom line in another group, someone mentioned that they thought this would be considered industry "price fixing".  There always is and always will be room for discount pricing, sales, specials, and portfolio building individuals who charge less than a professional rate.  It's impossible to fix prices in an industry with millions of independent sellers.  However, it shouldn't deter individuals from establishing what would be considered a professional pricing strategy.

Being a professional means operating under the professional expectations of delivering your service and product no matter what life throws at you.  If you can't afford to rent all of the gear you need with the price that you charge, than it's time to take another look at your pricing and consider what it would cost to operate professionally in the face of unplanned circumstances.

Take Action: Know your rental options and costs in advance by pricing out a rental package that would be needed if everything you needed to do your job was stolen.  Below are some of the most popular national photographic rental companies: 

Lens Pro To Go

Based in Concord, MA

https://www.lensprotogo.com

Borrow Lenses

Based in San Fransisco, CA & Boston, MA

https://www.borrowlenses.com

Adorama Rentals

Based in New York, NY

http://www.adoramarentals.com

Please take a moment to share this information with others to help inform the general public about what it takes to operate as a professional photographer so that together we can raise the expectations of what being a professional means in the photography industry.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 12 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Incentivize vs. Penalize

Do you have a hard time collecting payment or getting client selections done on deadline?  If there are no incentives for moving quickly, things may almost always wait until the last minute or just after the last minute with an ask for forgiveness or a distaste for a late fee.  By incentivizing clients to act early and on-deadline, you help empower them to make the most of their time by rewarding early and on time decisions.

Take two different sets of language you might see in a creative agreement:
"Orders placed before the early bird deadline of 2/2/16 will receive 10% off the total order."
"Orders placed after the final deadline of 2/8/16 will incur a 10% late fee."

What excites you more?  What makes you look forward to completing your order early and on time?  What language creates stress for you if you don't complete it on time?  How do you want your clients to feel about working with you?

Here's another example:
"Prepaid packages save 10% when paid in full during booking."
"Payment options available for 3% more."

Another photographer recently said to me, "why would I want to give anyone a discount for paying their bill early or on time?"  My answer is that you should already have this "discount" built into your pricing profit margin for negotiation purposes anyway, and when you recognize that clients who wrap up their orders early are actually creating LESS work for you, you realize that you're actually saving even more money by way of administrative time.  When clients pay early it means you can wrap up their project earlier, it means their work isn't on your to do list overlapping other work you have to do, and it's one less bill to chase down and create a payment system for.

Please keep in mind that I'm not suggesting you shouldn't have late fees or extra fees for added administrative work - merely that by providing incentives for the client side of your process, you can wrap your projects up more quickly and ultimately provide both you and the client with a more rewarding experience.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Why $60,000 Revenue = $30,000 Income

$30,000 is the U.S. national median of photographer salaries according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.  Which breaks down to $15/hr when you divide that by a traditional U.S. working life of 50 weeks a year ($600/wk), and 40 hours a week ($15).  Obviously, photographers don't stay in this profession for the money; they stay because they are passionate about creating great images and can't imagine doing anything else they love more.

What many starting photographers don't understand is that in order to make that $30,000 salary, most photographers actually need to bring in $60,000 in revenue.  Here's an example of how that can break down in expenses for a full time photographer:

Individual expenses will obviously vary from person to person.  One photographer might save more by not upgrading equipment as frequently, but may spend more on education.  Another photographer might have a large marketing campaign budget (which I didn't include as a separate item), but gets health insurance from a spouse.  These numbers are just examples to provide a clue of where the money may go after it walks in the door.

This is also the reason that I suggest a lot of beginning photographers start with a 50/50 split on the revenue that comes in from clients.  Put 50% in a business bank account and 50% in a personal bank account.  This helps make sure that you're beginning your business with a solid practice of paying yourself while also setting money aside for business needs and expenses.  By splitting the revenue into expenses and income right when it comes in, you prevent the practice of not making anything to pay your bills, while also making sure your business can cover expenses to survive another year.

Have you been in business for a while and tracked the percentage of your revenue that goes to expenses versus income?  What percentage has been true for your revenue and expenses?

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Adding Value Into Pricing

When a client requests a price list, how do you quantify that value beyond a number of images or time invested?  If you've been in the business for a long time and are no longer booking based on a low price point, do you also quantify your experience, professionalism, and good reputation?

Since many clients collect a series of price lists in advance to compare side by side with other price lists- you can also use this opportunity to include some variables that other creatives with a similar level of image quality and pricing may not be able to include or compare to....

Example A: Time & Deliverables
-8 hours of on-site photography
-second photographer
-at least 600 images
-online proofing gallery for 3 months

Example B: Experience & Excellence
- 2 Award winning photographers with 10 years of experience
- Verified excellence in service with over 100 five star reviews
- Professional album design team
- Professional retouching team
- Archival quality print lab
- 10 International photography awards
- $2m in liability insurance
- 8 hours of on-site photography
- 20 hours of post-production artistry
- minimum 600 images delivered
- 3 months of image hosting & sharing online

How can you demonstrate your value beyond the basics?  Clients are going to make comparisons no matter what, but if you can give them more variables to compare with that will help demonstrate the value of experience and excellence, than they will at least start considering those variables as they make their comparisons.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Quoting a Job Without Project Details

The more commercial work I do, the more I find commercial clients who basically want me to give them a price without giving me any information about their project and how much time, effort, and detail it will take.  Trying to elicit more details out of those clients before sharing any pricing only results in responses about 40% of the time, which means the other 60% want to know something about price before they will even engage in a conversation about the project.  While this is frustrating from a creative and budgeting perspective, I've found a couple ways to open the door without committing to a bad price....

Provide An Average Client Range
By telling the client that average projects tend to range anywhere from $$$$-$$$$, they can immediately know if their budget falls in your client averages based on what they're requesting.  Even if it's a huge range from hundreds to thousands, it's amazing how just providing any number range can keep the conversation moving forward so that the client feels more comfortable expressing their project details.

Provide Quotes From Previous Projects
Providing samples of previous quotes can help a client better understand what level they fall in.  This would be similar to having an established price list, but provide more detailed examples of what can be included or eliminated from a quote.  Ideally, you'll be able to provide 3 solid examples from previous jobs you've completed.
Client A: Four hours of on-location photography with highly specialized studio lighting, stylist, makeup artist, and models with delivery of 10 retouched images for print advertising in a major magazine: $$$$$
Client B: Two hours of on-location photography with simple studio lighting to create headshots for 5 executives for an annual report with a delivery of 5 images: $$$$.
Client C: Full day of photography in studio with specialty lighting for commercial website and packaging use: $$$$

Provide A Low & High Estimate
If you think you have a good sense of what the job will be without a bunch of detail, you can provide a low and high estimate to help the client understand more about their needs.  It's a way of providing a soft quoted estimate with plenty of negotiating room.
Budget Option: 2 hours on location, 2 images delivered with option to purchase more $$$
Luxury Option: 8 hours on location, 8 images delivered with option to purchase more $$$$$

If you've had clients fall through the cracks because you weren't able to provide something they could begin to work with, try one of these approaches instead and see if it helps to improve your follow-through with new inquiries.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

How to Announce Price Increases

As you evaluate your income and expenses from the last year, it's a great time to evaluate any pricing changes you may want to make for the year ahead.  Did you find that you put much more work into a certain product or service than you're being compensated for?  Did your suppliers increase their prices or change their product line?  Do you plan to add new services or products that will increase your overhead?  Do you need to invest more in packaging,  equipment, education, or marketing?

Whatever the reason for increasing prices, it's often one of the big struggles for small businesses who rely on retaining old clients while attracting new ones.  Most businesses find that their costs and/or prices have to increase year to year in order to stay sustainable and keep up with new market demands.  When businesses don't account for growth in their overhead, product, or service, they end up shortchanging their ability to continue serving clients well into the future.

Based on the many times I've had to change my pricing due to moving to a new market with new overhead costs, as well as helping other photographers who've needed to make changes to their pricing, I've found three strategies that help make it easier to move from one price point to the next without too much shock to an existing or recurring client base.

1. Same Rate, Different Offering

The easiest change you can make to a price list is to keep your rates the same, but redefine your offerings at each price point to more accurately reflect the time and cost that goes into creating that service and product at that price point.  The example below is for a portrait photographer who needs to move from providing too many images and giving everything away, to an offering that will allow for additional images to be purchased in order to account for the many hours they spend in post-production and retouching but hadn't been accounting for in their previous pricing model.

Example:  $250 Portrait Shoot

Before: Includes 2 hours on location, proofs online, all high resolution images

After: Up to 1 hour on location, proofs online, 2 high resolution images (additional images $75/ea)

2. Drop The Smallest Option, Add A Bigger Option

If you've presented your prices in a tiered packaging format that offers 3-5 package options, this method helps establish a new lowest price and highest price for your client offerings and makes it possible to take a big leap in price jumps from one year to the next.  This is ideal for businesses who started out too low to be sustainable and need to make a big move forward from year to year until they reach sustainability.  Since most clients tend to fall in the middle of package offerings, very few people end up booking at the bottom and top ends and generally move themselves into the middle.  When you take something that used to fall in the middle and make it a baseline package, you open up the opportunity for new clients to see a new middle ground while old clients still see a package number they're familiar with.

Example: 

Before:

Package A: $1500 Shooting only, everything else a la carte

Package B: $2900 Shooting + some things included

Package C: $3800 Shooting + more things included

After:

Package B: $2900 Shooting only, everything else a la carte

Package C: $3800 Shooting + some things included

Package D: $4700 Shooting + more things included

3. Baby Steps

People who've been in business for a long time and have very established recurring client bases, sales packages, and a good understanding of their time and cost invested generally only need to adjust prices slightly year by year as needed without much change to their offerings.  The idea is that smaller changes each year are less alarming to regular clients than dramatic changes.  They may even do this without any announcement or fanfare, just making small adjustments as needed.  As clients become comfortable with new prices year to year, the changes don't feel so dramatic that they are suddenly out of budget from one year to the next.

Example:

Before: $425 hourly rate

After: $475 hourly rate

"Should I let my clients know?"

• YES, IF.... you have a lot of recurring clients who need to build your service into their budget.
• NO, IF.... your client turn over is high and you're constantly serving new clients each year.

"How do I tell them?"

When you're ready to put your new pricing into effect, make it a positive announcement and share any growth you've experienced over the last year as well as any ways that you've improved your service through education or received recognition through awards or publication.  People love working with businesses that are growing and it's far more attractive to stick with someone who is on an upswing in their business than someone who characterizes changes in terms of how costs are weighing down their business.  If you don't have any exciting growth, awards, or improvements to share, you can just serve up a short and simple gratitude sandwich like the example below....

Example: "We want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your support and business over this last year.  We've attached a new rate sheet for your reference and are happy to answer any questions you have.  We love working with you and look forward to working with you even more in the year ahead!"

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Standing Behind Our Value

I had quite a few challenges to pricing some projects with clients over the last couple weeks.  Prospects and even existing clients were pressing especially hard to try and get me to bring my prices under their budgets while still getting everything they wanted without any compromises on their end.  In some cases, they really couldn't afford to work with a professional, but were trying to find someone who would do a professional job for a non-professional price.  They pulled a lot of stops out of the negotiating bucket:

• asking me to defend why I price things the way I do
• saying that someone else prices the same thing much lower
• talking about how great the exposure will be and how many other clients it will lead to
• suggesting that a great price on this project will mean more future business together
• telling me that the project doesn't require as much time/effort as I know it will
• building a package discount and then trying to remove individual items at full price
• threatening that they'll take their business elsewhere if I can't give them the price they want

When I was inexperienced and without the deep knowledge of how much time and expense goes into everything I create, these tactics may have made me feel insecure of myself and made me question my own value.  Due to experience and wisdom, these hard bargain strategies don't work on me anymore and I can spot them coming from a mile away.  I also know that the client who tends to use them up front is often a red flag for more issues down the road.  The tactics aren't new and they aren't going away anytime soon.  Not everyone can afford to work with a professional, and that's OK.  The problem is not that clients do these things, but that creative professionals blame clients for devaluing our work or industry.

The fact is, clients don't devalue our work, we do.

We devalue our work every time we don't stand up for our own prices.  We devalue our work when we agree to work for the same price "someone else" charges even when we have no idea who that someone else is or what the situation was.  We devalue our work when we accept exposure as sufficient payment even when we know it's something that should be paid for.  We devalue our work when we begin client relationships with an intro bargain, but then don't ask for more or don't raise our prices to fit our changing market, or professional advancement, or additional experience.  We devalue our work when we let clients tell us how much time or effort something should take, rather than defending our knowledge of the work we put in.  We devalue our work when we allow clients to get away with bad math rather than calling them on their errors.  We devalue our work when we take on projects because we feel desperate or threatened, rather than defending our value and holding space for better clients to come along.

Expect to be questioned about your value.  Expect to be compared.  Expect to be asked to work for free.  Expect to be lied to.  Expect to play hard ball.  Expect that sometimes you have to walk away in order to defend your value.  If you expect these things to happen, than you will only be pleasantly surprised on the occasions when they don't happen.

The difference between creatives with similar styles who charge more or less is often based on how they defend their value.  The $10,000 creative doesn't necessarily create better or more magical work for $10K, they simply won't do the work for less than that and are willing to take whatever risks, gambles, or other income streams are necessary in order to holdfast to that particular valuing of their work.  I'm not saying the market will pay whatever people feel like charging (though some people still debate that), I'm simply saying that our value is ultimately defined by how much we value our own work and are willing to stand behind our worth.  The funny thing is, the more comfortable we are with defending our worth, the more others tend to value it as well.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Are You Creating Buyer Confusion?

I've had several experiences lately where the way a business moved me through their sales process actually invited me to reconsider my choice after I decided on what I was going to buy.  These weren't like considering add-ons or compliments to increase the sale of my purchase, which would be a bonus purchase strategy, but rather, considering completely different products and brands which made me question my initial choice.  The buyer experience was one of confusion and distraction, rather than confidence and readiness.

Example 1: Sharing Information in a Public Sharing Platform 
I was invited by a service provider to view a price list on issu.com, an online magazine layout solution.  When I got to the bottom of the price list, the platform invited me to look at other service provider price lists for the same service!  So, even if I was sold on my first choice, now I was being given many other choices to take me into the rabbit hole of comparison and being completely taken away from my original intent of working with a specific service provider.  Make sure that how you're sharing your information with clients who are ready to make a decision isn't a place that invites them to compare other services.

Example 2: Showing 5 More Options for The Same Item
I was searching for a pair of boots on Zappos.com and when I made my decision and was ready to check out.  I was then given a side bar during my check out to look at 5 more types of black boots that didn't initially come up in my first searches.  Now, instead of checking out, I was spending more time debating my initial purchase instead of actually checking out with my purchase.  While it increased my time on the site to look at more variety, it delayed my purchasing decision and made me question what else I might have missed.  I almost didn't buy the boots I was ready to buy because I was taken down the rabbit hole of distraction.  In the photography world, this might be like showing several different flush mount album providers at the same price point and creating client decision distraction, rather than picking the best one for your workflow and business and only making the client decisions about what kind of cover it should have.

Example 3: Showing Products That Aren't Available
Isn't it the worst when you get to a restaurant and see a special or a dish you really like, only to have a server tell you it's no longer available?  Doh!!  Now we're beginning our experience with a disappointment about what's not available and doubting how many other things may not actually be available.  Make sure that any visual or price list you offer a client is current with the actual products you sell.  Trust is a huge factor in feeling good about a purchasing decision and it's important to make sure our offerings build trust rather than undermine it.

What Can You Improve?
Now that I've shared several distracting sales experiences, take a moment to consider the full sales experience your client has with your products and your services.  Are are you building confidence or confusion?  How can you improve the experience for the client?

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Thumbtack Bidding & Closing Strategies

Whenever a new service enters the market, there's going to be a learning curve for testing it out, seeing what it's good for and what it isn't good for.  If you haven't heard of Thumbtack before from my previous post on Where to Find Freelance Work, it's a newer bidding system designed to connect service professionals with people looking for services.

Who It Attracts:
People who search the web for service professionals are usually doing so to research information about hiring someone or because they don't have any referrals from trusted sources.  When you consider the person who uses the web to find services, they also may not have hired a service professional before and are starting their search online with services like Thumbtack.  They may have no idea what to expect or how the process works.  Much like ranking at the top of Google, you'll need to sort through a lot of inquiries that may be duds in order to find the ones that become awesome clients who share your work and create more referrals.

If a potential client finds their way to Thumbtack, they can get bids from 5 different "professionals" by making one request in the budget range that they *think* is appropriate and that they can afford.  It's far more effective than trying to search Google because it's a localized result and takes much less time to hear from multiple professionals. This is not to say that they will receive qualified responses if their request seems unreasonable, but there are quite a few pros employing strategies to bring a budget request on board and turn it into a more appropriate professional fee.  I can honestly say that I've used it successfully to find some really wonderful clients, and I think it's a great new service, but it does have a learning curve, which is what I'd like to help you understand before you start using it.

What To Expect:
Based on the info above, you can expect that a lot of people using the service for the first time don't actually know what a professional service should cost.  They aren't awful people and they aren't trying to undercut a professional living.  Thumbtack generally asks for a budget, and if the client doesn't know any better, they may default to the lowest possible option.  This doesn't mean they will choose the lowest bid once they see their options, it simply means they haven't been educated about the differences between low budget and appropriate budget services, and Thumbtack may be their first introduction to the differences between a low-priced service and a professionally priced one.

What The Pro Sees:
The professional sees a new request in their email, on the website, or in their smart phone app with a set of details predetermined by Thumbtack. The professional uses the request information to determine if the job is worth bidding on or not.  The pro pays a fee to make their bid based on a point system, which is similar to what you'd pay if you were using other internet lead services like Google Ad Words or Facebook Ads to secure a new client.  The service is constantly growing and changing, so if you think a request item needs to be added to the service, it's best to suggest it to them.  If they get enough suggestions, than they will be able to add it to the system.

The Bidding Process:
Thumbtack delivers the first 5 bids made by professionals to a client request without regard to relevance, bidded price, or other factors.  Their goal is to deliver service professionals and bids as quickly as possible to the client to help them make a decision quickly.  If the client fails to look at their bids for 48 hours, all bid credits are refunded to the professional bidders.  Once you've made a bid, you then have an opportunity to provide additional information through the Thumbtack messaging system, which keeps most of the client's information anonymous unless the client has provided the info to the bidders.  Clients have the option to get more information before hiring a professional as well, and if they decide to hire someone, they are also prompted to leave a review of that professional's service, which becomes part of the professionals profile.

Tips for Bidding:
Before you begin bidding, create a profile and just sit back for a week and see how many requests come in at different price points and what the categories are- this will help you get a sense of what's happening in your market and what the initial expectations are. As tempting as it would be to bid on everything right away, save yourself some money and get to know what kind of requests are coming in first.  I would also suggest going into Thumbtack knowing that your first bunch of bids are going to be learning experiences rather than paying clients.  It may take you 10-20 bids before you really start to learn what bids will actually pan out into clients who will communicate with you and hire you.  If you feel like you have plenty of business already, than don't waste your time with this system.  It's designed for people who are hungry for more work and can respond quickly to a text message or email notification.  That being said, here are a few suggestions for making the most of your bids:

1. Create A Specialty Portfolio- If you only want new portrait leads from Thumbtack, set up your profile to focus on that.  If you only want commercial leads, set up your profile for that.  This service works best when you focus tightly on what kind of new clients you want, so make sure you've tailored your Thumbtack profile to reflect that type of work and only selected that niche to receive requests for.  The more relevant the bids are to begin with, the higher chances you'll have of finding the right clients.  People who are seeking portrait work but have portfolios that feature products and vice versa are only confusing the buyer.
2. Evaluate The Detail of The Bid- At first I couldn't tell which bids were serious or not, but over time I started to notice that serious clients provided more detail in their requests than the clients who never followed up.  This isn't a 100% accurate measure of a serious client, which is why you need to spend a couple weeks just looking at a lot of the requests that come in before you start actually making bids.
3. Respond Immediately- Once you're ready to start bidding, you have to be lightening fast for some of the service categories.  Portraits and Commercial photography in NYC can receive 5 bids from professionals within 60 seconds.  If you aren't hungry for work and ready to bid, you'll probably find yourself shut out of a lot of opportunities.  That being said, you can increase your chances of seeing requests by setting up text alerts to your phone- just make sure you have an unlimited text plan before doing so.
4. Choose A Smart Bidding Strategy- You can bid on requests with a fixed price, price per hour, or by saying you need more info.  I would say your best strategy is to give an estimated price up front and then simply explain what that includes in your message, rather than giving no price and saying you need more info.  If you think the request is really a $900 job and they've set their budget to $500, you could use the hourly system to bid $300/hr and suggest that it will be a 3 hour job and provide some additional education.  That way it may at first look like it's under budget, but with the appropriate detail and education of the client, you can walk them into a more appropriate budget for the job.  Likewise, if you think it's a serious client and want to come within their bid range even if it's lower than you'd normally take, you can bid at $500 but then limit the deliverables, the post-production process, or the time for the shoot to help keep it within what's affordable for you and your overhead.  Again, it's better to give a number to open the dialogue, than to provide no number at all.
5. Ask A Question To Open Dialogue- I generally know how serious a person is about their request if they respond to a critical question included in the quote.  Questions like, what would like to do with the images after you've receive them?  Will you need a stylist or make-up artist, or will you be doing your own styling? A client who isn't serious, simply will not answer the question or provide any response.  A client who is serious will often engage in a dialogue with you and provide more details.  Unfortunately you won't know this until after you've made a bid, but it does give you insight into whether the client will actually move forward or not with the bids they've received.
6. Follow-Up After Bidding- If 48 hours have passed and you haven't received a response or confirmation of being hired or the request being closed, follow up and ask if they need more information before making a decision.  Offer your email and phone number in case it's easier to have a conversation off of Thumbtack.  Occasionally, following up even a week or two after the request has resulted in a new client.  Some people are making requests as admins or virtual assistants for someone else and need to get approvals or share information before they can move further with a bid.  Following-up shows that you're serious, professional, and willing to help.
7. Never Lose Your Cool- If you are being "ghosted", meaning that a potential client has suddenly stopped responding, never write back in frustration or anger.  Just be cool if their plans have changed or they ended up going with another option.  Your cool is part of your professionalism and without it, you're taking the whole thing way too personally and expecting way too much out of people who may be exploring a service for the very first time.

Tips for Closing The Sale:
Because these clients have elected to search for a service online, the more you can move the process forward online, the more likely you are to close the sale.  If you can provide an online quote, an online contract, and an online payment option, you're far more likely to close the sale in a timely manner than if you require these clients to take extra steps offline like having an in-person meeting first.

It's also important to remember the client level of skepticism with hiring someone online rather than from a friend or trusted source- so asking for full payment up front may also make it difficult to close the sale.  However, you may be able to ask for a small deposit up front to pay for the travel arrangements or equipment rental to serve the client, but since you are not a trusted service yet, you will be more likely to close the sale with a quote and a contract that allows for payment to be due at the time the service is provided, but before final delivery of the product.  With all clients, I would suggest not providing final delivery of the finished or high resolution product until you've received full payment.

Have more questions?  Leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them!

Handling Late or Missed Payments

If you've never had a client miss a payment deadline or bounce a payment, either you've been incredibly lucky, or you simply haven't been in business long enough.  Into every business owner's life a little late or missed payment will fall.

It's always best to approach this situation with the mindset that your client really does want to you pay you, but for whatever reason, life has gotten in the way and something slipped through the cracks.  Do not assume the worst before you've given your client plenty of time to resolve the situation.  Start the conversation with openness and understanding, having total faith in your client- this will take you much further than starting off with defensiveness and a combative attitude.

Hopefully you've set up your payments in such a way that final product is only delivered upon full receipt of payment being cleared so that you aren't giving your work away before it's been fully paid for.  If you've already provided your final work before receiving final payment, you may feel a little more antsy and defensive about the collection process, but you still need to approach it with the same level of professionalism and due process.  Chalk this one up to a learning experience in changing your policies so that you aren't in a situation of giving away your work before it's been paid for.

Step 1:  Email a payment reminder (ASAP)

As soon as possible after the missed payment, email a payment reminder with the scheduled due date that was missed.  If you haven't specified a late payment agreement with a fee, provide a grace period.  Offer the client multiple payment options and a direct link if possible to making the missed payment online with a credit/debit card, and offer a deadline by which you expect the payment to be resolved.

In this email, it's also good to state that a $$ late fee will need to be billed for any payments that need to be paid more than ## days after the payment deadline.  This both helps to incentivize quicker payment, as well as providing proof of notice that a late fee was announced for delayed payment processing and continued follow-up on collecting payment.

It's good to allow a full 14 days from payment due date in the event that the client is on a bi-weekly salary schedule, and to give them enough time to resolve any issues with their bank, or time to borrow money from family and friends if necessary.

Here's a sample email:

"Hi Jennifer,

We're looking forward to working with you and wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to make the payment that was due on January 10, 2015 for the amount of $5,000.  We totally understand that sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes things slip through the cracks.  As a courtesy to you, no additional late fee will be charged if payment can be made before January 24, 2014.  

You're welcome to pay by check, mailed to: 123 Street Ave, City, State, Zip, or by Debit/Credit/PayPal using the link below:  http://linktoinvoice.com

We'll send confirmation as soon as payment has been received and cleared our accounts.  Please note that any payments received after January 24, 2014 may have additional late fees added to the invoice to cover our time and additional service to continue following up on payments not yet received.  

Please email or call us if you feel you need additional time, or have questions about this missed payment: 800-888-88888

All the best,
Service Provider"

Step 2:  Send A Second Email Reminder & Phone Call (7 Days)

If you don't receive payment or response within a few days of your first notice, prepare to send a second notice and make a phone call a few days before the grace period ends.  It's important to make a phone call in order to confirm that all of your emails have been received by the client.  They could be in another country, or their email may not be working, and all payment requests you've sent may not have gone through.  It's important to continue giving the client the benefit of the doubt, until you've confirmed the client has definitely received any of the information that you've sent so far.  In your follow-up email, note that the deadline to pay without additional fees is coming up and you'd like to help your client take care of this as soon as possible.

In your phone call, ask for confirmation about the receipt of the email, and offer to take any payment options over the phone so that it can be taken care of right away.  If you have to leave a message, state that a paper bill will be sent with an additional late fee if payment isn't received by the grace period deadline provided over email.  Thank them for their business and let them know that you really enjoy working with them and totally understand that sometimes things happen, and you want to help them resolve the situation easily.

Step 3: Mail a Paper Invoice After Grace Period (14 Days)

If two weeks have passed and payment has still not been received, it may be time to send a written invoice for the payment.  Again, it's best to give the client the benefit of the doubt.  Perhaps someone ended up in the hospital, or they were on an extended vacation, or who knows what else could have happened.  You'll feel really terrible if you start attacking your client when their spouse or parent just died and they're having a hard time coping with life in general.  Be human.  It goes a lot further toward gaining repeat business and new clients than being a jerk.

In paper, send a copy of the contract, a copy of the emails sent, and notice of when you called.  Just document it all and share the documentation.  Write a letter showing that you're concerned you haven't heard from them and you're willing to set up a payment plan if that is needed.  Offer multiple ways to help your client honor their commitment.  Call within a few days of mailing your letter, once again, to talk on the phone and help create a solution.

Step 4: Determine Your Next Steps (30 Days)

If a client has gone completely missing after 30 days with zero response to any of your attempts to get in touch and resolve the bill, you will need to consider if you can ride out another 30-60 days of sending notices by email, phone, and mail every couple weeks before taking any legal steps.

It's in your best interest professionally and legally, to attempt to resolve any bill collection on your own before attempting to engage the courts or a lawyer.  A lawyer may make the case that they should be involved immediately, but you'll have a much stronger case for any additional fees above and beyond your original contract if you demonstrate how much time you put into attempting to resolve the issue on your own expense first.  I think 90 days is a good amount of time to help a client directly resolve any financial issues, especially if those issues have come about because of death, unemployment, or other sudden life changes.

If your client has remained unresponsive, than you will need to determine your next step of action.  Is this a small claims court issue, something a collection agency can help with, or is this substantial enough to engage legal representation for?  Will the amount for the service you pursue exceed the amount owed?  Consider all of your options before deciding which one may be best.

Anne Ruthmann is a professional photographer in New York City. With over 10 years of success as a full-time photographer in weddings, portraits, editorial, and now architecture and interiors, she spends any extra time she has helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Where to Find Freelance Photo Work

In 2011, I was preparing for a year of traveling around the world and taking a sabbatical from the demands of my wedding photo business for a while.  Since I had to stop taking wedding clients 12 months in advance of traveling, I also had to create a plan to help me live a more freedom-based lifestyle while still being a photographer with professional recurring bills to take care of.

At first I was terrified to give up my security blanket of wedding clients who always planned well in advance, rarely ever cancelled their shoot, and were a very predictable source of income, however, after I'd paid off enough debt and saved up enough money, I had a little more courage to take some leaps of faith and try a more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style of booking and serving clients.  What I ended up finding was how much I really enjoyed short-assignment and easy-for-me work that I could pick up on the fly and turn-around in less than a week.

Disclaimer: if a lack of security or routine throws you into a stress ball of unhappiness, this may not be the road for you to travel, but it can be a chance to pick up some side jobs in your free time.  However, if you're zen like a surfer riding a tsunami, than the freelance lifestyle will actually serve you far better than a more predictable routine-and-commitment based type of work.

Bonus Tip: if you're overworked, these can also be great resources to find your ideal virtual assistant, retoucher, white-balancer, graphic designer, web coder, video editor, and more!

Craigslist

The most obvious and freely available resource for finding wanted requests as well as promoting your creative services is by far, the Craigslist job boards (mostly in the United States).  People get used to using the site for all sorts of things like apartments, furniture, tickets, etc, and because the board is so vast, they just use it to look for everything else they need as well.  The really nice thing about Craigslist for an in-person service business is that it's locally focused, so you're most likely to get local leads that are easy to serve rather than national or international leads.  Granted, there are a lot of people out there giving their work away, but that doesn't mean that a buyer can't recognize the difference and value of hiring a professional.

Thumbtack

This service has only emerged in the online marketplace in the last couple years, but has aimed to streamline the process of finding LOCAL creatives and services by allow people to create a posting with some guidelines for their request and a local area that they want to be served in and then the first 5 bids to respond are shown to the client.  This really streamlines the process for the person who's making the request so that they aren't overwhelmed with bids that are outside of their budget or from people who are unavailable.  It makes the process for service providers easy so that they only need to respond to a request if they have the time available to take the client.  It's free to create an account, but there is a small charge for each request you bid on.

Elance

One of the first and still most popular places really dedicated to connecting creatives with job opportunities.  Client billing and payment is managed entirely through the site, so if you need help with contracts or billing, they can help streamline that process for you.  You search for projects that fit your skills when you have time to apply, you make bids, and you're either accepted or not, but I believe the Elance cut is taken only when you're hired and paid through their system.

ODesk

Very similar to Elance, but also provides public profiles so that clients can seek you out directly by searching for available help rather than being directed to posting a job first and getting whatever comes in.  This freelancing article on FreshBooks shares some of the pros and cons of these similar systems.

The Creative Loft

Rather than a service that collects a commission or fees for transactions, this is a membership-based service for access to creating a profile and/or a listing for requests.  It seems to focus more on the community aspect of working as a freelancer, by providing forums and message boards for creatives to connect more easily and share.

Guru

This may be more ideal for commercial or studio work in which a product that needs to be photographed for a website can be shipped to the photographer.  Because the site doesn't easily filter by location, it's more ideal for someone who can provide their services virtually.

People Per Hour

Also ideal for people who prefer to work virtually, but this allows you to define a specific task that you're willing to perform at a very specific rate so that clients can hand-pick from services and prices like they would if they were in a grocery store.  There's also a bidding process that can help streamline inquiries, but they seem to do a great job of making the resource easy and user friendly.

Disclaimer:
Because I tend to stay busy on referrals alone, I've only tried two of the services above, the rest are things I found when I was looking for extra assignments to take on, so I'd love to hear about your experiences.  I used Craigslist while I was building my business from the ground up almost 10 years ago, but haven't used it for photo assignments since then.  I signed up for Thumbtack recently after moving to NYC, and there are many requests that come in too low or too far away for me to serve them professionally, however, there are a few gems in the rough and on a rare occasion I do actually respond to a request if it looks like it will fit my working style and schedule.

Are there other services or sites that you've tried and had success with?  Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.


Anne Ruthmann is an lifestyle & event photographer in New York City. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and smarter solutions to small business problems. Stay in touch on Twitter or Facebook.

Working For Free: When You Should and Shouldn't

Donating our time as creatives comes naturally to us when we love what we do.  After all, we were probably doing our work for free long before we decided to make it a business.  There are situations when donating our time can really benefit us creatively and as a business, but there are other times when donating our time dampens our creativity and takes us away from paying projects.  Here are the questions to ask yourself when deciding if you should or shouldn't take on a pro bono project:

1. Are you doing this for attention or exposure?
If you're hoping it will give you more exposure, and it doesn't lead to anything, or worse yet, someone uses your work without giving you any credit at all, you may wind up feeling very upset with the people you worked with and as if you could have spent your time marketing yourself more wisely in other ways.  If you still want to do the job in the hopes of gaining some exposure, make sure the client understands that this is a trade of your time for full credit whenever your work is used, and make sure to get it in writing so that you have rights to refuse any illegal or uncredited usage.

2. Did they ask you, or did you offer?
If they asked you, than they really need your services and should most likely be hiring you rather than asking you to do it for free- if you say no, they'll likely move on and look for someone else who will do it for free.  If you're offering, do it because you have some time in your schedule to spare and enjoy the work or the mission of the organization, or because you're comfortable working out an appropriate trade agreement that recognizes the value of your donated time, since you can't claim your time as a tax donation.

3. Are you in a desperate situation financially?
If you're in a desperate situation, taking on more free work isn't going to help your situation.  If anything it will simply worsen your morale because you're continuing to devalue yourself.  You'd be better off taking small jobs or craigslist requests that pay something rather than doing any additional free work that will weigh down your schedule when you could be working for others who will pay you.

4. Are you falling behind on other work?
If you can't keep up with the work you have on your plate, and an opportunity that you've always said yes to for free in the past walks in the door, than it's time to let them know that you can't do it for free anymore because it will take you away from caring for your paying clients.  If they'd like to become a paying client, perhaps it can become a priority for you, but you'd need to make it very clear as to how it will be different than what you've done in the past.

5. Do you want to help make a difference?
If you're doing pro-bono work for a non-profit organization or individual out of the love of your heart, make sure you still have all of your contracts in order about how the images will be used on your behalf and on behalf of the organization.  Also, if you'll be using sensitive subjects or stories on your own website or portfolio, make sure you get model releases and permission from the organization and/or the subjects before sharing the work.

6. Are you doing it to test equipment, try something out of the ordinary, or build a portfolio?
This is probably the best reason to do something for free, because not only is it a way to improve yourself as a creative and take risks you don't want to take on a paying client, it's also going to benefit you in the long run if you create something successful and have the permission to share it with your audience.  This is how many people fill their time with personal projects that generate buzz around their work.  If you're going to do it for free, the best reason is to do it all on your own terms.

Anne Ruthmann is an editorial & event photographer in New York City. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business.  She loves helping others find creative and smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Twitter or Facebook.

Pricing Help for Photographers & Freelancers

Pricing is often one of the factors in a creative business that seems difficult for many people to work through, but we've spent a lot of time writing about the how and why of pricing over the last few years.  Here's a resource page of our posts on the topic of pricing your services and your work....


Hidden Costs & Pricing Factors

Why It's Hard to Talk Pricing Publicly
The things no one can tell you when you ask for pricing help in online groups.

How Much Does Each Click Cost?
Should you buy new equipment or rent new equipment?  Check this out to find out what might work best for your situation.

Photography Overhead Costs (or Why Photography is Expensive)
Learn more about the hidden costs of professional photography services.

How Much Do You Need To Make?
Determining your service rates based on your income goals.

How $60,000 Revenue = $30,000 Income
Understanding how revenue and income are different, and how to plan ahead.

Budgeting for Equipment Replacements
One of the hidden overhead costs of digital creative work is replacing equipment regularly.

Why $300 Should Be a Professional Photography Minimum
Can you do a professional job no matter what happens?  Only if your price can handle it!

Charging Travel Fees for Destination Clients
What to prepare for in your budget for travel fees.

Formulas for Pricing Products & Services
A detailed explanation of pricing products and services in a creative freelance business.


Presenting Your Pricing Online

Why Hiding Pricing Only Hurts You
The drawbacks of being secretive about your pricing online.

Pricing Critique Webinar - Best Pricing Page Practices
How you present your prices can be just as important as what your prices are.  This post shares best pricing page practices.

On Sharing Pricing Up Front
How to win over clients with up front pricing.

Incentivize vs. Penalize
How the language used in presenting options affects buyers.

How to Quote a Job Price Without Project Details
How to manage a client that doesn't know the scope of the project yet but still needs a budget quote.

Psychology of Pricing
Does your pricing strategy match the clients you want to work with?  A checklist of things to think through and apply to your pricing methods.

Price Matters, Price Always Matters
Thinking like a client about online purchasing.

How to Announce Price Increases
Moving up the pricing scale without scaring recurring clients.


Quality Vs. Quantity

Quick Thoughts on Buyer Behavior
The difference between price shoppers and quality buyers.

Adding Value Into Pricing
How you describe your prices and packages may add more value without more items.

How Many Clients Do You Need?
More clients may mean more work but less profit if not considered carefully.

Things We Can Learn From Apple
How having a premium product can be a better position than a bargain product.

When Potential Clients Say You Charge Too Much
Are they trying to get a discount, or is it really not in their budget?  These subtle differences help you know if they're worth working with or passing on, as well as if you need to step up your quality.

How to Respond When A Client Says "Too Much!"
How to respond to clients who experience sticker shock on product prices after you've already shared their images with them.

3 Responses to Low Budget Requests
How to turn a budget client into a potentially higher paying client.

Standing Behind Our Value
When to hold and when to fold.

Stop Being Taken Advantage of by Demanding Clients
How to prevent clients trying to take your work beyond scope without paying for it.