If you've ever struggled with the awkwardness of charging your friends, this post is for you!
When you work for yourself, there's a lot at risk.
As a photographer, it can be difficult to determine exactly how much to charge your clients. Once you've figured that part out, based on your 'Cost of Goods & Services' and your 'Cost of Doing Business', you're always faced with the difficult task of deciding whether or not you will give your 'inner circle' any kind of discount or 'freebies'.
It's difficult to charge friends and family! Trust me, I know! But here's the thing..
Your friends and family are the last people who want to see you struggling to make ends meet!
I feel the need to challenge you to really look at your friendships, if you have 'friends' who only ever come to you when they want updated family photos.. for free.
In saying this, John and I have a list of people, an actual written list, of people we are happy to gift an entire session or even wedding to, and people we would happily gift our time, but they're required to pay for anything else.
But working in an industry which has become greatly commodified, there's a standard market price point which we, as photographers, are continuously fighting. If done incorrectly, we could see our business burnt to the ground before it even takes off.
In reality, we will probably all see ourselves start below that standard price point because, like anything, our skills and experience differ quite vastly from those who sit right at, or above, that point, especially when we're only starting out. The problem with this is that the average consumer (our clients) is unable to differentiate between someone with decades worth of skill and experience and someone just starting out. Many people also don't understand that, whilst they may be happy to have a 'newbie' shoot their wedding at a heavily discounted price due to inexperience, they also need to accept that their 'heavily discounted newbie' photographer may miss many of the standard wedding photography shots because they simply just didn't know that they needed to get it.. or how to get it.
We all struggle with 'Imposter Syndrome'.
It's actually a real psychological issue which many people deal with -- it's where an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent fear that they'll be exposed as a 'fraud'. I've been a photographer for years and I still wonder if people are seeing my posts and thinking 'who does she think she is, pretending to be some awesome photographer and charging people that much?!' -- but I've never met a photographer, even the seasoned pros!, who don't struggle with these feelings. So, to be in this situation and then attempt to charge what you feel your work is worth, it's a nightmare!
There are so many factors which come into play when you're talking about how much to charge your clients, but the one many photographers struggle with (myself included!) is how to charge friends and family.
Stick to the plan -- the BUSINESS PLAN.
If you don't have a business plan, I suggest you create one. If you don't know where to start, join the school of Google. It's an amazing tool and, if you're old enough to remember the days where you could only visit a website if you knew the exact link, you'll understand why I think Google is freakin' amazing.
A business plan is, pretty simply, a hardcopy of the goals you have for your business and the steps you plan to take to achieve them.
It's created by business owners to precisely lay out the plans they have for their business, acting as a point of reference for their employees, business partners, and even the bank when they're applying for a business loan.
That said, you don't need anything extreme. Keep it simple. Your business plan doesn't need to be a thick stack of papers to be 'legit'. It can be as simple as a double sided piece of A4 paper!
The idea is that you're documenting your goals and, by noting the steps for how you will achieve those goals, you're also forced to really think about your pricing structure, based on how much it costs you to run your business.
This is where I would suggest including a section which you've specially designed with your family and friends in mind.
Whether you choose to have people you definitely will not charge, or just people you would like to give a discount to, make a solid list of people and include the exact price or discount you are happy with charging them, regardless of whether or not you think they'll enlist in your services.
Being clear about this from the get go will ensure you're ready if they ever do come knocking. But it also makes things much clearer when you have other friends or family members wanting to hire you and you're not sure whether you should give them a discount or not -- If they're not on the list, they're not on the list. That's all there is to it.
This is how John and I determine who is charged and how much we charge them. Knowing that our prices are based 100% on how much it costs us to run our business and cover our costs of living, it makes us much more confident when we share our pricing structure. Which takes me to my next point..
Set expectations.. set them EVERYWHERE!
The mistake is when photographers assume that their clients know what to expect. Don't assume anything!
Set expectations from the first moment, especially when you're dealing with friends and family.
When you're first approached by a friend or family member for services, tell them straight away, "No worries, I'll email you my 'Friends & Family Pricing'." -- set the expectation that, whilst you will be charging them, they're special to you, so they'll receive special pricing; pricing which ALL your friends and family receive, setting the expectation that, yes, you charge EVERYONE, so they shouldn't take it personally.
Continue to set expectations by being informative. Explain your booking process and how you usually prepare your clients -- show them that, just because they're friends or family, doesn't mean they're going to be treated any differently. After all, you're running a business, and you would be doing them a disservice to treat them any other way.
My motto is to be transparent about everything. It requires you to remain open and informative. It also makes you personable, which is a great characteristic to have in business, no matter how big your business grows!
I think that, when it comes to charging friends and family, people are worried about what people, the closest people to them, will say when they're charged for a service that we, as business owners, have control over discounting or giving for free.
If this is your worry, I want you to think about it like this;
You own a small grocery store. It costs you to put groceries on the shelves, you need to pay rent, utilities, insurance and, therefore, you need to make that cost up, in addition to earning a wage to support yourself and your family. You have a friend or family member come into your store, load up their basket, head over to you at the check-out and ask, "would you mind if I took all this for free?.. or, at least, give me some kind of discount?" and you're thinking, 'who the heck do you think you are?!'.
It's the same thing with photography. Photography has been commodified by the masses, meaning that anyone can find a photographer in the price range which best suits their budget because it's been so widely commercialised by almost anyone who has a camera and a need for income.
This has it's positive and negatives. Obviously, it allows for people to find a photographer that best suits them because there's so many of us now! But one of the biggest negatives is that photographers are often undervaluing their work, meaning they undercharge their clients, or are giving them the service for free, depreciating themselves in the process, and the many other photographers who are charging what they're worth. What's even more distressing is that many photographers are undercharging so frequently that their businesses are suffering and they're struggling to pay themselves a secure wage.
Personally, the only time I don't charge is when I approach someone and personally offer my services. I offer to take photos for friends' business websites and social media content, I offer to take photos for my sisters, or my parents -- and I don't charge.
Outside of that, I have a special pricing system for very close friends and family. Anyone not within that inner circle is charged the full price advertised on my website.
Don't risk your business.. your home.. next week's groceries.. just to treat someone to a discount or 'freebie'.
I learnt the hard way, and we paid for it for a long time. These days, my family comes first.
'Photographer' is my job. It's what allows us the luxury of eating out and buying new things.. it's not a service that can be exploited for other people to take advantage of, especially if my family are the ones paying for it.
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