This is a question I get asked all the time – how did you figure out what to charge people ? It’s a little more complicated when you are in a service based business. I have been to many conferences that say things like, ” Oh, charge what you think you’re worth!” or “Charge twice as much as your competition to set yourself apart!”. Well that didn’t work for me, so this is how I figure out what I am going to charge.

1. I start with by writing down my GOALS.

How much do I hope to make in the year? What does work/life balance look like to me? How many hours do I WANT to work a day or a week ? Once I’ve established this I can break it down by the numbers.

2. Then I do some MATH.

I am not much of a numbers person, but if you know how much you want to make each year, you can divide that by 12 and you know how much you want to make in a month, then break it down by week and you get a good idea of how many hours / sessions / weddings/ projects etc that it would take to get there.

3. Do more MATH.

Then you make a list of how long things actually take you. Not how long you would like them to take you. From the beginning to the end – booking, meetings, work the event, after the event, etc. So at this point we have most of the pieces of the puzzle. Now we need a rate.

4. I establish a RATE.

I establish an hourly rate for myself based on what I want to make and multiply it by how long it will take me to do whatever it is I am pricing. For instance, the price of a one hour session isn’t just for that one hour of shooting. It’s the time to book the client, send the contracts, email back and forth, consultation, the prep before the shoot, shooting, importing images, editing the images, exporting the images, uploading the images, and packaging the product. So for me all of that takes about 5-8 hours. So I take my hourly rate and multiply by amount of hours and thats what I charge for my sessions, events, weddings. And my pricing is consistent because of this. There are a lot of different ways to do it so you’ve got to do what makes sense to you but that is a good place to start.

Hope this was helpful for you! Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help you put your price list together.