WHAT SHOULD I CHARGE?
Part 1
I love the story about Picasso, who later in life painted portraits in the park for passersby. One afternoon as he was sketching a woman, he studied her for just a moment and created her portrait in a single brush stroke. She was thrilled until he announced his price: $5000! She argued, “$5000? But it only took you a few seconds.” To which Picasso replied, “Madam, it took me my entire life.”
How long did it take you to create your latest portrait? I don’t mean an hour of shooting and an hour of editing. I mean how long did you study your camera settings until you finally “got it” one day. How many nights did you spend unengaged from family activities learning Photoshop – frustrated in front of your computer? How many free sessions did you do building your portfolio and creating your website? That’s what it took for you to create your latest portrait. And you are charging HOW MUCH for an 8x10? I’m going to talk about how some of us are guilty of under-pricing our artwork and discuss a few ways we can all overcome the cerebral and emotional hangups that keep us from really charging what we are worth.
A DIFFERENT WAY TO LOOK AT IT: When clients come to you, they are commissioning an artist to capture their family in a completely unique fashion which they cannot get anywhere else. They are NOT going somewhere to “get some pictures took”. They can go to Target for that. But when they choose you, they are choosing to invest in art – so you CANNOT charge Target prices for that unique ability that only you can give them. You are a rare commodity. And people pay top dollar for rare commodities.
When Target sets their prices, they figure in their cost of photo paper, printing ink and labor, then they multiply it by 3 and PRESTO they have their prices. You and me both know that if we set our prices like that, we would go broke very soon. Even if we multiplied by 10 – we would get nowhere fast. “Markups are just not the way to go to set prices on your enlargements – we’ll just throw that idea out the window right now. What we pay the lab to produce a 30x40 is totally insignificant. It’s almost as insignificant as setting the price of the Mona Lisa based on how much the canvas and paint cost. Your portraits are YOUR ARTWORK! Your clients are paying for YOU – for YOUR ability – YOUR talent. Your prices are not based on a markup!
WHAT SHOULD I CHARGE?
Part 2
Jill started a photography business a couple of years ago. It was going good for a while, but she started running into financial problems. Jill was always very generous - I mean she would do free sessions for her friends & family, let people pay her later and never force clients to abide by her policies to the letter. She was so nice. She would also donate her talents to a local charity when she could afford to give up her time, but she became so busy with her business that it left little opportunity for that. She wasn’t making a lot of money, but she decided she didn’t really need THAT much money. She just needed enough to pay the bills and keep the business afloat. Besides, she didn’t want to become one of those rich, controlling-types like her uncle. Eventually, she got fed up with all the financial stress and decided to close her business and just do it on the side as a hobby. Does anyone know this lady?
Knowing good business practices and adopting a good pricing structure will only get you so far if you have some “emotional roadblocks” holding you back from really pushing through and making your business profitable. Last time, we talked about valuing yourself and your art enough to charge what you are worth. While that is a huge emotional and mental battle to win, there is also a key battle with “how you feel about money”. Until that is dealt with in our lives, there will be an invisible shield that keeps us from getting ahead no matter how well we build our business.
In the story about Jill she was having a few issues going on that are common to a lot of artists starting a business. She wanted everyone to know that she was generous, nice and not greedy. And she definitely had something personal against making money. I would like to take a look at all these issues and show you how Jill’s thinking was “all jacked up” and actually causing all of her problems with the business.
Let’s talk about generosity. Do you want to be generous in your business? Of course – we all do. But who do you want to be generous to? Your friends and family who want free pictures? . . . or people who REALLY need it? There are lots of people out there that we can bless with our talents who are in REAL need: foster children, terminally ill children, infant remembrance, the critically ill, those in ministry, deployed military – just to name a few. Isn’t it SO great to use your photography to bring love into these people’s lives? Don’t you want to be able to do as much of it as possible? It kind of puts doing “freebees” for our friends into perspective. If we are not making any money in our business because we always “give away the farm”, then we cannot bless those who have a greater need.
My wife, Heather, charges a lot of money for her photography skills and she has strict policies regarding payment and never waffles when clients (or friends) whine about prices. She’s really “mean” isn’t she? And because she’s so “mean” she can afford to do infant remembrance sessions, free sessions for foster kids, free sessions for military, go to the homes of terminally ill children and host free conferences to equip other photographers to build successful businesses. All of these cost money, gas, editing time and (most costly) the time spot given up for paying clients. And she LOVES it! A great man once said, “Be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.” -Jesus. And I’ll leave this topic with another challenge – we can’t be generous to our own children, if we are unbalanced in our “generosity” to others.
In the story about Jill, she wanted just enough money to pay her bills and take care of her family. Noble, right? Actually, it’s kind of selfish if you think about it. She just wants to bless herself and her own. If she has no money left over, how can she be a blessing to anyone? How can she give to a good cause? How can she give offerings at church? How can she afford to take off time from work to do anything for anybody? For that matter, how can she afford to surprise her own family with nice gifts.
The bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 9:8 (Amplified Bible)
8And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].
It’s actually God’s will that we are blessed beyond our own needs so that we can bless other people. It is really a selfish thing to desire only enough money to pay your own bills.
WHAT SHOULD I CHARGE?
Part 3
Charlie didn’t mean to, but he dropped the whole carton of eggs on the kitchen floor. He looked up into his mother’s eyes to see her look of horror and disappointment. He thought she must be so angry that she couldn’t even speak to him. She finished bringing in the rest of the groceries by herself while Charlie lay in tears on the couch. He made a vow right then and there that he would NEVER make a mistake again! Today Charlie is grown with kids of his own. And he NEVER makes any mistakes. If an accident happens, it’s always someone else’s fault. Charlie can never apologize to anyone because that would be admitting a mistake. He never takes any healthy risks with his business because that would be inviting a possible misstep. So his vow became a self-fulfilling prophecy – he NEVER makes mistakes. And boy, let me tell you, his wife and kids just “love” him for that.
How powerful are our words? The bible says that “Life and death is in the power of the tongue”. I think we can all see the evidence of this in our own lives. Words spoken to us or that we have spoken ourselves seem to trap us into a certain ways of life we were never meant to live. Even seemingly good vows end up causing us problems. The guy who said “I will ALWAYS be on time” ends up driving like a maniac everywhere he goes. The girl who said “I will NEVER look stupid” ends up never asking questions important to her success. Do you notice any of these in your life? Are their things you try to change about yourself that you just can't seem to? Can you see how these things are a detriment to your business?
Pronouncing a vow over ourselves is actually a sinful response to emotional wounds that we receive. It’s not that a vow is evil - coming from a morally bankrupt person, its just that instead of relying on God to heal our wounds, we decide that we can take care of it ourselves by issuing a self-reliant decree based in pride and arrogance. Instead of saying “I need you God, please help me to be more punctual and to be considerate of other people’s time”. We say, “I will NEVER be late.” The focus is on ourselves and our human power. It’s walking by the flesh instead of the Spirit. And so we pursue OUR way until we get all tangled up in our own web, and then God comes along and asks the famous Dr. Phil question: “How’s that workin’ for ya?”
God doesn’t punish us for making vows. They just come back to bite us because they are birthed out of the flesh in the first place. And "flesh" stuff never ends up good. Check out these 2 scriptures:
John 6:63 "It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]." (Amplified Bible)
Romans 8:6 "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored." (The Message)
Remember our friend Jill from Part 2? I mentioned that she was okay with “not making money” partly because she had a negative view of rich people. Her great uncle was a very rich and successful businessman. He was the only one in Jill’s family that had lots of money. She was wounded very deeply by him when he sought to control where she would go to college by offering her parents the money to pay for it. After experiencing this and other manipulative behaviors from her uncle, Jill (not wanting to be anything like her uncle) made a vow: “I will never be rich”. Now she is trapped by her own words. She can’t allow herself to be successful (subconsciously) because it goes against her own vow. She can’t charge the prices that she knows she needs to because an invisible force is holding her back.
A vow that's keeping you from prosperity could take many other forms - here are some common vows: Someone who grew up without money might vow, "I will NEVER be poor." Hello workoholic! If you experienced the neglect of a workoholic parent you could vow, "I will not EVER work hard" Hello, lazy bones! If you had a perfectionist father, a vow might be, "I will ALWAYS do things right." Can you say anal-retentive! Again, some of these things sound positive, but there is no such thing as a positive vow - they are ALL binding. We even start to find comfort in our vows even though we know they are screwing us up. Vows trap us in such a powerful way that they weave their way into the fabric of our life – it’s not a habit that we can simply break. To get free of their grasp we must go to the root of the vow and break its power over our life.
The first step in breaking a vow is admitting that it is sin. Until you come to that conclusion and ask God to forgive you for it, you can never be free from it. Then you must ask God to set you free from the power of your words and to heal the emotional wounds related to the vow. And you can use the power of your own mouth (you know, the thing that got you into trouble in the first place) to break the power of the vow. Only this time, you are speaking in Spirit and Truth. Here’s how a prayer might go:
“Father God, please forgive me for making the vow that I will never be rich. It was a sinful response to an emotional wound and I ask you to forgive me for not relying on You to heal my heart. Please heal my heart that was wounded by my uncle's control and manipulation and please restore all that has been lost because of this vow I made. With the power of my tongue, I bind the reaping of this vow in the name of Jesus. The power if this vow is broken off of my life and the consequences of my sin are totally vaporized by the power of the cross.”
For more on this subject, there is a great book called “I Will Give You Rest” available at : www.divinelydesigned.com
This book has helped my wife and I tremendously!
So, what does any of this have to do with photography business or knowing what you should charge? Well, knowing what you should charge and being able to do it are 2 very separate things! And I have a feeling that many of us know we should be charging a lot more, but something is keeping us from doing it. So, sorry I had to get all spiritual on you in this issue. But this topic of pricing really would not be complete or beneficial without tackling these all-important emotional and spiritual issues. And if you don’t really have a relationship with God or even believe in the power of Christ . . . “How’s that workin’ for ya?”
