Becoming a Professional Photographer

[ricktas]

Following on in this topic.

We often see members post saying they are about to setup their small photography business and what should they charge. So here is an example of one way of working that out. How much do you want to earn from your small business? I hear you say you would like to take home a pay of $60,000 per annum, before tax. GREAT! So we have a starting point.

Now you need to start your research, you need to know what the following costs you (per annum)

Insurance - public liability, your camera gear, income protection(in case you cannot work- sick), maybe property, if you have a shop front. If working from home call your insurance company, you may need to pay extra to cover you running a business from home.

Advertising - Find out how much business cards cost, stationery, a logo designed, placing ads in the local newspaper perhaps, contact the local wedding dress makers/ cake makers / wedding car hire companies, find out if they allow advertising through them. Find out the costs.

Accountant – talk to the tax office, your accountant. Find out what you need to do reporting wise (GST, balance sheets etc). Find out what your accountant would charge to attend to your financials. Do you know how to use MYOB ? If not, go do a course and include the course costs in your accountancy costs, here

Equipment - Camera gear, it is great you have that 1000D, but what it it breaks down 10 minutes into a wedding? You need to have enough equipment to be able to effectively have a good fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is how well you can continue operating with the failure of one or more pieces of equipment. Phone, Fax, computer(s), printers.

Suppliers - frame makers, canvas printers, large prints, albums, and more, You need to research all of these and find out what each is going to cost you. No use telling the client a canvas print is $250.00 to find out that it costs you $245.00 to get it printed.

Finance - You may not have enough money to start your company and plan on borrowing say $20,000 to get it set-up. You need to know the interest and repayment amounts, cause you need to factor those into your figures to find out what your total expenses will be, running your business.

Other – Any other costs you might need to consider.

Now the fun part. Sit down and work out all your costs for a year. Here is an example


Wages $60,000
Superannuation $5400
Insurance $3000
Advertising $2000
Accounting $2000
Equipment $23,000
Supplies $15,000
Finance $7000
So there you go, your costs for your small business are $117,400

Some other things to consider, not included here. Equipment depreciation/failure and replacement, computers and software, rental costs, phone costs, power costs, travel costs (petrol, tyres, car servicing etc). To do this properly, you need to factor in ALL your costs.

So now we know you need to make $117,400 / 52.2 (weeks in the year), equates to $2.249.00 a week to meet your target.

From this $2,249.00 a week, this gives you a figure to start working out what to charge. How you do that is up to you.

You should have spent time during the planning stage working out how many weddings you will do a week, how many portrait sittings, engagement shoots, product shoots, property shoots, etc. Once you have all that, and the costs associated with each one, you can start to formulate a charging rate for each photographic session.

There is no magic figure you should charge, because what someone charges in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney would not even compare to what someone charges in Adelaide. The operating costs are completely different.

This guide is not to be used as financial advice, but rather, is designed to make you think about setting up your business and how to make it profitable. Many people do not create a business plan, and then wonder why they are not making any money. Do yourself a favour and create a business plan, make it comprehensive, do your research into all your costs, and be prepared to work hard and adjust your business plan in need.

So next time you get asked to shoot a wedding and agree to do it for $300.00, think about this thread. You might just want to increase that quote a bit. And for $300.00 you probably don't even have public liability insurance? Guess what, great uncle fred trips over your camera bag, which you left on the ground while shooting the bride and groom, dear old Fred ends up in hospital, and sues you for his medical expenses. There is much more to being a paid photographer than just saying yes to a $300.00 wedding, 'to get the experience'.