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Archive 2013 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!

  
 
TheGE
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


paparazzinick wrote:
Thats where a lot of us think different.

I dont see it as being tied up. I see it as making a few coins and still having my day free for family time.


I think of it differently because I think of it as a business: Say I'm billable at $XXXX for the day and I have two associates billable at 1/2 $XXXX. So I'm not going to take my top billing guy and book him out for less. There are roughly 100 or so possible event dates in a year. That's more than I need to obtain my annual numbers. I don't need to book every one of those dates to achieve that. I only need to get the best return for my investment for any assignment. When you average that out, you see why that's profitable. The "grab what I can hey it's better than making nothing and sitting at home" guys make money too but by the end of the year they've worked harder than me. And I used to work really really hard doing that too. 50 gigs a year. After a couple of years of that I realized all I had created was a job.

That's the big problem with us. We've created jobs for ourselves. Not businesses. Dammit, my electrician won't even come out to do a small job or charge a fortune if he does.



Mar 27, 2013 at 11:17 AM
CMB Photo
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


We need good business person's comment here now. Isn't we just talk about smaller biz vs. bigger "sharks"? (I hope no offence here)
When a bigger biz can pick and choose, and smaller - takes anything they could?
Reminds me also of bigger corp. biz strategies vs. smaller mom-pop businesses.
I got to admit, I'm confused now trying to find a perfect biz formula for smaller packages vs. ONLY bigger ones and focusing on that fact as your business goal.
Unless, all this is a everyday variable that can be changed from instance to instance and from biz to biz.
I do appreciate all points of view expressed here. Again, hope it doesn't get any controversy as diversity in biz formulas as well as personal approaches is something makes us all unique and sure valuable to someone out there with different budgets.



Mar 27, 2013 at 11:29 AM
Andrew Welsh
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


For weekend warriors such as the OP and myself, these one-off weddings are fine. I've done a couple myself... last minute bookings, 40 or fewer guests etc.

For full time business owners, the balance of profitability, time spent working and the effect on the market (race to the bottom?) the attractiveness of such events diminishes.

For folks like Inku who are in high demand, yeah, it's easy to pass on the little event, confident that someone else will come along and book it. And if he gets a free weekend, well, that's just gravy.



Mar 27, 2013 at 11:58 AM
paparazzinick
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


TheGE wrote:
I think of it differently because I think of it as a business: Say I'm billable at $XXXX for the day and I have two associates billable at 1/2 $XXXX. So I'm not going to take my top billing guy and book him out for less. There are roughly 100 or so possible event dates in a year. That's more than I need to obtain my annual numbers. I don't need to book every one of those dates to achieve that. I only need to get the best return for my investment for any assignment. When you average that out,
...Show more

thats a good way to look at things. I forgot to mention I dont do more than 25 weddings a year. So if a few are $1k 2 hour gigs. I'll take it. Hell, if all 25 are $1k 2 hour gigs. I will take it. That leaves me more time on saturdays for portrait work and then leaves my Sundays totally open for family instead of doing portraits that day.



Mar 27, 2013 at 12:00 PM
paparazzinick
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


Andrew Welsh wrote:
For weekend warriors such as the OP and myself, these one-off weddings are fine. I've done a couple myself... last minute bookings, 40 or fewer guests etc.



OK first I think we need to have a universal definition of weekend warrior. When I hear weekend warrior I think of the craigslist photographer trying to supplement their income with shoot and burns with all day coverage for $500 or less.

Also, last minute bookings and 40 or fewer guests shouldnt be a reason to charge less. I just booked a last minute wedding and they are paying full price. I also have a June wedding with 22 guests and they are paying full price. Don't price your business of how many guests or last minute.

Andrew Welsh wrote:
For full time business owners, the balance of profitability, time spent working and the effect on the market (race to the bottom?) the attractiveness of such events diminishes.


I'm sorry but I don't think it does diminish. Full time or part time, its always going to be there.

Andrew Welsh wrote:
For folks like Inku who are in high demand, yeah, it's easy to pass on the little event, confident that someone else will come along and book it. And if he gets a free weekend, well, that's just gravy.


Not to put Inku down, because I love his work and he is a kick ass dude. But how do you know he is in demand? How do we know he is just not making by each month? just because he kicks ass and appears to be super busy doesnt really mean he is super busy. It is our jobs to make our clients think we are in such demand that if they don't book us right now then they wont be able to book us because someone else will. but I am sure Inku is busy. Or is he?

Now I am not attacking you by posting this. I just liked your comments and want to prove my point



Mar 27, 2013 at 12:11 PM
JakeB.
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


I do very small, one to two hour weddings on a somewhat regular basis.

A local, high-end hotel books a lot of elopement packages with which they will included the photography coverage for the couple. I've been fortunate to get in with a couple of their coordinators and I get calls for these. They're always less than two months away, and shooting them is always pretty simple. I charge $300/hr and include digital delivery of 40-60 high-res files per hour (usually 60'ish for 1 hr, 80-90 for two hrs).

I will do these whenever they pop up and I'm available. Like Katie, it's nice to have the filler work, and it's a pretty cushy gig.

Here's a link to one of those for those that wanted to see.



Mar 27, 2013 at 03:43 PM
deepbluejh
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


Short weddings for me usually book late (2-8 weeks out). By that time I know what my schedule is going to be like and I don't mind taking on a short wedding if I have free time.


Mar 27, 2013 at 08:46 PM
Andrew Welsh
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


paparazzinick wrote:
OK first I think we need to have a universal definition of weekend warrior. When I hear weekend warrior I think of the craigslist photographer trying to supplement their income with shoot and burns with all day coverage for $500 or less.

Also, last minute bookings and 40 or fewer guests shouldnt be a reason to charge less. I just booked a last minute wedding and they are paying full price. I also have a June wedding with 22 guests and they are paying full price. Don't price your business of how many guests or last minute.

Sorry for not being clear. Weekend warrior in this instance = someone not doing this full time as their sole source of income, or alternatively, someone with another job as their full time job. I have health insurance and stable salary from my day job as a statistician/statistical analyst for a community college. Photography is my 2nd job, so I can get away from rigid adherence to COGS etc principles a bit because I don't solely depend on this income.

For purposes of discussing whether to take a small job and whether it is profitable from a biz standpoint, people who have spouses with full time jobs that pay the mortgage and health insurance are also in the "weekend warrior"-ish category. We have more liberty WRT profitability because our costs are taken care of by another job.

My experience has shown short coverage / last minute jobs as being highly correlated to small weddings. There can be / are exceptions, but generally speaking the small affairs don't need as much coverage. I like Candace's approach-- make it like a portrait session-- and for me, my pricing is driven primarily by the coverage time.

paparazzinick wrote:
Not to put Inku down, because I love his work and he is a kick ass dude. But how do you know he is in demand? How do we know he is just not making by each month? just because he kicks ass and appears to be super busy doesnt really mean he is super busy. It is our jobs to make our clients think we are in such demand that if they don't book us right now then they wont be able to book us because someone else will. but I am sure Inku is busy. Or is
...Show more
After following Inku on facebook, he is plenty busy enough. I suppose we could verify by checking his blog and counting posts You're right, many photographers do create the illusion of busyness to appear in demand even when they aren't.



Mar 28, 2013 at 01:05 AM
photolove84
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


We LOVE small weddings. We advertise almost our full price list on our site. We have a 10 hr package, a 6 hr package, and a 4 hr package. We do a handful of 6 hrs, and one or two 4hrs a year. We will do 2hrs, but are so rarely asked, we took that off our website, just to make the choices look less cluttered. It generally just works out naturally that our full day packages book a year in advance, and the smaller jobs fill in on off days with a couple months notice. I definitely don't think it makes us look like "the cheap guy" as everyone can see the smaller coverage price, and most people don't want it. We think they are fun though. We had a really small wedding ourselves. Here is a link to the blog of one our favorites, since you asked. 3 hours on Thursday. 2011

http://www.kgmexpressions.com/category/blog_posts/wedding-posts/#/2011/07/08/jennifer-and-joes-wedding-at-the-mill/



Mar 28, 2013 at 07:17 AM
CMB Photo
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


photolove84 wrote:
We LOVE small weddings. We advertise almost our full price list on our site. We have a 10 hr package, a 6 hr package, and a 4 hr package. We do a handful of 6 hrs, and one or two 4hrs a year. We will do 2hrs, but are so rarely asked, we took that off our website, just to make the choices look less cluttered. It generally just works out naturally that our full day packages book a year in advance, and the smaller jobs fill in on off days with a couple months notice. I definitely don't think
...Show more


Love the coverage. Talented. Thanks for sharing.



Mar 28, 2013 at 10:15 AM
CMB Photo
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · 4 hours coverage $700 - disc, all done!


I can't afford myself for 8 hr wedding but definitely good to go for some 4 hrs with images as shown above!


Mar 28, 2013 at 10:16 AM
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