p.2 #1 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
We have 19 booked right now... which is about right where we were last year this time, and we ended up with 29 for 2008. We did 37 in 2007 and I swore we'd never hit that high again. So right now I'm hoping we land at about 25... I'll go up to 27.
p.2 #2 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
I'll book all I can. I enjoy what I do, and see no reason to limit it. Why would 37 be an overload?? Thats only 3 a month?? I know they arent spread out that way sometimes but still, with an efficient workflow on the backend, I dont get why you'd limit your number that way. Or is that the issue...the backend processing eats too much time?
p.2 #3 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Brad Barr wrote:
...With little more than 47-48 realistic saturdays.....and only so many folks interested in friday or sunday events....
bb
It is very common for the studio I work with to book both a saturday and a sunday on a weekend. LOTS of Jewish weddings on Sunday. TONS. I can see 72 as being realistic, full-on weddings... with more than one primary shooter working at the studio.
p.2 #4 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
julian45 wrote:
Considering the financial crisis - what is going to happen next year - will you shoot more or less?
im still doing the same amount. 30 but at a higher cost. i have 26 booked and the average booking went up $1500 over last years average.
im not sure why the financials isnt effecting us but it isnt. my guess is that the clientele we book will always have money so they arent holding back.
p.2 #6 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
drpeters wrote:
It is very common for the studio I work with to book both a saturday and a sunday on a weekend. LOTS of Jewish weddings on Sunday. TONS. I can see 72 as being realistic, full-on weddings... with more than one primary shooter working at the studio.
dp
Yes...its common for me too...but that still doesnt add up to having 72 already on the books for next year....and only 10 blog posts for all of 2008, including TTD sessions. Remember, I'm in South Florida, so we have lots of Jewish weddings here as well as a good share of DW's......Still, having 72 on the books now, normally that number would be half of what you actually shoot, so that means 140+ a year. My company used to do that, but that was when we had 5 other shooters, and a considerably lower price point than I have now.
I'm not saying its false, or not doable, only that one should consider the responses in forum posts with a grain of salt. Often a dose of reality goes a long way.
bb
p.2 #8 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
10 on the books, 2-3 more likely to sign this week. At 20, my prices change drastically: my full time commercial workload is killing me, and 25 is my hard ceiling.
p.2 #9 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Really? You guys raise your price when you hit a certain number of weddings? Hmmmm, very interesting. I have my pricing listed... I don't think I can do that.
p.2 #10 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Lucky_Dog wrote:
Really? You guys raise your price when you hit a certain number of weddings? Hmmmm, very interesting. I have my pricing listed... I don't think I can do that.
Why not?? If you are booking up fast, then you are leaving money on the table. If folks are that eager at say 2500...and they would have been willing to pay 3K, then you left 500 bucks on the table for each event. Of course there is a point where more $$$ means less weddings....and thats ok, as long as you still book enough to hit whatever your $$$ goal for the year needs to be. Doing so on less weddings results in more profit of course too.
Of course, this may not be the best time to raise, depending on how hard your area is suffering.
bb
p.2 #11 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Brad Barr wrote:
Why not?? If you are booking up fast, then you are leaving money on the table. If folks are that eager at say 2500...and they would have been willing to pay 3K, then you left 500 bucks on the table for each event. Of course there is a point where more $$$ means less weddings....and thats ok, as long as you still book enough to hit whatever your $$$ goal for the year needs to be. Doing so on less weddings results in more profit of course too.
Of course, this may not be the best time to raise, depending on how hard your area is suffering.
bb ...Show more →
I've raised my prices several times this year. As soon as I realized that I was winning contracts where several photogs were being considered, I started going up. I'll likely continue this until I find the ceiling...
Unfortunately we decided to hold our prices through next season and had a bunch of material printed. I'll have to ponder this... a few hundred bucks of printing could be quickly overcome.
p.2 #15 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Brad Barr wrote:
Either creative math.....or multi shooter organization. Remember people can claim whatever they want on these forums. The reality may be something different entirely. Also, some areas have a lot of 1hr coverage weddings.....so you could do 4-5 in a day. But its not the same coverage as a typical 8hr event. Still people claim them as full weddings for this sort of thread, even though they are little more than an extended portrait sitting. With little more than 47-48 realistic saturdays.....and only so many folks interested in friday or sunday events; extravagant claims on the number of events can only have so many logical reasons. Its either a bunch of small events....or they have multiple shooters, or they are simply making up numbers.
bb...Show more →
A bit of both. Around 45-50 are booked for myself, the remainder are for 3 other photographers I have working for me.
There are a few times in the year where I have a wedding on the fri/sat/sun - and also sometimes as a company we have 3 weddings on a single day, spread over 3 shooters.
The way it works is I always take the first booking myself. Any enquiries for that date after booking the first I use my other guys. The client gets told this when they first contact me and I show them samples from my other guys to let them decide.
p.2 #17 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Brad Barr wrote:
Yes...its common for me too...but that still doesnt add up to having 72 already on the books for next year....and only 10 blog posts for all of 2008, including TTD sessions. Remember, I'm in South Florida, so we have lots of Jewish weddings here as well as a good share of DW's......Still, having 72 on the books now, normally that number would be half of what you actually shoot, so that means 140+ a year. My company used to do that, but that was when we had 5 other shooters, and a considerably lower price point than I have now.
I'm not saying its false, or not doable, only that one should consider the responses in forum posts with a grain of salt. Often a dose of reality goes a long way.
bb...Show more →
lol, is the blog thing referring to my site? I don't have time to update it all the time! The featured weddings area and portfolio area on my site get updated more often.
I'm not making it up, frankly it will probably end up being 80-90 by the end of 09 as I'm still getting enquiries and have hardly any booked for aug 09 and dec 09 yet. Based on what I've read I shouldn't have said anything, I thought others would post saying things like "I've booked 50-65" etc.
How can you guys have a profitable business only shooting a handful of weddings every year?
also as i remembered from another thread a long time ago - I'm in australia, we generally have decent weather all year long - i.e. no snow.
p.2 #20 · How many weddings will you shoot next year?
Yep...sure is. There are a great many Aussie dwf members too. I dont remember any of them reporting numbers that were substantially different than US/Canada/Euro numbers however. There arent more weekends in Australia are there
