I’ve been thinking about the business of photography and small business as a whole a lot lately. Reading a new blog I found out about called ProPhotoLife I learned about this handy calculator, created by the National Press Photographers Association.

If you’re thinking about starting any small business, including pro photography, this is an eye-opener. Many businesses fail because they fail to take into account the true expenses of operation.  Putting some numbers in the calculator really showed me just how much things like business insurance, equipment costs, travel, etc can all play into your final price.

So why are there people out there shooting weddings for $350? In my opinion, they simply haven’t thought about all the actual costs of operation. Others think about expenses and then forget to pay themselves for labor. In any case, don’t make the mistake of charging very little to get more work. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you must have the lowest price out there, but if you can’t afford to operate, it’s all for nothing. Most photographers who have been in the business a long time agree that raising prices to more reasonable levels did not result in a loss of work.

Anyway, just thought the calculator could open a few more eyes to the real issues of cost vs revenue.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.