Be Hired for Your Work – Not Your Prices…

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Alicia Caine is back to teach you how to be hired for your work and not for your prices. Her thoughts are below – see the end of the post if you want to purchase her new “pricing cookbook – easy as pie”  at a discount.

One of the biggest struggles photographers have when starting out is trying to be the photographer for everyone. We SO BADLY want everyone to hire us. We want to be the talk of the town. Who doesn’t like a little ego stroking?

So what do we do? We make our pricing appealing. We think “our clients would never pay this much” and we set our prices based on what we perceive will be our potential market’s reaction to our service. Even if we price ourself a little higher than Sears or Wal-Mart studios- we know that people are going to still pay it because are work is so much better.

And so we get hired for our prices. We do sessions that aren’t our style because we are just happy that we are being hired. Our clients run the show- they reschedule, they make demands, they ask us to photoshop the ugly away.

You’ve been there- haven’t you?!

It’s draining, it’s frustrating and it’s discouraging. And it isn’t going to last. You can not and will not last running a business this way.

We tell ourselves- oh, it’s temporary. I don’t plan on doing this for the long run— this is just to help me until I get my business feet on the ground, my foot in the door and my name in the air.

Please, don’t do this to yourself! Because the only thing that will happen is that you will feel under appreciated, disrespected, and plain unhappy about your business. The passion that wanted you to do all this will not get you through— that flame will fizzle.

Sit down right now and put together your business plan if you don’t already have one? Did you factor being burnt out into your business plan?!

Of course not! Who does!?

But we should. What do we do when we are working for peanuts, we are shooting something that we don’t love and we are struggling to make it all work?

You step back and you put a price on your time. Start valuing yourself! Don’t wait for someone to tell you that you are worth $5K if you feel like you should be! You determine your own worth- no one else can do that for you.

If you are trying to run a business- then you need to do just that. Think like a successful business thinks. Think like COACH handbags.  You either pay my price or you don’t. Period. Bottom line. That’s how it is.

Do you see Coach & Versace trying to figure out how to entice the Wal-Mart crowd to shop at their retail locations by offering an affordable product? Absolutely not! They know what they are worth and they set their prices based on worth. If they aren’t getting the sales they need- they evaluate their marketing efforts. How can we be more appealing? What is hip? What are our clients looking for? They do not base their prices on what they think will be enticing. They set their prices on what they know they are worth- and we pay them because we value them. If we don’t value $400 handbags- we don’t buy them, right?

It’s the same that goes for your clients. They may love your work- but if they don’t value your work, then they aren’t the clients for you. These types of clients will not give you the base that you need to have a longstanding, profitable, successful business. And isn’t that what we are all working towards!?

I know you can do it. Sit down and really think long and hard about your worth. If you don’t believe in your work- no one will. And who knows, maybe it’s just that one element that you have needed to get your business to soar.

HUGS,
ALICIA

GB20off- $20 off Cookbook ($129)
GB40off- $40 off Cookbook+ Pantry Access ($158)

Coupons good through Friday, March 13th
Regular price of Cookbook- $149
Special price of Cookbook+ Pantry- $198 through March 20th then returns to $229 regular price

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  1. Jenny on September 28, 2009 at 10:40 am

    Great tips and pictures! I have a question: How do you protect your camera when at the beach?

  2. Alexandra on September 28, 2009 at 12:10 pm

    Awesome tips!

  3. Kassia on September 28, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    I love the idea of having them DO something 🙂 The beach is a huge request for most of my clients… and it can get old after session after session after session. I enjoyed reading your tips to help change things up a bit! I live in VA where, in the middle of the summer, the humidity gets absolutely overwhelming. Aside from letting your gear acclimate to the humidity (which can take upwards of 20 minutes) do you have any tips for dealing with humidity? Thanks!!!

  4. Kanani on September 28, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    Beautiful pictures! And GREAT tips….especially since I live in Hawaii! THANK YOU!

  5. Sarah on September 28, 2009 at 5:53 pm

    Thanks for the great tips!

  6. tricia nugen on September 28, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    Thank you for the wealth of knowledge you are always so willing to share!

  7. Kacey on September 29, 2009 at 11:49 am

    Kristin, as usual, your photos rock! Thanks for the tips.

  8. eric on October 26, 2010 at 9:47 am

    These are great tips.. I find the beach to be a challenge to shoot at, but these were helpful.

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