Pricing and your Newborn Photography Business

Travelling is something I will always want to do. I love going to new places and meeting new people and I love talking to them about newborn posing and their photography business.  I travel a lot to teach but I always come away learning just as much as those I instruct.

I returned on Thursday from a whirlwind tour, teaching in London, Birmingham, France, Norway and Ireland.

A highlight for me was my talk at the Master Photographers Association in Birmingham, United Kingdom, about pricing, and how to price yourself for success.  So many wonderful lightbulb moments for the students.  It is great watch.

Pricing is one of those subjects that we, as photographers, are quite often so hesitant to discuss.  So afraid of who is listening and what someone else is doing, we forget that our businesses are so individual to us that our pricing isn’t really relevant to someone else’s, after all, we all have different businesses.

What is relevant, is how we work out our pricing, and just as important, is how we work out what would like to receive from our business.

What sort of lifestyle are you looking to fund?  What hours are you able to work?  How many sessions are you able to take on?  Do you have to worry about child care?  Will you need staff?

Demographics will obviously come into play also.  What is the size of your mortgage? Do you need to contribute?  And what about planning for the future?

All of these considerations are going to affect what your pricing structure should look like and what value you will put on your pricing.

You also need to ensure that you value yourself.  What is your time worth?  Do you value yourself enough to ensure you are prepared to be paid fairly for your work.  You are the sum of all the experience you have collected over the years up until this point.  Isn’t that worth valuing?

This is one of my favourite things to talk about, because I love seeing our great industry valued, just as I love seeing my students stand up and value themselves and succeed in business while doing so.

When it comes to pricing you have to do the work. It will take time and research which creatives are not naturally drawn to but it has to be prioritised and done, effectively to set ourselves up to run successful photography businesses.

So now is the time to reevaluate your pricing for 2019, let’s do this together!

Photo with thanks Gary Orgles