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The ‘ah ha’ moment you need to have!

This is huge! As in HU-MONG-E-OH-SO, so much so that I may get the photography peace prize for this one. Oh darn, there isn’t one. Okay, I’m inventing it and I’m self awarding me. Oh dang, it just lost all prestige. Now that I’ve built it up that much, are you ready for this revelation?

Being affordable and being profitable take the SAME amount of work to get clients in the door!

Reread that, and then read it again and again and again. Because I feel like most photographers either don’t want to or just can’t image that this could be true. But it is! I know because I’ve done both ways. I’ve worked my booty off to get a client to pay $100 and I’ve worked my little booty off and asked a client to pay $2000. I’ve been told I’m to expensive at $200 and I’ve been told (as crazy as this sounds, far less!!) that I’m to expensive at $2000.

And here is simple unarguable mathematics for you. When I hoped to make some sort of decent addition to our families financial situation at $200 a client. I had to get my phone to ring 10 times and I had to convert all 10 calls into clients. But when I started asking for $2000. My phone could still ring 10 times but I only had to convert one call into a client. And of course wrapping my head around one is a lot easier then ten. So why not give yourself, your business and your life permission to be Profitable?

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  1. All I can say is “WOW.” That is definitely an “ah ha” moment. Why I never thought about it that way before is beyond me!! I have always had a hard time with pricing and what you said is so true! If I made myself more profitable, I would only have to convert one of those phone calls!! Brilliant!

  2. Jenika says:

    Amen! ๐Ÿ™‚

    First time I implemented my new pricing, I grossed over $4000. It would have taken eight clients under my old pricing to do that – and I would have been stressed from more work! Better to give exquisite service to that one client and be relaxed than running around like crazy with eight clients. And yes, I had a similar experience – I was told I was too expensive at $75, $300, and $500 – and I was working my tail off just as much back then, too.

    And bonus – When you’ve priced yourself profitably, you also get clients whose views, values, and vision are more congruent with your own – as opposed to anyone who lands on your site and just “needs someone with a nice camera” (sigh).

  3. Jessica says:

    This is definitely an AH HA moment for me!!! Thank you for posting this. I would much rather have someone come to me bc they love my style and we’re a perfect fit rather than I’m affordable and they need someone. Ahhhhh Thanks!!!

  4. Leanne says:

    I loooove this site so much, and the advice in this article is spot on, buuuut…I don’t mean to be nit-picky but there were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes in this post. It’s hard to read and really absorb the information when it’s laid out this way.

    • My grammar and spelling is a royal pain to both of us and depending on what time of night I wrote the post they can be MUCH worse then usual! Sometimes I have someone proofing and sometimes I don’t. UNFORTUNATELY! I’ll try to get better at at least reading them over again before they post, often I’m just getting ideas down and then accidentally let it publish in draft form.

      P.S. At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot… I just reread the post and am not seeing a littered mess of errors as I was anticipating? Am I missing something?

  5. Mary Carroll says:

    Intellectually, I understand your argument, and even agree with it. I’ve only been doing portraits for just over a year, and I guess I’m not feeling confident enough to charge that much yet… maybe I need to do more portfolio building first. But thank you for the insight that will be most helpful to me going forward.

    • Mary… Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!!! I am most certainly not saying you have to charge $2000!! But charging what is worth your time, what is slightly uncomfortable, what makes you a bit embarrassed to say out loud. You are worth that! We each know when we charging to low and if you don’t know it then you are okay… But when you feel that, that feeling that says ‘is this worth my time’ well I believe your time is worth more than that. ๐Ÿ™‚ Did that help a little?

  6. Ashley says:

    Seriously people, she has the best blog on the internet and you’re complaining about spelling and grammar? Keep writing and posting Leah, we wouldn’t love you if you were perfect at EVERYTHING! ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Thanks Ashley!! I certainly prove my imperfections through my grammar, hee hee! But it is something I need to be better about, I let it slip a lot because of time but still – no good.

  7. Heather says:

    You are amazing Leah! I am announcing new pricing for the new year and I was just calculating how much I need to charge to profit and it is so HARD to actually see myself charging what I calculated, but I HAVE to in order to make any contribution to my family. This post said it all! Thank you!!

    • It is scary and at first you will doubt yourself completely but eventually things will come back together and then you will be so glad that you believed in yourself enough to try!

  8. Louisa says:

    eeek, raising my pricing…..i need to to START charging!! I Just can’t bring myself to put a price on my services – I don’t know how to start!!

  9. Erin says:

    I love you. ๐Ÿ™‚ You have my vote for the peace prize. I am working on this myself. Once I feel like I have more ducks in a row I am going to schedule a call with you.
    I was having a rough day, stopped to look here and now I am seeing sunshine again.
    You’re wonderful, hug yourself from me.

  10. Piya says:

    WOW Leah! A little (haha 28 years old) Thai Girl in Germany got an AHA -Moment!

    I love all your Articles and those from your Guest Writer. Thank you all very much for your Time and sharing all your Tipps.

    You teached me a lot ๐Ÿ™‚ and I learn more and more and will not stopp ๐Ÿ˜‰

    THANK YOU Dankeschรถn Khop Kun Kha Merci ^^

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