Pricing your photography can sometimes be a real challenges, especially for photographers who are new to the photography business.
There are so many factors to take into account, with the risk of turning the whole exercise into one big guessing game without the proper foundation to build everything on.
Worse still, a lot of photographers base their prices on what the competition is charging and then position themselves a little lower than the other photographers in the area in order to undercut them on price.
But there’s a better way – one that photographer Greg Phelps has spent years using himself and then developing from that a proven methodology that other photographers can easily follow.
I sat down with Greg to talk about pricing and about his course “How To Price Your Photography For Top Dollar”.
About Our Guest: Greg Phelps
Today, I have architectural and portrait photographer Greg Phelps from Houston, Texas to talk specifically about how photographers can become better at pricing their work and more confident at presenting those price to potential clients.
Greg has been in the photography business for 36 years, much of that time spent creating images for many of America’s Fortune 500 companies. He’s known for his creative solutions to some of the most challenging assignments in advertising, architectural and portrait photography.
Greg started out in 1975 and quickly became known as an innovator. His clients have included Kraft, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, General Motors, Chrysler, Exxon, Lockheed Martin, Dow Corning and many others.
His portrait commissions have included Astronaut Deke Slayton (portrayed in the movies The Right Stuff and Apollo 13), Roger Smith (former CEO of General Motors), U.S. Congressman Solomon Ortiz, and numerous other dignitaries.
Greg’s focus is architectural photography, fine art photography for office and home décor, and legacy portraits for people who have worked hard and found success. Self-made men and women who appreciate the finer things of life, including art, and who want to preserve the memory of their journey with a fine-art portrait that marks their accomplishments, whether in business, sports or entertainment.
As well as numerous exhibitions and one-man shows, Greg has been featured in Rangefinder Magazine, Studio Photography and Design, and Great Output, and is a popular speaker at the WPPI annual convention in Las Vegas.
Episode Summary
Here are some of the great topics we talked about during our chat in this episode:
- Why photographers find pricing their photography so difficult…
- What it means to have a healthy and profitable business…
- The most common mistakes new photographers make with pricing…
- How length of time in the business, experience, and technical skills figure in pricing…
- The best place to start when trying to figure out what to charge…
- How your own time factors into the equation…
- Overcoming our natural fears over pricing…
- How discounts or participating in Groupon-type schemes can harm your business…
- The best time to answer the common question of “how much do you charge”…
- How you can learn more about Greg’s structured approach to pricing…
