Help with pricing

[SweetNadia]

I have been a smugmugger for 1.5 years. I need some input. I'm not very good at pricing myself. I shoot a lot of kids sports and make money off the sale of my pics from my smug mug site. How do I price myself? I have a school that would like me to take pictures at one varsity event for each sport. I would like to charge for my time plus give them rights to all the good images I capture. Do you have any suggestions? Here are a couple pics to see what kind of work I do. Thanks for your suggestions!
Sweet Nadia
http://www.facesinsports.com/Football/YMCA/10408-Purple-Dragons-vs-Blue/DSC0290/387384919_QbpwN-M-2.jpg http://www.facesinsports.com/Football/FCCJC/10209-SME-Black-vs-Wildcats/DSC0223/673874408_fRJC9-M.jpghttp://www.facesinsports.com/Technical/homepage-slideshow/DSC0179/629016410_PMx98-M.jpg
]http://www.facesinsports.com/Technical/homepage-slideshow/DSC0306/392190883_jnRXi-M.jpg
http://www.facesinsports.com/Technical/homepage-slideshow/DSC0309/561820238_KQkEu-M.jpg
http://www.facesinsports.com/Technical/homepage-slideshow/DSC0826/561819803_xGu4c-M.jpghttp://www.facesinsports.com/Technical/homepage-slideshow/DSC0414/409009775_98ftV-M.jpg

[Chris O]

I have been a smugmugger for 1.5 years. I need some input. I'm not very good at pricing myself. I shoot a lot of kids sports and make money off the sale of my pics from my smug mug site. How do I price myself? I have a school that would like me to take pictures at one varsity event for each sport. I would like to charge for my time plus give them rights to all the good images I capture. Do you have any suggestions? Here are a couple pics to see what kind of work I do. Thanks for your suggestions!
Sweet Nadia


Hi Nadia,

You really need to get down into the accounting of it and figure out what your time is worth by figuring out your overhead, savings goals, growth goals, etc. That's not something that we can do for you.

However, you also need to think about how you want to charge them. This depends on the client. Some don't buy a lot of prints, some are terrible and will copy them without your permission. Honestly most do. The way I found to ensure I get paid, is to charge an up front fee for my time, and just consider any prints icing on the cake.

If I were you, I wouldn't give them all the rights to the photos. It is hardly ever worth it for events. I would charge them a flat rate for the event, and let them buy the rights for photos on top of that depending on their usage. Then you are also free to sell the photos to the parents, etc.

Pricing is the hardest thing for most people, there are so many ways to go about it.

Good luck!
Chris O'Connor