Pricing... and costs of running a business. AHHH!!

Welcome to my blog that I haven't used in quite some time :) I've been debating if I even want to write about this topic, but then figured I've spent SO.MUCH.TIME stressing, researching, thinking, pondering, brainstorming, and procrastinating on my pricing over the past many months, I thought it might be worth a blog post for anyone who's interested in reading more about what goes into this part of my business.



I'll be honest, money management and accounting is NOT my strong point. But when I started my business five years ago, I had dreams of having a magical number of sessions each month that would be equivalent to my then teaching salary so I could justify being a 'full time photographer' and more importantly a flexible schedule to be 'MOM' to my kiddos when they aren't in school. So, here I am, five years later living this dream and still figuring out how this 'running your own business' thing works!



For the first two years of my business, I was still teaching part-time and any photography 'income' was just added extra. It was fun, no pressure and I was learning everything from how to use my camera to how to pay taxes to lots of other not-so-fun-but-necessary business type things. Any 'income' that I had at that time was put back into the business to get things going--cost of lights, camera, equipment, website, computer, etc. Three years ago, I made the big leap into self-employment and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't regret leaving the teaching world after thirteen years and just completing my master's degree. Pressure was on a little bit!



There are SO many things I LOVE about my photography business. Ironically, some of the things I LOVE about it are also some of the things I continually stress and sometimes hate about it at the same time--my flexible schedule, my working at home, my setting my own pricing, etc. Until one has had their own business, it's really kind of hard to explain everything that does go into all of figuring out what to charge. But hey, I'm gonna give a simplified explanation and effort to do so :)



Sooo, when I go to the bank and deposit my checks made out to my business, I've changed my mentality a bit to this: 1/3 of this is going back toward income/sales tax, 1/3 of this is going back into the business to keep things going (camera, computer, backdrops, etc) and 1/3 of this is (hopefully) my salary, retirement, savings, etc.



So, when you look at a flat fee price for an hour session and think 'wow, she's raking it in' just know that there is SO.MUCH.MORE.TIME that goes into this than an hour :) Answering messages, booking sessions, uploading, downloading, saving files, EDITING, etc to name a few... Also know that I am SO appreciative of so many people that have helped my business grow and continue to tell others about my photography. Please know that I don't take my pricing lightly and actually stress so much about what to charge and what is fair to both me and those that pay me to capture these moments.



And now that I've officially put off my pricing change for 6 months and procrastinated to the very day of my self-given deadline, I can now breathe a sigh of relief, because I'm DONE stressing about it for now and I hopefully don't have to think about it for another few months :) Now on to the hundreds of other things on my 'things to do' list...