Photography Studio Minimums

Photography Studio Minimums

Establishing our portrait studio’s sale minimums was hard. It took getting frustrated and feeling walked on to finally get up the nerve to do something about it.

Let’s be honest.  I wasn’t frustrated, I was mad.

And, like most things our mentors have suggested (encouraged, advocated....) over the years; I’m glad we finally followed their advice.  

The final straw was a portrait sale for $500-ish, that the client came back and cut down to $119.  Notice I still remember what they cut the photography sale down to, not where we started.

They had been a particularly difficult family to work with - and that was the final straw.  I was done.

Let’s be honest.  I wasn’t frustrated, I was mad.

So, I rolled up my sleeves, took a good look at our price list, figured out the number of hours we put into a photography client, and drew a line in the sand.  

Over the last several years I’ve actually gotten comfortable chatting with people about our minimums and why they want to come to us anyway.  We don’t chase off that many people, our session fee is on the website and people who call respect our time and our quality.

E-e-e-every once in a while we’ll have a potential client come through that can’t afford us, and we want to take their pictures anyway. For those portrait clients we have coupons and gift certificates out in the community.  This way we maintain our line in the sand, and we still get to be the good guy.

Raise your prices, know your worth and instate a studio minimum.  You’ll be glad you did.

- Clare

Image provided by Troutman Photography