How do I Price my Work?

Turning our passion for photography into a sustainable business is one of the most-desired goals for many photographers. Photographers often have an opinion about working with certain clients and the frustrations that can arise from the difference between doing what they truly love and what they’re hired to do. The main reason for this discontent is that the work they need to deliver is completely unlike what they love to do. This is why they yearn to turn their genuine passion into a sustainable business. But for this to happen, they — we — need to correctly price our work in order for it to sell. Obviously, if we give our work away, we’ll never make our photography business sustainable. If we over-price it, we may encounter a rocky road when trying to sell it.

Rate

The best way I’ve found to define an hourly rate is to think about the hourly rate you earn at your day job, or, if you don’t have a daily job, a rate that matches your current skill level. If you’re just starting out, it’s likely that you’ll be a freelancer, so you’ll probably be sacrificing some day-job hours. If this is correct, you have to consider an opportunity rate of at least x2 the day-job hours you’re missing. Some countries don’t always work with hourly rates, but with monthly salaries. In this case, you need to take your monthly payment and divide it by 4, and then by 8, to calculate your hourly rate.