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Photography invoice template for Product quality

I deserve to charge a lot for my work because I spent a lot of money on camera gear wrong I hear so many photographers say this and I can't stand it the market decides your rate it's your fault you spent money on gear not the clients okay this video is going to be a bit of a rant you're going to learn how to price your work the right way does this type of post sound familiar why photographers charge so much camera three thousand dollars lenses four thousand computer two and a half thousand software 200 bucks a month I bet you've seen this type of post on Instagram or Twitter I know I see these all the time and I had to make this video to address it just because your gear costs a lot of money doesn't mean they deserve to have high rates it's your fault that you took on these expenses not the clients you don't charge a lot of money because you use expensive gear you can charge a lot of money because you deliver value to the client value is the name of the game by the way if you're new here my name is Chris pieta I teach creative business and my product photography company this video is going to be breaking down why some photographers are pricing their work from a completely wrong mindset then I'll offer a solution that will allow you to price your work in a way that clients will want to pay you for it imagine this you're walking around the neighborhood and you see this new coffee shop that just opened up it looks like a little Mom and Pop Shop you walk in and the smell of freshly brewed coffee hits you right away there's artwork on walls from a local artist people are sitting around talking and working on their laptops you walk up to the Barista to order your coffee and then this big sign catches your eye it says this is why our lattes are seven dollars espresso machine ten thousand dollars monthly rent three thousand staff wages 600 bucks per day you see the sign and something doesn't sit right with you why is this coffee shop trying to justify their expensive lattes their business shouldn't they just factor in their expenses like a normal business would exactly when you try and justify your rate because you bought expensive gear you look exactly like this coffee shop no legitimate business is going to try and justify their prices like this their price is their price they don't need to justify if I they've calculated what they need to charge to make a profit and they charge it they found the perfect number where they provide value for their customers and they make a profit this is a hard balance to strike don't get me wrong the coffee shop found this balance by pricing those lattes at seven dollars people will still want to buy the lattes and the coffee shop will make money what value does that seven dollar latte provide to the customer well number one it tastes really good they use fresh beans they can make the perfect shot of espresso and they're experts at steaming the milk number two you can't make a latte like this yourself chances are you don't have an espresso machine like this at home and you haven't learned the skills required number three it saves you time even if you had these skills it takes time to master them and it takes time to do it yourself every single morning grabbing a quick latte from a coffee shop saves you time that's why it costs seven dollars the coffee shop has created a product that you want to buy based on the value it provides to you they don't try and justify their price because they took on a lot of expenses every business takes on expenses your photography business is not unique in this way you shouldn't try and make clients feel bad for you because you took on those expenses that is your own fault now how do we use this coffee shop example and apply it to our own creative business and price our work in a way that clients will actually understand this is a really tough thing to do it's really hard to convey the value you offer and people don't like to do things the hard way they like the easy way out that's why they use this expensive gear example to justify their cost but you're different you're watching this video because you want to get better you want to improve your creative business you want to help serve your customers better and you want to make more money from it by the way my weekly create business newsletter has lessons like this every single week I share ways to help scale your business to six figures we just crossed 2 000 subscribers on this I'm so excited the link for that is in the description below so strep in let's talk about the value that you offer why did you buy the expensive camera in the first place you probably thought it would help you take better photos and if it does help you take better photos then that's great you're able to charge more because of that as as a business because that's what you are you're a business as a business you take on expenses in hopes of increasing your value that coffee shop could have used a cheap 500 espresso machine but they went with a ten thousand dollar one because they knew the coffee coming out of that one would be better they'd be able to charge more for it your three thousand dollar camera is a lot better than a cheap 400 entry level camera it's got better resolution more dynamic range and it can capture more photos a second and all this will help you lead to better images for your client a two thousand dollar lens is sharper and gives you more bokeh expensive flash lets you increase your image quality even further you bought all these things in hopes of taking better photos and increasing your value so that's one way to increase your value providing a better product so we just learned one way to increase your value provide a better product provide better photos you've learned to take great photos with the gear you have your work has become better because of the gear that you bought okay now taking pretty photos is great but a lot of people can do that how else can you provide value you can save the client time depending on the niche of Photography you do this can be a big one if you're a product photographer you'll be working with a lot of small direct-to-consumer online Brands these companies are Scrappy and a lot of the time it's the owner taking all the website photos and social media posts eventually they get so busy they want to hire this out that is where you come in and save them time now the Third Way you provide value is doing something that they can't do themselves photography is hard and you're a good photographer most people aren't because you're good you provide value to the client you're better than them at photography so you can charge ingly so these are the three things we got from that coffee shop example but there are many more ways that you can charge based on value let's dive into those the value clients to arrive varies a lot by what Niche you're in the value of product photographer provides will differ from the value that a wedding photographer provides let's start with the value of a product photographer this might be one of the most tangible forms of value ask yourself why does a company want product photos to begin with well they want their products to look great it's simple they just want great looking products on their website and their social media yes this is true but why do they want this why does it matter if their photos look good they want to increase their sales that's it at the end of the day they want good product photography so that they can sell more of their widgets this is where you come in you can talk about this in your sales pitch depending on the size of the company you'll be able to provide a different type of value a small company might pay you 50 bucks a photo and if they sell a few items they'll make money from that photo the 50 bucks was a great deal for them because they still made money with your photography now a huge company will already have a lot of traffic going to their website your photo might be the determining factor in a customer buying or not buying you could charge thousands for this type of Photography and depending on the size of a client that could still be a great deal for that client if your photo is a difference between their customers making a purchase or not and there's a lot of value to your photo there's no need to justify that you need an expensive camera here the client knows the value associated with this Photograph now let's look at the other Niche I was talking about if you're a wedding photographer value is a little different there's no one profiting off your photography here the wedding couple wants memories of their day they want photos they can share with their family and friends they want to look back on this day in 30 years and remember it fondly this is what you need to talk about when you're discussing pricing the value you provide is their happy memories this is tougher to do than convincing a company you'll make them money and quite frankly it's part of the reason I didn't pursue wedding photography now let's talk about headshot photographer there's actually a lot of value they can provide with these that is more tangible than weddings first if you decide to photograph models or actors your photos can land them gigs those gigs pay their bills your photos are making them money just like those companies we were talking about earlier a great Niche these days for headshot photographers is online dating a lot of people are single and they don't want to be single if you can fix this pain point in their lives you can charge a lot of money for it great photos for their dating profile can be the difference between them Landing a date and not Landing a date you want to lean into this in your marketing if you can provide value in this way people will pay you for it and again you don't need to justify your price by saying you have expensive gear there are so many other ways you can offer value too let's take two photographers they both take the same exact photos but photographer a delivers them in two days photographer B delivers them in two weeks who do you think can charge more for this photographer a a two-day turnaround time for the same photos is incredible by decreasing the time it takes to get the final photos your value goes way up this is exactly how Netflix beat out Blockbuster Blockbuster acquired you to go to the store pick out a movie come back home and watch it that took an hour Netflix is at your fingertips it can take just a minute to pull up a movie and start watching it but I know sometimes it takes me an hour to pick a movie but that's a different story there are hundreds of other tiny ways you can increase your value as well you can start offering bonuses like a mood board a prep call an unlimited commercial license various different social aspect ratios the list goes on and on here and since you've watched this far I know that you're serious about creative business I have a free checklist below that teaches you all you need to know to go from struggling freelancer to create a business owner in 30 days free download in the description I know this probably isn't you but if you're still trying to justify your expenses because you have expensive gear please stop this will ruin your business you're leaning into this entitled mindset you feel entitled to charge a lot of money because you spent a lot of money on gear and you feel as people should pay you for it no one owes you anything it's up to you to demonstrate your value and if you decide to keep pricing this way well I have bad news for you all the people watching my videos will learn the correct way to price and they will win they will understand how to price based on value and they will win in this game my name is Chris pieta there's a video right here that I know you'll love and I will see you in the next one