Apr 292010
Don’t lower your pricing just to make sure you get a shoot, particularly if it’s a new client. You’ll be stuck at that price or near it for a while. It might suck sometimes, but stick to your higher pricing, even if that means losing shoots. Don’t don’t DO NOT undersell yourself. You’re only hurting both yourself AND the industry by doing that.
3 Responses to “Lesson learned.”
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Keaton,
Good call on not underselling oneself. I’m trying to do the same.
The challenge is NOT to undersell oneself but to also convince potential parties that you would be a solid investment. It’s hard to do that sometimes (i.e., some photographers suggest underselling initially to build up a portfolio). Do you have a blog post on your “breakthrough” in music photography?
Eugene,
It’s an extremely difficult line to walk, really. The issue that I run into is pricing lower to make sure I get something because if I don’t get it, I don’t have rent and bill money… that’s a huge issue I deal with, I’ve been living month to month for a long time now.
I can’t say that I’d recommend underselling in order to build a portfolio, but that depends on what market you’re targeting. The issue it causes is that it hurts the people who lose the gigs they would have had and the market value drops as clients get used to paying less for a product.
But of course, someone just starting out typically isn’t as good as the professional of ten years, so how could they charge the same? Does anyone else have any insight on this? I’ll hold off and see if there are any other replies before continuing on with my opinions.
Please, do continue. This is something I have struggled with. Granted I’m a (way) less experienced photographer, but I’m think I’m definitely worth “X” amount and not a dollar under.
Your work is amazing, by the way…