Hourly vs Package rates

You said that the costs of the photographer are unimportant.

Sorry -they are not. If you run a business you have costs - if your sales do no exceed your costs you are going to go out of business. Period.
So you need to know what your costs are so you can figure out how much to charge to make money. If you can charge more, so much the better - but you cannot charge less.

You have gear, software, computers, advertising/marketing, office costs, cc machine/costs, banking, postage, gas for the car, insurance, etc. You have theses costs whether you book 1 client or 1000 clients.

If these costs add to $10,000 a year and you want to put $25,000 in your pocket then whatever you do - wedding, fine art, postcards, pets, hs seniors, etc has to pay you $35,000 PLUS whatever the product is.

OK, you shoot weddings - how many do you have to shoot to bring in $35,000? One at $35,000 or 10 at $3500 each or 15 at $2333. so what is your wedding avg? What do you want it to be? I"ve had weddings this year as low as $500 and has high as $4400.

How many wedding do you want to do? How many weddings can you book? What will that cost (so you can add that to the money you need to make cause you have to pay for this marketing).
I'll do two bridal shows, have nice handouts printed up, do a new album sample, pay my assistasnt to be at both shows - an easy $1000 out of my pocket to book I hope 6 weddings.

If you want to shoot famliles how many session are you going to do? My local JCPenney's did 57 family sessions yesterday They likely averaged $150 each - that's $8550 in sales.

If you need $35k at 150/session you need 235 sessions. If you charge $75 a session you need 470 sessions to make the money you need to make. What will it take you to get 470 session, in time/costs/etc? Can you even do it, i mean, get that many? This year i've had seniors spend from $150 to $1500...overall I want an average of $1000 but this year it's closer to $600..but I've gotten 30% more seniors than I'd planned on, so it all worked out OK.
Yes, costs come first, then figure out how are you gonna make that money.
I plan on 12-15 weddings at $x avg, 25-35 seniors at$X avg, 1000 sports kids, 10 family/baby sessions and about $1500 in online sales and $2500 in commercial work.
If I hit the high end on those numbers I have a very nice christmas, if I hit the low end then our family vacation is camping and I wait anohter year to buy that new car.
But if I don't know my costs, what I need to make, and have some plan on what I"m gonna sell at what price - then I'm wandering blindly down the road with no map, no clue on my destination and no idea when, or if, I've reached my goals.

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Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success. -Henry Ford