Really? You're a professional photographer and don't know that term? You must be new then. MWAC - man with a camera aka, pro-wanna-be
Oh for god sakes. When I shoot an event for any of my customers I charge between 35 and 45 bucks an hour and that normally includes the time to process and create a web gallery for their website.
That explains a lot.
It's a little more than the 25 bucks an hour that you seem to hate so much but I can assure you I am making a profit even after paying all my expenses.
My expenses are not your expenses so please don't lecture me on what a real business should be charging or what expenses a real business should have.
If you are a REAL LEGITIMATE BUSINESS then you MUST have these expenses:
Camera, lens, flash, bag to carry it around.
If you 'already owned this' I don't care - if the business is using it to make money then the busines has to pay for it.
Computer and software for editing, accounting, etc.
If you 'already owned this' I don't care - if the business is using it to make money then the busines has to pay for it.
Phone and internet, website.
If you 'already owned this' I don't care - if the business is using it to make money then the busines has to pay for it.
Desk to hold the computer, files, bank account, invoice book, chair to sit at when editing, calendar for appts, etc
If you 'already owned this' I don't care - if the business is using it to make money then the busines has to pay for it.
Insurance, biz license. If you are a LEGIT business you need these things and they are not free. The business needs to pay them
The gray area...
Education and experience - you weren't born knowing what you know and it takes time and often money to learn. This is a cost that can be hard to account for. If you hire a kid to cut the grass vs someone with a degree in accounting it's obvious that you are paying more for teh acc't beacuse of his special knowledge and expertise and not for hours of labor alone.
Time and Labor - planning, marketing, selling, travel, cleaning, education (ongoing), book keeping all take time and that time needs paid for by the business. NOT just the shooting and editing.
If you add up your ACTUAL TIME I bet you find you spend MORE THAN HALF not shooting or editing. So that $35 an hour is suddenly $17 an hour.
And out of that $17 an hour you have to pay for your gear and all other expenses. And you have thousands invested in the business.
Now you could go wait tables and invest NOTHING and make 17 an hour, if not more (i've done it and see it done every day).
You have education and skills to be a photographer, what you do can last a lifetime and be priceless possesion, the ONE thing people want out of their burning house above all other physical possessions.
But if you feel you're entrepreneural risks, your time, your investment in gear and skills, isn't worth more than the girl that served you dinner last night I'm not sure I can help you.
And as I have said before I have all the proper insurance, liability, workers comp, and I even pay all applicable payroll taxes.
How do I determine if I'm making a profit? I cover all expenses including fuel, equipment, supplies and labor and then anything leftover is profit. With that profit I am able to feed myself, live indoors and pay my own health insurance. My wife works with me so there is no second income.
Keep trying to knock everyone who does business differently than you. Are there people working at a loss?
I bet they are.
$500 insurance. Gear and computer $5,000 prorated over 3 years (depreciation -they often last longer), 40 hours setting up the biz (could be 400 hours I suppose), 2 hours a week marketing (FB posts if nothing else) so that's 100 hours. 10 sessions at 3 hours each, 10 hours in selling, 5 hours in banking, 25 hours in cleaning/backup, etc (2/month is nothing) and I'm sure I'm forgetting something but get 210 hours for the year.
If a TYPICAL full time photog can make $30k a year and work 2k hours that's $15/hour. So the labor above
A home office deduction is worth at least $3k. Phone (1/2 for business? same for internet) is an easy $1k a year.
2000 miles on your car is worth $1000 (50c is low but round numbers work here)
So TIME is worth $3000, gear 1700, 500 insurance, 3000 office, 1000 phone/net, 1000 car...we are $10,000.
I say 10 sessions...so do you know anyone making $1000 a session? From your numbers I'm ASSUMING ( bad to do I know) $200-300 is your average.
Is it possible to make a profit with these numbers? Nope.
What MWACs seem to do is ignore most of these expenses - home office, phone, interent, car. But without these things the business could not exist. To discount their efficacy is to not be following generally accepted accounting principles - aka, the real costs are being hidden to make the company look protiftable.
This is exaclty what enron did. And their execs went to jail for doing it.
So yes, I tend to say anyone that does the same thing is running an illegal business. Now if you want to call it a HOBBY, then that's different. But nobody wants to do that as it's not as ego building as being a business owner.
If that model is not sustainable what are you worried about?
And I could survive and pay my bills working at 25 bucks an hour. I would have to sell more jobs but I would still make money.
I see it over and over again...I suggest photographers charge more and I'm the one that's an idiot?
If you could make THREE TIMES AS MUCH MONEY, why would choose NOT TO?
I'm just dumbfounded as to why you or anyone would choose not to.
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Don't seek advice from someone who is not where you want to be - CJ Lewis
My opinions are my own and not those of DPR or its administration. They carry no 'special' value
