Working out how much to charge can be confusing if you don’t know your numbers or the customers you’re servicing.



First you need to know your cost of doing business, cost of goods, then you need to work out if people are willing to pay for the work you’re offering, because your local market will also play a part on how much you can charge.



I received a question from Alex who says his prices haven’t been updated since he started his business many years ago. The cost of running the business has increased, and his skills have improved enough that he feels comfortable to increase his prices.



Alex also sells prints, albums and digital files. But doesn’t charge a session fee, What is a good starting point for his prices and should he increase his prices because he is worried of losing customers?



Today I’ll go through some steps in working out your prices for your photography business and what happens to your customers when you do raise your prices. 



Let’s get started!



7 tips to work out how much you should charge for a photo session



Firstly Alex good on you for having the courage and the confidence to raise your prices.



We should all be doing that every so often to keep on track with making more money in our business. 



But as you’ve mentioned your costs increased, such as your vendors may be raising prices and that’s something we should always be aware of because otherwise we’re not making a profit, we’re actually losing money.



Pricing is one of those things  it’s very hard to give you a definite answer, Without working your expenses first. So instead we will go through a couple of tips to get you in the right direction and looking at your cost of doing business is a good place to start.



1. Working out your cost of doing business



First start with using my cost of doing business calculator to workout your running costs. 



The calculator is a form where you put in your expenses for your running costs such as electricity, accounting fees, subscription fees for your web hosting and software subscription, , equipment costs, insurance and so on.  



I suggest using a notebook and going through your bank account first to get an idea of the reoccurring costs than your business.



Some of these costs could be one off costs but also monthly and weekly recurring costs.



The idea is to work out where all your money is being spent so your photography business can operate at a profit.



What’s your workout where your money has been spent for the year divide that cost by 12 to get your monthly spend. 



The reason it’s important to understand how much money you need to make to break even. Is you need to make the bulk of your money in the busy season, and so you have enough money to cover the off season where your expenses will still be there but the work may not.  



This especially true for wedding photographers, event photographers and even for some portrait photographers to keep some money in reserve to pay the bills.



For example, if you’re home ba...