Why businesses fail and pricing mistakes with Jeremy Chou

Welcome to the wedding bossness podcast, I am your host, Paul Santiago and today is… you guessed it right… today is Masterclass Monday! Which means you need to bring out your notepad, pen, tablet, your quill or whatever you use to takes notes because you’re not going to want to miss this one. I think today’s instructor is almost ready so let me give you a head start to grab that coffee or any warm beverage and let’s start the class!

Jeremy Chou is an international wedding photographer based out of Southern California. In the past 10 years, he has established himself as one of the most sought after wedding photographers in the industry. His work has been seen throughout all major US wedding blogs & select wedding publications. In addition to weddings, he also holds regular workshops throughout US and other international destinations for up & coming wedding photographers. So friends, help me in welcoming, Jeremy Chou!

Blog article: http://jeremychouworkshops.com/business/top-5-reasons-why-wedding-photographers-fail-2/#more-2194

Top 5 reasons why wedding photographer’s business fail:

1. Lack of technical skills
2. Not pricing yourself as a sustainable business.
3. Fear of failure
4. Inconsistency in your work
5. Not understanding your ideal client base.

Blog article from Mastin Labs: https://www.mastinlabs.com/photoism/articles/top-5-tips-pricing-wedding-photographer

TOP 5 MOST COMMON PRICING MISTAKES FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Pricing. The mere mentioning of the word could send some photographers shivering in the corner. It’s definitely one of the most important factors in running a successful AND sustainable business. Price yourself too high before you are ready, you risk losing all of your clients & referral base. Price yourself too low, you risk booking too many clients & burning out before you even have a chance to grow. In my years of speaking with other photographers, pricing continues to dominate the conversation when it comes to the business side of things. While there’s no right or wrong pricing point to set for your services, there are definitely obstacles one has to overcome in order to have a sustainable business. When a photographer starts his/her business, the very first decision you have to make is ‘how much should I charge’. While seemingly simple, it’s a fairly complex decision-making process. There are quite a few schools of thoughts on the proper way to price photography services, however, the basic concepts are essentially the same: figure out how much it takes to run the business (insurance, equipment costs, marketing costs, etc.) and then how much you want to make as profit. Divide that sum up with how many sessions you want to shoot. That will give a rough average on how much each session should be priced. It might seem common sense, but the fact is many photographers who are starting out will not be able to command a price point high enough to maintain a profitable business. However, even if you are a photographer who isn’t able to quite yet command a higher price point, I truly believe we all should understand the following 5 common mistakes when it comes to pricing.

Top 5 most common pricing mistakes for photographers

1. Not knowing your business model.
2. Your work simply won’t allow you to command a higher price point due to lack of consistency.
3. Being in the pricing ‘dead zone’.
4. Overly complicated price guide.
5. No incentive for clients to book a higher package.

Simply put, pricing can make or break a photographer’s business. Many times we will have to field test different strategies in order to find out what works the best for our intended market. I hope these five most common mistakes most photographers make will help others on the right path!

So there you have it! Since you already know why businesses fail, make sure your fail smart and price yourself properly because, we’re a small business so we kinda need to make money. This is the first Masterclass Monday and I would love to know what you think, so feel free to reach out so I can bring in the right people to help you in building your business!

I hope this episode was helpful, also if you have any questions or suggestions, just feel free to reach out! I’m throwing all these information goldness for free so I’d really appreciate if you help me by subscribing, rating or leaving a review, Thanks so much to those who already did it, thanks for listening it means the world to me, watch out for Monday masterclass and I’ll see you on the next Wedding Video Boss podcast. Till then, play nice if you can’t win, be nice if you’re good looking. Bossman out.

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