common sense business tools for portrait photographers

What are the skills that will make or break me in business?

There are two things that are either going to make or break you in running your business.

Well, maybe more than two….but there are two REALLY BIG important things, so I’m going to focus on those right now.

The first make-or-break-you-tripper-upper is your pricing.

You can run a kickass business in every possible way, but if you aren’t making money it’s going to fail. Amazing customer service, amazing photography, amazing marketing, amazing personality….all of that stuff….it will not sustain your business. We don’t like to talk about it — but business comes down to the money, honey. 

We like the warm fuzzies that come from improving our photography skills, having ah-may-zing packaging, loving on our clients so that they are phenomenal word of mouth marketers, and the like. We love that stuff.

But do we LOVE pricing?? Talking money?? Ugh, no! 

We hope the pricing stuff and number crunching just magically happens.

We try to use other’s pricing models because it seems to work for them. We ask for other people to give us feedback on forums on what we’re trying to accomplish. Somebody, please just make us feel like we’re doing the right thing so we don’t have to think about it anymore!

We just want to move on to something that produces warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies keep the joy in owning a business, so don’t knock em. But don’t avoid or minimize the importance of your pricing. 

You need to have a handle on your pricing. If you don’t have a solid foundation or feel like you’re trying to cobble so many concepts together that you’re overwhelmed just trying to figure it all out because this whole pricing thing has got you down, you just might need Keep Calm & Price On.

Start here, with Keep Calm & Price On. Give yourself a pricing start, even if it might not be what you want to have for the rest of your photography career. You need a foundation to build on.

And please, pick it up quick-like because it’s only available through February 24th. I made it $49 so you won’t come up with a list of excuses why you don’t need to work on your pricing. It’s completely affordable and will guide you through 3 phases of pricing, with handy dandy vendor recommendations built right in.

If you feel like you have a pretty solid foundation for pricing but you’re struggling to get to the next level, you need Easy as Pie. Read more here.

If you don’t feel confident in what you are doing — even if you feel 63% confident in what you are doing, that’s not confident enough. I want you to KNOW with 112% certainty that you have the perfect pricing for your business. Better yet, I want you to know exactly how and when pricing will change when you are ready for those changes to happen. 

The second major thing that will break you is your own negativity.

Not only are you your worse critic, you are your biggest discourager. Refuse to talk yourself out of trying things because you can come up with a list of cons before you can think of a single pro. 

The most important thing I’ve learned from owning and operating a business is the necessity of risk. You have to be willing to take risks and be willing to fail. Otherwise, the fear of the unknown — the “I can’t do this because…” or “This will never work because…” will destroy you and your business before you ever get it off the ground. — from Beginner Bliss

Squash those thoughts with Beginner Bliss, my friend! It’s free and it’s fun. You can get it delivered to your inbox by telling me where to send it.


The feedback on this freebie has been overwhelmingly positive, so I hope you enjoy it!

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on February 22, 2012 at 11:37 am, filed under Business, Keep Calm, Keep Calm and Price On. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.



This boutique wants me to do a commercial shoot for no pay, just “exposure.” I’m tempted. What do you think?


I am always very cautious when it comes to businesses approaching me for anything in exchange for exposure. Although it’s often very flattering to be considered, this isn’t free exposure. You are giving a lot of yourself for this, so don’t get too excited at this “act of generosity.”

Ultimately, this is for the benefit of the other business owner. It involves you trading something tangible — hours of preparation, shooting, culling, editing, and presenting images — for something intangible like “exposure.”

Anything you agree to do just for “exposure” is a complete and utter gamble.

You might get business from this, and I might be eaten by Bigfoot tomorrow while I’m walking the dog. Anything is possible.



As you weigh the pros and cons of this commercial shoot, here are some important questions to ask yourself:

How are these images going to be used? Will they be online, printed in mailed promotional pieces, or used in store display items?

Will a local audience be reached with these images? Etsy is not the place to get exposure, unless you want more Etsy sellers to let you shoot THEIR stuff for “exposure,” too. Ideally, you want to invest your energy in projects that have a local audience and have some chance of growing your local client base.


Will your business name be used on the images? If you’re only getting paid in “exposure,” you’ll need to have your watermark on EACH image EVERY time it’s used. Just doing photo credits is risky, as images can be pinned on Pinterest or swiped for Facebook — and there went your “exposure!”

Think of as many questions as you can possibly can to make sure this type of exposure is going to get you the results you desire the most for your business.


If you have nothing to do, your schedule is empty, and you need some practice, a no-cost, no-risk job could be an excellent experience for you. Just don’t rush in too quickly.

The good news? If you are giving something of yourself, you have the ability to “call the shots,” so to speak.

If you enter into this agreement to trade your services for “exposure,” a contract is utterly necessary. This keeps the person receiving the tangible items — the other business owner — from stiffing you of your intangible items, like more eyes on your work, watermarked images, postcards in a boutique, a rotating display of work in a lobby, etc…

Terms needs to be specified in how the relationship is going to work for the duration of the project.



What are you willing to do for the owner?

How many hours are you willing to invest?


Is it just digital files being handed over, or will you be providing printed products as well? If there are printed products, I recommend the other business owner is 100% responsible for those expenses.

How many images will be handed over?

Will you cull the images first, or hand over a full CD of every image you take? (I don’t recommend it, but the other business owner might assume this is what will happen. Be clear and manage expectations in the contract.)

Do they require basic edits or advanced retouching?

How and where will your business name appear on the images? Watermarked for the duration of their usefulness? Print credit, too? Please make sure your business name and website address are on the images.

Are there any limitations to the business owner’s use of the images? Online only, in promotional materials only, in print only, on Facebook only, etc.. You can absolutely limit what you do for free!


ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure that everything is clearly spelled out between the two parties, so expectations are managed and the entire process is more likely to go smoothly.

Contracts are the best way to protect both yourself and the other business owner from an icky experience or from being burned. Do not treat this lightly, even if (especially if!) the other owner is your best friend.

For an added contractual bonus, list the full retail value of the shoot you’re doing for exposure, and let the business owner know they will be billed for that amount if they violate any of your terms of service.

Even at bare bones, super-cheap, inexperienced commercial pricing like $100 an hour and $100 an image, my guess is that the proposed “exposure” shoot is worth over $1,000. Treat it as such, and make no bones about its value and how you’ll be billing for it to the other business person in the contract!

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on February 7, 2012 at 7:36 am, filed under Business. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

How do I know the best way for people to find me?



Great question! There are so many methods to marketing and seemingly endless ways for people to find you.

Banners, ads, search engine optimization, postcards, flyers, you name it.

Some ways are strategic and some are just plain common sense. But how do you know which is going to be a for-sure way for people to actually find you?



First, start thinking about the community that you live in. When you need to find local business & community information, where do locals go to find it?

I was shocked to find that people in my tiny Pennsylvania town don’t really use the internet. In fact, they actively distrust it. A website is NOT the easiest way to market a business in this part of the country, whereas your people might run to the internet or access it from their phones to find information.

For a quick look at the local climate for marketing, grab a friend-of-a-friend and ask ‘em a few questions: 



When you’re looking for a business, how do you find the information you need?
Do you use Google? The Yellow Pages?
Do you ask a friend?
Do you check out the coffee shop/yoga studio/gym bulletin board?
Do you scan the newspaper or the classified ads?
Do you pay attention to billboards?
Do you take a drive through town to notice any new businesses popping up?

It’s easy to think the way WE find information is the way EVERYONE finds information, but it’s not true.

I used to live in a town where everyone and their mama had websites. It was a tech-savvy town. People knew what blogs were and usually if you wanted to know something about a business, you went to google. Or Yelp. Or the internet in general.



Now, I live in a town where no one has a website. No one even really advertises. It’s all word of mouth; all who you know.

If you really want to know who to hire, you go ask your neighbor or the person working behind the cash register or the stylist at your local salon. You’ve got to talk to people find anything out, here.

This makes it really difficult when you’ve only lived in your area two days and your septic tank is spewing into your basement and the three guys listed in the yellow pages aren’t answering your phone and you have yet to meet your neighbors who live 2 miles down the road, by the way…at any rate, start doing some sleuthing!

Your friend-of-a-friend might reveal that the coffee shop bulletin board is a pretty bumpin’ place to find information, or that the Yellow Pages are not, in fact, dead as a doornail.

Only YOUR locals can tell you what you need to know.

Repeat those same questions with another friend-of-a-friend who’s local to your town, remembering that your sole purpose is to find out how information about local businesses gets passed around by that person.

Start making a list of ways that your community members research information, and number them in order of what is the most effective method and what is the least effective when it comes to finding out how they collect their business info.



Just because someone across the country swears by a method of marketing doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the way your community passes around information, and just because someone tells you that you don’t need to advertise doesn’t make that the truth.

Only you can determine what’s best for your business and your local community.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on at 7:13 am, filed under Assumptions, Business. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

I live in a tiny town. Is it possible to have a business where there are less than 2,000 people??


You can have a sustainable business in a small town, and here is why. 



More often than not, small towns aren’t overrun with photographers.

I bet if we were to do the math, metropolitan areas have a higher ratio of photographers to potential clients than small towns do simply because everyone looks at the potential and sees themselves being surrounded by thousands, or hundreds of thousands or even millions of potential clients.

Small town people look at the fact that they only have a few thousand and probably a lot talk themselves out of going into business as soon as the thought crosses their mind. But, once you do your homework (all those fancy numbers that you put together in your business plan!)- you might discover that for you only need a small number of clients to stay in business.


You don’t need thousands of clients per year to have a profitable & sustainable business unless you are a $50 shoot & burn photographer. With the right pricing and the right marketing, you only need to attract a few dozen per year. That’s totally doable.

Furthermore, small towns usually have the benefit of not having to compete with chain studios. That means you have less cheap competition to deal with.

Better yet, word of mouth spreads like wildfire in small towns.

That means easier marketing because it’s easier to circulate your reputation. People in small towns talk. Trust me, I grew up in a small montana town of less than 2,000 people and I’m still shocked by what people know about me despite being a homeschooled kid with no social life. Stuff gets around.

Just as much as bad stuff gets spread around, so does the good stuff. Friends will talk to friends and your marketing just got a whole lot easier.

Better still, you have the ability to really work with local businesses because you have the chance to get to know them better. Heck, some may even know you from when you grew up!

This is your chance to really step up and bring a community together in supporting small businesses. When small business owners unite, everyone in the community feels the positive effects. There is a lot of creative marketing just waiting to happen right there!

It’s easier to stand out.

Even if you already have a photographer or two doing business in your town, you probably know them and all about their reputation. You’re better able to set yourself apart as something very different. This makes you less threatening to existing business, and it allows you to see the niche you can carve out for yourself with laser focus.

Got an older dude that shoots everything from weddings to seniors to high school pictures to passport pictures? Find something that you do really well and something they don’t do so well and REALLY market yourself as that. Become the photographer that doesn’t compete with the other locals, just the one who fills in the gaps where the others are weak.

Best of all, you have the chance to be creative and show your community something new.

In a small community, your style can really stand out and shine because you aren’t like anyone else. Seize that opportunity and run wild with it!

Refuse to be discouraged because you live in a small town and don’t think you can make it. You can totally do it, with a clearly-defined style, other local businesses, and relational marketing.

If you live in a small town- what was one thing that you have had to do for your business to keep it sustainable? Let other readers know in the comments!

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:55 am, filed under Business, Plans. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

There are so many photographers out there who have sessions for $75 and include the disk. How am I ever going to compete with that and be sustainable?



The minute you enter the photography industry in any sort of serious manner, you become aware of the ridiculously cheap photographers out there. They seem to be everywhere, don’t they? (Heck, you might be one of ‘em!)

Here is why I want you to pay them no attention. There is no need to have a panic attack or to dread their presence, promise!

First, everyone starts somewhere.

A lucky few start from the get-go with solid pricing and a whole lot of business knowledge. A lucky few. Everyone else has a bottom rung that they start out on. Finding 12 people in your neighborhood who are dirt cheap doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to stay that cheap. This could be a phase for them and most likely, they will either burn out or get a clue that a sustainable business (or even a sustainable paying hobby) can’t go on like this. Things will change one way or another. Give them time to see the light, but don’t waste any time worrying about their effect on your business.

Not everyone wants to hire a beginner.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who aren’t about saving money and getting the most dirt cheap offering that they can, even if they aren’t currently rolling in dough. There really are people who value $200 photographers but might not a $2K. There are people who value $750 ones but not $75 ones, and there are ones that value $5K ones.

There truly are people out there that hire based on style and not ultimately on price.

Look for those people, market to them, and use your pricing to attract them. When I had my studio in Montana, I can’t tell you how many times I was told that I was hired because I was the highest priced photographer in the state.

Let me repeat: I was hired BECAUSE I was the highest-priced photographer in the state.

Hiring me wasn’t about just wanting to blow money, it was about getting what you pay for. Clients had the most confidence in me because I had the most confidence in myself to present the highest pricing. I didn’t try to be competitive with everyone else around me by keeping it cheap and safe. (It also took me years to get to that point, so don’t expect to just put out a price list and assume because you are higher than everyone it’s going to work for you. You’ve got to earn the reputation that can back up that pricing!)

The saying is true: you get what you pay for.

Those cheap-as-dirt photographers won’t be able to compete with you because you are going to be giving better customer service and a better customer experience to your people. That’s going to help retain your clients and not lose them to the cheaper photographers.

Focus your business energy on WHY you have your pricing and WHY it’s worth it for clients to pony up the cash. Assuming that you didn’t just pull numbers out of a hat, your pricing came from a place of common sense, sound judgement, real need, and compensation for your time and talent.

Lastly, you will be always be in competition with SOMEONE.

No matter what price range you’re in, you’re going to be in competition with other photographers at that price point. Let the competition be good for your business instead of letting it anger or discourage you.

Keep growing and work to get to the ultimate place of competition: outdoing YOURSELF. That’s when you’ll really shine.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on January 24, 2012 at 7:30 am, filed under Business, Keep Calm. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

January is d-e-a-d. What do I do?

January is a bad month for everyone except those two random people who seem to get massive amounts of clients for no clearly-defined reason.

For the rest of the world, January is a terrible month for bookings.

Instead of twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the phone to ring, here are the top six things you should be doing for your business this January.

#1: Taxes.

Get those business taxes ready for filing. Even if you don’t plan on filing until April, get in the habit of starting the new year prepared. It doesn’t matter if you’ve only made $300 this year, you’ll need to report your income as well as your losses. Make sure you have your legal ducks in a row with my Business Basics e-course. Free here if you’re not in on it already!

#2: Marketing.

Get marketing with local businesses. Schedule 2-3 meetings a week to invest time in building relationships with other local business owners. You may only need to spend 30 minutes at the meeting, but each one gets you closer to your marketing goals. Please, please schedule this and make it happen.

#3: Organize.

Organize your past year’s files. If you haven’t already packed up all your digital files, get it taken care of. I can tell you how many horror stories I’ve heard about corrupted external hard drives and crashing computers. Schedule time to back up everything you have, and look into a service like Backblaze for extra-sure, double-secret back-up protection.

#4: Plan.

Go over your business plan and update it! January is the season for discouragement, as you’re done with the holiday rush and your business is probably a bit d-e-a-d. Add calculating your taxes on top of that, and you’re probably feeling a bit blah. Combat that with some introspective time, starting with this article.

#5: Write.

Website copy is one of the hardest things to do well, and the easiest thing to neglect when you’re busy. Spend a little time polishing up your website copy with Circus Circus. I think you’ll really enjoy it, as it takes all the scary bits out of the writing process. If you’re like me and dread the process of writing (it doesn’t come easily, believe me!) Circus Circus can help.

#6: Make it mini.

Start planning some mini sessions to help grow your client base for 2012. Brainstorm some ideas AND be sure you’re not giving away the farm.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on January 3, 2012 at 1:36 am, filed under Business, Keep Calm. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Should I offer gift certificates?

I have seen tons of darling template designs for creating gift certificates for purchase. In theory, they sound like a great idea.

Doesn’t EVERY business offer gift certificates? Well, no, actually.

Gift certificates for a photography business tend to be more hassle and legal trouble than they’re worth. Assuming that someday someone will ask to buy a gift certificate, you have three options.

Option 1. Sell the client a gift certificate for their desired amount.

Don’t forget that there are legalities that come with this territory. They can include matters of including an expiration date, which might be illegal in your state, as well as having the terms of use clearly printed on the certificate. Session limited to 8 people? You’d better state that on the certificate, or it’s okay for Uncle Bub and his 14 nephews to book a session.

Since your certificate has to be pretty AND legal, this is going to take some time to nail down. Plus, if the person buying the gift certificate buys only a session fee, the person receiving the gift is stuck footing the bill for prints. That’s not likely to end well, as the recipient of the gift certificate might be caught off guard by how much prints cost. Now they’re angry at having to spend $300 and accuse you of “holding their photos hostage.” Since they didn’t sign a contract agreeing to your terms of service and pricing, you have no legal recourse for pointing out that they agreed to X when they booked the session. They didn’t book the session, honey, the gift certificate recipient did…

Option 2. Sell the gift certificate for the amount of the full session fee and the minimum order requirement.

This is great for you, but the likelihood of someone buying a $500 gift certificate is not likely. More than likely, if a generous soul is going this route, they’ll pay for it at the time of booking and not just buy a pretty certificate. That way THEY know that their money has been spent and isn’t just sitting on a gift card.

Option 3 — my favorite! Give up on gift certificates. Save yourself the hassle of designing and printing ‘em.

If someone does contact you, just tell them that you prefer they just give cash to the receiver and that the recipient of the cash contact you directly. Trust me, it’s not a lost sale if you don’t sell someone a certificate. The odds of the recipient a.) redeeming the certificate and b.) being a good fit for your business are quite small.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on December 13, 2011 at 7:40 am, filed under Business, Customer Service. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

How should I approach portfolio building?

Just recently I was approached by a vendor that said in their e-mail title “We want to feature you!” which then went on to say what the cost would be involved for them to feature me. It made me feel gross all over knowing that they didn’t really want to feature me so much as they wanted to make themselves money while making their business look good. This is just a part of sleazy marketing 101. 

I relate this icky, sleazy feeling to doing free portfolio building sessions when a photographer is doing this as a way to attract potential sales. It’s called a bait and switch tactic.

When I was first starting out, I learned of a method from a photographer the”Fresh Faces” marketing method. She would print out hundreds of cards that she would hand out looking for models for her website giving them free photo sessions and a complimentary 8X10 as a thank you gift. It was her highly recommended method of not only filling a portfolio and gaining a new client, but of making sales after the session.

I trusted her. I was new, she made money and she held workshops, why shouldn’t I!?  

I printed 500 oversize postcards and littered the community with them. And while I did fill my portfolio very quickly with a ton of these free sessions, it was an exhausting and expensive learning process. I spent hundreds of hours driving, shooting, and editing on top of a large hunk of money on the marketing materials and the complimentary 8X10′s I was giving out. (I’m pretty darn sure those 8×10′s were just scanned, as only 3 out of over 30 sessions in one month actually placed any sort of order. I made a grand total of less than $150 in that month, which didn’t even cover my expenses for the situation.)

Guess how many clients hired me again? Not 30…not 15…not even 1. ZERO. All of that work with the main goal being marketing and sales and all I got was a portfolio. 

Getting a portfolio and the experience under my belt was not entirely a bad thing. I learned a lot of valuable lessons during that time. It just would have been easier on me if I mentally was going through it all for the sake of learning valuable lessons on how not to run a business because then it would have been a huge success…

If you are requesting models to use for your portfolio which results in YOU looking better, than do not charge the person for doing this. At all. Not just free session fee, but no order afterwards. Hand them over the disc and thank them for benefitting YOU. Don’t use this as a method to get as much as possible out of someone. It feels icky and gross.

I believe there is a time and place for free sessions, but I do not believe that time is ever when the goal is for growing a client base or attracting potential sales.

If you want to build a client base and you’re over getting your feet wet, you’ve got to charge! Otherwise, you’re bait-and-switching. And that’s no good.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on December 6, 2011 at 7:19 am, filed under Assumptions, Business. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Do I need to announce my new pricing and how should I do that?

Every time we come up with a new pricing structure, we face the question of how to launch it. Especially when it comes to notifying past clients about price increases.

Outside the photographic industry, though, it’s pretty common for prices to increase without anyone knowing.

When I shop at my regular clothing store, I don’t expect them to notify me that my favorite pair of jeans has gone up in price by $10. I’ve come to expect that prices aren’t guaranteed to stay the same.

When the power company notifies its users of a price increase, it’s not to help convince clients to hire them before rates go up. They are doing it to prepare their already existing paying clients for increased budgeted payments. If they didn’t, there would be a huge revolt because it changes how people spend monthly. But companies that do one-time sales and that are not a utility company (that’d be you!) are free to change prices at will.

Prices are bound to change, and there is no forewarning or apology necessary as to why the increase took place. It is what it is.

I see the photography industry in the same way. There is no need to warn all past clients every single time you are about to do a price increase. Every time you notify someone of a price increase at a time that they weren’t planning on hiring you, they’re less likely to look at your website when they DO have need of your services.

I truly believe that it is better for a client to keep you in mind as “their” photographer. When they are ready to hire you again and they want you, they’ll see the new pricing. They have the opportunity to decide if they to keep you or if they’d like to find someone new. It’s easier to decide you no longer want someone when you don’t currently have a need for them — and much harder to walk away from increased pricing when there IS a need to get those holiday cards done.

Handle price increases by including a bit of copy on your website that lets clients know prices are subject to change at any time, and only booking a session will secure current pricing.

You can also include a similar blurb in your contract or welcome packet if you feel the need to keep clients from memorizing your pricing. It’s subject to change without notice, forever and ever, amen.

Oh, and the Gap just called…the price of that scarf you were looking at last year has increased by 20% for the 2012 season. (Kidding!)

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on November 29, 2011 at 7:19 am, filed under Business. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

Is it worth adding custom framing to my line of offerings and if so – how do I charge for them?

When it comes to custom framing, I will try my darnedest to talk you out of carrying them for a number of reasons. But before I get into those reasons, let’s chat about charging for them.

I encourage you to mark up any specialty item you carry by at least 3 to 4x your cost of goods as a bare minimum.

You must always leave some wiggle room to make a profit on a product so that you can sell it at a discount (as in your collections) or offer it as an incentive (to entice larger sales).

Why the wiggle room? If you have a product that costs you $50 and you are charging $150 for it, you’re making $100 each time it sells. But if your client purchases it using one of your promotions or discounts (let’s say 25% off) – they get the product for $112.50. That leaves you a profit of just $62.50. Still not too bad, right?

If you’re marking it up by only 2X and your discount is 25%, though, you’re selling an item that costs you $50 to obtain for a mere $75. That means you’re making only $25 on a $100 sale. BAD for profitability.

Of course, if you want to sell frames, you’ll also have to purchase corner samples from the framing company ($$), sample frames (more $$), and mounting supplies if you’re brave/foolish enough to try mounting prints yourself (even more $$$). Those ‘other’ costs add up VERY quickly without getting you much bang for your buck.

To give you a comparison of good profitability and bad profitability, let’s look at your gift prints.

If your gift print is $30 and your client has $150 to spend, they can choose 5 8X10′s (COGS about $15) or they can choose your speciality item for $150 (COGS $50). Not only does selling the 8X10′s to your client mean you profit more….it also means your client gets more bang for their buck. Win-Win for both of you. 

So, specialty items with a high cost of goods sold, like custom frames, aren’t as profitable as you might imagine. If that doesn’t stop you cold in your tracks, perhaps these reasons will…

Myth #1: If I offer custom framing to my clients, my sales will increase.

Fact: If a client has a $2,000 budget, offering custom framing is not going to get them to spend over their budget. It will merely cut into your print sales by increasing frame sales.

Increasing sales for a number value is only beneficial if you are increasing profits as well. It’s better to have a $500 sale with $50 cost of goods ($450 profit) than it is to have a $1000 sale with $600 cost of goods ($400 profit).

Bigger sales may give warm fuzzies that a client is spending bigger money on you, but warm fuzzes don’t translate to more profitability.

Myth #2: If I offer a framed product that is ready to hang, my clients will be more likely to order larger sizes.

Fact: If someone isn’t a large print size person, they aren’t going to change because of your line of custom frames. One of my biggest clients never ordered bigger than an 8X10 although their orders would often be over $2,000 each time. I could not convince them to go bigger no matter what angle I took. IF you want to offer a ready-to-hang product, push the gallery-wrapped canvas choices you offer.

Higher profit to you and the client doesn’t have to set aside a mental budget for additional money to pay a custom framer. 

If a client is dead set on custom framing and not interested in gallery wrapped canvases, here is your opportunity to collaborate with a local framing company.

Ask them if they would be willing to offer a small discount (maybe 5-10% off coupon) that you can give to all of your clients when you refer your clients to them. Have on hand of price sheet of some of the framers pricing at your ordering session so they can have a ball park figure out what the cost of framing is going to involve.

Your clients will appreciate you looking out for them and helping them to decide what is the best option available for them — and you won’t have to buy a single frame corner.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on November 22, 2011 at 7:10 pm, filed under Business, Customer Service. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.