This post is Part 6 of The Modern Tog’s Photographer’s Pricing Guide series. Here’s the link to Part 1 of the Pricing Guide in case you missed it.

It’s finally time to pull together all the pieces you’ve been working on so far and decide what kind of packages you are going to offer. Before you do this, I highly suggest taking some time to think about your business model. Will you have multiple packages for each type of shoot or do everything a la carte? Or maybe you’ll have one package with several add-on options. Determining how to structure your photography pricing is probably the most difficult part of this step.

If you decide that having packages is best for you, click here to learn how to create photography packages that sell.

Creating Packages

Let’s say that the average amount needed for a portrait shoot is $750. There are several ways that we can get to this number. You can simply charge a session fee and hand over the digital files or you can create a package that includes enough products you offer to get you to the price you need. When you do this, you need to be adding up the Retail Less Costs of Goods. If you use the selected retail amount, you’ll fail to account for the cost of goods and will make less than you should to reach your needed average.

For this example I’m going to create a package completely out of products I offer and not charge an additional session fee. I’ll use the following products as an example.

Fine Art Album (Retail Less Cost of Goods: $550, Selected Retail Price: $750)
Print Collection (Retail Less Cost of Goods: $200, Selected Retail Price: $250)

So if we want a package to be $750 after cost of goods, we can select both the Fine Art Album ($550 Retail Less Cost of Goods) and the Print Collection ($200 Retail Less Cost of Goods) to get us to exactly $750. We’d then have to add up the Selected Retail Price of the items to know what to charge our customers for this package. In this case, we’d have to add $750 and $250 to get $1000, which is what we’d charge our customers to ensure that we’re making $750 after we pay for the album and prints.

Making it easy with the Photographer’s Pricing Guide Workbook

If you’re using the Photographer’s Pricing Guide Workbook, go to the Packages tab at the bottom of the screen. Then enter the name of your package in row 6. Click the cell right below that in row 7 and select the type of shoot from the drop-down menu.

Next, enter a session fee in row 8 if you wish to use one. If not, leave this blank. To add a product to your package, click on a cell and select the desired product from the drop-down list. To add another product to the list, go back to the “Product Pricing” tab (click on it at the bottom of the worksheet) and add it there.

You’ll automatically see the amount needed in row 24, as well as the amount in the package based on what you’ve added so far (row 25). What you’ll want to do is watch the number in row 26, which tells you if you’re under or over the amount you need (a parenthesis around the number means you’re under where you need to be at). My smallest packages are usually slightly below the amount needed, whereas the rest of my packages are about equal or greater than where I need them to be. Your business model should help dictate exactly where you want the packages to be priced in comparison to your average amount needed.

Finally, once your package includes what you want it to include, you’ll see your retail price (what you need to charge your customers) in row 27.

In our next post, we’ll wrap up this series with a discussion about how to take the numbers you’ve just computed and make them work in your market.

Want to see my Wedding & Portrait Packages?

Want to see how I structure my Wedding & Portrait packages? You can see this free as part of the exclusive content I share via email. Simply enter your email below and click the button and I’ll send it right to you.