We were asked by a photographer if he should raise his prices or not.\u00a0 My knee jerk response straight from the textbook was, \u201cIf the demand for your services is greater than what you can supply, then yes.\u201d\u00a0 But this is quite vague.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the litmus test we came up with that is now used by many successful trend setters:<\/p>\n
1. Get an 18 month calendar.\u00a0 If you regularly book weddings out further, then a 24 or 36 month calendar might be necessary for you.<\/p>\n
2. When a certain date is fully booked, mark an X on that day.\u00a0 This could be one wedding or 4 portrait sessions, etc.<\/p>\n
3. Continue to make slashes in the \u201casked about\u201d dates.\u00a0 So even when you pick up the phone and have to say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, that date is already booked.\u201d, be sure to put a slash on that date every time.<\/p>\n
4. Review the slashes when you get the urge to make pricing changes.\u00a0 Instead of thinking, \u201cThat last weekend in July is soooo busy, I should charge more that weekend.\u201d\u00a0 You can analyze it and make a more rash decision.<\/p>\n
On a side note, I have to mention here that the classic micro-economic graph Higher Prices = Less Sales<\/strong> and Lower prices =\u00a0 More Sales<\/strong> does not always ring true in the photography industry.\u00a0 If you are slumping in sales, you might even want to raise your rates, creating a perceived value for your service.\u00a0 When you deliver on that value, you will create a customer for life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We were asked by a photographer if he should raise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}