With Laura Esmond

Hey friend. Welcome back to the podcast. You're with Laura Esmond. Today I wanna talk about something that I know trips up a lot of photographers, especially the ones who are trying to shift into more premium pricing and are just tired of feeling like they're just working so hard and still not making what they want.

I'm sharing four really common and. Kind of sneaky pricing mistakes. I don't wanna go over the really obvious ones, like you just are charging too little. Or just raise your rates, because we've all heard that before and it's, that's harder than, it is easier for me to say that than for you to actually do it.

I wanna dig into these subtler ones. The ones that feel like maybe just good customer service or a good experience that you're creating, but are actually keeping you stuck. So whether you've been in business. For a few years or, or are just starting to feel the tug to make a change.

Hopefully this gives you some food for thought. As we move into a season where many photographers are saying, something's gotta change, let's dive in. These first two are going to, they're going to sound similar, but they're actually opposites of the same coin. Mistake number one I see is offering the wrong session for the client's needs.

A client says, we don't need a big session. Just a few quick photos. I'm sure you've all heard that. You know, nothing fancy. It's tempting, right? You want to be accommodating. You wanna fill your calendar, you wanna keep things easy for them. You wanna keep things affordable. You're what you are hearing is, we don't wanna spend too much money, but what they're asking for, let's give a real example.

Let's say a newborn session. That is not a quick and simple session. No matter what your client says to you, it's high touch. It needs time and flexibility. The baby might need to be, uh, might need to eat or be changed or gets really fussy and needs time to soothe. And a longer session I can shoot through a fussy baby capturing maybe mom and dad soothing baby.

But I wouldn't want those to be the. Only images I can create just because I'm limited on time. A newborn session is not something you can rush through in 20 minutes at least. I would never want to. Another example is someone saying that they want just too many arrangements. So they're saying they don't really wanna spend a lot of time on this, but could you really quickly get, you know, intimate photos and candid and mom and dad with these kids, and maybe the kids with just mom and mom with the kids, and suddenly you're literally just standing there.

Click, click, click, and people are moving through the frame. Ugh. I do not love doing that. It actually takes me back to my wedding days where it's just like, next. Next, next. For the family portraits, this mistake is about booking someone to a shorter petite session when what they really need is a full session.

And when we accommodate that, it often backfires. But the VIX here is actually really simple. You are the expert and it's your job to guide the client to the session that's actually going to work for their needs. It might fe feel easier in the moment to say yes to the little session that they're requesting and, and you get to help them save a little money, but you run the risk of not being able to do your best, and that risks your reputation.

If you educate them on doing that longer session, you'll deliver better results and the client will have a better experience when the session format matches what the moment really requires. This is how I handle this request.

So if somebody says to me, I'm trying to s squeeze, you know, I just want a petite session and it's a new baby, et cetera, I would say,

I totally understand. Wanting to keep things simple. I have found though, over the years that this type of session is really best when we commit to X, Y, Z. Now, I'll explain what X, Y, Z could be in a minute, but. And then I would say, I have tried it the way you're suggesting, and here's what went wrong. And then I might fill in a little bit of detail here.

You know, I had a client just wanna do a quick petite session for a newborn, and that baby had a blowout on the way over, so we needed to, to change outfits and find an outfit. And then the baby was feeling really fussy and gassy. And 30 minutes later we had nothing. A newborn really needs that, that extra additional time because you just never know what's going to happen.

And all of my images that you see with a newborn baby, we really dedicated time to make sure we got that. Okay. So filling in that X, Y, Z, sometimes it's not that you need a longer session, it could also be a certain time of day. I've had people request that I come over for a late afternoon session with a newborn baby and I let them know I.

Only photograph babies in the morning because that's what works best. Or sometimes somebody wants to do, um, a one year cake smash, maybe in the later afternoon. Again, I always do those around between 11 and one o'clock because that's typically what their nap schedule revolves around and they.

Perfectly. Sometimes it's the location. Uh, you might have a client wanna do, you know, a unique location, but you look at their kids and the dynamic of the family and go, Ooh, okay, here's the problem I'm seeing there. So just communicating that to your client, letting them know, based on my expert advice, I'll never say that to a client, but based on my advice and what I've learned over the years.

Here's what I recommend. And this really leads into mistake number two, which is overdelivering inside a petite session. This can actually go wrong in two ways. In the above example of trying to put a time constraint on a session type that requires more time. You are now in a position of potentially feeling the need to over deliver, right?

You have this newborn session, 30 minutes later you still have no images, and now you're there for two hours when you know they're only paying you for a petite session or maybe. Here's the other, uh, opportunity for this to go wrong. Maybe you do have the right session type booked. Maybe it's a petite for a milestone or a family session during the fall, you know, busy fall season and it's truly a good fit.

But then you choose to overdeliver. You stay longer than planned. You give them this big full gallery. You bring the same level of care and service that you would to a full session because. You know, like I am, I'm kind, I'm thoughtful. I I just want them to love it. I want them to love working with me. But when you give everything away and your lower and your lowest priced offer, you teach your clients, they don't need your full experience because they're already getting it.

This is the mistake of blurring the lines between your premium and your petite sessions, and what happens is your full session starts to feel unnecessary or even overpriced, right? Your clients are gonna look at that and go, why would I ever pay that? My suggestion here is really simple. It's just keep your boundaries.

Petite sessions can be beautiful and professional and warm without including everything. Let your full session stand apart. Give it that breathing room. Give it all the images that it deserves and give it that deeper experience it deserves. Make it easy for your clients to see what they're paying for and why upgrading to the full session experience is actually worth that.

Let's move on to mistake number three, copying competitor pricing without real market research. That's actually a mouthful. Ah, okay. This one is kind of sneaky. It's an easy thing to do, especially when you're just starting or feeling unsure.

So you look around, you do a little, what we call market research, which is essentially just spying on your competitors and you look at what they're charging and base your numbers. On that, or even worse, you see an established photographer's price and think, oh, I'll just charge half. The problem though is you have no idea what's going on behind the scenes in their business.

Maybe they're not profitable, maybe they don't even need to be profitable. They could have a spouse that provides everything financially for their family and they don't actually need to bring a dime home to their family. And this is really just fun and, and a creative outlet for them. Or the opposite of that, maybe they're totally burned out.

Uh, they could have a completely different market than you, which I'm going to go into in a minute. Maybe the experience that they provide is something isn't something that you're equipped to handle just yet. Or maybe they're built, they built their pricing on volume, whereas you'd prefer to do just a few sessions a month.

And the most obvious advice here is to just do the math. You do the math on your own business, something we call learning your CODB. Which stands for Cost of Doing Business. This is something I do in depth with my Get Rooted students, even ones that have been in business for years, to ensure that they're building a business with the highest potential of profit, creating a profit.

And if you've never done that, I highly recommend doing so as soon as possible. Here's my real advice inside this, this mistake. It's to do the real market research, which does not include spying on your competitors. Here are a few questions that, that you really should research so you understand your market.

First, what's the cost of living in your area compared to other cities? Second, are you in a luxury market? Does your market show indicators like other luxury brands or nearby, such as whole foods, um, luxury retailers, boutique businesses, that sort of thing. If those retailers have found that they can support their business in your market, that's a really good sign for you.

There are some other indicators you can look into. for instance, median household income above a hundred to 150,000. Now you don't want to just look at an, at an entire city. I wouldn't want to just look at Denver. I would look at pocket areas like specific zip codes, and then I can find most of my clients inside those zip codes.

People also investing in their home. You're finding lots of professionals, like interior designers in your area, If you aren't in a luxury market, though, do not lose hope. I'm definitely not saying you have to live in a luxury market to have the business that you want, but if you aren't seeing those indicators, one thing to look at before you change, you know, the direction you're headed is, is there one nearby, one that you can drive to?

If you're not within reasonable driving distance of a classic luxury market like I described, um, just now, then you can adjust your pricing to fit the market you're in and build a business that prioritizes heirloom experiences as well as having offers to support you financially throughout the year.

And this leads to the next market research question. Who are the people hiring you and what do they value most? Start to build your business around what they really want and need from you. And this means really getting in and, and talking to the people that you want to work with. And then lastly, what are you offering that sets you apart?

You don't want to look just like the woman next door. You don't want to look identical to her because then how does somebody know how to hire you? They, they need, an easy way to hire you, and that's by differentiating yourself. So your pricing should reflect your business and the market you are in, not someone else's guesswork.

Okay.

Moving on to our final mistake, number four, staying at your starter rate for just too long. And I see this one a lot. You start out at one price, potentially without, you know, doing the work that I suggested and, and mistake number three, and you're growing a following. You've gotten better, you are more consistent.

You have guides, you have workflows and beautiful images from every session. Your pricing is still the same or at least similar to your first year or two of business, and it's usually not about the money for you. This is about confidence. Here are a couple of questions I want you to ask yourself. This is when you know it's time to raise your prices.

Number one, your client experience is dialed in. You can handle inquiries and planning smoothly. Everything just feels very good. Number two, you are consistently creating images you're proud of. You show up to pretty much any session and you know you can create something beautiful. Even you walk away from a session going, oh my gosh, I don't know what in the world happened there.

It was so chaotic. I hope I got something good. But you go and you look at the gallery and you're like, you know what? I did a really good job. And then number three, you're booking pretty much everybody that inquires with you, or you're at a point where you're just booking more than you can handle. If any of those, or especially if all, all of those feel true to you, I just want to lovingly say you've outgrown your old rates and it's okay to step into a new season for your business.

One mindset that keeps photographers stuck inside this mistake is they don't feel that they're worth more. They'll often say to me like, I just can't imagine charging that. I just don't feel like what I'm doing is worthy of that price. However, every photographer I've worked with has found that when they finally raise their rates, they can then book fewer sessions, which means they can show up better for each client and create better work.

Their work actually grows. They get they, they look at their artwork that they're creating from their sessions and go, okay, I am worth it. That alone helps them feel more confident in a higher price range.

If you're sitting here nodding along, maybe even realizing that you've been doing one or maybe even all of these things, you are not alone. These are things we all navigate at some point, including me, including every high-end, amazing photographer that you follow on Instagram, everybody. And if you're ready to untangle some of these patterns and to step into a more aligned, sustainable version of your business, I'd love to invite you to apply for Get Rooted.

This is my high-touch group coaching experience for photographers just like you who are ready to grow a business that feels truly like their own. One with clear, simple offers, pricing that reflects your experience, thoughtful systems, and the confidence to own your value.

If that sounds like what you've been craving, head to laura esmond.com/get rooted and apply. We'll chat and make sure it's a good fit. Alright, friend, that's it for today. I am cheering you on as always, and I will see you next time.