This concept took me a few years to even get my head around, and in the spirit of full disclosure, my own prices of my work and service are probably still wrong. The key to start however, is not only finding what people will pay for your photo or video service, but what does your service actually net the client? As much as I love wandering off into the woods to make photographs I love and that will hopefully sell as prints, I am always hit with the cold hard truth; how can I offer clients content that will yield tangible results.
Obscure Bokeh. Tokyo, Japan
This is mostly sales or clicks, but sometimes clients just need to spice up an Instagram account or website, and the offering is totally subjective to the client’s eye and they won’t need much more than outside compliments on the change to make them feel like you were a good investment. Assessing what you can actually do and offer people can only be truly done by going out and freelancing, being told no, and ultimately going bigger than you once thought you were capable of. So start easy, and don’t take any feelings or expectations with it. Confidence through experience and the constant search of risk will definitely get you dead on or close to what you can truly offer someone.
Once known, you can accurately seek out jobs and put in bids and shape a price point that actually reflects what you can do, and in my experience I try to exceed my value only by a little. In show business they say you should always leave them wanting more, and there is somewhat value in that. I will exceed my value in the form of building in a free extra hour (a great tip from Collin) or in the form of a smidgen of extra content. This shows you are capable of flexibility and being an absolute badass and will up your reputation more than I believed possible at first. Can it backfire and you’ve wasted time on trying to go a little overboard? Of course, nothing is 100% and as creatives we have a better grasp on that than anyone.
I love what I do, and I love what I make. I hope you do too, and getting better all the time is the most fun in the world, I think there is incredible value in the creative community finding our value, which will only help all of us create more of what we want.