Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Poor
The close friend thing is a slippery slope. Read around here and you'll see a lot of threads about folks being taken advantage of by close friends.
Did I second guess myself? You bet, and as much as I harp on it, I also made the underpricing (though not nearly as extreme) mistake.
My thoughts are; if you can deliver, then you should charge based on what you can deliver, not how long you have been delivering it. In other words, if your work is quality, then it matters very little how long you have been around.
|
Again, Jim, you read my mind!
It's really hard to decide what to do with friends - it completely depends on the situation and what they expect. Keep in mind, if you don't charge them now, they will most likely expect freebies in the future when you are established and taking on full-price clients (and don't have time to devote to freebies). There can be a balance, though - I have a very close friend that watches my kids quite often for me, and she wouldn't dream of charging me. She's also the type of friend I can complain to about people wanting freebies, LOL - She's a dental hygenist and I wouldn't ask her to give my kids a free cleaning! For that type of friend, I won't charge her a session fee, but she won't expect me to pay out of my pocket for prints, either. I have other more casual friends who assume that just because I'm a photographer, I won't mind taking free photos of their kids - which I gracefully back out of. Other times when I've been asked to do portraits by these casual friends/friends of friends, I've said "Sure, let me get you a copy of my price sheet," and let it go from there. They either pony up the money or let it slide.
I second guessed myself many times, and sometimes still do. I'm still fairly new in this business but have educated myself not only in the technical and artistic aspects of photography, but the business side as well. That education continues every day. I've made a lot of mistakes, and I know I'll continue to make mistakes in the future - it's called being human.
Jim's last paragraph is brilliant. It even made me feel better, as I have not been around for a very long time (although I don't tell my clients this - I let them judge me by my body of work, not by how long I've been doing it!). Some people will automatically assume that if you're new, you suck, if you've been around for years, you're a genius. They're also the ones that think "Wow, your camera takes really nice pictures!"
