Non Professional Pricing?

[RELum]

You have to be VERY careful when starting a business. I know, I know... you aren't really starting a business as you say. However, you REALLY need to make sure of that with your local chamber of commerce. According to their website you DO meet the definition of an entrepreneur.

• Someone who organizes and maintains a business venture
• Someone who takes on the risk and does what he/she wants in order to make a profit
• Someone who can coordinate the resources available to meet a need.

Whether you want to call it a business or not, that is what it is if you are taking money in exchange for a good or service. You used the example of a yard sale. Well in many counties you DO need a license for those. It is basically a one time business license.

So, since in the eyes of White county you are an entrepreneur, then you need a business license. To get that, you need a tax ID. Once you have those, per White county, you must contact the the Planning Commission Office to verify zoning requirements, even if it is operated out of your home. And so on, and so on........ Not to mention what several others have said about insurance. Starting a business is NEVER something to take lightly.

On pricing. I agree with everyone here. My wife makes jewelry. Pricing extremely low hurts both you and the remainder of your trade. If you don't believe me take a look at jewelry on the website Etsy. It is a site for artists and crafters to sell their wares. It has degraded itself into a market of who can undercut the other guy. This is why my wife doesn't sell there. There are people selling silver earrings for less than $20!!! There is no way they are even making a profit in today's market with silver sitting around $40 an ounce. Selling full resolution digital images without restrictions, heck even with them, for $10 each is no different. You kill the market. Not only that, but you are basically paying them to allow you to take their photo!!!

[Izzy]

All this talk of biz??? The OP was going to trade shots for chickens - how do you tax chickens?

[JFSanders]

You take the fruit of their labor. Eggs

Jim

[mokka]

I haven't had chance to read all the replies, but it looks like some of them have been quite harsh, but basically the point they all make is, it is a bad idea to undersell yourself because you don't value your work highly enough because...

• Low-price low-quality isn't really what the market wants (in most photographers' experience anyway). If people are going to hire a photographer then they will want quality and will expect to pay for quality.
• No matter how low your prices are, saying 'hey the quality is low' is never a good business idea. I don't know if you're based in the UK but if you are you may remember Ratner's jewellers, a journalist asked Mr Ratner himself how they could sell jewellery so cheaply and Ratner said 'because the stuff we sell is crap'... within a week the company was out of business.
• You are probably just being modest, as an artist it is normal for you to undervalue your work. I'll bet the quality of work you produce is well worth paying at least the going rate for.
• Undercutting your competition will annoy them, and while keeping your competition happy certainly shouldn't be what you want to do as a business, you should consider the consequences. Just say it turns out customers are prepared to choose you over them because of your low prices, you will then start a price war, they will have to lower their prices in order to regain their market share. If you are still determined to stick to this business model then you will lower your prices even more and the cycle will repeat until you are all out of business... except their business experience might make them more able to withstand a price war and you will be the only one going out of business.

I hope this is helpful