Sue discusses the evolution of a portrait, pricing your portraiture, and how she struggled with her own issues around receiving money. She helps us to understand that the most important thing to learn is to price yourself FOR YOURSELF. You need to say it, believe it, and value it.

Key Points:

• Mothers are often the family member who is photographed the least. Mums are the ones who want photos of her family the most, yet she often isn’t even in the photos!
• You don’t have to be a “family photographer” to include family portraits in your business. Even though Sue is a contemporary glamour portrait photographer, she still does family photo shoots — she just does it her way.
• We often hear that the marketing is too saturated or that someone down the road is charging way less. Don’t worry about what the others are doing! If they aren’t charging enough, their business is not going to survive.
• A la carte pricing means they shop off of a pricing menu with no minimum or limit to what they can buy.
• With a la carte pricing, we hear over and over, “What if they don’t buy?” You should be asking, “WHAT IF THEY DO?!”
• The only person who needs to be okay with your pricelist is YOU. Your negative thoughts will reflect right back to you in how much your clients spend.
• Sue used to struggle with pricing. She was scared of money — afraid of receiving it and terrible at receiving it — and she had a scarcity mentality surrounding money. It took Sue 20 years to get to the point where she is very comfortable with what she charges and she does not want it to take you that long.
• Your clients value your service and products, otherwise they wouldn’t pay for it!
• We need to set the international portrait pricing standard!
• When you start feeling comfortable with what you are charging, you will start earning that amount regularly. Then you need to start bumping up your level of photography, product, and service and bumping up your pricing right along with it.
• When your average sale drops, you need to ask yourself WHAT DID I DO WRONG? You either didn’t educate the people coming to your studio, you didn’t connect with them, or you stop thinking you’re worth it.
• Pitch to your potential clients from a place of SERVICE not selling.