{"id":136,"date":"2008-09-01T22:57:28","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T03:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/01\/121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography\/"},"modified":"2022-05-29T08:21:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T13:21:11","slug":"121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/01\/121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"#121 The high cost of low-cost photography"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/01\/121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>Zoom airlines<\/strong> recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flyzoom.com\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flyzoom.com%2F','Zoom+Airlines')\" title=\"Zoom Airlines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> it has &#8220;<em><strong>suspended operations<\/strong><\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Zoom<strong> <\/strong>is, er, was a <strong>low-cost alternative<\/strong> to traditional, <strong>higher priced<\/strong> air travel. Zoom offered budget flights and reportedly excellent service. Unfortunately, they <strong>charged too little<\/strong> for a good thing! People <strong>loved<\/strong> Zoom until they got stranded at the airport recently or, like my parents, paid for flights that no longer exist! Speculation was that rising fuel prices <strong>squeezed<\/strong> the airline more than it could handle.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What has that got to do with photography?<\/em><\/strong> The budget photo business model can lead to the same results as Zoom Airlines. Substitute <strong>low cost photo work<\/strong> for Zoom&#8217;s low cost flight service and you could encounter the same &#8220;suspended operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/Photo\/zoom.jpg\" alt=\"soaring costs hurt budget businesses! \" height=\"286\" width=\"432\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>Avoid pitfalls<\/strong> with solid business training.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pricing your photo work<\/strong> low can help attract some early sales but it can create problems:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>client expectations<\/strong> of low cost work. Try raising your prices to sustainable levels after a year of low cost photo service &#8211; see what your client says.<\/li>\n<li>little <strong>breathing room<\/strong> for unexpected expenses like equipment breakdowns or &#8216;high fuel prices&#8217;.<\/li>\n<li><strong>industry expectations &#8211;<\/strong> If too many people offer budget prices the <strong>new norm<\/strong> may be unsustainable wages for photographers. What you charge affects the industry!<\/li>\n<li>price <strong>too low<\/strong> and your happy customers may be disappointed after they discover you have &#8220;suspended operations&#8221; because you <strong>cannot make ends meet<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Want to <strong>stay in business<\/strong> and promote a healthy photography industry? Discover a way to charge <strong>fair and realistically sustainable prices<\/strong> for your level of service! This will require:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>educating<\/strong> your clients to the value of your work<\/li>\n<li><strong>saying no<\/strong> when dollars are too low<\/li>\n<li>learning <strong>how much is too much<\/strong> for the customer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pricing work is a <strong>tricky business<\/strong>!<br \/>\n<strong>Skip painful mistakes<\/strong> &#8211; Learn from other creative business people with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/workshops\/workshops_business_art.htm\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fworkshops%2Fworkshops_business_art.htm','Creative+Business+Seminar')\" title=\"Creative Business Seminar\">Creative Business Seminar<\/a> in November, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Harry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet Zoom airlines recently announced it has &#8220;suspended operations.&#8221; Zoom is, er, was a low-cost alternative to traditional, higher priced air travel. Zoom offered budget flights and reportedly excellent service. Unfortunately, they charged too little for a good thing! People <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/01\/121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F09%2F01%2F121-the-high-cost-of-low-cost-photography%2F','Continue+reading+%26rarr%3B')\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6761,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/6761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}