9 Signs That It’s Time to Raise Your Prices

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Photographer Pricing

In this quick episode, we’re talking about nine signs that it’s time for a pricing change. Raising your prices can be really scary, but there are so many signs that it is time to make that change and take that leap. I walked through 9 signs that it may be time.

I talk about:

• 9 keys signs that it’s time to raise your prices
• Learning how to run your cost of doing business
• Some times you may think that you need to lower pricing but it’s often the opposite.

9 signs that it’s time for a price change in your photography business:⁣

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1. You’re booking more clients than you can handle. ⁣

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2. You ran your taxes and you realized you spent more on props, software, and gear than you actually made from your services.⁣

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3. You’re getting inquiries and then getting ghosted. (YES, this might mean it’s time to RAISE prices, not lower them!)⁣

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4. Your clients are telling you that you’re worth more than what you charge. ⁣

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5. You start to resent working because it just doesn’t feel ‘worth it’. ⁣

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6 Clients are asking you to do things you don’t normally do. (Your price is so low they think they can walk all over you 😉 )⁣

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7. You feel like you can’t afford to outsource or hire out help.⁣

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8. You feel completely burnt out and overwhelmed. ⁣

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9. You just plain want to make more money! ⁣

Grab the Cost of Doing Business Calculator at dearkatebrandstrategy.com/CODB

Learn more about working with me!

About Kate Hejde

Kate Hejde is the host and creator of How You Pictured It Podcast and Dear Kate Brand Strategy. She helps photographers create a profitable business that fits into their lives. With over 10 years of experience running her own photography business, while raising three kids, Kate believes that business is not one size fits all and that you define your own success.  Kate teaches through her podcast as well as through course, group coaching, and 1:1 mentoring. 

Check out Kate Online: Website | Instagram | Tiktok | Pinterest

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Today, we’re talking about nine signs that it’s time for a pricing change. Raising your prices can be really scary, but there are so many signs that it is time to make that change and make that leap. Let’s get into it.

Number one, you’re booking more clients than you can handle. This is obviously a pretty clear sign that it’s time to raise your prices. If you are filling your calendar beyond what you can actually handle, it’s definitely time to raise your prices.

Raising your price, in this instance, will help weed out those price shoppers and will bring you more income per session, which means you can take on fewer sessions too.

Number two, you ran your taxes and you realized you spent more on prop software and gear than you actually made from your services. Eeee it’s that time of year. We are probably all doing taxes right now and looking at how much we put into our business and how much we got out. And this can be a big sign that oops, we made a mistake.

If you haven’t run your cost of doing business lately, it’s definitely time to. You can find my cost of doing business calculator in the show notes for this episode ahowyoupicturedit.com slash seven.

Number three is getting inquiries and then getting ghosted. Yep. This is a surprising sign that your prices need to be raised, but it’s true.

But this typically means, is that an inquiry got your response and was surprised by your pricing in a bad way.

They contacted you because they saw value in what you were offering on your website or social media, wherever they found you. When you responded with your pricing, it could be much lower than they thought it would be and that signals to buyers that something’s wrong.

Have you ever looked at the price of something and thought ” um, too good to be true. Something’s just not right.” That’s what’s happening here.

Number four: Your clients are telling you that you’re worth more than what you charge. Oh my goodness. If this is happening to you, raise those prices right away. Um, if clients are telling you that they are feeling like they got more than what they paid for, then it’s definitely time for an increase.

Number five, you start to resent working because it just doesn’t feel worth it.

I’ve been there before .I got to the day of a session and just felt like it’s not worth my time to leave the house for what I’m getting paid and that is not a good way to feel. This is not a good way to feel, and it can even affect the outcome of your session and how you treat those clients

Charge what you’re worth so you can give that value to your clients because they do really deserve it.

Number six: Clients are asking you to do things you don’t normally do. Your price is so low that they feel like they can walk all over you.

If clients are asking you for things like raw images or asking you to shoot something totally outside of what you offer.

For example, if you’re a family photographer and they’re asking you to shoot a birthday party, it’s because your prices are too low.

These clients think that you’re basically just a camera for hire and not that you’re providing a valuable service and have developed a skill and an expertise. We want the people hiring us to really understand and value what we do.

Number seven: You feel like you can’t afford to outsource or hire any help.

Okay. I know outsourcing and hiring help sounds like something for somebody else for a lot of us. But when you build those expenses into your pricing, you open up yourself to do more of the work that you love and oftentimes it means that you can even take on more clients.

We’ll get more into outsourcing on next week’s episode.

But for now start thinking about how you can change your business by hiring out some of that work that you don’t like to do.

Number eight: You feel completely burnt out and overwhelmed. This is obviously a huge red flag. If you are feeling just totally not into you running your business anymore, because you’re doing too much. It’s time to raise those prices.

When you start making money that covers your expenses and brings you in profit, you’ll stop feeling that burnout.

The other thing to note here is that you don’t have to take as many sessions. When you’re charging the appropriate amount,

you can take what you’re enjoying doing and then leave the rest.

And then number nine: You just plain want to make more money.

A lot of the time we feel like wanting to make more money is a bad thing. But it’s not, it’s a natural thing.

We’re in business because we need an income.

And we know that our time and our skills are valuable.

As our services grow and change, it’s important to keep our pricing relevant.

If any of these sound familiar, I would love to invite you to join me in the Profitable Photographer Sales System.

This is my signature course, where I teach all about pricing and building your offers so that you’re running a profitable business and one that you love. You can find more info at dearkatebrandstrategy.com/profitable photographer or find the link in the show notes.

Next week we’ll continue our series on ways to save time and get that work-life balance in your photography business. Until then have a great week.