business practices

Making Contact

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My web site offers three ways for prospective customers to contact me: telephone number, e-mail address and a contact form.

I thought that most people would use the e-mail link. My assumption was that people would prefer and trust their own e-mail software more than a plain web-page contact form.

Over the past three years, 5% of potential customers used the telephone number, 30% used the e-mail address and 65% used the contact form.

Forms can capture not only the person’s name and e-mail address but also any other information you might need. However, asking too many questions risks turning a simple contact form into an interrogation and frighten customers away.

Contact forms are easy to implement. Web hosts usually include CGI-based e-mail forms. Blog software either has contact forms built-in or there’s a free plugin available. There are a few third-party-hosted form services.

Contact forms do attract spammers and there are ways to minimize this nusiance. But any spam that does come through a contact form is far outweighed by the benefits of having such a form on your web site.

 

Photography pricing resources

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Just a short list of a few resources for learning to price commercial photography. I’m not vouching for any of these. A photographer would be foolish to base their business practices on numbers from someone else’s web site. Use these for informational purposes and to help understand the underlying principles.

• The News Photographers Association of Canada Cost of Doing Business Calculator (CODB) is a good place to start. You may be quite surprised at what your CODB is.

• The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators has a PDF listing suggested minimum usage fees (i.e. licensing fees only). Main page > Useful Resources > Resources > Reproduction Fee Schedule. The site has other useful information.

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Should you adjust your set?

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The photo assignment has been completed and the finished pictures and invoice have been sent to the customer. But for whatever reason, the customer’s plans have changed and they now want to reduce the usage or even cancel usage altogether.

Should you, the photographer, reduce the original license fee and send a new invoice?

Perhaps the customer originally requested a five-year license for some business portraits but their plans changed and now they want only a one-year license. Maybe the customer initially wanted a license for sales brochures and web use but now they’ve decided to go web only. Or perhaps the work included a license for magazine advertising but the customer cancelled their advertising campaign.

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One lump or two?

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In the previous post, it was mentioned that some professional photographers will list their creative fee and licensing fee separately while others will combine the two fees into one number. Which method is better?

Combining the two fees:

• Some customers find a single fee easier to understand.

• The client doesn’t know how much each fee contributes to the total. This allows the photographer more wiggle room if they have to negotiate the creative or licensing fees.

• The client doesn’t know how much each fee contributes to the total. The photographer can benefit when relicensing the picture since the client doesn’t know what the original license fee was.

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Photography Fees Explained

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When estimating and pricing photography, commercial photographers base their price on the combination of a creative fee (also called a photography fee) and a licensing fee (also called a usage fee). Some photographers will list these two fees separately while others will combine the two into one number.

The creative or photography fee depends on the complexity of the assignment, the time involved, the photographer’s talent and experience, and the photographer’s business overhead.

The licensing or usage fee depends on how the client intends to use the finished photography.
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Invoicing Basics

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A photographer won’t get paid unless they send an invoice to the customer. For some silly reason, most businesses refuse to send out cheques just for the fun of it. After a photo assignment is completed, send an invoice. There’s no grace period required. It’s not necessary to wait a few days or weeks to avoid looking greedy.

Your invoice must contain your contact information, a date, an invoice number and your tax number(s). The invoice should spell out what the photo assignment was. A photo editor may not remember every assignment. The customer’s accounting department won’t know what your invoice is for.

Sometimes the person who hires you is not the person who will receive the invoice. So make sure you know to whom the invoice is sent. Always ask the customer if they require a Purchase Order number or any other reference number included on the invoice.
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