One of the sweetest parts of running your own business is you get to choose how you will do things, from the sessions you will (and won’t) shoot to what you will sell your clients. With so many options and opinions when it comes to selling, we can get caught in the weeds trying to pick the best one for us. We might get advice from one person that totally conflicts with another.

In this blog post, I am going to break down three main pricing options, how they work, the time they take and the right way to price them. With a full understanding, you can decide for yourself which one makes the most sense for you!

If you’re wondering any of this…..Should your portrait business be all-inclusive? Should you offer products? If you offer products, should you offer collections or a la carte? Should you simply send out a gallery of images with a store or take the time to sit down with each client? What do I need to offer any of these options?

….then keep reading!

The cool thing is, I’ve done them all successfully. (That’s right…you can be successful with any of these models! Isn’t that a relief??)

Let’s dive in, shall we?

All-Inclusive Portrait Sales: Pros & Cons

The typical first choice for most photographers just starting out is all-inclusive pricing. It’s simple. It’s easy to communicate. You can book, shoot, edit, deliver and move on to the next client. Even with it’s admirable simplicity and ease, there are some basics you will want to understand before choosing or continuing with this model. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of an all-inclusive model.

PROS

• It’s just so simple. You don’t have to worry about learning products or having a sales system at all.
• Easy communication with your clients. Your price list is one or maybe two offers. Your clients will rarely, if ever, have pricing confusion. Either they can afford your all-inclusive price or they can’t.
• Can I emphasize this one more time? It couldn’t be more simple. I felt like it deserved another spot on the pro list. I think most would agree: simplicity and ease is the point.
• It can feel really good to just send a gallery and know you can mark that client as “complete.” With all the chaos of life, sometimes we just want something that feels done!

WHAT TO CONSIDER:

• To make more money, you will need to book more sessions. This sounds simple enough. But there’s only one of you, yet only so many hours in the day. Relying on your own active/physical participation to earn more money in your business could lead to burnout. So pricing yourself right with this model is so very important.
• With the all-inclusive model, you will rely on booking a specific number of sessions each month. What if a slow month hits or the economy takes a hit? Can you guarantee your booking rate will never fluctuate? Since you make the same on every session, security in your session count is important to be successful.
• Your sales are capped. People often wonder if they can sell products after selling an all-inclusive session. The answer to this is often no. Without a sales process, your clients won’t think of you as the person they buy products from and will be happy with just walking with their digital files. You won’t want to rely on making much from product sales with this model.
• Even though this is a simple pricing model, your price, your marketing and booking rate will need to be on point.
• Providing digitals to your clients is giving them homework. Some people won’t mind at all and will happily create prints for their home. But some will feel dissatisfied when they do nothing with those beautiful portraits you created.

In-Person Sales: Pros & Cons

This option might feel old school, but great service never goes out of style. When you choose to sit with your clients to make these selections, provide your expert opinion, and help them check this “to do” off their list, you are showing your customer service doesn’t end at the session. (Opinion alert: This is my personal favorite after years of trying on all the different options. IPS provides the best of both worlds as I can shoot fewer sessions, have the highest potential for sales on each session, my clients are overjoyed and I get to see my work come to life.)

PROS

• Your sales with each client is uncapped. While some will happily buy your smallest (yet strategically priced) package, many will spend $5,000 +. My highest sale to date is $30,000. From one session! That kind of sale (and everything in between) creates such harmony and balance in my business. Less hustle, more time creating pretty photos.
• Contrary to what many believe, IPS should only add about 2 hours to your overall time spent with each client. When compared with booking another client or two, where you will spend 5-6 hours each, I prefer the meeting. Time saved!
• Clients express they get more satisfaction when receiving tangible products they will enjoy daily over digitals that can be forgotten on a computer, even when they had to spend more money.
• You will earn more money in your business, but with far fewer sessions.
• With fewer clients, your overall business can be simplified. Fewer emails, fewer sessions, fewer inquiries needed. You might not even need a CRM because everything will feel more manageable.
• You can offer collections as well as a la carte options. So your client has the greatest amount of flexibility. Collections (recommended in both IPS and the hybrid models) are a simple sales tool that make buying much easier for your clients.
• When meeting with your clients in person, the large majority of your clients will finalize and purchase their order right then, eliminating back-and-forth emails, chasing down an invoice payment, or a client who never orders.
• I believe in this model so deeply, I created a whole course to teach you how to do it easily.

WHAT TO CONSIDER:

• You will need to learn a few new skills such as using software like Fundy and how to comfortably talk about products.
• It might feel a little awkward at first. I get it! I’ve trained so many photographers to get them over the awkward hump!
• If you have an established business, you will need to spend a little time on the front end educating old clients about this new offering. Some will say, “no thank you” or continue to purchase digitals only. That’s ok! With this new model, you will need fewer clients booked every month.
• You will need to invest in a few product samples for the vendors you choose.

Hybrid Model: Pros & Cons

A hybrid model is offering collections as the only way to work with you. When a client receives your pricing, you will show 2 or 3 collections available for them to purchase upon booking you. They purchase the collection upfront or a partial payment with the final due before the session takes place.

PROS

• When priced right, you should be able to earn more than the all-inclusive model and have the ability to offer bumps after the session (they can bump up from one collection to another or add more to their current collection.)
• Your collections will be clear and easy to understand, making them easy to sell. Similar to the all-inclusive method, simplicity wins here!
• Since your offer is limited, you can create a simple process for ordering products.

WHAT TO CONSIDER:

• Your client has less flexibility and might not want to commit to a specific product before seeing their images. Because of this, you might have to deal with lots of changes and requests after the session.
• You can earn a bit more per session, but likely not a month-changing amount. You will still need to make sure you meet your session count goals.
• Most photographers choose to not finalize the order in person with this model, which leads to draining back-and-forth emails with your client.

How much time will you spend on each session?

One of the false narratives you might hear when choosing your pricing model is how much time you will spend on each client.

But there’s actually something more important to take into account. How much time will you spend in your business overall with each pricing model.

Most photographers report they spend, on average, 5 hours on every session. This includes time to book the session (1 hour), prepare your client (1 hour), the session itself including travel time (1.5 hour), post-processing and delivery of a final gallery (2 hours).

All-Inclusive photographers will spend approximately 5 hours per session. This serves as a base for the other two models.

Hybrid photographers should add on a minimum of 1 additional hour per client for communicating and producing the artwork.

IPS photographers will spend about 2 hours more per client to meet in person and order products.

But then how many clients would I need to book?

Now it’s time to ask yourself how many sessions will you need to book to make enough money to stay in business… Goodness though, that’s not exciting!

I don’t want you to just “stay in business!” I want you to THRIVE in your business! I want your business to provide so much abundance in time, money, creativity and enjoyment that you are over the moon about your business!

So with that in mind, let’s look at some numbers. I am going to use the numbers that I see most often when coaching photographers.

Let’s assume your business needs to earn $15,000 per month. We will set each business model starting price at $1500, but the Hybrid and IPS model will have opportunities to earn more.

Here’s how you can get to $15,000 based on the different models:

ALL INCLUSIVE: $1500 per session means you will need to book 10 sessions a month. With 10 sessions per month at 5 hours per session, you will spend 50 hours per month with your clients. (Side note: many all inclusive photographers are charging way under this amount, requiring them to shoot so much they burnout.)

IN-PERSON SALES: You have a $1500 starting package, but your average sale is $3500. You will need to book 4.2 sessions per month. With 4.2 sessions per month at 7 hours per session, you will spend 29.4 hours per month with your clients.

HYBRID MODEL: You have a $1500 starting package, but your average sale with upgrades is $2000. You will need to book 7.5 sessions a month. With 7.5 sessions per month at 6 hours per session, you will spend 45 hours per month with your clients.

Don’t forget! You will want to account for time spent in other areas of your business such as social media, blogging, SEO work, accounting and so on.

Ok, this all makes sense. But how do I choose which one is right for me?

Oh goodness, I get it! Even when you have all the information it’s so hard to know which is the best fit for you, your personality, your unique brand, and your family situation. I mean, until you actually try it out for yourself, how can you really know?

Here are a few things you should know and think about:

1. It’s important to know the numbers driving your business. If you’re unsure, and just kinda wingin’ the finances, I’ve got the perfect thing for you. Check out my Pricing Workshop. It’s inexpensive and effective. I use this worksheet monthly in my own business.
2. Once you know what you need to earn every month, you can now take a more knowledgeable approach to your pricing model. The above averages are pretty accurate based on talking to and coaching hundreds of photographers. Do the math I did above, but for your monthly money goal and see how many sessions you would need to book for each model.
3. If you’re interested in doing IPS, I’ve got just the thing for you. The Art of IPS is a hands-on, DIY course that shows you exactly how to offer IPS and sell products to your clients. And no, you don’t need a studio! Inside you will learn how to prepare your client for buying at the ordering appointment, when to talk about products and what to say, how to order products from my favorite vendors, how to host the meeting and use Fundy (my preferred software for these meetings) and so much more. There is even a break out section for doing the Hybrid model, a great starting point if you’re currently all inclusive.
4. Avoid basing your business model decision on what you perceive your current clients want. When you switch to a new model, you will start to attract a different client. This decision needs to be made based on you and what you want and need from your business.

In the end, you have to choose a model that works for you. For me, I love the personal touch of meeting in person and so do my clients. IPS not only provides me with $10k+ sales, it also deepens our connection. This friendship means they return year after year and send their friends to me. But it’s also something I just simply enjoy.