When you’re in the business for filming and photography, you can see a lot of money coming in week after week. Or you could have your camera still in the bag, waiting for a message, because no one can afford to work with you. You need to charge money to stay in business. Other people have to be willing to pay it. Unless you’re the only camera for hundreds of miles, you’ll have competition, and clients will have a choice. The first thing a potential client looks at, always, is the price. What comes after is the service, the products, the packages, the solutions on offer - the reasons for that price. It’s up to them to decide what’s fair, but it’s up to you how they find their way to that decision. 

Price Per Head

If you’re in it independently, just you and your own set-up, people will look at you differently. You’re a loner, a single-unit crew. Most professional or high-production shots need a few people running different pieces of equipment. Even if your quality is there, people expect high prices to cover whole teams. Charge based on who’s helping you. If it’s just you, then that’s one person of labor. As your business grows, you may find yourself needing help running more equipment simultaneously. That’s when the charge goes up, because the team size also goes up, and the funds need to be split to everyone fairly.

Keep Consistent Clients

Nothing’s worse than a dry spell for a business. Where’d all the clients go? They still need content, whether they like it or not, so someone else is taking up all their attention. What happened to the last client you had? You don’t want to play a guessing game every time you think about when you’ll get to make money. Find clients that offer regular work and establish long-term work relationships with them. If they’re paying for content each week, and you can do that - but just that - it’s better than not having anything. Work on your own time management and keep delivering great quality work to keep consistent clients coming back.

Stay Transparent

Clients want to know what they’re getting, not just in terms of standard features but in terms of what work is really being done. The more transparent you are with what your money goes into, the more clients will appreciate you and want to use your service. It’s comforting knowing exactly what a client is spending money on, and when they can see it. Keep your pricing for jobs consistent and offer it to them as a PDF so they know at what point in the job their money is being used.

Stock the Top Shelf

Keep a “big ticket” item, service or product that’s just barely within your reach for the cost available as an upper limit. This isn’t something you’ll depend on for regular income. It’s like a showroom car - it’s the product clients wish they could have, and maybe if they get a good enough return on the content you’re making them, they can come back and pick from that elusive, top-shelf content you have. Tempt them with greatness but secretly give them greatness by default.