Ensuring that you’ve got a strategic pricing model that competitively values your service is the first step towards running a profitable business. But if your pricing and budgeting are compromising by your on-site business practices then you could end up selling your services short.
It’s vital that you use tools and techniques to help keep your photography service cost-efficient. Having prices that are cost-effective for your clients is important, but you also need to prioritise business practices that improve efficiencies for your service and maximise your time for making more sales and generating leads.
Create Additional Value
If you can upsell your services and create additional products that your client will be interested in then you’ll be able to boost your income with some side-products. Personalized products are really popular and if you can find products that are relevant, offering them alongside standard photos can increase your profits.
For example, if you’re photographing leavers’ photos then why not offer personalized hoodies, mugs and t-shirts too. Being able to offer something extra that taps into a sentimental occasion gives you more monetized options.
You can also help with a school’s digital strategy. If you have the skills then why not offer to put together some marketing collaterals using your shots, or a blog post or email that puts the photos into a story-board.
It’s a good idea to mention the additional products you have available when you’re pitching to new clients – it could differentiate you from the competition, as you’re offering something extra. Make sure your products are visible and advertise them well.
Streamline your Processes
Saving time and boosting your productivity is one of the best ways to make your service more cost-efficient. There are lots of small ways to do this but by implementing a photo management system like MaxLab, you can streamline your processes, stay organised and take control of your prints on-site with the Import / Edit / Print function. This is especially useful for large scale photography.
Having your own photo lab on-site means that you’ll be able to manage your printing processes and limit production costs. There’s a whole range of features to help you save time such as Powerful Search and Face Detect, so you can re-prioritise your time instead of having to search through folders for image files or individually crop photos.
Immediate On-site Proofing
When you can deliver on-site proof cards, you can cut down the time you would’ve previously spent post-shoot preparing cards. Being able to do this on-site can radically improve your service by providing a swift deliverable and reducing your production times. This is possible with ID-Shoot, which helps you to organise your images and data to minimise errors.
School record images are easily accessible and your image files can be re-named with ID registration number and they can easily be imported into a compatible school database system. You can then produce proof cards on-site, with photo reviews and essential information for clients such as order references, or even a unique username and password for online ordering.
Communication
There’s nothing worse than turning up at a shoot and nothing’s been prepared or the timings are all over the place. Communicating properly with your client before a shoot and ensuring that what you need will be set-up for it, or you can factor in time to do this yourself is essential.
If you don’t manage expectations and plan your time properly then as they say, time is money and wasting time means wasting money. So, keep in contact with your client and tell them what you need from them to ensure you have a great shoot.
Read more: 5 Tips for Upselling your Photography Services
