Financially, how did you handle starting out?

[suzanne carey]

I cannot thank you guys enough for your wonderful responses. As some of you have mentioned, yes my prices are somwhat low. I live in Mississippi, in the Southeast. We are about an hour from the Gulf Coast and about an 1 1/2 from New Orleans, just to give you an idea. Yes, I have worried about my pricing, but I felt that if I was just starting out that I should not charge too much. But, this could be a bad business idea. I have FOUR weddings booked for April, June, and May. These were also dirt cheap, but I feel it will be worth it to build up portfolio for weddings in the future. But I have worried about how to make that transistion to "dirt cheap" to a fair price for my clients, but for myself as well. Maybe you guys have some ideas on that as well.

 

I am beginning to feel better about it. The upcoming weddings will at the least pay for the 20D. I am enjoying it though and know I have to get out there and market myself more.

 

I have friends who own a bakery, they do lots of wedding cakes. They said they would hand out my cards to brides that they do consultations with. I am excited about this prospect. But that brings up one more issue. :) I started with Pumpkin Patch Photography b/c my niche was custom photo birth announcements. But that name does not seem to mesh well with Weddings. I thought about making seperate cards as "Wedding Photography by Suzanne Carey" or something like that.

 

Well, thanks again for all the encouragement, advice, and honesty. I do appreciate it!

[jasona1]

My advice(and take it fwiw) is make sure you are running as a business. Are you going to operate under multiple business names "Pumpkin Patch" and "Weding Photography by Suzanne Carey". Are either of these registered business names for you? If you haven't actually set yourself up with a registered business name why not go with something like "Carey Photography" This would be all encompassing for your various types of photography. And make sure you separate Suzanne Carey personal life from the business. Heaven forbid someone sued you, you wouldn't want your personal assets to be on the chopping block. If you are already a real business entity then ignore my post.

[upe_vantonni1]

correct me if I'm wrong. But if you are going to claim the photography fees as income on your taxes or go through the hoops of getting business tax status, can't you write off the debt as a business expense since the camera and lenses are necessary equipment????