Let’s Talk About Boundaries - Budgets & Estimates
The M Word
When you put your budget on the table, that gives your photography partners boundaries within which to design your photoshoot.
I really just never learned how to talk about money as a young adult; I was raised with the idea that it’s impolite to talk about money. You don’t tell people how much money you have or don’t have. You don’t ask for money. You don’t loan money to your friends. You don’t discuss your salary with your coworkers. You just don’t talk about money ever. So, it has taken me quite a while to get to the point where I am confident in the value of my services and my creative fees, and am capable of discussing expenses. That doesn’t mean I forgot how it feels to be made immediately uncomfortable at the question, “How much will it cost?” Likewise, I understand how you must feel when I ask for your budget.
Trust me, friend. I have been there. I have been asked the budget question by many service providers that I have very much needed. At first, I literally just had no idea what I was supposed to have budgeted for help with, for example social media management, and honestly hadn’t worked that into my budget AT ALL and was trying to find out how much I needed to budget for that service in the future. So I know it’s super frustrating when you just want someone to give you a price for XYZ.
However, the reason it works this way with our photography production company is because you pay for what your project requires and we aim to source solutions within your budget. If you’re not going to need the same extent of prep or the same level of styling or the same anything as the previous client, why should you pay for that? Or you might need more, in which case you have to pay for those incurred expenses.
Boundaries - The key to relationships in life and work
When I ask for your budget, we are asking for your parameters. It’s as simple as that. I value our relationship with you and your brand. Therefore, your boundaries are important to me. If I accept your project, I want to produce your project and pack as much punch into your pictures as I possibly can. I am resourceful, but money is a factor. Someone with a strict budget of $5000 for deliverables ABC will have slightly different concessions than a brand with a flexible budget of $5000-$6000 for the same ABCs. And a brand with a budget of $5000 will get a completely different photoshoot design than a brand with a budget of $10,000. So please, just be transparent. Nobody is judging you. I am asking for information that will shape the solution which I am able to deliver.
Make it work
In the past, budget has been the most common reason estimates require revisions. If you can’t come up with a number, it is honestly unfair for me to spend sometimes the equivalent of an entire workday sorting out logistics and estimates for production only to have you say that’s not in our budget. It has happened more than once and as you can imagine, it is not a profitable way to run a business. So now, we need to have this in mind from the get-go.
Our invoices have ranged from $2000 to upwards of $15000. We can probably make it work in your budget if we know what your budget is. There are so many variables that you may not consider. Specifically, some of the answers to our welcome questionnaire and creative brief.
For example, your brand is launching a new product and initially you tell us you want to be able to use all the images any way you want for as long as you need. An exclusive perpetual license is going to be more expensive per image than a 6 month license for a handful of launch images and a 2 year license for what you anticipate to be the standard ecomm shots. And you can add print permissions or extensions as needed. It’s slightly more involved, but would cut your licensing cost significantly.
This isn’t a public facing adjustment. It would not affect your brand image at all.
Budgets & Brand Image
Increasing or decreasing your budget doesn’t always have an effect on the scroll-stopping power of your pictures. It certainly can, but it isn’t necessarily the default. If you communicate your budget from the start, you’ll get a much better solution than if you ask for an ideal shoot design and then pick it apart until it fits your budget.
So please let us know what you intend to spend on your photography. I want to see you succeed. We have worked with businesses of all sizes. And we will design your project within your boundaries, but we need to know what the boundaries are in order to do so. Transparency is important. Show me the facts and we will show you what we can do to address your objectives with that information. 🖤
