Business Debacle #1

As if starting a legitimate business isn't difficult enough, I'm trying to find a happy medium regarding portrait and wedding prices. In our small town of Gaylord Michigan, when someone hears of a $2000 wedding, they drop their jaws, and question every aspect of the amount. To be honest, in my first year of wedding photography, I charged ridiculous amounts. By ridiculous, I mean the low end. My reasoning was that I didn't have the portfolio to present to ask for $2000 a wedding, so instead I sold myself short, and honestly ended up PAYING to do someones wedding. Every experience is a learning experience, and I never fail to walk out of a situation without learning important information about the industry. So, I raised my prices slightly, and went on my merry way.

I am beginning to resent people like me. I am grateful for the weddings I have done, and consider them to be WONDERFUL lessons about business, and what brides want...really the entire infrastructure. I've been cheated out of money, and ultimately not paid for a wedding. Why? Because to them, I was just a girl with a camera. Charging low prices from the beginning is no way to start a successful business. I truly did consider myself to be a 'professional' but just wanted to get a few weddings underneath my belt before I charged full price, which seems impossible to do at this point!

Weddings are a once in a lifetime event. There are no do-overs. There's no regret. You have to go to a wedding 100% committed and 100% on top of the game. Professionals charge professional prices. I feel like I am being unfair to raise my prices from what I originally modeled my business around, but I wasn't making money for a reason.

So I am not going to apologize for my actions, but instead remind people that they get paid for what they do. Would you show up for work if you didn't get paid to do so? I love every aspect of photography, and believe that I have earned my right in this industry to become successful doing so.

Just a mini rant. That I TOTALLY brought upon myself. *sigh*, I frustrate myself.

On a better note, today I discussed having an 'intern-assistant' with a local girl, Amanda. I am so excited to have someone who is as passionate about photography as I am on my team. Two heads is bound to be better than one....considering I got myself into this pricing issue all by myself...

We also began to clean out the studio area, and I feel like things are going to move much quicker than I had anticipated, which makes me SOOOOO HAPPY.

That's all for this evening,