In this episode, we are talking all about pricing, my favorite topic and specifically we're talking about the different stages of pricing in your business and why not everyone needs to be going after a 10 K sale right now in their business. So if you are taking money for your pet photography, if you wanna be taking money for your pet photography, if you're building that business,

or if you're scaling that business, it doesn't matter where you are. You are going to want to listen to this episode. Stay tuned. Welcome to the Hair of the Dog podcast. If you a pet photographer ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host pet photographer, travel addict,

chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley. All right everybody, welcome back to the Hair of the Dog podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley. And today we are talking all about pricing and it's also a solo podcast, which to be honest, when I started this almost two years ago, we're almost at episode number 200. I thought that I'd do a lot of solo episodes,

but turns out I actually really love the interviews and the solo episodes can sometimes be hard for me to do on my own. However, for this particular topic, particular for this particular topic, I am really passionate and I am ready to just go all in on this. And quite frankly, there might be a couple things in here that might seem a little blasphemous from what you have heard from other educators in the past.

And I thought it was really, really important to have this episode because here's what happened recently, one of our students at the Progress Lab, which is a new business workshop that I teach with Heather Lotton, we're having another one in October here in North Carolina. Just go head over to hair of the dog academy.com/progress if you wanna jump on the wait list. But anyway,

I digress. We were talking about pricing and I was helping this photographer finalize and update some of her pricing and do some tweaks to make it more profitable and get to the goals that she wanted. And her goals were like a two to $3,000 session average. And so we were talking about it and I was like, it is okay to have this higher level package at $3,000 that includes the digitals and basically is like all of the things.

So yes, when a client purchases that they're likely not going to add on anymore. So that is going to be capping your sale. However, are you still happy to get a whole bunch of $3,000 sales? Yes. Then yes, this pricing works really, really great. And she was like, really? I, I thought that I had to be going for these higher sales all the time because we have had some guests on the podcast and and the academy talking about that.

And it is a great strategy for certain people at certain points in their business. But not every single pet photographer needs to be going for that super high end, super lux going for the 10 K sales. Not yet at least. So I wanted to record this podcast to kind of break down the three different kind of phases in our business and the three different types of pricing,

the three different types of businesses that we usually have and when it's okay and when it's not okay to be in these different areas. Spoiler alert, there's no pet photography, police, I'm not gonna come arrest you. I'm not gonna come out you. It is truly when it's okay for you. So we're gonna talk about when you know what you need to do with your business because it's your business.

You're building this business by your design based on what that you want this business to do to support the life that you wanna live. So don't let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn't charge in your business. No, of course I am here to help give you some I ideas. I am here to help give you best practices. Maybe something's not working.

Maybe you want to do something else, you can't figure out how to get there. Yes, of course we can help you do that. But I don't ever want you to have hear someone say, this is how you have to price and you to feel like you can't price in this other way if that's the way you wanna price right now for your business.

So we're gonna talk about the pros and cons of each level and what you might wanna be considering at those different levels and when you know that like this is not the right level for me anymore. So before we dive into that, I do want to kind of put my flag into the ground stake a claim to my thought that having consistent two to $3,000 sales is still the quickest way to build your six figure pet photography business.

I will fight for that fact all day every day because it is just true. If you are going low cost all-inclusive man, you are going to be way burn out every before you hit that a hundred K mark. And if you're just coming out of the gate going for 10 K sales without building up to that in your business, well I think it's gonna be really hard to find enough clients to get to that right out of the gate.

Of course you can build to that. Of course, I want you guys all to be having regular 10 K sales. This podcast is about talking about these three different levels when it's right for you. And for 99% of us having those consistent two to $3,000 sales is going to be the quickest way to get you to that elusive six figure pet photography business.

So what are these three levels? Nicole? All right, let's talk about those. Calm down, calm down. The three levels are the all-inclusive, low cost, the shoot and burn type things. Holy cow, I can hear you guys yelling at me already in a Nicole. I thought we should never do that. Okay, never is a strong word.

I'm gonna tell you the times that I think that it is helpful for you and the times that I think it is not. So we're gonna dive into that. Then we're gonna talk about those two to three K consistent sales. Like I said, that is the best way to get to a hundred K in my opinion. And then we'll also talk about those super high-end super L experiences where you're going for those five figure sales and what that could look like in your business.

Okay? But there are a couple things that we just need to know because it is foundational for pricing photography at any niche, at any level, at any time. And that is you need to know your costs, you need to know your goals, you need to know the market and you need to believe in your pricing. This is the biggest piece.

You need to believe in what you're offering and that it is worth it. You need to believe that you are worth offering this service at this price point. Because if you don't, all the marketing in the world is still going to make it difficult for you to book as many clients as you wish because you have this massive energetic block in the way. And when you don't fully believe in your worth and value on the market for people to purchase,

for people to give you money at the different price points, it just will not work to get that consistent marketing to get those consistent clients in the door. So we need to believe in our worth and our value, which we have a gazillion, okay? Maybe not a guilt zillions, there's only 200 podcast episodes, but we have quite a few episodes on here,

Heather and I talking about how to believe in yourself more, how to get outta that imposter syndrome. You just go back and look through any of the episodes with myself and Heather if you want more support in that area, that is one of the things that our Elevate program does extremely well. www.hairofthedogacademy.com/elevate Heather runs that program. And the change in belief and mindset that I have seen on the photographers that go through that program,

which directly relates to the increase in revenue in their business is mind blowing. It's just fantastic. So definitely check that out. Just wanna let you know these are kind of the important things here. And then as far as determining your cost of doing business, what your cost of goods sold are, what you should be pricing different things at, we have so many trainings on that inside the academy.

We have a newly updated pricing module that is so beefy and gives you all of the support that you need there as well as support in the academy community. So if you are at that point and you're like, man, I've been just like struggling through this pricing, come join the academy, we can help you. We are here to help you with that.

So anyway, let's dive into though these three different stages of our business and who it's right for different ones. So let's start with a stage one. The all inclusive low cost. I know, well I hear you guys, but listen, hear me out. If you are just putting your business together, if you have not had any clients yet, if you are feeling like,

oh my gosh, are people actually gonna pay me for doing something that I love, it is okay to offer a session for a few hundred dollars and throw in some digital files. It's okay. We're not here to shame you. You know, it's not, you're not destroying the whole industry as so many people like to think you are just getting your business off the ground,

getting started, getting comfortable, taking money. Here's the thing, you can't stay there for a long time because it is absolutely impossible to be profitable with that type of service. If you are doing like, you know, a full hour and a half session plus, you know, then you're editing all those images, you're giving 'em to the client, like you're looking at usually eight hours at least,

probably more because you're newer. So your editing's gonna take longer of time for each session. So then you're breaking that down hourly. Plus the cost of doing business like your clients are, you're paying your clients almost at that price point. So you don't wanna stay there, but it is okay to be there if you need to build up the confidence of charging for your work.

If you are just, you know, you don't have a website yet and maybe you just need to get portfolio sessions. Yeah, offer a session for a hundred dollars. You don't have to do portfolio sessions for free offer, you know, small cost, low cost sessions, gift the digital files included in that, and then you're getting paid to build your portfolio.

There is nothing wrong with that. I'm just warning you that you might get, I don't know what the right word is here, but you might be a little misled feeling like that is profitable enough to run your business. Because it happened to me too when I started my business, I was like, oh man, I charge $175 for a session that's more that I made in a whole day of my day job.

Like oh my God, I'm just gonna be rolling in the cash because there's no costs associated with that cuz it's just digital files or a CD way back in 2010. But turns out it's not the case. You have insurance, you have education, you have camera gear, you have subscriptions, you have new computers every few years. Like it's expensive to run a business and we deserve to be paid for our time.

We are artists that deserve to get paid. Just because you like it doesn't mean that you can't get paid for it. So anyway, I'll get off that little bit of a soapbox moral of the story is, it is okay when you're starting out or when you need to get practice receiving money for doing something that you love, it's okay to be there.

You just don't wanna stay there long term. And you also just wanna go into it knowing that this is not a profitable way to run your business long term, even if you're doing it part-time, the most profitable way, or in my opinion, the fastest way to get to six figures in your business is to move into a more boutique model where you are selling products,

you're doing some kind of live sales generally, and you are having consistent two to three K sales. You're having $3,000 sales average. That's like 33 to 34 clients a year. It's going to give you a hundred thousand dollars in revenue. That's doable in any market guys, you know, if you're in a small market, how far away is a larger city within an hour?

Like you're, you can market to that larger city for sure. If you are in a smaller market that you know, the, the kind of the, the lit litmus test for is my market able to support this is can you find within an hour of your home a luxury car dealership or two or a Ruth Chris high-end steakhouse, like high-end restaurant? Yes,

great, there's disposable income in your market. Is there a hospital near you? Great. There are doctors, are there lawyers near you? Yes, great. There are professional people out there that have disposable income. So I don't wanna hear any of this. Like it's not gonna work in my market. You guys. Ben Shirk is one of the most incredible portrait artists I think in the world.

He mainly does high school seniors and often like sports, high school seniors, these incredible composite images. Look 'em up, Ben Shirk, s h i r k, he's in a town in Iowa without a stoplight. His clients fly in from Chicago, New York. He has a multiple six figure business very easily just with photography out of his teeny tiny Iowa town with no stoplights.

So I don't wanna hear the excuse that like, my town's too small. Okay, it can work anywhere. Maybe you need to like keep building your craft to this incredible level that Ben has to start attracting people from all over the world. So yeah, as a, you know, just starting out, you're not gonna be have people flying in from all over the world for your work.

However, if you really want to follow that dream and you don't wanna travel and you wanna work outta your teeny tiny town, like keep focusing on creating something amazing and then the clients will come from anywhere. But generally most of us live within an hour drive to a big enough market that has enough disposable income, a luxury car dealership or two, some hospitals,

some lawyers that we can find 30 to 40 clients a year. It's not that many clients. We don't need hundreds, we don't need thousands. So anyway, oh that was the big soapbox. I'll take a breath here. Calm down Nicole. All right, so that two to 3000 debt sales range. So this is where this particular student was that was feeling like it's not okay to be here that like she had a similar price list to what I had for many years in my business,

which was like a 1000, 2000, a $3,000 collection. Most of my clients did two or $3,000 in their collection and then, you know, you could kind of move that up if you want your averages to be 1500, 2500, 30, 500. Like you can play around with those numbers all day long. But the moral of the story here is if you are having luck selling these collection type offerings or having a bonus schedule that you know,

maybe caps your sale at 3000, 4,000, $2,000, somewhere in that range, if your business plan involves that average sale and that helps you get more consistent revenue in your business because you're getting more clients but not like so many clients like the low cost where you just can't keep up and you're exhausted and you're not getting paid enough to manage that. But like,

you know, you're getting more consistent clients at a price point that supports your business and supports your life and pays you a good salary. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't feel like your business is not worth, you know, a two to $3,000 session average. That is the bread and butter of successful portrait businesses. Period. Okay, now what if you're like,

oh man, I'm having that Nicole but I'm feeling kind of like resentful that you know, I'm only getting paid $3,000 and my clients are getting all their images and you know, I I I'm feeling like I'm hitting the ceiling and I want to earn more in my business. Great, now you're ready for phase three, which is looking for that ultra high end,

you know, opening the door for these five figure sales. I don't think you need to start there. I never think you need to go from like I just built a portfolio to like now I am a hundred percent gonna go all in here. Because here's the thing, by moving through these different levels, we're starting off at that portfolio, small, all inclusive,

getting confident, shooting, creating, taking money, working with clients, then we kind of move into that bread and butter stage, that two to three k like still high, it's still luxury, it's still a luxury experience that you're giving your clients and for there you're really able to start to go through your systems cuz you're having more volume than you would if you were going for that ultra lux market.

By having that more volume in those average two to $3,000 sales, you're able to nail down your systems practice, your client communications practice, giving incredible service to your clients practice, creating beautiful art, working out the kinks of what kinds of products you love and what vendors produce the best art for you and all of these different things that then you're able to take your business and say,

okay, now I'm ready to offer a super lux experience. You could even have a super lux experience next to your normal experience in your business. Maybe you're not ready to go like, you know, both feet in the deep end into this high end luxe, you know, 10 K goal portrait business, but maybe you have a lux experience that's at that higher price point that has higher end pieces that you can start to dip toes there while still serving your bread and butter of that two to $3,000 sales.

There are different ways to kind of work through this. And again, when you know you're ready is when you're just, you're confident that two to $3,000 average sale, you're feeling good there, you know, you serve your clients well there, you know, you're just blowing off their expectations. They just love their experience with you, they love their artwork with you.

You are feeling good about your business and you're ready for more. Then it is time to potentially say, all right, how can I change this up? Those collections maybe go away. Now we're working more a la carte. Now we're really focused on like super high-end lux wall art. Because here's the thing, if you're serving that ultra luxury $10,000 portrait client,

there is no room for mediocre customer service. There is no room for mediocre products. All of those pieces need to be in line with the price you're charging so that the client is getting proper value. Because when you're at that price point, those clients are used to higher-end service. They know what bad service feels like and they don't wanna pay for that.

They want that high-end service, they wanna feel special, they wanna get great, you know, great beautiful quality. They wanna trust that you're gonna give them that great quality. So then it's time you can start looking at that. So anyway, holy cow, to recap, we have these three different levels and the marketing and messaging for these three different levels is gonna be different as well.

So if you're marketing a 10 K price list, the same way that you're marketing a model call the same messaging, there's a disconnect that's not gonna work. If you are giving your little all-inclusive getting started clients, these service and products that are available to the 10 K clients, again, you'll A, you're not gonna cover your costs, but B, there's gonna be like a marketing disconnect.

So each level of these pricing stages, you need to get more dialed into your marketing, your messaging, you need to get more dialed in to your target client. So in that ultra low cost, your target client could be fairly broad. It could be really anyone that has a dog that thinks of their dog as family because still people that have a dog that maybe doesn't really come in the house,

they're obviously not even gonna pay a small amount for pictures of that dog because they don't value the relationship they have with that dog. So like stage one, low cost, your market is broad and you are attracting people with the value of hey, here's some great pictures. Oh that's a really great price point. Yeah, heck, let's do this. And again,

what you are getting out of it at that stage of business is confidence in creating the art, building your portfolio, taking money, and then it's time to transition to that level too where your messaging's gonna get dialed in a little bit more. Cuz you're gonna be talking to people that really value their relationship with their dog, people that are taking the dog,

you know, places on the weekends, people that value photography, people that value artwork. And you're talking about creating that artwork in their home. No more, no longer is it just about, hey, I create great photos, here's the price. Oh great, I'm in now it's, hey, we're gonna have this experience, we're gonna create this final product that's not about the photos,

it's about this artwork in your home and you need to adjust your messaging to that. And then same thing, when you jump up to that level three, to that, you know, five figure sales goal, your messaging needs to get dialed in even more. You need to explain why you're different than the two or $3,000 pet photographers at that point. You don't even have to explain why you're different than the all-inclusive like low price point because the people that are looking in that five figure like ultra lux aren't even considering the D I Y.

Here's a whole bunch of digital files. They want the service. So it's like McDonald's and Ruth's Kris. They're not even like someone that's looking at Roos Kris versus like the Palms. They're not even looking at McDonald's or like Golden Corral. They are looking at that high end piece and maybe they're comparing that ultra high end to the average two or $3,000, like the bread and butter pet photographer,

luxury pet photographer. So you need to make sure that your messaging is talking about the quality of your products, the quality of your experience, what makes you different than the bulk of the pet photographers out there that are serving that still luxury market at that two to $3,000 range. Holy cow, that's been a lot. I hope you found it helpful though.

I really wanna drive the point home though that truly those two to $3,000 session averages are the bread and butter of having a profitable pet photography business. And it is totally fine to stay there your entire business forever and ever. If you are happy with it and how you know that you want more is maybe you're just starting to feel like, man, I feel like I'm capping my sales.

Oh man, I feel like I could serve a higher market. It's your desire internally from you. Don't let it be your thoughts from external messaging, external, external things that you're seeing and hearing and then making you feel like you're wrong for being here in this two to $3,000 range. So no matter where you are, even if you're just starting out and you're doing,

you know, a couple hundred dollars for inclusive, that's okay. You're welcome here. Remember my, my my disclaimer though that you're not gonna wanna stay there because if you stay there, it is a fast one-way ticket to burnout Bill. And even a part-time business would be hard pressed to remain profitable there. If you are a, you know, doing individual sessions and it's not like a if,

if you were having $300 sessions and you were a high volume studio, okay, that's one thing. But if you're doing the like, hey, we're gonna go shoot at a park for an hour and a half and like that full kind of session, more on location session options, then you are definitely going to want to get to that two to $3,000 average sales still luxury experience range.

If you have any questions about any of this stuff, ah man, I would love to know how this landed for you. Like were there any takeaways here, please let me know. On Instagram, it's Nicole Begley official, N I C O L E B E G L E y. Official is my Instagram. Drop me a dm. I would just love to know what you took away from this.

I would love to know what stage you're at in your business. And of course I would love to help you just jump over to www.hairofthedogacademy.com for all of our free resources and join the academy if you still would like even more help for getting your pricing dialed in because helping pet photographers get to those consistent two to $3,000 sales averages is my jam. And that is what we do inside Hair of the Dog Academy.

All right, hope you guys enjoy this. I will see you next week. Thanks for listening to The Hair of the Dog podcast. This was episode number 1 98. If you wanna check out the show notes for access to any of the resources that we mentioned, simply go to www.hairofthedogacademy.com/ 1 9 8. Thanks for listening to this episode of Hair of the Dog Podcast.

If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to leave a review. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our upcoming episode. One last thing, if you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our [email protected] of the dog academy.com. Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.