Our friend and former PPCC guest Chase Jarvis has some advice for you – stop undervaluing (and underpricing) your work as a photographer. This short snippet from his Creative Live series lays out just how easy it is to lowball your rates as a new photographer, meaning that your existing clients will continually undervalue you and even as your skills improve, they’ll continue to think of you as the ‘cheap’ photographer.

Speaking from his own personal experience, Jarvis points out that “I have never taken a client who came into my world as a US$1,000 or US$5,000 client, I’ve never turned them into a US$50,000 client. ” He doesn’t discourage anyone from working at a lower rate, but he does warn that once you’ve conceded to work for a lower price for that client, the rate they’ll be willing to pay you will rarely (if ever) rise from that point.

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Instead, he encourages photographers (especially those with enough experience to justify it) to walk away from clients who refuse to pay your rate. Rather than accepting work at a reduced rate and hoping that eventually your client will concede to your original demands over time, Jarvis advocates sticking to your guns and waiting for the client to return to you with more money at a later date. “When they do get that [larger] budget,” he asks “do they go to the person who did it for US$500? They will go to the person who they couldn’t get who said ‘I’m US$10,000. ’”

Of course, with work for photographers dwindling by the day, this isn’t always an easy principle to follow, but if you’re confident in your skills, experience and expertise, don’t sell yourself short.

2016-11-2 03:00