Well, for those of you who have thought of or are in the process of raising your prices, here's some encouragement! We raised our STARTING package from 1900.00 to 3500.00 on Sunday or Monday (not so big a deal for some of you all in California, I realize...), and we had two inquiries on the answering maching when we got home tonight. To top it all off, Amber and I were just talking about how long we would wait for a response before we would have to lower our prices back down (Amber, of course, was the one with little faith in this whole process ). Wow! So excited! And to think that we haven't even done the name change yet!

Woo Hoo!!!! Thank you Lord!

Nathan

Oh wow! That's awesome! Not only do I need Amber's fertileness...but I could use some of her faith! I am also going through a major name change. From my married name to my maiden name. We'll see what happens...


Congrats!

KK

YEA!!! That's AWESOME!!! Great job you guys!!! Keep it up!

...if I remember correctly from yesterday Amber has been the one working this week so she should probably get most of this first loot?

Hope you're feeling better Nathan!

That's fantastic you guys! Imagine what you could charge if you had a new fur coat to go with those changes ! More seriously, this was clearly the right move for you two and it will only be proven over and over as time passes. Congrats on turning that corner!

HOW AWESOME! I really think that most people's success in business comes down to THE RISK FACTOR!!!! How well can one handle risk and what is one willing to risk? It's so great that you can do it together...! Keep us posted on the response to your new listing...

MJ

Okay, oh me of little faith...

We just booked our first wedding under the new and improved (and higher) wedding prices...

Next time I question my husbands judgement, could someone kick me???

Love how God continually laughs at my lack of faith, by providing anyway...

amber

Nathan, Amber

The Lord is awesome he always provides, just this morning Roeana & I were discussing how the Lord Jesus has provided for us since she left her job at IBM 6 yrs. ago & how she is so greatfull to him for that. She is a stay at home mom (the most demanding job in the world I might add) & she's raised & home schooled all 3 of our kids. I've been the only source of income since & we have not gone without. When you put your trust in the Lord he will provide.

Way to go, we wish you much success.

Cheers,

Hey Amber...

I misread your initial post on this thread. I thought it was Nathan who had the little faith! Now I get it!

DUH..

KK

I have to add... We have another appointment booked for next week with another client under the new prices... Ok, so I know it's going to become a normal thing, but I'm really excited right now!!! And I want to mention... When I booked the client for an appointment today, she told me that her wedding is going to be at what may be the "ritziest" private high school in town. This leads me to assume that she is an alumni, which leads me to assume that her family is well-to-do, which just goes to show the kind of clientele that you get to have the privelege of working with when you charge more for your services.... Interesting!

Nathan

Nathan,

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo what your trying to say is that she's got bling bling, muchos pesos, mucho denero, lana, paca, cash, money, big bank,pounds, shillings, dollars, greenbacks,dough, moolah, rhino, spondulicks,bacon, dough, bread & big money! LOL

And if I raise my prices then I can potentially gain clients who have all of the above. Got it right so far?

Awesome dude!! You are the man, this is what I've been trying to explain to my wife these past few months. Your experience is an awesome testimony of what can happen if you just go for the gold, I mean literaly.

Man I am motivated to do the same & I shall, I shall!

Cheers,

Dang!!! .....you guys are core! I keep getting told I should do the same kind of thing by a photographer friend, but there is just something in me that is timid still. Glad to hear that you guys took the plunge and are living out lives of faith and risk. i kinda feel like ive got to go for it as well...... but i want to make my albums sweet before i up the ante. how many weddings do you have booked for this year thus far? is the demand what caused you to raise the roof or is God just moving you really believe?..... curious.

Cameron,
We upped prices for a variety of reasons....
We shot about 40 weddings last year, and have close to 30 booked for this year. We really needed to up our prices and cut back on our work load, so this step was necessary.
Secondly (and these aren't necessarily in order of importance), we weren't charging enough to match the value of the service we were offering (see the Mike Colon DVD ).
Third, we simply had to make it! My wife is now home from a full-time job, and we have to be able to support ourselves!
Those are three of the main reasons that I think it was important to raise the prices...
One of the exciting things about it, however, is that it doesn't look like we are going to have a hard time asking the new prices at all! We have managed to be able to offer a product that is unique to the area, and the rules of supply and demand come into play!

Nathan,

Do you advertise in wedding magazines that cover your surrounding area? How much do you advertise?

Carlos,
The most important advertising for us right now is our website, and the most important tool that we use to get our website out there is Google AdWords. We have created a presence on the web using AdWords so that any time a bride types in search terms that have anything to do with Chattanooga, Tennessee, and wedding photography, they are going to find us, most likely at the top of the page! (Give it a try, and you'll see what I'm talking about.) We also advertise on the Knot.com and weddinchannel.com, which to be honest, has not really brought us many if any leads at all. (I feel like it's important to have our name on the Knot because of the high traffic to that site - EXPOSURE!!!)

We have a small box ad in the Yellow Pages, making sure that we have our website listed so that brides can go to that before even calling us to see our work firsthand and get an idea of our price range. The Yellow Pages have been beneficial to us in this area.

I want to get some national exposure in magazines, and my target magazine is Grace Ormond's Wedding Style Magazine. If you all haven't seen this magazine, get it! It's edgy, contemporary, and even inspirational. It only comes out once or twice a year, and seems to target high-end brides. Photographers such as Mike Colon have advertised in it, and I would like the opportunity! Wedding In Style and Modern Bride are other magazine possibilities...

(By the way, the link to Google's AdWords is here. )

Nathan..... that is awesome man. I am in my 3rd year of biz and i have something like 35 booked thus far this year. i also am aiming for reducing the amount in the years to come and increasing the price. ive learned its all about steps in this biz. just when you get comfortable with anything, its time to move on. thanks for the inspiration!

hello all,

new here and so encourage to see that things are working out. I've just raised my prices too but no response yet. maybe i need to increase more... one question for you all. are you guys all christians? i am and if you are, it's so awesome to know that God does provide, nice to know that you guys are out there! what do you have in your packages? i've been trying to think of new ideas to put into mine to make it different than others. i'm in the seattle area and it seems like there are millions of photographers. thanks for letting me chime in!

james

Hey James! Great to have you!

Yea, lots of believers on here but not everyone...it's an open forum so everyone is welcome!

This was a weird booking season for us...we did raise our prices but even so it seemed like nobody booked anything between December and February and then there was a late rush at the end of March and in April...I haven't been around long enough to understand the wave of it all and my theory is that all the rain here in CA in the winter pushed everything back...you probably understand how that works!

Our packages are pretty simple - engagement shoot, online proofing, album, DVD montage, print credit...but that's pretty much it. We're working on a few more bells and whistles and trying to find the right balance between a "fee based" package system and an "alacarte" system.

Looking forward to getting to know you!

Cheers,
DJ

Hey James...
Believers here, too. Not even remotely worthy of any blessings the way that we have been living lately (loss of focus)... but God has blessed anyway...

We did the price change in early May... and have booked one since then. Queries have slacked off to a frightening point (at least for me with the wee faith), but if I remember correctly (and I usually do ) queries slacked off through June last year, too. And our prices were rock bottom at that point. I think this is just a slow season for this area. We are booked solid (literally every weekend) through the end of July, and we still have a three per month through Septemeber, and then a spattering through the end of the year.
This is wedding season rather than wedding planning season.
I need to remind myself of this!!!

Our packages include engagment session, full day coverage with two photographers and pictage proofing with proof magazine and a signature print (which is a custom Panoramic- the only film work we still do) and work up from there (adding flush mount Zookbinders albums and ect..)

amber

thanks for the info. I too have basically the same packages w/o albums - I'm looking into albums right now and since my prices at set towards the low end, I can't afford to include them. Yes, I remember that I didn't book my summer last year til July...

james

Just finished meeting with a bride about an hour ago.... and it looks like she is going to be booking our 6000.00 package!!!!!!! The deposit for that package is bigger than some of our old packages!!!!

To give you an idea of the client that they will be.... She was wearing a 10 carat diamond, her fiance just bought a Ferrari, and he took her down to Miami and proposed to her on a yacht at sunset... Needless to say, photography just got a little more exciting!!

WOW!!!! So pumped!!! And so unworthy!

THAT IS AWESOME!!!

Congrats Nathan and Amber! You deserve it!!!

That's so awesome!!!! You guys rock! ...need a second shooter?

Well, based on all the amazing results from everyone, I've just upped my prices for photography at Hume from free to ... $100 per shot.

They laughed at me.

What am I doing wrong??

that IS very exciting!

with high end bride/groom, comes high end attitude... any thoughts on that? i've been thinking about that, just curious if any of you have experiences...

Congratulations you guys -- that's great news!!


I struggled with that fact for some time and came to the realization that you only need to bring on a "high end attitude" if it fits with your personality. If you aren't that way by nature, and aren't comfortable adjusting to better match the perceived personalities of your clients, then just be true to yourself and the worst that can happen is that you lose a few clients that would really prefer you were someone other than who you are.

I do, however, firmly believe in being as professional as possible at all times, so that does mean that I value a nice meeting area, presentable attire at meetings and events, etc. I don't think that stuff is the same as attitude, rather it is simply professional courtesy.

I've also noticed that I tend to size people up a little too quickly and place them into the super-wealthy, "They must feel totally entitled" category. We've certainly had a few clients that actually fit that description, and actually turned one of them down because the groom's personality was so unattractive, but overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by how "normal" our clients actually are. To that same effect, I think the fact that we do our best to stay true to who we are, and not feed the high-end thing, may actually be a relief to some of our clients. Does that make sense?

Interesting that you all brought up the "high-end" attitude thing... First, the bride was REALLY nice - not snobby - and rather than demanding what she wanted in a wedding photographer, she wanted us and our style!!! That's pretty gratifying...

I think that it is important as you all are saying to treat the high-end client as a normal person. A person's natural reaction to an engagement ring that is so big that it looks like a toy from a vending machine would be "OH WOW!!!!" But I took it, the Ferrari, the joking recommendation that we could do her bridal session down in Miami, etc. in stride and tried to act like this was all normal... and I think it worked well!

She did call back and is coming to book us tomorrow!!!!!!

In my opinion, that's one of the best compliments a client can pay you before they see the shots you took. That's awesome!

--

I also realized, regarding what I said above, that my definition of a "high-end attitude" might be tottaly different from everyone else's, and that in these kind of scenarios, perception plays a significant role. Sometimes it makes me crazy .

Hey David!! Come to Chattanooga, and I will let you be our *third* shooter... at no cost to you.
And then you can see what it's like to deal with the evil humidity and rain down here!!!!

(I am quite excited for us too! And while Nathan was slaving away with some hot girl in my house... booking 6000 packages... I was hanging out with austen and addison at the local amusement park!!! WooHoo!!)

what an awesome feeling!!

yeah, my wife tells me the same thing - to be myself, for the most part i do (and maybe that's why they don't book me... lol). i'm pretty lay back and i think (and this is my own opinion) that my look (personally, not photo style)is not what they are looking for. i'll post my photo soon to see... and you guys can guess my age... ) people usually think i'm still in school...

thanks for the input.

That is SOOOOO exciting!!! Heck...why not have OSP be yall's shooters! Really impress them..."Yes Ma'am...this is my crew and the 170 of them will make sure that nothing is left uncaptured"

KK

I've actually found that the easiest people to work with are the ones who pay full price and don't try to bargin! One of my lowest paying clients has so far taken more phone time (on my end) then ALL my other clients COMBINED. I've spent about $70 shipping prints to her (so she can get an idea about how digital looks), she's sent me more e-mails than all my other clients combined, and now after she gets her engagement pics she tells me she doesn't like the edits I did on some of them and wants me to send her a new CD. I'm SOOOO UTTERY FRUSTRATED with this client. I dread it when she calls. Luckily her wedding is this weekend so I'll be done with her.

On the other hand, all my "high end" clients have been a breeze to deal with. Super nice, super easy going, respectful, and such a pleasure to work with. I'm sure that's maybe not everyone's experience, but it has been mine thus far....

That's a really funny thought!!! LOL!!!

Ok, so I hadn't seen Chris's post before I posted that last one... Katherine, that's for you!

Chris, you made such a good point!!! Isn't it funny how it seems to work that way? I know that there will be picky high-end clients, but I hope that a lot of them will just feel like they can pay us to take care of them!

You would THINK that is the way it's supposed to be wouldn't you?!

Hey Nathan...Or Amber...or whoever I suppose...lol

Um...ok...I'm just wondering if you get these thoughts in your head like I do sometimes. Like...now that you've booked a 6k wedding...do you think to yourself, "man...if they can bite at this type of bait...then I can sure go up a notch...maybe I should try to make another package for like 8k or 10k and see if they bite that one"??

KK

Of course everybody and every situation is different but I've found that I have way more problems and unreasonable expectations with (forgive the term) low-end clients than I do with couples with money.

Typically...the more $$$ the cooler they are...sounds backwards I know but it's true!!!

... or you'll just be getting started with her! ... Caller ID is brilliant!

DJ,

After joining this forum less than 2 months ago I raised my prices (tripled my highest pkg) about less than a month ago. I just signed my first ("high-end") bride (too me at least) with my highest pkg and not only is the couple a pleasure to be around, they paid the full amount up front. I also have 2 other contracts pending that should be closed within the week. I have learned a valuable business leason here and that is.... "Don't be afraid to ask for the money" I ask for what I thought my work is worth and I can't tell you how good it feels for customers to validate that by writing me a check.

For those that are thinking about raising your prices... I say go for it. Nothing great comes without risk.

Just booked that client!!! WOO HOO!!!

Katherine... You're always great for thinking.... Too bad I don't do that more!

Right now, we're just getting over the shock of someone giving us this much money... Eventually, yeah, we'll raise our prices more... Right now, I want to book a good 6-8 months worth of clients with the new packages before moving higher... It's funny, though... You know the phrase from the movie, "Build it and they will come." It seems that a similiar phrase is true... "Charge it, and they will come!"

Awesome Nathan. Seriously, you guys deserve it.

Thanks Chris... You're too nice...

Congrats Nathan and Amber. You guys are a great motivation and you kick butt!

Regis

Wow!!! Nathan and AMber!!! Congrats to you both! So are ya gonna use the fat deposit for some new Canon gear???

I met with a bride and groom today for lunch. She wanted to book me but didnt' have the check so in faith I booked without a deposit. I'm going to trust that her dad will actually mail me that check (which she says she wants to go ahead and pay in full like....3k for just my time and the image files). Tell me if I did wrong...but we went ahead and signed the contract and officically booked the date...assuming that the money will be mailed. I have never done that. I usually say that a post dated check will do and just tell me when it's good to deposit...but I didn't budge. Ugh. Anyhow....

back to you and Amber...that is soooo awesome that you booked the BLING BLING couple. I bet you will capture a TON of pictures! Have you ever thought of letting Amber do FHEO's of the bride as her gift to her bling bling hubby? I LOVE DOING FHEO's!!!

KK

Katherine,

Puhleeeze release me from my ignorance.....what the heck are FHEO's??????

Kristen

FHEO's are "For His Eyes Only" sessions that I do with the brides. Ever heard of Boudoir pictures? Yeah...like those...they are usually very tastefully done and just as a wedding present and a tease for their hubby.

that's true about what you guys said - lower end folks really seems to be more needy... they want everything for a bargain... alright, i'm raising my prices.

What a great topic! My wife and I just recently upped our prices and have been getting them. It's so motivating to see others making it happen also and being successful at doing so!

Matt
www.supremepix.com

Hey Nathan and Amber! (wha hoo! my first post on OSP!) It was great visiting with you guys the other day.
I'm so excited for you and your family. I'm sure that God will continue to bless you guys. You guys are very gifted and deserve all the great things that photographers dream of. Now you've inspired me to raise my prices...but before I do that, I've gotta raise the quality of my samples! See you guys on the forum. I have enjoyed lurking lately. David S.....a.k.a "Flatfoot"

Awesome!!! Keep going!!! Higher higher higher!!!