I figure that I would like to work approximately 200 or so days out of each year. That is roughly 17 days a month. Consider that there are only about 20 weekdays each month - it doesn't allow for much downtime. Now, of course you work weekends as a photographer. Taking that into consideration - it can turn out to be a very lucrative business with almost 165 days off a year!! Well, we all know that is not going to happen. The trick is to PLAN it that way. You'll come up short - guaranteed. When you do, you've given yourself enough "extra" days to make up for it.
Assuming a goal of $80K annually, that means that each day I work... I charge $400. Can I take a $200 job? Sure, I just need to realize that I am canibalizing TWO days by taking that job. Now, if those are frequent jobs that are easy and don't take a great deal of time and resources - they're worth it.
What I can't do is build a business on those type of gigs. I hear it all the time how you can't just turn away a job. I tend to agree as long as you stay focused on that total number and keep dividing it into the number of days you want to work. If you do this, you can stay on track.
When a wedding comes along, you can make up for a $200 day pretty quickly. If a wedding gets you $2,000 then that is 4-5 days of your "target" work. That will help make up for 2-3 "low-budget" gigs you take.
Just remember, you don't have to turn down work - especially when you are starting out and building relationships. I have done it. The best in the business have done it. They don't like you now because you are taking all the little jobs, as if these are bigger ones that YOU made into smaller ones.
Keep your eye on your total goal, the amount of days you want to work and constantly "INSPECT what you EXPECT". If you do so, you can stay on target and run your business the way YOU want, not the way others do.
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Cool SWAG!
I was given a cool gift today. It is a 24-105mm Canon lens that is actually a "mug". It is such an exact replica that I would probably confuse them and show up on location with a coffee mug and not my lens. I can't seem to find this one online anymore, although I do have a white Canon 70-200mm IS USM coffee mug lens ordered for April. The white ones were given out to photogs in Vancouver during the Olympics.
The black lens/mug is the one I just got. For the record, the one on the left is the real lens. Not too bad, although I wouldn't be sticking it in the dishwasher everyday. It'll probably be a pencil holder.
