Why I no longer sell timed photography sessions (and you should consider it too)
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Timed photography sessions start a clock. It’s a clock you might not want ticking in your business.
What is the purpose of a photography session?
The photography session is the place where the product for sale will be created. Session success is critical in order for a product to be created that is going to blow the socks off people, get them emotional and wanting to buy.
Sessions do have a cost and they should, because the session time is necessary to generate the product for sale. But the question is, do we need to time them and manage the cost? Consider the following:
It takes time to manage time
If you sell a one-hour session and you run over by 10 minutes, will you charge for those minutes? If you said no, then it may be a clue you shouldn’t be charging by time. Let’s say your session fee is $60 for one hour (for the sake of clear math. Don’t take this as the number you should be charging. Do your CODB for that). That’s a dollar a minute. If you charged for 60 of those minutes, why wouldn’t you assign the same cost to extra ones? That’s close to 17% of the the full hour, so akin to giving a 17% discount. If your purpose is to make money for your livelihood and every session goes 10 minutes over, you are giving a permanent and perpetual discount, and effectively undermining your revenue before any client requests a discount!
Would your cell provider charge for those minutes if you went over your plan maximum? The answer is usually yes because minutes are the valuable asset in their business. The minutes are the product. For us, the minutes are the means to the product.
Second scenario, you got what you needed in 50 minutes. Would you refund your client for the 10 minutes you didn’t shoot but charged for? If someone complained or you were worried about a bad review and gave a refund of $10, then you are once again taking revenue out of your business. Now some might say “it was UP TO an hour” to deflect any requests for refund, but I explain here what I find to be the issue with this approach.
But that is besides the point. The time you are taking to manage the time you are taking is costing you! If a client says they didn’t get their money’s worth because you cut things short, you must now take time to respond, manage, explain and/ or even refund, and that costs you even more time.
That clock is ticking and ticking but in the end, nothing really changed in terms of session outcome - to create the product for sale. You did it in 1 hour and 10 minutes in one scenario and you did it in 50 minutes in another. So why was so much energy and time used up in worrying about those minutes rather than the photographs that are the true product here?
Time Pressure versus Creativity
There are already time constraints imposed upon us. Weddings have schedules, families have other obligations and we have a limited number of hours each day to dedicate to business. We already must be creative despite constraint. When we sell timed sessions, we are adding yet another layer of time constraint to the ones that naturally exist. When it comes to working a traditional job for an employer, we have little choice but to respect time boundaries that the employer has imposed. As our own boss, we are seeking time freedom by owning our business. So why are we creating an additional constraint that adds stress and pressure onto our creativity?
Time running out due to client lateness or lack of cooperation creates stress and blocks creativity. What is more important to the outcome of your business transaction - whether you went a few minutes over or under your prescribed time, or the level of creativity that you are able to exercise? I don’t think anyone would argue that creativity trumps time, because you aren’t selling more time in a gallery; you are selling the images that your creativity directly produced.
The other aspect is the mixing of business and creativity. You are both business owner and creative employee; a 2-in-1. When we send invoices, we are the owner and when we’re at a session, we are the creative employee. If there is an administrative issue at a session, it’s hard to manage because that wasn’t the role you were in at that moment. For example, allowing a client to pay at the session. Now you need to have a logical money discussion during a time that’s supposed to be dedicated to creativity. And when you’re creating invoices on a Monday morning, your mind shouldn’t be wandering about composition or lighting - you need to focus on the numbers to make sure the right amounts are being charged!
When there is a clock silently ticking during a session; it’s like being watched by the boss. There is an administrative pressure of timing the session to exactly what was charged, and not going over or under for the reasons stated in the previous section. A big chunk of your brain power is essentially being held hostage by that clock, ticking away with your creativity. And erosion of creativity can lead to less than optimal products which can result in less than optimal revenue if clients aren’t happy with the imagery produced.
Selling flat session rates
I have stopped selling by time years ago. Certain jobs require exactness in time - punching a clock because the company’s revenue is based on it. So the right question to ask if exactness in time is a crucial factor towards your revenue. The time itself for the session, yes, but exactness in time?
I charge a flat fee. This is a creative fee where regardless of time, I'm focussed on making the art and the clients are focussed on collaborating and not hurrying to make it within the time limit. Sessions roughly go 1 to 1.5 hours. Newborns maybe as much as 2. But some are done in 45. I am satisfied that my flat fee covers my average, and the outliers balance out over time where some need a bit more and some a bit less. This frees everyone to focus on the correct thing which is the result. In terms of managing client expectations, your clients usually don’t know much about sessions and look to you to be the guide and the expert. If you let them know that you have a flat rate fee, and then consult about the approximate time to block off on their schedules, they won’t be clock watchers either, but the collaborators you want, to produce photographic magic!
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