When I became a single mom with no child support, I needed to make money faster and more efficiently than ever before.
I developed Signature Sessions to respond to my own needs and the needs of my clients, and what resulted was a successful, profitable, and manageable business model that works perfectly for me.
Most clients in the first few years of my business wanted to choose a date and location just for them and then spend an hour or more with me taking their portrait against a variety of backgrounds and in different poses. There’s nothing wrong with that business model, but I couldn’t photograph nearly all the families who were contacting me.
So I raised prices, but before long, I had the same problem. Raised prices again. Still getting tons of inquiries I just didn’t have time for. So I started consolidating my sessions and I’ve never looked back.
Here’s how it works:
1. I look at my calendar and figure out which days of the month I want to do my sessions and which of my regular three or four locations will work. I like to take off every other weekend, which allows me some wiggle room if bad weather strikes.
2. Then I send an email to my newsletter subscribers, who get first dibs on these openings. I announce the date, the time slots (in 30-minute increments), and the location of the sessions.
I give only one or two dates in each newsletter — scarcity is essential! They pay my session fee directly through my booking software, and that reserves their session and includes one high-resolution digital file of their choice.
3. I use the Photographer Booking Plugin to manage filling the time slots, since this is a high-volume model. But you could easily use a spreadsheet with a column of times and names. I do still use this method to track signed client contracts.
4. If there are any remaining open spots, I post about it on Facebook and Instagram.
5. I shoot the sessions back to back, usually five to seven a day, depending on the time of year.
6. After the sessions, I upload the photos and put up sneak peeks on Facebook the next day. I get galleries out within two or three days if I can, but always in less than a week.
The galleries include around 30 images, and clients have the option to buy individual digital files for $79 each or the entire gallery for $350, a fraction of what it would cost to buy them all individually. It’s a no-brainer; 99% of my clients buy the whole gallery.
If I work two weekends a month, shooting both Saturday and Sunday, that’s up to 28 families. Per session, I can make $599 ($249 session fee and $350 for the gallery), and multiplied by up to 28 families — that’s $16,772 gross revenue per month and just four days shooting!
An added bonus of the plan, I don’t offer it solely to families during these back-to-back sessions, I also market them for high school senior portraits, engagements, maternity, pets, and head shots.
Sometimes I have to do a little convincing when a client hesitates at the abbreviated session (20 to 30 minutes). But I always remind them that husbands and small children have about 20 minutes-worth of patience. It took a little practice for me to manage to do a wide variety of poses and backgrounds in under 30 minutes, but it’s completely doable.
Editing the photos really isn’t a burden. Because the location and lighting are very much the same for the day, simple Adobe Lightroom tweaks make the images shine. And with up to 100 beautiful images in a gallery, my clients are all buying the CD and they’ve fallen in love with how painless and fast it can be to get gorgeous portraits made.
I know this business model is not for everyone. I’m friends with photographers who swear by in-person sales and taking on a lower volume of higher paying clientele. My clients vary so much in terms of economic background, but they all are happy getting portraits taken so easily and quickly, so much so that my return client rate and referral numbers are extremely high.
If you’re high energy and love meeting new families all the time, this model could help you be more profitable and more efficient, free up your schedule, and give a lot of families portraits that they’ll cherish forever.
Love this idea!! Now the tricky part is to be in such high demand as you are! 😉
Love your article Helen. I have a very similar model for my business. The only difference is, I haven’t put myself out there very much… maybe cause i’m still ‘afraid’ to charge for what I ‘think’ I’m worth. Though, i’ve proven that I can do it… I still get nervous. I keep on telling myself that I still need to work on my craft before I can ‘officially’ sell or raise my prices… argh… its frustrating cause I want it to be perfect. Anyhow, great article, motivational. Thank you!