Step 1: Discovery Call

We’ll start things off with a 20 minute Discovery call, to discuss your creative vision & desired outcome for the shoot. And go over my process from start-to-finish.

Step 2: Mood Board

Step 3: Learn about Copyright & Licensing

Most small businesses don’t understand the basic laws around copyright.

A very common misconception is that when a business hires a photographer and pays them their hourly (or daily) fee, they automatically own the photos and can do whatever they want with them forevermore.

In the United States, the legal owner of the images, called ‘Intellectual Property’, is the photographer. The photographer holds the copyright to the photos they create in perpetuity. The photographer is licensing the images to the client for their commercial use. 

Some larger clients try to get around this by asking the photographer to sign a Work-for-Hire agreement, but this is rarely legal. 

Unrestricted Exclusive Worldwide Perpetual License:

A client of any size can accomplish the same goal by purchasing an unrestricted exclusive worldwide perpetual license to use the content in any quantity in any media. 

Of course, this comes with the highest usage fee due to any and all usage being included in the license, including but not limited to:

  • Bus ads in Asia

  • Greeting cards and wrapping paper sold in Australia

  • Billboards in every town in North America

  • Computer software programs and apps

  • Posters on TV and movie sets

  • T-shirts, mugs, keychains and other trinkets

ETC. 

Any and all ways a photo might be used are included in that unrestricted license, and the client is paying for ALL of them, regardless of whether or not they will ever use them. 

(And this is their choice! If they want to pay for that usage they certainly can.)

Otherwise, it’s far more economical for your client to determine more reasonable likely uses, and save money by paying for a license that includes that use instead.

 

Step 4: Small Biz Package Pricing

Licensing, expenses and fees can be a difficult thing for many small business clients to wrap their heads around, simply because in comparison to retail/personal photography, it seems very expensive. 

For whatever reason, your rates are not looked at as an investment that will produce returns in the form of higher CTRs and greater engagement on their marketing and advertising (which, of course, they will!), but as a cost instead (e.g. money spent with no higher/additional revenue in return for that cost).

Please read this article if you are unclear on how to explain the differences and sell the client on investment instead of cost. 

Because your rates are looked at as a cost, once you add in:

  • an assistant

  • location fees

  • equipment rental fees

  • props

  • talent

  • retouching

  • licensing

(the very basics for many commercial shoots)

………it’s enough to make many small business clients fall out of their chair. 

Because of this, it’s best to keep your pricing very simple and use package pricing instead of a traditional itemized estimate that is used in most commercial photography. (Of course, you can also offer an itemized estimate if the packages don’t meet their needs.)

If you are a retail photographer (weddings, families, pets), you are likely already familiar with package pricing. Many of the strategies you’ve learned about retail package pricing apply here as well, the difference being that you need to think about what you include in a package that isn’t products.

Include basic usage like ‘web and social media’, or ‘small print collateral’ and light retouching in your package. (You can restrict the delivered file size for each package.)

Bonus tip: even if you decide to include unrestricted usage in perpetuity in your package pricing (the highest package price of course), they are still paying to license the images, and don’t legally own them. This is why it’s so important to educate the client on copyright as outlined in tip #3. 

Add an assistant and a few inexpensive props in your package if you need to. 

Give the client three package options with three fixed prices that include all expenses and fees, and only include the bare necessities of what you need to deliver good photos. (If you aren’t sure what you should be charging, take a look at our commercial photography pricing article series.)

Break down what the client is getting in each package so they understand where their hard-earned money is going. Every marketing dollar counts for small businesses. 

Again- keep the package inclusions super simple! This is not only for your benefit, this is so you don’t overwhelm your client with too many details. 

Which brings me to my next and final tip.