Eric Hamilton – Celebrity / DJ / Nightlife Photographer

Today I sent an email to a client who backed out of a booking at the last minute. I had to explain to him why I needed to shoot a competing party on the night of his event, so my overhead costs wouldn’t get wasted. I like to be open with my clients about the financial realities of my business. I hope they understand, because they’re all commercial clients, and they all have similar issues in their own business. I told him a little bit about how my business works financially, and why it was imperative that my shooting day didn’t get wasted.

It all has to do with my cost of doing business. Every shoot night, I have $560 in fixed overhead costs to cover. It must be covered or bills go unpaid. A lot of people question that figure and wonder why it costs so much. Here is a small sample of my cost of doing business:

Last week I had to replace a $400 camera lens. In the next month or so I need to buy a new camera body before my shutter wears out on the current body. The shutter is guaranteed for 100,000 clicks. I crossed the mark a while back. The new camera body will cost about $1800.

I’m quickly running out of storage for photos. A new Terastation for the 2007 photo archive will cost about $550. I need it within a week or two.

The computer workstation I built last summer to process photos is on its last legs. Repairing it will cost about $1,000. I really should have done it last week. If it fails now it will really hurt my business.

I should also have a backup workstation to process photos on temporarily if something goes wrong with the primary. Cost? About $2600 for a tricked out Mac Book Pro I can use on location at photo gigs. I would have bought one last year if I could fit it into my finances. It seems like a much higher priority now that my primary is acting up…

Here are a few other little things that add up:

Standard business insurance / liability riders, industry dues and magazine subscriptions,
software licenses and website subscriptions, transportation, printing, client entertainment, contingencies, taxes, and so on. I also have two interns and a personal assistant who are essential to my work flow. They all need to get paid, too.

All told, my monthly expenses add up to $5567.89 — not including my food and mortgage! Keep in mind that I can’t shoot every day. A lot of my time gets spent processing and uploading photos, estimating and invoicing, and trying to connect with new clients.

Want to be a professional photographer? The first thing you need to do in terms of planning is to calculate your cost of doing business. Once you’ve done that you have to come up with a business plan and pricing strategy that takes your full expenses into account.

While you’re working on that business plan, keep in mind my favorite advice: Don’t shoot what you think other people want to buy. shoot what you love, and figure out how to make it pay! For me, that means nightlife, electronic music events, fashion, beauty, glamour, and so on. Maybe your thing is flowers. Whatever it is, it costs you money. Knowing how much it costs you to shoot and how much you need to earn is vital to your business.

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