Then, I really want to know. Of cos, if he don't mind to reveal.
I don't mind revealing because anyone can find out simply by sending an email to my office asking for prices. If based on TS question, 10 hrs of coverage and 300 prints, my coverage will start from $5500 onwards. For a 10 hour wedding as the above mentioned is a bare bones package, we generally advise people to budget around $8k.
While people think it is a lot, it's not really a lot and actually some of the guys who shoot for less but shoot higher quantity actually make a lot more than I do as I don't generally shoot more than 3-4 weddings a month. I know many people are going "wah how can you not make money with those rates?" but here's a little secret about the high end market. While the numbers looks glamorous, the reality isn't. Why? Because it cost more to play in the high end market too. Wining and dining your high end clients cost more than wining and dining mid or low end clients because their expectations are higher. Eg, your client wants to meet you to talk to you about something. They're about to spend say 10K with you, you're not going to get away with meeting him/her at Macdonalds. You gotta take them to a really really nice place to talk business. That's just the way it is. The final deliverables, ie packaging, prints etc, need to be a much higher quality. Any problems with the $4k album, no questions asked. You just take it back and give them a whole new one even if it means you take a loss on that client. And when you lose you lose in the thousands. So what are our margins? we generally take a gross (mind you gross not nett) of around 25%-30% of total revenue which is about average for this industry.
So if it's not that profitable and why do it? Well, first, based on my personality, i can't wrap my mind around a mass business model. I actually truly believe that to make the real big money, it's in the mass market, but my flaw is that i do not understand the market and what they want exactly. And as i said, I can't stand listening to some romantic jazz 20 nights a month. Just don't have it in me.
So why continue in this high cash flow low profit industry? simple because for me there is a certain power in cash flow. My target is not necessarily profitability or the immediate realization of profit. That will come at a later time. So unless your goal is to exploit cash flow (which in itself is a dangerous game), you should really be concentrating on profitability. But really any serious business person would look at my accounts and laugh (well actually my financial planner does that already) because it's not a real money making business to be in, in Singapore anyway. It's an ok lifestyle and at my rates I can probably retire when I'm oh about 70 years.
Hopefully this post brings about reality for a lot of people thinking about joining the industry just because of they hear of the "big" numbers being thrown around or for photographers thinking the high end market is more profitable than the mid or low end market. Anyway, as a closer, I'd advice a photographer getting into this industry to think about how they plan on getting out before they get in. The exit is way more important than the entry. A wise banker told me that piece of advice years ago and every single day his saying is becoming more and more relevant.
