Being a professional wedding photographer, for the past 10 years, has been a fun and financially rewarding career. I did not make it this far, as a Michigan wedding photographers, without proper planning. From the beginning I established my rates on several factors. Determining my rates properly has allowed me to be profitable since the first year.

My personal income was decided early on. Yours will be different based on your personal situation and residence (California living expenses will be higher than in Michigan). The next thing I had to decide was how much to invest in advertising. My first years advertising expense was around ten thousand dollars. You could choose to invest more or less. It all depends on how fast you wish to grow your new career. Additional expenses were considered and added to the budget. Once this was completed I knew exactly how much to charge in order to be profitable.

I highly recommend figuring out your expenses before deciding on pricing your work. If you don’t, you could end up failing financially.