Do I Need to Book More Before Changing My Systems & Pricing?

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Summary

In this episode, Christa discusses the critical decision photographers face between focusing on marketing or refining their business processes. She emphasizes the importance of establishing sustainable practices before scaling, highlighting the pitfalls of scaling a broken process. Christa advocates for a full-service approach that enhances client experience and value, while also addressing common mindset blocks that prevent photographers from making necessary changes. The conversation provides actionable insights for photographers looking to build a sustainable and profitable business.

Takeaways

• Photographers often struggle with whether to market or refine processes first.
• Scaling a broken process can lead to confusion and burnout.
• A full-service approach adds value beyond just digital images.
• Setting clear pricing and processes is essential for sustainability.
• Mindset blocks can prevent photographers from making necessary changes.
• Incentives like gift cards can help attract clients while maintaining value.
• It's important to shift pricing and processes without waiting for the perfect moment.
• Building a business that aligns with your values is crucial for long-term success.
• Less is more; focusing on fewer clients can lead to higher profits.
• Clientele may shift over time, and that's a normal part of growth.

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Transcript

Christa (00:00.654)
Today I'm going to answer a question that I get very, very passionate about. I have seen so many photographers ask this. I've seen so many photographers let this hold them back. And I've seen photographers grow an unsustainable business by doing this. And what this episode is going to be about is should I work on my marketing to scale my business first or the processes of my business first? So let me give you an example. I sometimes talk to photographers

where I hear, what I'm doing, Krista, it's like I need to be making more pursuit. I understand like this isn't going to be sustainable, but I don't have all of the clients I want right now. So before I shift my process to where I feel like it should be, shouldn't I work on ramping up my business on scaling it, getting clients in the door, even getting some income in, and then work on my processes of how I wanna do things? Well, what do I mean by process?

Often this looks like what you're charging, what your workflow looks like, the service that you're offering to clients. If you're new to the podcast, I'm incredibly passionate about a full service process. And what this means is being incredibly intentional about having more than just Digitals, about having products. Yes, clients can still get the Digitals, but they're not going to pay one low fee and get what I call the farm with everything that they, you know, the little that they invest with you.

and this high touch service. Instead, you have to account for that and account for your costs. And the way I teach it is in a program called Uncapped. And you can find the link in the show notes, but I teach how to set up our process. It's how I've helped so many photographers go from $300 to $500 sessions to regular four figure and multi four figure portrait sessions. But it doesn't happen with scaling something unsustainable first. I could refer you back to so many episodes if you haven't listened where

I talk to other photographers and they share, wish I had shifted my process first before I just scaled this unsustainable business. So I wanted to walk through this and really look at what should come first. The problem with scaling a broken process, we'll talk about that, how do you know it's broken? Ask yourself, is this scalable? So what I encourage is taking like $100,000, typing that right now into your calculator. So 100.

Christa (02:28.949)
$100,000, okay? Why 100,000? Well, this used to kind of be like the epitome of success, like I hit six figures. Now with all of our costs, taxes, the cost of living, often that's kind of what a business really needs to like really pay yourself a decent amount. And I don't want you just to shoot for mediocre. I want you to shoot for the stars. And you might already be at 100,000, so you could put that in or put something bigger in. So then divide that 100,000 by,

what you're charging per session. So let's say it's $400, okay? So 100,000 divided by 400 equals 250. So that's 250 sessions per year at $400 I would have to take to hit six figures. I'm gonna divide that by 52 because there's 52 weeks in the year. That comes to almost five sessions a week on average, meaning you're shooting every weekday. So when I look at...

that I would call out, that's not sustainable. And if you think it is, are well, like seriously, my feelings aren't hurt. If you're like Krista, you are not the girl for me, this is not the podcast for me. I don't wanna be averaging five shoots a week. If you have to take a week off, you have to make up those shoots elsewhere. It's just not sustainable. It's not going to help you grow. Even if you wanted to say, well, I'm fine just doing 50 grand, understanding I'll probably only pay myself maybe 10 or 20 grand of that, right? Okay, even at two and a half shoots a week.

You're still looking at like nine or 10 shoots a month. is that really what you want to be building? So the first thing I look at is what I'm doing scalable and sustainable. So if it's not, often photographers say, well, I still want people to know about me and know my name first. And then I'll work on shifting my pricing and all of that and grow to a more sustainable model. Keep in mind, my model is not just about jacking your pricing up, offering the same low service.

It's about actually adding in even more for your clients, more options, more offerings, more touch points than your competition is doing. But what happens is when you start scaling something you don't wanna stick with, the first thing is you confuse your clients because you're telling them how things work, but behind the scenes you know this isn't what you want in the future. So you're building something where you know, next year I hope I'm not doing this process and your clients are gonna come back to you you're gonna have to rework through that. And I know that because I did that.

Christa (04:49.322)
The other thing this can often lead to is just staying in the mindset block, because you're waiting for the perfect moment to change, but is there really ever a perfect moment to shift to something more sustainable, right? You often just think, I just need to book a little bit more. I need to book a little bit more. I need to do a little bit more marketing. I need a little bit more inquiries coming in, and then we never really take that step. Or the other thing is, it could just attract the wrong clients that we actually don't want to serve long-term.

And I've seen this happen a lot where photographers are like, Krista, my clients are only spending this amount. And I'm like, what are you charging? And they're like, that amount. And I'm like, well, yeah. And that's who you're going to keep attracting and they're gonna tell your friends about you and about this low service level that you're offering. So you're building a business that A, you're not passionate about, B, that's not sustainable, and C, that's going to shift along the way and confuse your clients. So think of it this way, if I'm charging three, $400 for a session and I get really, really, really well known in my community for that,

I'm gonna have to then kind of go back and like re-explain even more to my clients that, hey, things are looking different now. It's very doable. I actually give my students a script in uncapped because I do coach very established photographers. I have coached photographers who've been in the industry 10 to 20 years. I was in the industry five years before I shifted this. They will tell you and I will tell you how much better to have set myself up for success at the get-go, offering something I should have been offering, okay?

But you might be saying, I get that, but if I do that now, not enough people know about me to take me up on this. I'm wondering if I should be at a lower pricing level just to get people in the door. And there is a marketing play with that. So what you can do there is still put your prices and your process where it needs to be. Maybe it's our full service process where we're really guiding and having intentional touch points with our client before the shoot and after. Not fancy PDFs or just online galleries, those don't convert.

but we're really guiding them through and giving them this amazing experience. But what we can do is we can offer incentives like gift cards that allow them to come in the door, but they're able to still see the value of what they're getting. So if I walk into a store that has 20 % off, I look at the tag and know like, hey, this isn't normally this price, but I have an incentive for this. If you get a gift card to Pottery Barn,

Christa (07:12.021)
you're probably gonna spend over that gift card to get what you really want, but you know the value of that item. You know it's not worth just the amount extra you paid after the gift card. So what you can do is go ahead and set up your pricing to where it needs to be, not ease into it or not wait until a perfect moment, and then have incentives where you can have gift cards or referral discounts or things like that.

With shoot and burn, it's really hard to do things like that. It's really hard to not just give someone a session and not make anything with it. But when you're full service, you can give a gift card that covers session fee, a few images, walk the client through. They're already getting some incredible prints with it, the matching digitals to a few favorites, and have the opportunity to purchase more. And so that is a great way where then you're setting yourself up where people know this is what Krista does, this is what she offers.

When I tell my friends about her, I'm going to share about the process that she's sticking true to, not changing her pricing around month to month to month, which is a great way to build distrust. The process doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be clear and aligned with what you're doing and where you're going. So you can work on scaling and refining your process together, but only for not selling yourself short. So again, you don't wanna build a business that you secretly want to burn down.

There's not gonna be the perfect moment to change your process to something more sustainable. I've talked to photographers who say, I'm gonna wait till I have the perfect website. I'm gonna wait till I have those steady Instagram inquiries. I'm gonna wait until my work gets to this next level. Like make sure your work is fine. Usually when photographers say that their work is totally fine, there's just a lot of mindset blocks and objections to get there. Sometimes it's out of fear of I've served clients at this price point for the long haul. I can't change it on them now.

And I get that. Like I said, I was five years into the industry when I shifted to full service. But the problem is that building a business that's not sustainable does not serve you or your clients well. Burning out and having to eventually close up shop because you built something so unsustainable that it took you so much away from your life and family, you didn't want to do it anymore. That's not going to help those clients either. And I want you to think of, there's an episode if you want to search for it, where I talked to Michelle, who was one of my top students. She had three little girls.

Christa (09:32.65)
wanted to build something more sustainable, even though she was already at a thousand dollar average, you don't have to be there, she was and now has up to over three grand. And she says it really well, it's the idea of less is more. This way, even if some of those clients from the past don't book with you, that's okay, you don't need as many to hit your goals. It's okay. I had clients leave me when I went from $50 to $100. Can you imagine if I'd let that stop me?

So don't let our own mindset blocks and limiting beliefs keep you from building what is so possible, what you are worthy of, what you deserve to be compensated with everything you're bringing to the table for your clients. So again, don't wait until the perfect moment and don't focus just on marketing to scale something. That's truly not what you want to scale. Instead, focusing on the process is just as an even more important of why you're doing what you're doing.

and how you're setting things up. If you wanna learn how to do this, I teach both the process and the marketing for it inside my program Uncapped. And what we do is we go through how to actually set up, plug and play our exact system in, what to say to clients before, what to say to past clients that you served with your shoot and burn pricing before. And often I have my students start with those clients actually that are already on the queue. And I've had students have over two grand sales

from clients who were already booked shoot and burn. They just shared about products and the client was really excited. I've had students in small towns. I've had super busy moms. I've had people who have other jobs and wanna get out of those jobs all have success with this process. But I also teach them marketing to hit that next level of clientele. It is okay if your clientele shifts through the years. There's no shame in that. There's no need to feel guilty. It's a very normal thing because especially I remember when I had my daughter, like I really saw like,

What is the cost of leaving her and missing my family dinner and things like that? So if you're interested in that, I have a link in the show notes or if you DM me on Instagram, the word podcast, I will send you a link where I share all about how this process works and how it could work for your business. My Instagram is at Krista with a C-H underscore Renee, R-E-N-E, and we'd love, love, love to see you over there.