Which is fine when you can plan your week in balance

I was shown a really useful tool for this recently - a simple time chart.
You split your time into Planning, Action and Leisure … with plenty of spaces dotted about to give room in case something comes up or runs over. Planning is meetings or making contacts, chatting to existing clients and Action is your ‘production time’ (shoots, admin, marketing etc). Leisure is relaxation or family time, or even personal photo time

It’s best when it’s colour coded to make it easier to see when there’s too much of one thing or another and it really helps balance your time better.

Here’s a basic example of the timesheet in case anyone is interested:
http://www.freedom2breathe.co.uk/timeplan.php

CW

I like to read your articles as well! I think it isn’t easy to start a career like photographer from zero “finance”-background…
Maybe a tip: I actually bought a book “Rijk in 100 dagen” of Paul D’Hoore a couple days ago and it is really good and understandable if you want to know something more about making money…

Greetz,
Tom

Thanks for this series of articles! They’ve been inspirational for me and have helped me to reflect upon my photography as a hobby v. as a career.

Keep up the great work and I love the new blog!

Steven: you make a very good point that you should never undersell yourself. I fully agree with that.

CallumW: I wasn’t implying I want to attain that specific lifestyle immediately. All I was saying was that to attain a goal 10 years from now (which obviously includes seting regular milestones and reevaluations along the way) I will have to charge a specific fee today (as a starting point since I do need to start somewhere). If I don’t ask that price, I simply might not reach my goal in 10 years.

But that specific starting price (’minimum price’ as Bert puts it) might be unrealistic. It could prove to be so high that no one would even think to book me for a shoot. Just because I think I should be paid Y does not mean people actually will :). Studying the market and trying to be competitive (without underselling yourself!) are just as important when laying out your long term plans (in my opinion).

The point behind vision and a business plan is so that you create your vision over time and then you can break it down into chunks so you can plan how you want your career to flow.
This makes it easier to meet your personal targets over milestones and eventually reach your goal (if it’s still the same over time)

In 10 years, if you want the wealthy lifestyle then you break it down into chapters of your career with timelines. You know you will have to make certain contacts and win contracts for the specific work you enjoy. Once you know that then you pursue each chapter in turn with the “vision” being the complete book of your life/career

And to the poster above, I think he’s speaking to some what modest who might under sell themselves.

But I loved the series, and look forward to other great posts.

Also, allow me to quote a piece of the article (disclaimer: I’m absolutely no expert!):

“Another such question is: “What price should I set for this assignment?”. Your creative vision will tell you what your cost of doing business is. Your lifestyle vision will dictate how much you need to make to live the lifestyle you want. This makes it easy to set your minimum price and will make it easier to say no to clients who are just trying to take advantage of you.”

That’s a pretty bold statement. I personally think an important factor in determining your pricing is making sure it’s competitive. I might want to live a lifestyle of the rich and famous and set my prices so high that no one would even want to book me. Setting your price to whatever you want might be easier once you’re an established photographer who has a style and who has a impressive portfolio to show his/her clients. If you’re just starting out I’d personally be a little more careful. As far as I can tell beginning photographers make up a large part of your readers.

I’m certainly not saying you should sell yourself cheap, but I don’t think you should go overboard either

Just my 2 cents.

Keep it up!