Once you’ve determined what products you want to offer, you’ll want to set up your pricing for those products. Be sure to take into account all of the costs that are included in each product. You’ll want to add together the cost to print, mount and texture your portraits, frame costs, packaging, credit card fees, and anything else that it takes to create that particular product. You also need to consider the time to create the product, so put a time value on each one.
After you have all of the costs together, you’ll want to multiply those costs X4 for a 25% Cost of Sale (COS), or multiply X5 for a 20% COS. (The lower you can get your COS, the higher your profit will be on that product.) Understand that a COS pricing model is your bare-minimum pricing for profitability. Raise your prices as the demand for your work increases, overhead increases, etc.
Now you’ve got your price for each product, and you need to decide what model of pricing you will use, and how and when you present it to your clients. The three main pricing models are ala-carte, packages, or a build-your-own-collection structure. I prefer the last, especially if you are new to in-person sales. A “build-your-own” menu gives you the opportunity to walk your client through the pricing, telling them exactly what you want them to buy, step by step.
They will be rewarded with a discount or with complementary additional products for purchasing something from each of the steps of your build-your-own menu.
