Pricing and setting rates

Hi folks, welcome to the show. My name is Toba.

In this episode of Artwork, we're going to be talking about the very delicate subject of pricing and how to increase your charges. To help me with that is Chidi Ashimole famously known as Lex Ash.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lex Ash.

Thank you so much, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be here.

Awesome! As you know, we're talking about pricing and how to increase your charges, but before we jump into all of that, tell us a little bit more about yourself.

All right. I'm a photographer. I do a bit of portrait, fashion, and some events. Basically, I like shooting people. I like telling people's stories and I've been doing this for about nine years now.

So far, it's been a huge learning curve, but I'm excited and I'm still learning even now. I'm just grateful for how far I've come.

Cool! Nine years is a long time. But let's jump into that very quickly. What did you charge the first time you ever charged for photography?

Oh, I'm so ashamed. I think it was a fashion shoot for a friend and she paid me ₦10,000.

So how much do you charge now?

I charge per outfit, instead of per session. I have a day, half-day, and quarter-day rate. I also charge a licensing fee. Typically for non-commercial portraits or, non-commercial pictures like birthday portraits and the kind, my fee is somewhere between ₦100,000 and ₦200,000, somewhere in that range.

How do you determine whether you want to charge per outfit or you want to charge the half-day or the full-day rate?

You have to get a brief and discuss with your client, understand what exactly their needs are, and see how you can meet it. Sometimes the client can actually specifically say "We want to know what you charge for a day rate." And that's typically more commercial clients because they have more experience knowing what exactly it is they want. Fashion people will tell you, “we have a twenty or fifteen or ten-look collection,” and then you decide, “Oh I think this would take me half a day or a full day,” depending on what they are going for.

You also have an idea of what you are delivering at the end of the day. How many pictures you're going to have to edit, how long you're going to be on set, if you need to rent anything, if you need to hire some other personnel to be on set with you. Those things factor into how you decide whether it is a per-look rate or a day rate.

Something interesting that you mentioned was a licensing fee, would you shed a little more light on that?

Typically when you work with commercial brands, they tell you what exactly it is they want to use the content for. If they use the content for something other than what they initially stated, you can bring it up in court, in arbitration, or whatever it is. If they want to use it for something bigger, you know that you are giving them high-resolution images that they should be able to blow up to however big they want.

This reduces your rights to the images in a certain way, so you want to be able to charge a license fee. License to use it on large format, license to use it on particular media, whether it's going to be on TV or on YouTube, whether it’s going to be on social media or in print and billboards because when you are producing the final content, you have to factor in those things. I'd rather charge it as a separate licensing fee, than add or beef up my actual price.

Interesting. What makes you decide when to change your rates or increase your rates?

There are a few things, one is growth! If you've added more knowledge, if you've added more experience to your craft, you deserve a pay raise.

The second thing is, if you buy new gear that costs you quite a lot, and you feel like it’ll improve what you are able to do, you should be able to command more from your clients.

I want to also point out the fact that if I moved to a new state from Lagos, because the cost of living is much less than it is in Lagos, you can't continue charging the exact prices that you would charge in Lagos. So you have to consider the economic factors in the places that you're in, to decide on your prices.

All the times that you’ve increased your rates, how did clients take it? Were they excited? Did you lose clients? What happened after you increase your rates?

There are typically two types of clients, there are recurring clients and there are new clients. Obviously new clients, likely haven’t asked you your prices before. So, when you tell them your new prices, it’s either they pay it or they walk away.

The recurring clients, you have to ease them into it, especially because they are consistent. So you want to let them know ahead of time. It's not when they come and ask you, “I want to do X, Y, Z, what will you charge me for it?” that you’ll tell them, “Oh, I’ve increased my prices since the last time we spoke.” It's more like, you tell them before they even come to meet you, you can say “Oh due to circumstances, my rates are reviewed.” So when they’re coming again, they know what to expect, and it’s not a surprise to them.

I think one thing that photographers should understand is that when you increase your prices, typically you're going to drop some clients, and you're going to gain new ones. Also, prepare to be hungry for a while. You might not get paid work for a while after you increase your rates, but once you get one client that is willing to pay you your new rates, that person introduces you to a new world of clients. And those ones will pay you your new rates.

How do you handle the transition period from one level to another?

If you are mentally and financially prepared. Yes! That’s the truth, because, you have to know that when you climb up a level, there's a chance that you will leave some people behind. So if you're going to make that decision, you have to prepare for it, mentally, physically, financially and whatnot.

When you're moving from X to Y, you're going to meet new Y clients and it might take a while. So, if you don’t prepare through the transition period, you may not be able to manage it, and you might end up going back to X.

For some reason, some people think that when they just move up in their capacity, and they want to charge more, everybody that knows them is just going to accept it. That’s unrealistic, right? So if you mentally prepare, it’ll make the transition easier, it means you are going to have to save. It means that you're going to have to also make concessions.

From time to time, You’d say “This is my new price oh, but I’m going to charge you the old price...but next time you’re coming, prepare to pay the new price.” And the truth is that if you actually are growing in experience, these customers and clients will see it. They’ll know that you are doing much better than before.

Is there anything to be doing during that period when you're not getting as many clients between one rate to another?

The thing is...especially living and working in a country like Nigeria, you need to show your workings. You need to introduce yourself to new people, and present yourself in a way that is befitting of your new rates. If that makes any sense.

So if it means packaging yourself better, if it means you creating work. That period is a period of scaling up, acquiring more knowledge, reaching out to people and enlightening them on the updates that your work has acquired.

One thing that I do when I don't get work is that I create. It gives me the opportunity and time to create personal work. While you're doing that, you are still gaining more knowledge, trying new things, and creating new content that you can use to show yourself, and get people to see the work that you're doing and what you're capable of.

Have you ever had someone offer to pay you with exposure? And if that has happened, how did you deal with that?

If you're in this industry, and you've actually never been offered exposure for your work, then you're probably not actually doing anything. It's a consistent thing, even now, even in my ninth year of photography, I'm still getting “...we don't have a budget, what would you like us to do for you...” Like, there's always a way they put it.

Very recently, a brand reached out to me, they wanted me to review a product of theirs, and they just wanted to give me the device to use and test and review. Once I asked for money, I didn't hear from them again. I guess they assumed that because they were giving me a product, I was going to just be satisfied with that and not ask to be paid.

I have nothing against exposure. As a matter of fact, I factor it into my budget. I think about what advertising looks like for me as a photographer, filmmaker and creative and I factor that into what I want to do in a year. I have a way I think about it, but it's not because a brand that can pay is reaching out to me and asking me to do something for free.

The funny thing is that there are some people that I would work with for free. Let me give you a specific example. I could do a job with a makeup artist that includes a lot of makeup products, just so that a particular makeup brand, can identify with my work and then say, “We are interested in working with you” and then pay me to create work.

There are still some scenarios where you can offer to do something free for a brand, but it has to be you deliberately deciding that you want to create content that will get the attention of a particular brand, not the brand reaching out to you and telling you that they don't have the funds to pay you, but that they will use it to promote you.

What is something that you know now about the business of photography, pricing and price concessions, that you wish you had known when you were starting out nine years ago?

There's nothing as important as collaboration. Collaboration is not work for exposure, please be very guided. It's working and learning from other people in your field. Whether you're a writer, singer, or photographer, always talk with them and learn what they're doing to improve their work, learn what they're doing to improve their processes.

And the knowledge you can gain from just being friends and speaking with other people that are in your field is inconceivable. You need that. You need a support system. You need a circle, you need growth, and you need to be able to learn from other people.

All right then, thank you very much Lex Ash. How can people find you?

I am @thelexash on Twitter, and on Instagram. For my music, it's @lexashofficial. My other photography pages are @thelexashchrome and @thelexashlifestyle. Basically, if you just Google Lex Ash on the Internet, you’ll find me.

He’s famous like that! That's all, folks. Thank you very much Lex Ash. And thank you, the viewers for joining us today. Until next time, take care and bye bye.