The biggest question that I hear photographers asking is…. How should I price my Mini Sessions?

You’ve heard of Minis, and now that you have a camera in hand you’re ready to give it a go!

Other photographers are successful, they book up within a week or so and have returning clients that RAVE about their work.

Setting up Mini Sessions isn’t just gathering the props, setting a location, and shooting- though I would love it if it were that easy!

Lets focus on one of the biggest hang ups that photographers have when it comes to setting up their Minis:

Pricing

Have you struggled here before? Maybe you’ve thought

“Julie says that she shoots her Mini Sessions at $50 and has 13 clients, while April shoots hers at $400 and works with 20 families in one weekend! But where is MY sweet spot? Will my clients pay $400 for 5 digital downloads?”

So really… how should you price your Mini Sessions?

I know that I’ve been there in the past, and learning over the past few years about pricing my own Minis has been eye opening, then a struggle, then a confidence booster!

Your pricing may not be the easiest thing that you do, but it doesn’t have to be the most difficult!

Let’s take you over to my calculator- one of the best tools I’ve created to date. It’s helped hundreds of photographers find their groove, and hit their financial goals for their Mini Sessions!

The Mini Sessions Calculator- You can gain access to it here!

Let’s walk through the steps:

When you click the link you’ll be taken to a Landing Page- you’ll gain access to this calculator by entering your email address.

You’re probably thinking that I’m going to be blowing up your inbox with sales.

If it doesn’t help you directly with boosting your Mini Sessions sales you won’t hear about it from me!

Once you access this Calculator you’ll see a Google Document where you can enter your custom information such as:

• Your Financial Goal
• Expenses
• Props
• CRM
• Rentals
• How many images are included
• and more!

When you enter your information you’ll only enter what is highlighted in blue- everything else will auto populate!

You’re going to start off with your Financial Goal- let’s say that your goal is $2,000 which seems pretty reasonable! $2,000 around the holidays is a great way to use 1 day of your time (plus editing & delivering!) to fund Christmas or the Holiday that you & your family celebrate at this time of year!

Next- are you renting a space to make these Mini Sessions happen? Maybe you own your own studio or you’re renting from a Tree Farm, local park, or studio. We’ll go ahead and put in the hours that we’re going to rent the space for, let’s put in 4 hours.

On average in my experience I’ve paid about $75 per hour for venue rentals, so we’ll enter that number right above the “House with Venue” slot in the “Venue Hourly Rate” cell.

Did you notice that when you enter this information a few more cells auto populate like we talked about before? The Venue, Expenses, and Total Goal cells all changed & updated! You’re half way to finding out exactly how much you should charge!

Have you decided how many days and slots you’re going to offer?

We’ll start off pretty basic, and then change if you feel like playing with the calculator. Let’s offer 8 slots for 1 day alone.

Expenses

Onto the the next step- Expenses. Have you invested money in purchasing props? How about your CRM, Email site, website, etc.? These small fees add up, and because I’m hoping that you’ve used these to market your Minis they count towards your expenses!

It doesn’t always feel good seeing that number increase, but to get an accurate number it’s important!

I’ll throw around the numbers that I used for my Christmas Minis in 2020 (and yes, I hosted them in 2020 during COVID & booked my calendar solid!)

Props- $800 (VW Mini Bus, hello!)

Assistant- $100

CRM- $50

Email List- $50

My Overall Expenses are growing, which is to be expected!

Next, let’s talk about our galleries & delivery methods.

How many images are included in your package price? Personally, I include about 20-25, but let’s use 25 for now. Offered in my package for the Mini Sessions I include 7 digital downloads.

When those 2 numbers are entered you’ll notice that Images to Upsell shows the difference between what is offered in your full gallery & what is offered in your package. This will help you determine how much to upsell the entire gallery! Upselling adds an additional $200 per family, and in many situations it adds much much more!

Here is where we’re going to have to guess or tweak the number until we find what works for us. Let’s start off and say that each additional digital will cost $15. We’ll enter that into “Individual Image Price”

So now we have the Session Fee (that includes 7 individual images), and when you’re looking to upsell the gallery you’ll start at the base price of $180.

Does that seem overwhelming? That’s okay! You don’t have to follow my numbers, and you can input your own to find what works best for your situation. Maybe you didn’t spend $1,3000 on expenses, so then your numbers drop tremendously.

The great part about this calculator is that it works for everyone!

So tell me! What is your Financial Goal, and how much are you charging for your sessions now? Did this help you decide on a session fee, or maybe even gave you the confidence to boost your sales price? Are you confident with how should you price your mini sessions now?

If you feel like you have much more to learn about Mini Sessions I want to help you!

Join my course here, and let me walk you through everything step by step!