How to stop doing freebies?

Reoil

angeleyes wrote: »

In my case I did Reoil, but I was told that the other guy "he always did it before". What do you say to that?

"I'll do them better and €10 cheaper."

Ballyman

Reoil wrote: »

"I'll do them better and €10 cheaper."

No.

Do it better and for the same price.

Doing it cheaper only means the next person will do the same to get the work over you and then the next one will do it even cheaper again and the circle will continue until you have a thread here again from people complaining that they are sick of doing freebies.

If you want to work and get paid then never do anything for free, EVER. Free has absolutely no value and never will.

Reoil

Ballyman wrote: »

No.

Do it better and for the same price.

No, because then then they'll go with what they know.
They need an incentive to change.

Ballyman

Reoil wrote: »

No, because then then they'll go with what they know.

Some will, some wont. They ones that wont go with you then are not your customer. Get over it and move on. Not everyone is my customer. This is why five star hotels exist alongside youth hostels. The youth hosteller is never going to pay 5* prices and vice versa.

Reoil wrote: »

They need an incentive to change.

The incentive is "BETTER" for the same price. Or how about BETTER for the same price plus you will also write a few words for a release to the local press?? Or maybe provide some text for upload to Facebook or maybe ANYTHING but cheaper prices???

Cheaper is a race to the bottom and a repeat of "Dear Boards. I'm sick of doing freebies"

sineadw

A friend of mine was looking into getting dental work done. She got a price of 600 off one guy and twice that off another. She went with the dearer option, as she reasoned that anyone doing it so cheap couldn't be any good.

People are weird about money. You underprice yourself and you undervalue your work.

dirtyghettokid

some people don't know the value of certain types of work.
i remember a lady i did a few design jobs for. i gave her my hourly rate from the get go, before i started the job. she kept making changes, and at the end there was 19 hours labour. gave her the invoice and her mouth dropped on the floor. i'll never forget the face on her! they think design, or photography is just like waving a magic wand .. ah sure it's only a few clicks of a button! but the point is, they can't do it themselves. i'd definitely stick to your guns price wise. never ever any point in doing freebies or cheap labour unless you want to.
if they don't want to pay my rate/price whatever.. then they aren't someone i want as a client!

Borderfox

I remember hearing a wedding photographer from the US say that when she started every third wedding she got she increased her price by $300

thebaz

sineadw wrote: »

You underprice yourself and you undervalue your work.

so true , learnt this the hard way very recently

CabanSail

Maybe you are concentrating too much on the Photography and not enough on your sales technique.

Don't drop your price ... offer them something extra.

Remember ... The sale begins when the customer says No.