2.

Your business must make a profit. Your business must have the ability with every client to not only pay for the time of the photographer, but the materials, the time editing, the time going to and from printers, fuel for travel, the hours spent on the phone managing the clients your currently working with as well as past clients and obtaining new clients. There are hours and hours each week spent doing nothing but making calls to ensure a successful year. Plan on at least ten phone calls a day at about ten minutes each and your almost at two hours each day each week to total 14 hours a week at your rate of pay. You have to take the total number of expenses and basically triple them just to begin to reach your earning mark. Keel in mind, a client paying $300 for a shoot could easily cost that much to do it. You have hair and makeup, wardrobe changes take time, one assistant, electrical usage, travel to and from the studio for you and your crew for the shoot. So you budget $300 - $100 TAXES, $75 hair, $75 makeup, $50 for assistant. Your left with nothing. But you still have prints to sell. This is where photographers make money, in products. Calculate your prints like this - One 8x10 inch print costs $15 to make, travel, shipping, eidting, shooting, etc. total expense $15 x 3 = $45. Your $15 costs are covered, you'll end up paying about $15 in taxes and your left with $15 for yourself to cover your time. This is just in one 8x10 inch print. Your creating hundreds of images each hour for the client and the goal is to sell enough prints to cover your hourly rate what ever it might be. Be sure to communicate with your clients what expenses they should expect in print costs this will ensure good communication before the shoot takes place. Your business must also begin at some point in earning it's own money in order to expand in additional equipment, studio space, backdrops, gear, etc.