Photography & events
Print Pricing Calculator
Price a photography job from what it costs you to deliver, with overhead and your target margin both accounted for.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
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About this calculator
Why divide instead of adding a percentage?
Because margin is a share of the price, not of the cost. Adding 15% to a $1,000 cost gives $1,150, and the profit is $150 on $1,150, which is 13%, not 15%. Dividing by 0.85 gives $1,176 and an actual 15%.
What overhead rate should I use?
Take last year's total overhead and divide it by total revenue. Guessing low here is the usual reason a busy year ends with no money in the bank.
Is this the price the customer sees?
It is the price before sales tax. Tax is collected for the state and passed through, so it never counts toward revenue or margin.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.