Photography & events
Photography Print Pricing Calculator
Prices prints, where the lab invoice is the smallest part of the cost.
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.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Lab or supplier cost per item, plus the time to prepare, order, check and fulfil, plus packaging and shipping, with margin applied. The preparation and fulfilment time is the part that makes print sales feel unrewarding when only the lab cost is marked up.
What moves the number
- Lab cost per size and finish.
- Preparation, ordering and quality checking time.
- Packaging and shipping.
- Whether the client orders once or repeatedly.
Where this one goes wrong
Each print order carries a fixed amount of handling regardless of its size, which means a small order can cost more in time than it earns, and a minimum order value is the usual protection. Set one. Quality checking matters as well: a print that arrives wrong has to be reordered at the photographer's cost and time, which is why a lab relationship that produces consistent results is worth more than the cheapest unit price.
Before you quote
- Set a minimum order value to cover handling.
- Include preparation and fulfilment time in the cost.
- Value lab consistency over the lowest unit price.
Questions
About this calculator
Why do print sales feel unrewarding?
Because only the lab cost gets marked up while preparation, ordering, quality checking, packaging and shipping consume real time. Each order carries a fixed amount of handling regardless of size, which is why small orders can cost more than they earn.
Should there be a minimum order?
Usually, since the handling per order is fixed and a small order loses money. A minimum order value is the standard protection and it is easily explained as covering the preparation that every order requires.
Is the cheapest lab the best choice?
Not if the results are inconsistent, because a print that arrives wrong is reordered at the photographer's cost and time, plus the delay to the client. Consistency is worth more than a small saving on unit price.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $60.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $300 |
| Materials cost | $60 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $571.43 |
| Direct cost | $360 |
| Overhead recovered | $125.71 |
| Net profit | $85.71 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $571.43 to cover $360 of direct cost, recover $125.71 of overhead and leave $85.71 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $150 | $333.33 |
| $225 | $452.38 |
| $300 example above | $571.43 |
| $450 | $809.52 |
| $600 | $1,048 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $60.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
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.