[Songman45]

I heard this comparision and it seems to apply to photographers as well:
There is not difference in a $10 whore a $200 prostitute or a $1000 call girl. The diference is in the John (patron, if you aren't accustomed to the slang). The business person sets the worth of the product and srevice offered and thus sets the level of clietnele. You can't argue the profits of the chains, considering the high overhead nor can you argue the profits of the elitest. Success is measured on how well one captures his market, not that of another business' model.

Remember, the offering of a certificate entitling the holder to a number of visits and the inclusion of one complimentary enlargment from each sitting is not a total give-away. It is an advertising method and a volume generator. Selling a multiple sitting certificate is a chore by itself. Putting a price tag on it builds in a percieved value and generates some interest in portraiture where it may have lacked before. The camera room technique is different for these. The photographer has not been commissioned in advance for a specific wall portrait or a number of album prints. The customer comes in knowing he is recieving his complimentary print and the photographer now has an opportunity to broaden the customer's interest by creating images that work into things like wall arrangments or multiple frames. It takes sales ability from the very first contact through the completion of the entire process. You can guide a customer into pruchases simply by selling the desire or you can wait until a customer desires what you have to offer.

One man's gimmick is another man's treasure of success. Glass half full? Perception is key. You may say that you'd never come off your sitting fee or comp. a print at the risk of being taken advantage of. Exactly, you will never have a customer walk with only his "Free 8X10" if you never offer him the opportunity. Conversely, you will never get the opporutnity to create a customer, educate a consumer and create a desire where one did not originally exist.

Pricing and profit are the two largest hurdles. How much you can charge is a balance of the value you place on your work and the value percieved by the customer. If you must recover the expense of a shoot in the sitting fee, then that cost must be aligned with how much the customer "thinks" it ought to cost. The cost of enlargements must never be percieved by the customer as the expence of processing and printing, what the paper and ink costs. They must be sold on the experience and the charisma factor of the image.

Whether you shoot 10 jobs at $10K, 100 jobs at $1K, 1000 jobs at $100 is up to you and your market.