Hello,

I have a problem. I have photographers that do not like me advertising my services to the general public. I put my rates online and they are competitive with others in my niche. The problem that I am encountering is that my photographers do a markup on my services and don't want their clients to know. I personally do not think that is my concern.

I have been asked to up my visible rates so that their clients do not see a difference, but that then would make me no longer competitive.

How should I handle this?

First of all, it's none of the photographer's business what you charge the general public so their comments to you are moot. If you are working as an independent contractor, they can't control your price structure. I'm sure your price to them is fair, and marking your price up to their customers is their problem. If you are doing superior work for them at a reasonable price you may lose a job or two, but they can shop it and "get what they pay for". I have customers do it all the time. Most of the time they find out that the other guy is not cheaper in the long run or they don't get a "sellable" product. Shrug.

Hi Grafx,
I dont know if this would work for you, but a way I have seen this handled before, is to in effect undercut yourself. Set up a seperate business and advertise to the general public/other clients under a different business name with your current prices.
To keep your photographers happy, under your current business name you can hike up the prices to the photographers markup, if you continue to pick up additional work through this business, then you are making even more money.

I am sure you provide a great service, so do you really think they would go elsewhere, if you want to advertise your prices as they are? Doubt it. Business is all about relationships, and if I find someone who does good work at a price I'm happy with, that I trust to get the job done, then I will use that person, rather than risk someone else letting me down or providing poor service.

Just a thought
Steve

Swampy,
I cannot agree with you more. I spoke to one of my veteran photogs and she feels the same way. She says its all about educating your clients. She does a markup, but it is fair compensation for her time and input on the final product. She says that when people chose her photography, they are choosing the whole package (h/m, photos, & retouches) if the client doesn't like it they shop elsewhere.

On_Focus,
Really great idea. I do have another company that I can work from, but with the client base I have, eventually they will find out that the two entities are the same. That is the reason for this conflict, people were bored and decided to become sleuthes to dectect which retouchers works for which photographers, prices, etc.

Weird world.

Hello,

I have a problem. I have photographers that do not like me advertising my services to the general public. I put my rates online and they are competitive with others in my niche. The problem that I am encountering is that my photographers do a markup on my services and don't want their clients to know. I personally do not think that is my concern.

I have been asked to up my visible rates so that their clients do not see a difference, but that then would make me no longer competitive.

How should I handle this?

Hi grafx,

I'm wondering how the photographers clients would even know that it is you who does their retouching ?

Unless you are a photographer as well as a retoucher, restorer - I'm at a loss as to how that would affect the photographers. I seriously doubt that many people would be bothered getting their images from the photographer then going looking for a retoucher. They will, however, search for the photography studio that is going to give them the best end results.

Alison.