[PatrickB]

Hi all,

what I wonder about is: How do other people in the retouching-business calculate prices for an offer? Some of my clients give me a budget about the whole picture and then ask if it's possible and how much it costs, but what should I do if I waltz into a potential customers store and tell them about my services?

Fixed price is something really nasty for me: It doesn't offer any flexibility and the calculation is extremely difficult. If I offer too much and the customer sends some photos which only need minor works they might consider it wasted money. If I offer too low and get some images which need much more work to be done than calculated it's plain underpaid work.

The workflow "customer sends small image - price offer - customers sends big image" is a little cumbersome to me and customers don't want to waste time writing one email more for one retouch...

So what do you think? This concerns especially small photographic studios in my area.

Patrick

[Mike]

I find that charging by time is about the best for me. Most everyone can understand the "longer I work the more its going to cost you" concept. Then if I am doing prints they are at my regular prices. Smaller studios are the easist to sell to, they understand what it takes.

Mike