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Day 12: Projections for 2014

Back for days? Well, where you're talking about projections for two thousand fourteen and one thing I just threw this in the keynote this morning because I wanted to just just kind of give you guys a little, but I have idea on raising your prices and kind of that perceived value, and we all get freaked out because everybody down the street is selling they're digital files for fifty dollars or their digital files. We had a huge conversation at dinner last night about a photographer who is very good and charging one hundred fifty dollars for oliver digital files and, you know, super busy. Carly has been in the same boat, uh, super busy and, you know, and and we were actually all talking about, you know, man, we have been there, you are so busy and you are married to your camera or married to your computer married teo, you know, you cannot work for that amount of money and make anybody happy except for the person you're photographing and even that person you're photographing is saying and...

she is so cheap. Yeah, I'm going to go to her, you know, I would go to her yeah, hit me on my files for a hundred fifty bucks sure, you know, but I know and I feel sorry for that person, too I I feel sorry for them because I have been there and I wasn't over that cheap but I've been in the place of ruining my marriage over you know over being married to my business you know do you think that you know that get coach they've got that maybe our purses from two hundred to two thousand dollars do you think that coach bags ever sat and thought how should we price these bags you know target sells them for twenty dollars and they hold stuff just like ours you know what you think that ours are worth more than not worth more should I be pricing around twenty dollars do you think coach bags does that no what is the perceived value of a two hundred dollar bag why do we want to carry around that coach bag it's a perceived value louisville time has a forty two thousand dollar bag and this is ugly do you think we have a time sat there and said well you can get a coach bag and a really nice one for a thousand dollars you know maybe we should think about you know lower in this price a little bit they don't think that way they say this is what this bag is worth it because they said it wass it is that bank is not worth forty two thousand dollars it could be like gold plated and it's not worth forty three to two thousand dollars hermes has a bag for one hundred twenty freaking thousand dollars that's a house in some places you know the louis vuitton bag is a car come on you know I mean perceived value is a concept that we need to wrap our heads around you know don't be afraid of everybody down the street who's charging fifty dollars or one hundred dollars one hundred fifty dollars you know you decide what your time is worth you know and it is a lot more about time and effort and education and everything that we are putting into our businesses even over are pretty pictures a person's that person's a hearse you know and pretty pictures are pretty pictures we can all do it but what are we investing into our clients and what is that worth so that's just my little creature part for today. All right, so let's talk about how much you need to make how much do you need to make is your number its owner's compensation plus net profit and that's going to be you know what you get teo put in the bank every year and so well I want you to think of a number you know what? What would make it worth it for your year now talking about gross yet just thinking about that net what you actually need to make to pay your bills to leave your full time job teo, you know going on vacation every year you know whatever it is that's your thing now we talked about really thinking about what your motivation is and so what is your motivation and what is that magic number? And then I want you to take that at number the owners compensation plus net profit and multiply it by either two times two point five ifyou're a home studio or times three if your retail location and that's going to give you your gross revenue that you need to bring in for the year and that's going to be for two thousand fourteen and your workbook you have got and I'm on the wrong page um a couple little calculators for figuring this part out and then a projections worksheet and this is something that I'm gonna work with carly on and carly if you'll come up you guys met carly a little bit this morning but I've talked about her some as we've worked through this and carly is from winterset and she is going through the thirty day training with me and we've already worked through some of it you're going to get to see carly's studio makeover at the end on day thirty one um and so we're excited about that and carly's you want some really great things and we already worked through her projections together and so we've got it all written out here but uh carly what's your what's your magic number what's the your goal for profit for next year I go for profit for two thousand fourteen is thirty thousand so in thirty thousand dollars is where she feels like is a good place for her to you know that goal for next year and we multiplied hurt that thirty thousand dollars times two point five she does have a small retail space but it's now moved into her family's business and she's got a really cool space I'm excited to show you guys when the time comes and uh and she's not paying you know much for rent we're going to consider her a home studio for our calculations so we've multiplied that by two point five to get to a seventy five thousand dollars gross and when I first said that carly she was a little scared yeah man that sounds like a lot and especially from somebody who's going from fifty dollars digital files right yeah true and so that is the beauty of the projections worksheet is going through and actually really thinking about how many sessions you can actually physically d'oh in a month and so on your projections work sheet you've got different product lines here we've got the baby plan children family senior's wedding events and other you can change those up if you want if that doesn't suit your business but we worked through these uh carly already had sixteen winnings thirteen weddings but for next year and what does that tell you too cheap? Yeah, right on she's, not the cheapest out there for weddings, you know, you're not doing a horrible job there, but she had thirteen weddings booked for sixteen thousand nine hundred fifty is what she's got on the calendar this year for two thousand fourteen, and so we deducted that from her seventy five thousand dollars that we know she needs to make she's already got sixteen thousand nine hundred fifty on the books, so that minus that left us with fifty eight thousand and fifty dollars, that we need teo to bring in. That feels better. We already do know that she's booked for thirteen weekends, so that that's a lot of weekends for next year and weekends are the only time that she shoots because she has a full time job basically full time. Yeah, and so which we would love to get her close toe out of she's got to stick in and a little bit because it's a family business but s o that left us with fifty eight thousand. Well, the next step that we're going to do is we're gonna walk through each of these product lines and decide how many sessions and each one of the products product lines we want to shoot each month. And the great thing about doing that is not just for your financial projections, but after, you know, if I need to shoot, you know, x amount of sessions in march, then next to sing out how I'm going to get them there. So you think a little bit more strategically about marketing and, you know, we know by looking at our calendar, if I'm in february and I don't have those sessions booked in march, I better be doing something. I'm gonna be picking up the phone or go getting out there networking or going tto gett itt display and pulling in those people that way and so way walk through her projections and with her projections, we also put to friends and family days on the calendar, but we're not going to include those in her overall, you know, projections worksheet because that's just going to be she's doing this for her friends and family may or may not make a dime, it doesn't matter, we're not going to figure those in here is far as you know, our base numbers go so with all of her categories that she filled out and I'm not going to go through them, but she did fill out, you know, mostly children, some families and each month, seniors in the four months that we do seniors the wedding she's already got booked in the baby plan we've got that all figured out and that's comes to a total of one hundred and four sessions that she can physically do next year we actually know she can physically do more because she's been busting her butt, but so this that number felt pretty good, right? Yeah, that's more what feels comfortable, what she knows she could do and she's also going to be planning for not only shooting now and computer time, but meeting with her client for the sale. And so we're thinking about that as well and that's going to take that number down a little bit, too. You didn't. How many sessions last year? It was like two hundred seventy eight or something like that? Yeah, so we've got one hundred four sessions that we know that she can do and that's very reasonable considering the amount of sessions that she did last year and then probably, you know, doubling the physical time with our client with those order appointments and building projects and preview in that kind of thing. So before, if we've got one hundred four sessions and we know that she needs to bring in fifty eight thousand fifty dollars to reach her goal, we're going to divide that by one hundred for and we're going to get an average of five hundred sixty dollars and you know, see how working at all out on paper starts making perfect sense if we know we've got to get her average two, five hundred sixty dollars then we can build her pricing in order to lead her clients to that goal that makes sense and then how did you feel once we got this all filled out? I felt a lot better and beginning looking at seventy five thousand dollars that's like, wow, how am I going to get there? How am I going to get there? I'm gonna have to shoot five hundred sessions, you know? So yeah, I feel much better now good and I kind of spilled the beans a little bit yesterday, but one of the things you know, presenting your pricing to your clients in a new way is something I just encouraged carly no get excited with the next person who comes in and just tell them I you know, you're going to get everything just the way we planned, but I'm excited to show you some the new things that I have to offer. I want to sit down with you and go through things with you and would you consider walking through your house and taking some snapshots for me and let me put something together for you? And she did that and she took it into preview and built a wall concept and she sold it I did yes and it was and what was your sale seven hundred dollars is good you know what that was you know almost two hundred dollars more than her projected average that she needs and so you know just the confidence of being able to just say you know hey I'm excited about this new thing I'm doing I want to just show it to you there is no obligation and then and just see what happens you guys you know I mean it's pretty cool yeah I was very excited about that for you yes me too oh I should have showed you guys this that's that projection worksheet that we worked through that's in your workbook and uh oh yeah I'm excited thank you thank you thank you thank you all right all right so we're goingto harlee just a quick comment from the chat room got stacy jacob who says her work is beautiful oh my does she ever need to raise her present are there any questions with carly forces um I think we're good at the moment okay all right good ok awesome thank you carly so that work but I am excited about that and you know I hope a lot of other people are encouraged by that as well because you know I think you know carly's very relatable teo a lot of our audience who you know howto why do this how do I move? I know I need teo but how do I take myself to the next level and so excited that you're going to get teo watch a little bit of her journey as we go through also all right, so you're going to take on what I what I did with carly you're gonna take that total revenue needed to reach your goal divided by the total number of sessions that you khun dio and that's going to give you your session average that you need to shoot for and here's our example here one hundred thousand dollars in is your goal this wasn't carly's goal but this is just an example for you if one hundred thousand dollars is your goal that's for a forty thousand dollar profit for a home studio you're going to shoot one hundred sessions which is goingto be about seven to nine sessions per month that sounds pretty doable, doesn't it? And each one of those sessions need to be to reach one hundred thousand dollars average that should say a thousand dollars average to get teo man that'd be awesome when it um but to get you to that one hundred thousand dollars gross and so hopefully that helps you break it down a little bit and you know, work through that projections work she for yourself and it's really it's pretty self explanatory and there's some instructions before you even get that too that that will walk you through this process get those numbers on paper and really, when you concede it in black and white when you could get it written down and, you know, see it in front of you, it starts to make a whole lot more sense to be able to say, okay, I need to average five hundred sixty dollars, how I'm going to set up in my pricing so I can lead my client's right there and that's what we did was we set up her build a collection package that's going to make it easy for her to present it to our clients. All you got to do is step one and step two and that's going to lead her to the average that she wants. And as we saw with her very first time just sitting in front of the client and you know, I will tell you guys right now. But if that is the only thing that you take away from this and higher thirty days is to move away from online sales and sit with your client. When you're presenting their images to them, make suggestions to them and help them through walk them through the process, you will make more money, and I promise you, I guarantee it so that's that's projections we got through that day and, uh I let carly pick her favorite product for today for your download, and she chose this uh see I lay flat album so it's going to be this fun little album and you'll have all the templates for this is just a simple album that you could do for you know just two children session or even a family session but all those templates air for you today that is awesome once again thank you carly for getting up there and being our target client for us are not our target client our yes, thank you I will say to you know, with your your bonus footage there's your bonus footage here and there that you're going to get videos and those will pop up about the day that they release the actual day as we go through the thirty days but you'll see carly and I are actually working through that projections worksheet together you know, kind of more step by step not just the overview that we just did so not to be kind of fun that's awesome thank you but again I really love how you have created things like this in the workbook that has included when you do by the course so we do have a few minutes for questions everybody so let's start in our studio audience here and if anybody has any questions if not we'll go to the internet robin mike, if you please laurie, I have a question about you know your session averages I know that amy has a second shooter and if you have a second shooter and you're doing those projections, do you multiply what that second shooter times three as well so it's almost you do go through the same process for the second person you do and you you could go by two point five for the second shooter because you're figuring the extra half a percentage is the extra overhead that you have in the studio so you're second shooter you could put down to two point five that's going to still figuring your costs of sale and employees expenses and you know those other expenses that we do have involved with the second shooter fantastic. So we have a great question from robin are online who has been very active and loved what she's saying robin says when you're talking about the person selling digital files, she says I do that exactly one hundred fifty dollars for digital files and I'm super busy and in the process of ruining my marriage she says this course is it? She says, I'm pulling my pricing immediately. Do you have a suggestion of what to consider when marketing and new pricing plan? If I'm currently offering really low prices and want to switch over yeah, you know and part of that is really presenting things differently and in any way when your clients call, you know one of the things that I would suggest if you if you're really ready, like robyn is just totally switch what you're doing, you know, take the clients through the process they're going to call if it's an old client, they're going to call their going to say, hey, we're ready to schedule our next session, go ahead and get it scheduled and then let them know, you know, I've got some super exciting new things to show to you. I'm doing things in a whole new way I've got brand new products I want to share with you, and I'm still going to show you how you can get those digital files because that's, what they are calling for, right? That's, what they think they're getting, and so I'm still going to show you how you can get those, but I'm really excited to share with you some of the new things that we have to offer. I'll send you over a pdf of our new products when you take a look at everything and let me know if you have any questions and shut up. You know, a lot of times we think that we've gotta explain everything away, you know, here's what I have to do this, and I mean, I'm so sorry, and, you know, I got to save my business, you know, or my marriage. But you know but we don't have to just present they just be excited and present things you know this is brand new from you're gonna be the one of the first people to get to see this and I think people like being a part of that I know when using preview when I started using preview I actually said to the first people that I sat down with with preview you're one of the first one is going to get teo to do this and see this and go through this with me and they're excited and amy did that as well I told amy you gotta just say this and you know people like being part of that new thing and so use the new ness to your advantage and get excited about it and they'll come along with you fantastic any anymore questions in the studio audience all right so we have a question from toronto corporate photos who says how do you handle that client that always wants to pick the lowest price point for example two picks for two hundred dollars if that's your pricing after you sit down with them and say well how about just one photo for one hundred dollars so somebody who's asking for something that's not on your menu yeah you always want to have an ala carte list if you have packages and so no problem you're welcome to order him are all a car list but once they go to that, all the cart list it's going to make perfect sense for them to stick with the package. And so your your bottom package should be, you know, that rock bottom that you're willing to work for. And, you know, for me on the special event packaging one hundred sixty eight bucks. Yeah, I would probably be really sad if everybody was buying one hundred sixty eight dollar package, but I built it, you know, so that if I'm shooting twenty sessions in today with a mini event and that is the rock bottom that they buy, I'm still not broken hearted because of the volume you know, and that's what we can do. Special event packaging. In that way, yes, we move people up into different categories and have, you know, a better average in that. But on your package menu always always show them the value of the ala carte pieces. And that way, it's, you know, it's undesirable. If they would go to, you know, just that one print for whatever you can let them know that it's discounted in the package because it is bundled.