Do you think my photography is good enough...?

[Eric Lefebvre]

Studio rentals are fairly cheap ... just take the rental fee and then double it.

Let's say you want 40$ from the shoot and it costs 50$ for the studio rental. The client is going to hand you a check. If you charge 90$, you;ll end up paying half of that as income tax so you;ll actually be loosing money.

90/2(taxes)=45-50(studio rental)= -5$ .. that's NEGATIVE 5 dollars.

Instead charge an hourly rate so let's say they are doing a 2 hour shoot and you want 40$ from it (really low BTW) and 2 hours in the studio costs 50$ then you need to charge 40$ an hour (or 80$) + 100$ sitting fee for a total of 180$.

180/2(taxes)=90-50(studio rental)= 40$

It's actually a bit more complicated than that really as you have to factor in things like the cost of any prints you make, your time meeting with the client, travel costs ... but above gives you a general idea at least. The way some people explained it, you'd be working at a loss.

You also have to worry about sales tax remitance, printing contacts, obtaining model releases, getting liability insurance ... you should also generate a pool of money that you drop back into the business to buy new equipment, go to trade shows, buy business cards ....

When starting a business in Photography, it's more important to have a business management background than a photography one.