Happy Thanksgiving week!! This happens to be one of my favorite holidays, mostly because it revolves around one of the best subjects.. FOOD! But with Thanksgiving, there is also “Black Friday” - and the preoccupation with buying, consuming, and spending that spreads throughout the country and on the internet (the Facebook ads alone!).

Mostly you will find me completely ignoring the whole Black Friday thing. But the question of having a SALE always comes up this time of year. Businesses, and yes, even small businesses like mine try to push potential clients to make a purchase by discounting their wares and services. And while I’ve definitely tried running sales in the past, I have come to better understand my own feeling about this particular practice, as well as why it makes absolutely no sense for the business I’m running. Let me explain…

Why Discounts Just Don’t Make Sense for My Photography Business

This isn’t retail

Everyone is fairly familiar with the 3x markup that retail stores charge on their goods. So when something goes on sale and the owner is earning less per item, the volume of items sold will even out the profits in the end. In fact, the whole year-end sale has more to do with not wanting to keep stock on hand and having enough profit to pay taxes at the end of the year (since a lot of retail businesses are actually in the red most months) than anything else. And this whole process has absolutely nothing to do with a small service-based business!

Yes, photographers sell physical prints and those prints have a certain cost associated with them, so it certainly might seem like a retail product. But what the photographer is actually selling is the artwork that’s printed on that piece of paper. It even takes photographers a few months or even years to understand this concept and think outside of the retail-established pricing. The fact is, we have no stock (not in any real sense anyway, my closet full of presentation boxes and printing supplies notwithstanding). And therefore, having a sale makes no sense!

Fair Prices Can’t be Discounted

My pricing is based on hard costs - time, skill, and service. A discount means that I will either 1. Not make enough on the sale to cover all costs on my end (and yes, that includes a livable wage on my end) or 2. I’ve inflated the price so that I could discount and still make enough in the end. Since I don’t practice inflating prices, there is literally no wiggle room for discounts. And I feel very strongly about being fair to both myself and my clients.

Businesses can’t last if pricing isn’t fair. But I also don’t believe in charging more just for the hell of it. I evaluate my pricing every year to make sure that I can provide a high level of service to my clients, cover product costs, and build a sustainable business that will be here for them five or ten years from now. My clients don’t pay a penny more than they have to, and I want to keep it that way!

Sales and Discounts aren’t fair

Have you ever bought an item you really wanted and then found out that a week later it was on sale for 20% off? How did that make you feel? I know I’ve felt both dumb and regretful about that purchase in the past (and I’ve made quite a few of them). It literally hurts. And there is no way I ever want any of my clients to feel that way.

If you purchase a portrait today, it will be the same price tomorrow, and nobody will ever pay less for the same work that you’ve received. It simply isn’t fair to charge one person one amount and the next person something different for the same exact thing. This is why all of my photographs are the same price, whether it’s a business headshot or a portrait of a baby - they both require the same amount of work and skill on my part. So you can rest assured that your images will only grow in value and that buying today will guarantee you’re not paying more while someone else is paying less.

It took me a few years to get here - to realize why I always felt so icky and confused whenever I followed someone’s advice to run a promotion or a sale. And hey, a Black Friday Sale might just be the ticket for another photographer down the street or a small business whose products and service offerings are different. But the way I’ve structured my business, the way my pricing is set, and the amount of work I pour into every client, I know this is the right way for me.