Low ball videographers
 

I have been struggling to get established doing wedding videos, spent a ton of cash on equipment etc. and set my prices reasonably low ($950) for a basic coverage contract and up to $2K for the full deal. The work I have done at $950 really makes it tight to even make a profit when considering the time put in to editing and the cost of doing business. I plan on raising my basic fee to something over $1200 in the near future.

Now...I attend a bridal show last week... and this other wedding videography company has a booth set up, an unimpressive demo running on a huge widescreen TV. Makes my 30" LCD look dinky. I wander over and introduce myself, she is new to the business, only done her daughters wedding last year and from what I gather has very little editing skills and explains that her son is going to help her out with that. She is offering full day coverage for $500. I asked her how she can possibly offer that....she looks dismayed and asks what I mean. Good grief she has some surprises coming.

During the day brides are all commenting on how beautiful my videos are...

Now the kicker...she books 3 weddings. I book 1. I feel like giving up.

1st of all don't give up, and don't sell yourself short. Building a business takes time. At $500.00 per wedding dvd those brides are going to be very dissappointed. You should base it on your work and experience. Believe me the clients will come. It's a lot of word of mouth at 1st. Rememeber it's like anything else, you get what you pay for. I certainly don't think $1,200 is too much for a wedding dvd. In fact I wont show up for less than $2,500. The $1,000 wedding dvd's are non profitable. That's fine if your doing it on the side for a friend, but not to make a living on. You figure just for the shoot it's minimum $750.00 for a 8-10 hour day. Then you add in a few days of editing at 150.00 and hour and well you do the math...See what I mean. It's a business just like anything else. You're in it to make money not give it away. So if you work speaks for itself, then the business will come.

Mark