CORPORATE PORTRAITS

You have been contacted by a firm of solicitors wanting portraits of all solicitors for their website. What is your pricing, how will you work out your costs, how will you deliver the job, what will you do to make the job stand out from the crowd and how do you build a good reputation to increase your chance of referred and return work?

Following receipt of the email, I would firstly research the firm to try and ascertain how many solicitors are currently working at the practise. This would also allow me to see the kind of images they have used in the past in order to suggest ideas for the new shoot.

With regards to pricing, then on my website the following rates are quoted for commercial work:

£50 per hour

Half day (up to 4 hours) £180

Full day  (up to 8 hours) £350

Mileage over 20 miles from Blackwood, NP12, will be charged at £0.45ppm. Any other travel expenses will be agreed in advance with the client.

If the employee total was up to 10, I would propose a half day shoot in order to allow time for set up and then 15-20 minutes per portrait. For over 10 employees I would suggest a half day plus an hourly rate capped at £350 total.

With regards to delivery of the edited images, the following is my quoted delivery process:

You will receive the edited pictures on a permanent password protected web gallery from where you can share and download the high resolution files. Upon request, a USB drive with all edited images can be purchased at an additional cost of £25.

In the return email, I would quote the price and delivery, provide links to any similar work undertaken and provide some ideas for their shoot. I would ask for a meeting at the offices to discuss the work in more detail and discuss ideas for their shoot.

When confirming the job, to 'stand out from the crowd', I would include some examples of poses that they could share with staff to prepare them in advance, some guidelines on colours and styles of clothing that would work well and also provide some ideas for 'props' eg the style of any stationery on desks, cups, drinks, conference room decor etc depending on the nature of the shoot they were looking to achieve.

In order to maintain reputation and the opportunity of future work, then the key requirement is to ensure total professionalism throughout the whole process. From the first email to the final delivery of the images it is important to be prompt and on time, meet the proposed deadlines, act professionally and confidently on the day, communicate articulately, deliver what you have promised and deal effectively with any queries, concerns and questions. I would hope that this professional manner combined with the quality of the end result would enhance my reputation and the opportunities for future work.