.. if things are VERY quiet, do you take a lower paying wedding?

If you accept one then a full rate job comes along, do you bail on the low one? Just interested.

Cheers.

No and No..............

Hi Allan

Once you drop prices due to lack of business you can be sure that every bride around will hear about it via social media and then you are really stuck at that price point ... I relish the break and take time to relax!!!

If a bride books a small budget wedding and I get an offer for a bigger and better one??? Absolutely no way..that's the easiest way to lose all your credibility!!

Chris

Never reduce your prices.
If things are quiet - you MUST use the time to work on your marketing!

The thing I do is to keep my current package prizes but to add some options for free during the winter season when I normally have no weddings. Those options can be a free blu-ray.

I do the same Noa ..BUT they have to book and pay during Winter so it's an incentive for them to book and also keeps cash flow going during the months where you are unlikely to shoot!

Chris

Yes, I only offer this during the months Januari and Februari and announce it on my website at the end of the wedding season.

Instead of lowering prices and thus lowering your rate - why not take things out of your package with a lower price? This could be negotiated from couple to couple. So maybe no 'doc' edit but just raw footage. Or online delivery saving you time and materials on the DVD side. No prep, don't stay entire wedding, final edit extended 6 months, no multicam ceremony, etc.

Allan I will buck the trend here and say YES, offer a "last minute booking discount" for close by open dates that are not already filled. I wouldn't do it for anything further than say 75 days, maybe 60 would make more sense. Depending on your payment terms, pushing it to all up front wouldn't be unreasonable, given the up front discount. But you HAVE to call it something specific to the situation, like LAST MINUTE, so as to not degrade your typical pricing where brides reserve their date well in advance.

As far as cutting rates for good and viable future dates, there I agree with the rest of the group. If those become open LAST MINUTE dates, deal with them then.

Tons of other industries do it this way, no reason you shouldn't be able to and not hurt the rest of your business in doing so. Any bride who wants you and wants to wait for a LAST MINUTE deal, has to realize she is in jeopardy of her date filling before LAST MINUTE arrives.

I wouldn't drop my price for the simple reason that it's not fair to your normal bride and groom who do pay full price and who may get to hear of this and you can bet, like others here have said, that it will get out there and your name is mud.
If you think about it, anyone asking you to drop your price isn't showing too much respect for your work.
Yes, they may be a bit short of money but why sell yourself short. Not worth the risk.

Chip -
Conversely, a bride who waits to the last minute to book a vendor might well be a bit more desperate to hire... perhaps even paying a premium.

It's probably a bit like airlines and hotels, except the supply (and demand) is limited - if you book in advance, you lock in your price/profit/cost. As the date gets closer, if it remains "open", you want to "sell your inventory", but if it's really close, you charge a PREMIUM for the last minute "booking"...

.. if things are VERY quiet, do you take a lower paying wedding?

If you accept one then a full rate job comes along, do you bail on the low one? Just interested.

Cheers.

No and No..............

Agree.

If 'you' booked a wedding videographer and he bailed on you, how would you feel about wedding videographers?

It really is an unbelievable question to me. I actually can't believe it was typed. There needs to be a level of ethics that supersedes the income goal. Without that, we are all just money grubbing pieces of shi+.

As you can see Craig, there are answers and ways to handle this situation.

And many would try and help ALL their enquiries, with referrals to reliable companies or to friends in the industry they pass possible jobs onto.

To say that this situation never arises, shows a head in the sand attitude, a lack of understanding of the business and probably zero experience.

Cheers.

.. if things are VERY quiet, do you take a lower paying wedding?

If you accept one then a full rate job comes along, do you bail on the low one? Just interested.

Cheers.

You're welcome. I'm happy to help. :)

So the bride sees examples of your work. She then books with you based on the samples she saw and the trust you've established with her. Then down the road you call her up and tell her you aren't going to shoot her wedding for whatever reason?

Barring some unfortunate circumstance like stepping on a landmine, once you accept, it's unethical to "bail" on the lower paying job (because your client expected one thing and got another). In my 12 years of experience, I've never done it. Probably because I wouldn't want it done to me.

+1 for that Craig..that would be the easiest way to get a bad name in the industry and suddenly you find yourself with no work..Brides network extensively and discuss us on Facebook groups that are closed. One bride told me ..all the girls talk about you (which I never knew about of course) Just imagine if your name was being slung around like mud on those groups.

Ethics are critical for trust and integrity ..without those you have no chance!!

Chris

The ethical & smart way to handle this if you want to take on a lower paid job is to make clear from the start that while you will be doing the editing that because of prior commitments your top camera operator will actually be shooting the wedding. If you get another higher paid booking then you can accept it & send a trusted shooter out to cover the first wedding but if you don't get another booking then you can surprise & delight your clients by explaining that you will be shooting their wedding personally after all at the reduced price.

So if you don't get another higher booking, what do you tell the videographer that is supposedly booked for the lower priced job ? This is why i take a 50% retainer from anyone who hires me to shoot, if the hirer negates on my end, I go fishing with 50% in my pocket.Sweet. Happened to me way too often in the past that I got hired as free lance and days before the event was told it was off due to many different circumstances. I held dates that prevented me to take other ( even higher paid) jobs on those same dates. I would apply the 50% deposit if the cancelled date was put to a later date that I am free to do. No problem there, but I must know what the future date is asap so I can reserve it.

This is why i take a 50% retainer from anyone who hires me to shoot, if the hirer negates on my end, I go fishing with 50% in my pocket.

Happened to me once before, lesson learned, I was hired by another videographer months before a wedding and he would send me the details, but months passed and he didn't, when I finally called him (about a month before the wedding) to finally give me all contact and planning details he told me it was not necessary anymore. Now I know the guy very well and I trusted it to be ok, but next time I"ll ask for a retainer as well.

If the bride and groom must leave a deposit to reserve and book the date so must the contractor( studio) also leave a deposit to reserve and book the assigned videographer. That videographer deposit is much less than the contractor (studio) takes as a deposit. If the bride and groom cancel the wedding without any possibility of future date, then that contractor (studio) deposit is usually forfeited, but will the assigned videographer get any part of that...??? probably not a penny. In my opinion anyone that is booked should be given a retainer deposit, how much should be agreed upon in advance. This way it also makes it much easier for the contractor to cough up the final payment to the videographer after the job is done. I hear many cases of videographers are into the 3rd and 4th shoot without getting paid yet for previous shoots.