My friends are not always my clients. And that is ok.

It's quite often that our friends are not going to be our clients, and as much as it hurts to see them go to other photographers, it's ok. I've literally had people who love my photography but even when I give them a free shoot and the ability to order prints for under $5 from me, still go to the Warehouse Stationary or Harvey Norman and print them there. And you know what, it does sting a bit. BUT it's ok. One of the things I learnt early on is that as good of a friend as someone might be, they often don't value what we offer as much as a stranger does. That friends and family will often expect things for free or the photographers version of "a box of beer", just as they often do with trades people. That they will often dictate that a price is great or too cheap or too expensive but that they would never pay us for it anyway, even if it was in their budget. And you know what. That's ok. Because we do not need to create our price list based on what our family, friends or work mates tell us people would pay. Because they may not even be our clients or our clients demographic. And that's ok. We also don't need to create our price list based on our own wallets either. Just because we wouldn't pay it in our current situation doesn't mean that we have to base our price list around that. We need to create our price lists as though we are actually a business, because we are. A business that can have staff or contractors we outsource to if we want. That can weather a storm or a dry spell of bookings. That has money in our business account to pay our tax and GST and business expenses. That has money in our business account to grow and market and spend on things like workshops or new equipment rather than our other job or the money we should be paying ourselves financing our business when we need a new camera. A business that has turnover goals and reaches them. So it's ok, if our friends or family or old work mates don't pay us, because our clients will.