What to Bill for a Travel Day Photo Assistant

Last Updated: Feb 14th, 2020

As wedding photographers ourselves, we can't say we love charging people travel fees – but without them nosotros'd actually struggle to make some shoots worth our time. Few other professions will meet such a large corporeality of traveling as that of a hymeneals lensman. Whether you are simply traveling within your ain region or to an entirely different state, travel fees aid pay for your time and the costs associated with actually traveling such as automobile repairs, gas for your auto, flights, hotels, and and so on.

Given our experience charging travel fees to shoot weddings over the past few years, in this article we are going to cover some of the norms nosotros've seen in the wedding photography manufacture, talk about best practices, and discuss what we exercise to brand traveling for weddings make sense for us.

This mail will be a perfect source of info if y'all're a wedding lensman trying to figure out how to charge for travel, or a bride-to-be trying to better understand all those travel fees you're hearing about. Continue reading for more!

Wedding ceremony Industry Norms & Best Practices for Charging to Travel

When trying to figure out how you should charge travel fees, it's of import to take a pace back and take in what other photographers are doing. Nosotros're not maxim yous need to emulate other photographers to a T, only it's important to know what others are doing in club to stay competitive.

Based on what we've observed, whatsoever established and successful hymeneals photographer is going to charge to travel.

Some newcomers may be more prone to not charging, or waiving fees, in an attempt to more easily secure a new client.

As a rule, you need to evaluate your specific situation equally information technology will factor in to how you decide to arroyo travel costs. This is the single most important affair to consider when it comes down to whatsoever pricing you are doing.

From here, we're going to break down some options available to y'all and normally used:

Selection #one: Mileage Tax Deduction

Assuming you lot are operating as a legal business organisation entity (if you're not, you should practice this immediately!), regardless of your approach to charging clients for your travel, you will want to be tracking your mileage in lodge to receive a revenue enhancement break for the travel you lot are doing by automobile. This can exist done in many ways, the simplest of which is MileIQ – which we use to runway the distances driven for personal and business organisation purposes.

In 2018, we have over $4,000 we can write off our taxes considering of the corporeality of driving we exercise at the federal standard rate of .54.5 cents/mile. Doing the math, nosotros've driven over 9,000 miles this twelvemonth solitary for business organization purposes – so no incertitude this is a really pregnant thing.

By tracking your mileage and getting a tax write off, it can aid yous offset travel costs if you lot are not wanting to put these on your clients in some instances. Some photographers may opt to non accuse a travel fee considering this covers it, while others may charge a fee to their clients in addition to logging their mileage for a deduction.

If you want to learn more virtually MileIQ, check out our review and user guide . You tin too sign up and effort it now for free, and if you decide to upgrade, you can get 20% off your starting time yr subscription by using our link .

Pick #ii: Charging a charge per unit per mile OR hour

Whether you decide to track your mileage or non for tax purposes, one way to charge a travel fee to your clients is to charge a flat rate per mile or hr.

It is very common for photographers to merely accuse the federal going rate to their clients (then this year = 54.five cents/mile). This means if you accept to travel to a nuptials venue 100 miles away, you lot would accuse ~$100 to cover travel expenses every bit the round trip would end up being 200 miles.

You lot tin utilize the same approach to an hourly travel fee. You charge 50$/hour and drive 4 hours round trip, and thus your final cost is 200$.

Option #three: Offer gratuitous travel inside a express radius & charge for travel later

A more blended approach to charging travel fees is this i, and it's actually the way we go ourselves.

What we do is tell our clients upfront that there will be no travel fees when nosotros need to travel within 80 miles (round trip). Whatsoever mileage over 80 is billed at .l cents/mile.

In our experience, this is a way to meet our clients half style.

We understand that as wedding ceremony photographers our job requires us to travel (no one is getting married in our backyard – that would honestly be a little weird), but our fourth dimension is worth something likewise – so nosotros charge when information technology becomes more of a burden on us.

Option #four: Extended travel requirements

We consider "local" shoots to be within a 3 hour radius from where we live. It's really the most amount of fourth dimension nosotros'd be fine to be driving in a machine one way before wanting to stay the night closer to the wedding location.

Anything that requires more travel than this for us ends up getting into a territory that requires more customization of our travel fee to account for lodging, nutrient, and in some cases (like shoots across the land) – flights and rental cars.

In that location is, unfortunately, no one size fits all price for these things every bit information technology's highly dependent on the location the hymeneals is taking place.

To help you lot amend see how we'd put together a travel fee in an example like this, let's look at the following real world instance nosotros encountered ourselves:

Example scenario –

We have a client wanting to volume their wedding mean solar day with us (yay!). Their venue is two states away, and would crave 600 miles of driving (round trip). This would end up taking 8-10 hours just for driving lone. This is a full work solar day in and of itself, and would admittedly require an added cost for us to drive all the way there and back again. Considering of the distance and time required to get to the venue, we wouldn't want to photograph a wedding for 8 hours than turnaround at 11pm and drive iv-5 hours home (it'south but non reasonable). Every bit such, we need to charge non only for our mileage and time, simply to encompass costs associated with staying at a hotel nearby, and mayhap even a pocket-sized accuse to encompass some dinner/breakfast while we're upwardly in that location.

This seems straightforward enough… just in that location's a twist!!

This client wants to have an date session (already included in the wedding ceremony parcel), but instead of somewhere local to us, they desire it all the manner across the country considering at that place is that one place in Oregon that holds a special place in their middle. That's totally cool with us, because we dearest traveling, but we besides tin't be expected to foot the bill to travel all the way out there. Every bit with the travel costs associated with the wedding day, we'd also be charging for the date session – fees will come in to cover our flights, lodging, rental car, nutrient, etc.

As you tin see in this scenario, there is a lot of actually interesting things going on for a photographer who likes to travel, but at the end of the day – wedding ceremony photographers (similar ourselves) need to be able to make plenty money to cover costs and back up themselves (we have to pay bills, you lot know!).

With this in mind, let us walk you lot through how we would approach handling travel costs for this detailed scenario (yous can let us know in the comments if you'd do something differently!).

How we'd handle this scenario –

The nigh important cistron for us when determining how much nosotros should charge for travel is to make sure all components of travel are accounted for. It'southward actually a lot more simple than it may seem at starting time glance. We break this downwardly for you below.

Nuptials Day Travel Fees:

• Drive time/mileage costs (600 miles – 80 miles = 520 miles ten .50 cents/mile): 260$

• Toll/admission costs (this isn't always applicable, merely we check the free app Toll Calculator to see how much driving tolls volition add up & charge access costs at locations that require this)

• Hotel stay (would need to charge to comprehend overnight stay)

• Breakfast/Dinner: twenty$ per meal

Remember: in add-on to the fees being charged to our customer, we are as well using MileIQ to rails our mileage for a tax credit.

Engagement Session Travel Fees:

• Flights (would need to charge to embrace ticket costs)

• Hotel stay (would need to accuse to embrace at to the lowest degree 2 nights)

• Rental car (would demand to charge to embrace car)

• Repast stipend (would demand to charge to comprehend meals)

• Drive time/mileage costs (would be charged based on time spent getting to and from engagement session location(s))

• Toll/admission costs (this isn't always applicative, but we check the free app Toll Calculator to see how much driving tolls will add upwards & accuse access costs at locations that require this)

As yous can imagine, the cost to travel can range from quite low if relatively local, to very high if your client wants to fly you lot to a different part of the world.

For all our traveling needs (flights, hotels, car rentals), nosotros use Booking.com as they often accept the best rates from what nosotros've seen.

Where is there flexibility?

Easily downward, we can probably all agree that 1 of the most frustrating parts nearly wanting to charge for travel is not wanting to deter any clients looking to book with you just considering yous desire to charge a little more to cover costs in this area.

This is especially true for new photographers trying to become more than established, and who don't e'er have the willpower to say "yous demand to pay for my travel time" to clients about to book with them. We've been in this position ourselves many times, and have learned ways to more than effectively handle this type of state of affairs.

As nosotros talk over flexibility nosotros may have, remember that this is only our personal approach – and what works for usa may not work for yous.

Start Here:

Before discussing travel costs with your prospective customer, you need to lock down the lowest cost you'd be willing to do business organization with them in relation to what they are requesting.

This may be a hard number you have for anyone who inquires for your photography service, only it may very well be a number relative to each individual inquiry.

For us, travel fees are essential, just nosotros are open up to waiving or decreasing some of them if we really demand some new business or our clients are already spending a whole lot on their package (such as by going with our highest hymeneals photography packet).

There is besides something to exist said when our client is coming across every bit very reasonable and beholden of the piece of work we exercise – and while it isn't a reason in itself to decrease costs, it is a factor nosotros consider earlier making a decision.

Knowing the circumstances under which you'd be willing to be more flexible on travel fees before yous're faced with this situation volition help you make clearer judgments when the time comes.

For many photographers, given how easily accessible and so many of us are cheers to social media, you will likely find yourself with some inquiries involving a expert bargain of travel – and so information technology's best to be prepared!

Examples of situations where we'd be flexible to reduce or waive travel fees:

In no detail guild, nosotros're going to highlight some scenarios where we'd be more open to waiving travel fees.

Travel to a place nosotros want to go and can brand a holiday out of.

One of our goals equally photographers is existence able to visit interesting locations already on our saucepan list.

In the past few years we've traveled to Iceland, Oregon, and other really breathtaking places. We have some other places high up on our list including New Zealand, The Faroe Islands, Greece…(it's quite a listing honestly).

If we received an inquiry looking for our photography services in one of these locations, nosotros'd exist more open to waiving some costs associated with traveling to them – equally in the scheme of things nosotros would exist able to turn our time there into a holiday, and expense some of the purchases fabricated for business concern travel as a revenue enhancement write off.

How much nosotros'd reduce would depend on the specifics…

As a general rule, when traveling by air, nosotros expect at to the lowest degree our flights to exist covered. Lodging and rental cars tend to exist more affordable, and so roofing this ourselves is more a possibility if nosotros're making a reasonable amount of money from the whole package price and get to brand a trip out of information technology.

Our prospective client is upkeep conscious, but is not asking for discounts and will be booking a higher rated parcel.

From time to time, prospective clients volition brand mention of trying to go along their budget at a reasonable level, but actually like our piece of work. Often this leads to trimming things out of packages to make information technology work ameliorate for them (such equally removal of albums, impress credit, etc.).

If the get-go email received is just asking for a discount, it's a flat "no" from us – merely if we've already been back-and-forth and even had a call together, we're more than likely to be willing to work with their budget within reason.

A 40$ travel fee isn't worth much to u.s. if it ends up being the deterring bullet that makes a client wanting to book a $four,000 packet walk away, and sometimes waiving the fee tin be the thing that puts them over the border and book immediately.

Nosotros really want to shoot the venue.

On occasion, we get inquiries for weddings to be held at venues we really want to shoot at.

Having a wedding ceremony in our portfolio at a detail place is one of the all-time ways for us to attract new clients in the future that have just booked that venue for their wedding.

In our own little world, one of the venues sitting at the top of our list to shoot is the ane we got married at – The Pump House B&B – so any serious enquiry for that location we receive nosotros end upwards flexible on travel costs in exchange for the opportunity to shoot there.

These are the pinnacle iii reasons why we'd reduce or remove travel costs, what about you?

When to collect travel fee payments?

One time you've sorted out if you lot are going to accuse a travel fee or not, and if so – how much, you need to make a decision about how you are going to collect payment.

A few factors that might play into your decision include:

• How much money needs to exist collected?

• How far are you traveling?

• How trusting are yous of your client (or people in general)?

As a full general rule, we require all travel payments to be made upfront – before we practise any traveling.

This is critically important for the states and so we are taken seriously as professionals, and so nosotros take costs associated with traveling already covered before nosotros get in our car and drive for hours and hours, or in longer distance situations – stride foot on an aeroplane.

It might seem like a silly thing, but we've heard many stories of photographers being okay to be paid upon arrival, but this is never something guaranteed. The only sure thing is collecting payment upfront and in advance.

Our Approach to Collecting Travel Fees

If nosotros know the travel costs to be associated with the hymeneals day (or appointment session in packages that include this), we volition add the travel fee into our initial contract and invoice.

In cases where we practice non know how much the travel volition toll, but the client all the same wants to book with united states to secure their wedding 24-hour interval on our calendar – we volition invoice them at a later date but before the session/wedding event occurs. At latest, we can normally square abroad these costs a month in advanced – and sometimes costs alter if plans change (ie: bride & groom are no longer getting set at the hymeneals venue, just 30 minutes away in a hotel now).

The manner we collect this payment in accelerate is uncomplicated!!

We use Honeybook to send our invoices, and can schedule when the payments are due by.

If a client already has a current contract and invoice schedule to pay for our nuptials photography service, this travel fee invoice can be associated with that document for easier reference (for both us and the client!).

If you lot want to larn more about Honeybook, check out our review: Honeybook – A Comprehensive Review for Photography Business Owners . If yous just want to dive in and explore information technology yourself, sign up with this link to receive fifty% off your first yr.

Concluding Words

Figuring out our wedding package prices was easier than sorting out how to charge for travel.

One of the difficulties nosotros really encountered came in the form of wanting to be as upfront about costs every bit possible – which is why we have our pricing listed on our photography concern website. While it'due south perchance not unexpected, sometimes prospective clients don't realize only how much of an impact travel costs tin can make on their overall costs. This is specially true for clients who are actually upkeep conscious.

At the end of the twenty-four hours, whether you lot determine to accuse a travel fee or not, you need to be certain you are earning enough money from your service to make it worthwhile for you lot. This is the one simple matter we proceed in listen every time we have to wait at our pricing, travel fees, and day-to-day finances in full general, and it helps us to better brand decisions – including the hard one'due south like saying "no" to a prospective customer wanting a discount.

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