Better yet, have you ever eyed a prop or piece, and wondered how you could potentially make money from it as an investment? As a creative and artist (and business owner), your role can depend heavily on investing in evergreen props and artistic pieces to fuel your client work. When all is said and done, props can become a major part of your monthly, quarterly and yearly spend. Ultimately, the goal is to find pieces that stand the test of time, and fit your chosen aesthetic.
So today, we want to share 3 tips to help you turn your prop investment into profit.
1. Invest in evergreen props and pieces.
This might go without saying, but it’s so important to make sure the props and pieces you add to your collection are ones that you’ll be ready and willing to use in shoots now, and in the future.
When purchasing your pieces, try to evaluate how they might be used, what images they’d look best in, and the best way their aesthetic can be utilized over and over again. If they compliment your frequent client work (or whatever it is that you’re aiming to specialize in), that’s a great investment.
2. Charge your clients a percentage of your prop investment.
When you propose rates to potential and existing clients, make sure your fee includes a percentage of your initial prop investment. Remember - you’ll be utilizing these props and pieces in your images for them, and those images will likely generate profit, or a beneficial outcome as well!
Continue to charge a percentage of those props until you break even. If you’d like, you could include this charge as a line-item price in your proposal, or it could just be included in your overall fee.
3. Even after you break even, continue to charge a rental fee for shoots that utilize your props and pieces.
While you might have already broken even, the point of an investment is to actually generate profit! You took the risk of purchasing those props, many of which likely attracted clients and future projects.
So, when you book photography work that requires those exact props, continue to charge a rental fee for them.
There you have it. Not only can your pieces be utilized in fun and unique ways (many times over), but they can also serve as investments that pay dividends.
Of course, we can’t say all of that without reminding you about our upcoming Moodelier piece preorder, can we? If you’re ready to add a few investment pieces to your collection, we’ll be opening preorders soon. To receive preorder updates, sign up for our newsletter.
We can’t wait to see what you opt for!
Credits: 1) Image on Resources page: Tropico Photo, 2) First image on this page: Diane Villadsen, 3) Second image on this page (left-hand side): Teresa Freitas, 4) Third image on this page (right-hand side): Lizzie Darden
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