List out the full retail price for all your equipment. If you use it in a production, charge 5% of that value per day. This is the typical rental charge you would pay if you rented the equipment. For me, it typically works out to about $250/day, plus my time of another $600 per day for a one-man show. Add a PA, then add another $150 and pay them $100.
Would you rather work your tail off to make $5000 a month, or work less to make the same amount?
I quote $100/hour for editing and scripting (for business clients), but then am willing to discount it down to no less than $75/hr if the client if I’m going to be trying something new, or things are slow.
Remember, you will have a tendency to price too low. Only use what other people are charging “as a guide”. Don’t fall victim by letting others determine your rates. Charge for what you are capable of.
If your pricing your rates for weddings only, then set your lowest package at $100-200 above what you are willing to do the work for. Then add a Medium package, and finally a high-end package that you’d “like” to get. When given three (3) choices, people will generally opt for the middle one.
I hope that helps. If you want to speed up your learning process on how to set up your business, I highly recommend 2 sources: Steve Yankee at http://www.videobusinessadvisor.com/ and Hal Landen’s book “Marketing with Digital Video” at http://www.videouniversity.com/bookmenu.htm. Hal also has a very good course that goes along with his book – get it, read it, and read it again…then put it to work. Their stuff works, but only if you use it.
I know these two guys only from purchasing their training materials.
Good luck,
Andy
