Working With Non-Refundable Retainer Fees for Weddings - YouTube

Hi, I'm Jamie Delaine Watson.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in today.

Today I'm going to be talking to you guys about why and how to take retainer fees while

booking a wedding photography job.

What's really great about wedding photography is you have this amazing chance to experience

such a unique day in someone's life.

It's a very relational job.

I feel like a personal connection really does matter.

There's also a huge business side as we're obviously dealing with thousands of dollars

and important to be professional and have your systems in place.

Balancing those two things is what I'm going to talk a little bit about today.On an average

week I'm receiving at least one inquiry a day, so really this adds up to about 400 inquiries

a year, and I only shoot about 20 to 25 weddings a year.

That means only 5% of the people that actually email me will end up booking me.

That's a lot of wedding dates and potential bookings flying around.

In order to be a really clear communicator I need to be upfront about what constitutes

a booked wedding.

I can't just hold this date while somebody decides about it for six weeks, because I'm

likely to have three other requests for the same Saturday in August.

What constitutes a booked wedding for me is a signed online contract and a 50% nonrefundable

retainer fee.

In the unfortunate case that a wedding is canceled, this retainer fee is still nonrefundable.

The reason being, I get hundreds of inquiries, as I mentioned.

During the time that I have this wedding booked, I've turned down other potential weddings

for that same Saturday in August.

I have to protect my business and my salary as well, and so refunding that money entirely

unfortunately isn't something that I can do.

Now of course, this really is circumstance to circumstance, because there is good business

practices, but there's also compassion.

I don't know, if there's like a terminal illness or a sickness or something like that, I mean,

you have to go with your gut and what feels right, and the most important thing is that

somebody's leaving with a positive impression of your brand.

I still believe that they can do that even if you don't return it, because most people

will understand that this is your livelihood as well.

Just being kind in all of your interactions, and it's a very sensitive issue when weddings

are canceled.Now, one more thing to note is postponed weddings.

I have a special clause in my contract for this, because I understand that sometimes

life circumstances come up where it's like, "Oh we're still together, we're still having

a wedding, we still want to use you as our photographer, but there's somebody who can't

come in from out of town or there's a sickness in the family," and they'd like to postpone

it.

I have in my contract that if you give me six months notice, I will apply that retainer

to another wedding date within a year if I'm available.

That couple, if they'd like to keep their retainer, they need to work with me to apply

that to a day that I am available.Why do I do a 50% retainer?

Honestly, it's just the number that works for me.

If you find that you're okay with a 25% or a 33% retainer, that's cool.

You just do what works for you, but I really think it's important that it's enough money

and enough percentage of the total package that the couple's going to think twice about,

I don't know why they'd find somebody else, but "Oh, we found somebody else," or, "we're

just going to change our venue and our date," or like, a $250 or $500 retainer, I don't

believe is enough, especially on a wedding package worth thousands, so I have made exceptions

to this if a couple's just like, "Can we just put like $1,000 down and then put another

$1,000 down in a month's time?"

I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely."

$1,000 is enough for me to feel like there's security that that date is booked.

I think that goes both ways.

A couple wants to know, "Okay, she has our money, we have her officially booked.

She's not going to just, 'Oh, I forgot about your wedding, I booked somebody else.

Sorry, I got a lot of emails.'"

There's that assurance through the contract and the 50% nonrefundable retainer.

Just as a side note, if you have a client that's maybe challenging your 50% retainer

rule and asking, "Why do I have to put $2,000 down on a $4,000 wedding package?"

I just try to be very upfront with them and say, "This is just my business practice.

Similar to when you put your deposit down on the Vancouver Club they ask for some money

to know that you are officially booking their date."

I'm a business as well, and it works the same way.

I think it can be difficult because people see us as individuals versus, like, a big

established business or a venue, but really it's the exact same thing.

We're both providing a service on a specific date, so I think it is really important.As

I mentioned, sometimes I will budge on that 50% if there's a cashflow issue and people

are willing to get up to that 50% within a couple months.

As I mentioned, $1,000 now, $1,000 in a month, that's totally fine, but I definitely want

that 50% soon to hold the date.

I think that's very reasonable, because all businesses require that and we are a business

as well.I want to conclude by saying, just have confidence in your systems and the way

that you would like to run your business.

You are a business owner, and you're allowed to have your way of doing things and communicate

those fairly to the client.

If they don't feel like it really works for them or there's a lot of back and forth, they

might not be the best fit for you, because then a lot of clients that understand this

is the way the business runs, and they are happy to provide a retainer fee and there's

really no issue about it.

If you're having a lot of trouble, I would say just let that go and be confident in these

are my business practices and they're not unreasonable.If you really enjoyed this video,

there's another resource that I think you would love.

I did another post on the business of photography, or another video rather, about understanding

fixed and variable costs in your business.

If you'd like to watch that video, you can find that in the link in the description below.

I think you'd really enjoy that too.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me for the last few minutes.

I hope you'll subscribe if you enjoyed these videos.

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @jamiedelaine, and I look forward to seeing you there.

Be sure to leave me a comment below.

Thank you.