STOP Guessing Your Pay as a Family Photographer – 7 Numbers That Matter

If you are a family photographer who feels busy and booked, yet unsure what you should actually be paying yourself each month, you are not alone.

I have conversations with photographers all the time who tell me some version of this: “I’m working. I’m booking clients. I’m bringing money in. But I still don’t know what I’m supposed to pay myself.” And underneath that confusion is often a quiet layer of comparison. It feels like everyone else online has it figured out. Everyone else seems confident about their pricing and their income.

Let me say something clearly: most family photographers are not underpaid because they’re doing something wrong. They’re underpaid because they’re missing a clear system for determining their pay.

If you want to stop guessing your pay as a family photographer, you need to understand seven specific numbers. Without them, your income goal is just a hopeful estimate. With them, you can finally see what your business actually needs to generate — and why.

Let’s walk through those numbers.

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Or just read on…

1. Your Household Monthly Costs

Before we talk about your photography business at all, we need to talk about your household.

One of the biggest mistakes I see family photographers make is setting an income goal without knowing what it actually costs to run their lives each month. They pick a number that “sounds good,” or that matches what someone else said they make, but they have no idea whether that number supports their home.

Your household’s monthly costs include your mortgage or rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, childcare, transportation, debt payments, subscriptions, and even pet expenses. It’s the real, unfiltered total of what it takes to keep your life functioning.

Your business exists to support your life. Not the other way around.

If you don’t know this number, then every income goal you set is built on a guess. Clarity begins here. Sit down, review your statements, and calculate your household’s actual monthly cost. This is not dramatic. It’s responsible (come on, you CAN do this step of adulting!) 

2. Other Household Income

The second number that matters is any other income coming into your home.

For some photographers, that includes a spouse’s salary. For others, it may include part-time work, rental income, or another small business stream. This matters because it changes the pressure on your photography business.

If your spouse’s income covers the mortgage and utilities, your photography business may not need to carry your entire household. If your photography business is your only income source, then your planning must reflect that reality.

There is no right or wrong structure here. There is only your structure. You cannot borrow someone else’s financial blueprint because you are not living someone else’s life. Your income plan must reflect your actual circumstances.

3. Giving

This category is often overlooked in income planning, especially for family photographers who value generosity.

If giving to your church or to organizations you care about is important to you, it needs to be accounted for intentionally. When it is not planned, one of two things usually happens. Either you stop giving consistently, or you continue giving and feel financial stress because it was not built into your numbers.

Neither option feels aligned.

Even a modest, consistent giving amount brings peace when it has been decided in advance. Your income planning should reflect your values. It should not force you to choose between financial clarity and generosity.

(*want to know the number one charity/organization my husband and I give to monthly? Check out SEED India, seriously, best organization ever!!!) 

4. Savings

Savings is another category photographers tend to push aside. Many creatives operate with the mindset of “I’ll save when I make more.” The problem is that “when I make more” keeps moving further down the road.

Savings includes your emergency fund, retirement contributions, children’s savings, and long-term planning. If you wait until there is extra money left over at the end of the month, savings rarely happen.

You do not need to start with a large amount. You need to start with consistency.

If you are unsure what is realistic for your stage of life, meeting with a financial advisor can be incredibly helpful. They can look at your entire picture and help you determine what percentage or amount makes sense. But ignoring savings altogether creates long-term instability that will eventually catch up to you.

5. Business Overhead

Now we move into the business side (YAY! Am I right? Am I guessing your inner thoughts correctly?) (hehe, just trying to see if you still have a sense of humor in this)! 

What does it actually cost to run your family photography business each month? I’m not just talking about your most obvious subscriptions. I mean everything.

This includes your CRM system, editing software, gallery delivery platforms, website hosting, education, insurance, gear payments, and any recurring subscriptions tied to your business. If you pay for something annually, break it down into a monthly average so you understand its true cost.

Many family photographers underestimate this category. They remember the big-ticket items but forget the smaller recurring expenses. Those small expenses add up quickly. When you underestimate your overhead, you unintentionally shrink your paycheck because you did not account for the full cost of running your business.

Accurate overhead numbers give you an honest baseline. They remove confusion.

6. Income Planning and Taxes

Taxes deserve their own category because they are not optional, even though many creatives treat them like a surprise.

If you are not setting aside money monthly for taxes, you are setting yourself up for stress later. A separate business account and a separate tax savings account are non-negotiable if you want financial clarity.

Once you combine your household contribution, savings goals, giving, business overhead, and taxes, you can finally see what your business actually needs to produce each month. This is often the moment where things click. The number becomes clear — not emotional, not influenced by comparison — just clear.

You are no longer asking, “What should I pay myself?” You are asking, “What does my business need to generate to support my life responsibly?”

That shift changes everything.

7. Services and Booking Volume

The final piece is where your math meets your real-life capacity.

You need to list the price for each service and how many sessions you typically book each month. You also need to consider how many sessions you can realistically handle without running yourself into the ground.

This is where many photographers discover the disconnect. Sometimes the issue is not that they need more clients. Sometimes the issue is that their pricing does not align with their income needs. Other times, their income goal requires a booking volume that exceeds their personal capacity.

If you need 20 sessions a month to meet your income goal but your energy can only sustain 10, something has to adjust. Either your pricing changes, your offerings shift, or your expectations need recalibration.

When you know these numbers, your marketing becomes clearer. You stop promoting everything and start highlighting the services that actually support your financial goals and your energy capacity.

What Changes When You Stop Guessing

When you stop guessing your pay as a family photographer, comparison gets quieter. You are no longer trying to match someone else’s income because you know what your business needs to produce.

You stop feeling embarrassed about not knowing your numbers. You stop panicking during slower months because you understand your baseline. You stop making reactive pricing decisions.

Instead, you operate from clarity. And clarity brings calm. Your business begins to feel more stable, not because the work disappears, but because the uncertainty does.

A Final Encouragement

If this feels overwhelming, take one small step this week. Start with your household’s monthly costs. Write the number down. Do not round it. Do not estimate. Calculate it.

From there, you can work through the remaining categories one by one.

Paying yourself should not feel like a mystery. It should feel like the result of thoughtful planning. Your business exists to support your life. When your numbers reflect your real life, everything becomes simpler.

And you no longer have to guess! Yay! 

To check out the “What To Pay Yourself Calculator,” click HERE. 

To check out The Bookkeeping Template for Creatives, click here or the banner below

Meet Your Favorite Marketing Strategist and Business Coach for Family Photographers (Dolly DeLong Education)

Hi, I’m Dolly DeLong, a Nashville-based family photographer, marketing strategist, and systems educator for family photographers who want structure, clarity, and consistency in their marketing.

My photography journey began in 2006, and over the years, I built a sustainable family photography business while navigating motherhood, client work, and the realities of running a solo creative business. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected: I loved the backend just as much as the creative side.

What started as organizing my own workflows turned into helping other family photographers simplify their marketing, build repeatable systems, and stop relying on last-minute posting or panic marketing.

Today, I focus exclusively on helping family photographers intentionally market their businesses (not with trends but with consistently showing up).

I offer two ways to work with me:

• The Family Photographer’s Marketing Society: a systems-first membership that provides a clear weekly marketing cadence for Instagram and email, so you always know what to focus on without starting over.

• 1:1 Strategic Marketing Support for established family photographers who want hands-on guidance in building a sustainable, SEO-supported marketing system.

Through my blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, I teach family photographers how to think like marketers, plan ahead, and create marketing rhythms that support both their business and their family life.

I still photograph families around Nashville because it’s one of my greatest joys. But helping family photographers build calm, consistent marketing systems that actually fit real life is a close second.

I’m so glad you are here, reading this blog, listening to the podcast, or watching the embedded YouTube video. I hope this educational content was helpful. Please let me know what future systems content you would like me to create!