“The cost of doing business.” You’ve probably heard the phrase before. It’s pretty black and white – the price is the list of expenses a business has for supplies, tools and whatever needed. This also includes wages, advertising, office equipment and other expenses.
Generally, the cost of doing business varies from business to business. Photographers need to factor in the cost of tripods and lights as well as time spent using Photoshop or other programs used in the editing of the photos. These are all important factors when determining how much charge for a photo shoot or for finished images.
However, there are a few new factors to consider when determining the cost of doing business . For instance, you must determine the cost of hosting a website. You may have to purchase a domain name or hire someone to make the code tweaks if you don’t possess that kind of knowledge.
What about the apps and programs that you use to manage your time, social media or an blog editorial calendar? I recently went on a hunt for a few good time management programs to help me get more out of my day. In my search, I found that very few of the good programs are actually free. Almost all of them cost around $10 per month (sometimes more).
My husband has begun using Dropbox to share files with people he’s collaborating with at work. Before, when he was the only one using it, there was no fee. Now that he’s using more storage space, the cost of storing files on Dropbox has increased to $10 per month.
Do you need to update to a newer version of software or pay for cloud storage? Are you paying a virtual assistant to edit and schedule blog posts or to schedule out your social media? These are business costs that you didn’t have to consider a few years ago. If you are finding that you aren’t adding as much to your bottom line lately, you might want to look at these almost invisible expenses and factor them in so you can maintain your business.
What were some unexpected expenses you ran into when you started your own business?
By: Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess
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