TIPS60 - Weddings - why take a deposit and when to collect the balance

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on wedding photography deposits and the balance due. I'm John Harrington. We do weddings and we require a deposit when we do that work for that client. That deposit upon the moment when they sign the contract locks in our time and means that we're not committing that time to any other wedding client on that day. In addition, you're taking your balance and collecting your balance due. Oftentimes deposit is fifty percent with balance due at fifty percent some photographers will do twenty five, seventy five. We strongly encourage you to make sure that you are collecting your balance due a week before the wedding. Why a week? You don't want to be turning up the day the wedding with your hand out saying I need my balance due. That money should have been collected it also makes certain that you can make sure that the check is cleared by the time the wedding actually occurs. You want to make sure you have all of your money before the bride and groom head off to their honeymoon because who knows how that money will be spent after that point and you want to make sure you've been paid.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.