What's wrong with being the cheapest photographer?

There is nothing wrong with being the cheapest photographer, as long as your pricing is based on concrete factors like your own overhead, the number of jobs you can complete in a month or year, and the benefit being gained by the client from the use of your images. But if your business plan is simply to always be the lowest bidder, then you have a problem. If you are expecting clients to always come to you because they know they can get the cheapest price, not because they like your images or appreciate the level of service they receive, then you must always be prepared to offer the lowest price, even when doing so will cost you money. How low will you have to go? If you are always trying to be the low bidder, then you must always be prepared to go to $0 in order to be the lowest, and if your clients know you're prepared to go to $0, why would they ever pay more? Getting known as the low budget shooter is a guaranteed way to only get low budget jobs, or else to struggle mightily to ...  more