When Starting Your Own Business in Photography

I am having a website worked up for me, and I am thinking about what my services will be and researching the average rates for services and pricing for prints. I'm not sure where to look and how to go about this exactly, I don't want to come off as some cheap idiot who doesn't know what I'm doing, but I don't want to be over priced either. I've checked out a few other commercial photographers in my area but a lot of them don't have their rates on their websites.
Basically my questions are: how much should I charge hourly, how much on fuel (due to a lot of my work will be outside and the location choice of customer) and the equipment I will be renting if I have to (lighting and such). I am not expecting an exact number, just estimates that fellow and seasoned photographers might feel to be right. In other words, what would help me decide how much to charge. If anyone knows a site that I could go to that would help, I'd appreciate that as well.

Only you can decide how much to charge hourly and renting, etc... but there is a standard government fuel reimbursement rate. I don't recall exactly what that is but I think it was 55 cents per mile the last time I checked.

Thank you Richard, I know it's my final decision, just with being inexperienced with these kind of decisions, I want to be very cautious and make sure that I am taken seriously and genuinely. I've read that you need to do research in your area to see what the average rates are, I've heard $300.00 a session to even $100.00 an hour, I'll try and ask around a little more and see what information I get. Thanks again.

You can check on the mileage rate on the IRS website. It used to be 55 cents per mile. It is 50 cents per mile this year.

There's a whole lot of "what the market will bear" in pricing Andrea. Rates vary around the country, as do pricing structures. We charge session fees (lower than the one you cite) for portraits in our out of the studio without charge for driving, but we sell photos individually in addition to the session fee. We set those prices based on a multiplier of at least 5x the cost of print production including shipping. Our hourly rates vary with the type of service, but single photographer with one set of lights and no tech is almost twice what you cite. We charge additional fees for a second photographer and for techs of whichever type is needed. We only rent equipment when we have large shoots in other states. We also charge for travel and expenses if we're leaving our home area.

In setting your pricing, don't forget the "incidentals" of business. We work on a % of our fee, assigning some to our advertising budget, some to equipment replacement, some to taxes, some to facilities, some to retirement and some to salaries. There's one more, but my mind isn't finding it at the moment. Oh yeah.... Insurance. You want to insure your equipment and carry liability insurance at a minimum. We also have to have E&O insurance for some of our shoots.

Our fees may sound high, till you extract all those costs. But when you're in it for the long haul, they're all important.

Andrea,
Doing your homework is an ongoing and unending process when it comes to operating your own business. John Harrington has a wonderful blog here ( http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/ ) as well as great book "Best Business Practices for Photographers" that I would recommend.
Good Luck!
Neil

John Harrington also mentions in his book that underpricing your work is often the number one problem for photographers beginning their careers. The book is a must.

Thank you for the tip, I went on Barnes and Noble online yesterday to see if they had John Harrington's book (the last few photography books I have not found there so I was not expecting any good news ) and they did have it so I went and got it last night. I'm on the second chapter (things have been too hectic for me to just sit down and read right now). Again thanks for the advice, I'm sure this will help a lot with any questions I have.