In order to set my budget I should set a day rate, and analyse my business running costs. The semier ‘The business of being creative’ with Nick Dunmur (advisor to the AOP) was very helpful with this, see my post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/2024/07/23/research-oca-creative-conversation/

Annual professional subscriptions:

• AOP currently free (rising to £40 pa after graduation).
• Shutterhub £87
• Adobe creative plan pa £100 includes hosting of website
• Artist network £36pa  Total £363pa Allow £500 to allow for extras to come

General annual running costs:

• Equipment depreciation £7000 over 5 year replacement cycle £1400pa
• Equipment insurance £40 pa
• Public liability £100pa
• Professional indemnity insurance through AOP membership (extra £120 pa for associate membership
• Cyber and data protection guesstimate £50 pa
• Insurance for goods in transit guesstimate £40 pa

This without physical office running costs = £1750 allow £2K for safety. So reasonable but limited photographic ongoing annual costs (without office space cost): 2.5K

The following is a theoretical exercise for the purpose of setting a day rate. I do not plan to make an ongoing income earning business from photography, however I should calculate a day rate for my time, should I want to undertake a photographic paid task. This should allow for holidays (30 days) and sickness (4 days), leaving say 200 days as potential working days.

My reasonable income requirement if I was working as a full-time photographer full time would be 50K pa. Add to that the annual cost of 2.5K means I would have to earn 52.5K pa to cover my needs.

This distributed over 200 working days would be £262.20 per day. Apparently £300 per day is a going rate for editorial photography so this is not a bad thumbnail to start from, should it be needed.

I would call this a creative fee as Nick Dunmar suggested, it sounds more encompassing and not so easy for someone to challenge.