Wedding Photographer Cost of Doing Business (CODB) Calculator

A common pricing blind spot is one missing number: what it costs you to run the business for a year, before you pay yourself. This free calculator turns your yearly costs, your take-home goal and the number of weddings you plan to shoot into a break-even price per wedding.

It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. The starting numbers are made-up examples: replace every one with your own.

Step 1. Enter your numbers (per year)

Step 2. Your result

Formula: (yearly costs + take-home pay + pay x SE rate + pay x income tax rate) / weddings. Buffer: break-even x (1 + buffer). The tax rates are rough assumptions you can change, not tax advice: ask an accountant for your real rates. This price is before per-wedding costs such as a second shooter, albums and prints: add those on top.

How to fill it in honestly

1. Pull 12 months of statements. Add up what you really paid for software, ads, directory fees, insurance and so on. Do not estimate from memory.
2. Depreciate gear. Purchase price divided by the years you expect to use it. A camera body that cost $3,000 and lasts 5 years is $600 a year.
3. Keep per-wedding costs out of the yearly total. Second shooters, albums and prints go on top of the result so they are not counted twice.
4. Use a realistic wedding count. Fewer weddings means a higher break-even price, because fixed costs are spread over fewer events.
5. Compare to what you charge now. If your current average price is below the break-even number, you are paying to work.