Hiring a full-time retoucher — is it profitable?

Today we’re going to talk about hiring a full-time retoucher (or a half-time, or a quarter-time). Retouchers also provide this service.
It’s not when you give orders to a retoucher from time to time, but when you «book» him for a month/half/quarter job. That is, you guarantee him payment for that time per month and give him a sufficient amount of work. Let’s take a look at how much more advantageous this is compared to one-time orders. All prices are approximate just for illustration and calculation purposes.

For example, you make an order for six photos of medium complexity. An experienced retoucher spends 1 hour on 1 photo and charges about $50. Total he spends a full working day on 6 photos and earns $300. There are 22 working days in a month. The retoucher will be able to take 132 photos in a month. So if you do individual orders for 132 photos, you’ll pay $6600 a month. But if we look at the statistics of how much a retoucher makes on average per month, it would be about $4200/month (US in 2022). Do you know why a freelancer can make more than a full-time person? Because he has to look for clients, make an effort to be seen, i.e. spend a lot of resources to provide himself with work. And all of this he includes in the cost of his job.

And here we come to the main point — why would it be more profitable to hire a retoucher on a full time basis? Because a retoucher spends a lot of resources to find new clients, even if he has different clients. So if you offer them permanent employment (you book yourself some time a month for your photos), the freelance retoucher needs to spend less time/resources looking for permanent work, and he is willing to lower his rate for you because he saves his resources as well. It’s a discount for volume and for a steady stream of work. And there may be a discount of about 20% for you. The exact price depends on the retoucher, the country you live in, the complexity of the work and other factors.

So if you’re constantly taking photos and have a constant need for retouching, it’s more advantageous for you to find a retoucher on a permanent rate. You do not have to book a whole month. If you have a job for a quarter of a month, you can arrange for a retoucher to work only with your photos for a quarter of a month (about 6 days or 36-42 hours of pure work time). And you not only save money, you also get the assurance that your photos will be done in time (if you ask a retoucher from time to time, he may be busy a week or two in advance, and you need the photos to be ready in a few days) and if it is a permanent retoucher, he will know the characteristics of your style, which is usually needed, will adjust to you.

So as a retoucher, I recommend you: if you’re constantly busy shooting and asking for help from a retoucher, try working with him on a part-time basis for at least a month and you’ll see how much more comfortable it is.

If you decide that you are ready to try working with a retoucher on a permanent basis, even if not for the whole month, then you can contact to me and I will be glad our cooperation: serg@sergretouch.ru or https://www.instagram.com/sergretouch/

You can also see approximate prices for retouching: https://sergretouch.com/price/