If you go to a pizza parlor, and order a pizza, do you get the uncooked toppings left over from making the pizza?

No.

You paid for a particular service, in a particular quantity. You don’t get the extra raw ingredients to cook/edit yourself.

Adding a white border around the images gives it some visual separation from the things around it. Theres no background colors or anything else visually adjacent to the image that can effect your perception of it (colors/tones/etc.)

You’ve come up with a fairly well established business strategy for a lot of beginning professionals.

The problem with that strategy is that there’s a lot of work on the photographers part, and no guarantee about getting paid. You have to shoot and edit BEFORE you get paid. Theres no guarantee clients will buy images/prints - and it doesn’t matter how good you are as a photographer.

When you market something as free, people tend to take it at face value - it’s free, so what have they got to loose? Your clients might decide to try a shoot since it’s free - and not put any effort into it. Things like making sure their toddler has a clean shirt, and snacks/toys so that they’re happy and smiling in the pictures. Even making sure the adults spent more then 10 seconds looking at themselves in the mirror before they headed to the shoot. Making sure people show up on time…or at all.

Then there’s the people who will get sticker shock when they see the image pricing. Even if you told them beforehand, they either forget, or don’t understand that the dollar amount for the image isn’t just for the image - it’s for your time, editing, shooting, travel/location expenses, etc.

I think it can be okay for quick mini sessions, but for other larger things, I want to be sure I’m paid for my time.

Laminating won’t do anything to preserve the photo. It’s probably the fastest way to ruin the photo in the long run. Find someone with a good scanner and just scan it.