Photgraphic business question

In your opinion how would someone who wishes to start a photographic

business make the decision regarding format and services to offer to

clients (format being the real question here). What decision

criteria would go into your assesment of the feasibility of such a

venture? Thank you very much for your help.

 

Clark King

unless your business is going to be architecture, then the format would be - digital

 

And I'm not being facetious. Almost any kind of photogrpahy business you set up today is going to be best served by being digital.

 

And you really have to decide what area of the business you are going to specialise in, learn that business and your market.

My advice is to do what you really love to do. If you love working with an 8x10 view camera, you have a better chance of being sucessful with it then with a digital camera. I'm a believer in Joseph Campbell's "follow your bliss".

 

I'm 72 and I've seen it many times. If you do what you do to be happy you will be ok. If you do what you do for another reason (money) you may make some money, but you are not likely to be happy.

 

Dan Carson

I think you have to look at your market, Clark, and decide first if it is already being over-served. If not, then look for gaps that correspond to what you like to do. The old rule of thumb was that it took 10,000 people to keep one photographer from starving. With today's slimmer margins, that number is probably higher. Depending on the demographics of your market, you might be able to cater to one segment, rather than trying to broad-brush your services. An under-served upscale market segment, for example, might respond favorably to classic portraits done with an 8x10, while average working folks might prefer more economical work done with a digital system. Find the hot buttons, and push them.

I agree with that young whippersnapper Dan about finding your bliss, but I know from over 40 years as a pro that you shoot each gig with the equipment most appropriate in terms of quality, economy, and ease of use. I had every format from subminiature to 8x10, and I rented or borrowed anything I needed for an assignment, Had they digital in my day, I'd have used that also. You cannot be all things to all people. I was a generalist for my 1st 3 years until I stumbled onto a speciality, and never looked back. I loved what I did and did what I love, and my only regret is that it's over.

Tim, digital is not a format, it is a medium. Digital also is NOT a panacea to every photographic problem. Digital is an option, just as 35mm, 6X whatever, and the various large formats are also options. Which to use depends upon the assignment. The area where digital shines greatest is spot news and other assignments with a "need it yesterday" deadline. I'm absolutely amazed at the number of photographers shooting weddings and portraiture with digital - it's not like they proofs are needed that quickly. I just don't buy the "you can check your work as you go" argument - If someone is that uncertain about getting good exposure, it can be checked with a meter and Polaroid. If the photographer doesn't have enough craft to KNOW what he/she/it is getting on film, perhaps he/she/it isn't ready to be a pro just yet.

All well and true Bob, but quite frankly, as much as I would like it otherwise, in a large number of markets - news, editorial, product, wedding (yes, even portrait), industrial etc Clark is going to find it very hard to compete if he isn't digital - whether it's a "35mm" digital camera system or a back for medium format etc.

 

I agree it's illogical in some cases, but almost every one of my colleagues has gone digital for one reason or another - one just came back from a month in the Honduran highlands - all digital. Almost never used her Leica M backups. Another who shoots diamonds and other gems for a living - completely digital (in that case because of what they feel is greater colour fidelity). Another who is a full time museum photographer working with artefacts and other things for record and display - fully digital. The only thing he keeps film around for is paintings. And despite what may seem illogical choices, most have also found that it does greatly speed up and simplify their workflow. And of course, every news and editorial photographer I know is now digital. I'm also negotiating with the local studio photographer to buy his ATL 2000 because he has found that compete he is having to sell all his film stuff and go digital. In fact I seem like an archaic hold out still just scanning stuff. But if I still shot the amount of editorial I did two or three years ago for the Times and the Globe and Mail and such I would have had to fork out by now just to compete on a level playing field. It's only because I now do mainly architectural and my own "fine art" (hate that phrase) projects that I haven't and I shot 400 sheets of 8x10 this summer instead...

 

It may not be logical, and maybe some can find a niche to compete as being a "purely analog guy", but if you are trying to make it as a full time freelance/self employed photographer, without some kind of other cash crop to support you, I believe it would be very hard to start up in many of the fields of photography without being mainly digital, or at least having a full range of digital on hand.

I think a well known stand up comedian once told an up and coming young comedian when he was asked what he needed to do to be a success and how...and he said..."Be funny"...I think today you have to..."Be smart"...if you want to make it. No one can tell you how to do this though....

When I was a little kid, everyone asked me what did I WANT to do when I grew up. That question constantly rang in my ears.

 

So when I came time to make a choice, I picked a profession which I WANTED most. Of all the things I could have chosen to earn a living, I WANTED photography because seemed the most amusing.

 

Looking back on my life, I now realize that was an extremely foolish criterion.

 

The primary reason to work is to obtain other people�s cash with which to purchase food, shelter, medical care, etc. There are only two questions to ask: What products and/or services are people eager to obtain with their cash? And for which of those products/services do I have sufficient talent to successfully compete in the marketplace?

 

It has NOTHING to do with what I WANT. What you want has only to do with recreation.

 

Work is something unpleasant you do only because people pay you cash to do it. Recreation is something pleasant you pay cash to do because it gives you pleasure. As soon as they discover you are having fun, they will stop paying you and start charging you a fee. I don�t care what it is, as soon as you do it for a living, all the fun is somehow taken out of it.

 

Over the last thirty years, many photographic fields have become mature. Those products and services are either in dramatically declining demand, or the supply dramatically exceeds the demand.

 

I would love to eat pizza in my la-Z-boy for a living. But there are only slightly fewer people who are eager to give me their cash to do it than there are who are eager to give me their cash to make photographs.

 

This is not a good time to start a photography business of any kind. If you must, in the majority of areas, digital is the most time and cost efficient medium. In any case, research this idea very, very cautiously.

Clark I'm just a wannabe professional; I actually make my money in other

businesses, but do dabble in portrait photography, now especially for

Christmas, and every once in a while I do a special event party. About 2

years ago I helped a friend setup a pretty large photo business that he

unfortunetly failed in due to overhead expenses and making bad decisions. If

anything watch your overhead and find a niche that people are willing to

spend money on and fill it. Make sure you have your portfolio in order and

pricing in order for your customers, now, not later. If you should talk to somone

tomorrow who needs your services the first thing they are going to ask is how

much and what do I get. You should also have a good repoire with a lab

already established and know what it cost to do business and what you need

to make to stay alive. You can't be afraid to charge money or you'll die a sure

death.

 

Format and services are a result of the market your looking to work. Do you

want to shoot weddings, babies, family portraits, commercial advertising or

what; What are you good at? But I will remark that, after watching and talking

to alot of professionals, knowing the digital end of things is a must regardless

of what anyone says. If I had the chance to start over in my purchasing

decisions right now, I'd definelty buy a 35mm digital camera, Photoshop, a

good battery powered flash system like a Lumedyne with umbreallas and

most probably a Hasselblad with a couple of lenses. With this equipment I

could probably cover at least 80% of what I needed to do, and then could rent

the equipment I didn't have for the times when I needed something special.

Now these are just my own personal views. Everyone is different. You'll most

likely will make mistakes, but studying and practicing your art, being cheerful

and making aquaintences along the way, and being ready for that money

making conversation, will get you a long way down the road to success. Luck

and success to you.

What do you think is the most common way to overcome the high initial costs of digital. I figure options are all digital 35mm (ie. canon, nikon products), medium format back, or digital back for 4x5 (very high cost in my opinion). i figure these costs vary between $2,000 to 8,000 depending on which equipment decision to accept.

 

Clark

I'd suggest that you go take small business training offered by the Small Business Adminstration thru many community colleges and business startup groups in the U.S.. Setting up a photography business is no different from any other business. You have work out a business plan and marketing plan. There are a lot of good books out there and software that will steer you in the right direction. Your questions show that you have a great deal to learn about running your own business. On the plus side you asked two critical questons. Good work. Digital or film format is really secondary to running a successful business. On the digital vs. film bit, my suggestion when your running a business you really don't want to get bogged down with computer software and technology, what you want to focus on is marketing and sales. Again your local community college probably offers a bunch of courses in this area. As for following your bliss the old and wise hands are absolutely right, you'll make more money in any field as a specialist, your market will be much easier to identify and target. Last bit if your going to spend all your time and effort developing a business it should be something that makes you want to go to work everyday. It's hard work. If you want to be paid doing something you could care less about then get a regular job, it's a lot less hassle. Good luck.

Clark,

dunno how finance works in the US but it is crazy spending capital on dig equipment, by the time you have paid for it it is obsolete and folk will be demanding better dynamic range or file sizes. Some stock libraries are insisting on bigger file sizes that an slr will cope with. As somone else suggested you need to market your services and that costs - big time. lease the gear and spend your money on marketing. and I agree with Tim that digi is the way to go unless you are doing something like architectural work. product work is now all dig - more or less - as are many other avenues. Which dig is another question. What field are you in? Whar are the expectations of your customers?

forgot to add in my last email

 

If you ARE using dig and you are sending images to clients, you'd better be fully clued up as to colour management. Several colleagues are loosing work because they send stuff that looks ok on their monitors but doesn't on the clients. You will also need to be able to talk CMYK to printers too

Clark, you better work on the ""services to offer clients" part of your question. If you don't know that how will you ever choose the right tools for the job? Do you have customers now? What do you do for them? Identify a need and the customers who want it. The tools will be simple to pick at that point. Get some real business consultation before you do anything else. The SBA idea might be good.

Every successful business requires two parts: labor and management. A business without labor is like an airplane without engines: it can�t ever get off the ground. A business with out management is like that same plane without a pilot: it will certainly crash.

 

The problem with virtually all photographer-owned businesses is that the owner spends all his time and energy in the back room production department assuming the role of labor. There is never anybody in the front office navigating and paying attention to business.

 

Without fail, every financially-successful studio I have ever seen had a hen-pecked photographer as labor and his domineering, bitchy, strong-willed, hysterically-stubborn wife as management. If you are unmarried or if you aren�t afraid of your wife, you will be working at a grave disadvantage.

 

Begin by writing a sound business plan which will �fly� and which will impress a skeptical banker.

 

If you don�t know what a business plan is, how to write one, nor how to do one which will impress a banker, you are not ready to open any kind of business. Period.

John Cook, my heart goes out to you-- judging by the tone of your messages, your life must be a money-making hell. Take another look at your posts and consider what would have happened if all of the world's authors, painters, musicians, photographic artists, sculptors, dancers, professional athletes (and anyone else who does what they love for a living) had taken your kind of advice at an early age. Yikes, we'd all be corporate accountants and investment bankers ready to commit suicide!

Chris, I believe you may be missing my point: The ability to masterfully craft a beautiful object is one thing. The ability to take that object to the marketplace and exchange it for cash to pay one�s basic living expenses is something else entirely.

 

Without that second ability, the craftsman will very soon be up to his neck in debt and eventually wind up in bankruptcy court.

 

I respectfully submit that many, if not the majority of, photographers who possess the first skill in varying degrees are totally without the second. Or even realize that it exists. Total babes in the woods.

 

I further submit that attempting to bring commercial photographs into the marketplace of the Northeastern US Rust Belt is an exercise in futility. There are precious few fat cats here in New England who are eager to pay large sums of money for colorful, pretty pictures.

 

Finally, I believe that the expectation that the world owes someone a comfortable living for having fun is the epitome of narcissistic naivete.

John, I heartily agree that the world doesn't owe anyone a living. It's our own personal choice: Spend all the best hours of the best years of our lives doing something we hate but achieving financial security, or do what we love and let the coins fall where they may. For me, it was thirteen unfulfilling years of the former, and one year so far of the latter, and I can tell you from personal experience that there is no comparison!

 

~cj

Chris, I sincerely wish you every success.

economics 101.. if your finished product is better than the competiton for less cost to the customer you will do very well.. and reversly if its the worst product for the most etc.. you also have to consider how you treat the customer.. we had a photographer tell us we got so many shots with our baby with one change of clothes.. when we went we got less proofs and no change.. we even asked about the change ( in clothes) she said no, we wernt thrilled with the shots so we didnt even pick them up, .. but basicly we were unhappy with the photographers unreliability that made us preceeve that we got bad pictures.. buisness is all about service and happy customers..(alot of very acomodating 35mm shooters out there)with lots of proofs..36 shots with one with grandmas eyes open will make them happy.. 6 shots with everything perfect redady for 30x40 prints and grandmas eyes are shut your in trouble..thats why medium format is so much used with people shots.. you can get the volume os shots, and have some blowup density.. i remember the school photos were one shot, then one do over if yo wanted. i dont remember anyone complaining, and they were cheap... a friend of mine lost the bid of the school near here becouse the winning bid threw in a new school sign to sweeten the deal.. probably illegal but this is the type of thing you will soon be contending with.. if you want to be successful observe wall mart and follow thier guidlines on buisiness, but dont compete with them . they are really showing every one up..i like the digital idea.. the best advertising would be a big ad in the paper and 1/2 price graduation pictures. yes it may cost 5 grand, but there brother sister and freinds will follow next year.. and then they need baby shots later etc, etc, but you need to get that buisiness rolling to pay for rent, gas, etc etc etc.. but let me also any idea can make or break you, you need to hit the round running and compromise on the spot as you go, and be able to analise buisiness problems immediatly..(im not talking about photgraphy) my 17 and 19 year old sons are extreemly valuable to my pawn shop buisiness.. sometimes i ask them to ask their friends what they think about this or that, i dont follow all suggestions but the input is very valuable.. the biggest mistake i made was trying to avoid credit cards, the well off middle class that spends the most money thrives on plastic..something very small like credit card acceptance with a smile can make the difference.. good luck..dave

John..I laughed when I read your post on the husband=labor and the wife=management reality. In my case it is not that polarised but not that far off the mark either. A business can work if good ideas come from both parties though. Sometimes it is hard to balance work with creative effort....real hard actually! But possible. If you want to succeed in business you have to: 1. Do it your own way. 2.Listen to good practical advice. 3.Don't do as others do or you will be just like them. 4.Develop your instincts/intelligence with a gut level feeling of what will succeed. 5. Be willing to change and adapt when necessary. 6.Learn from your mistakes quickly.7. Most important...if you want to be happy...know yourself and your value system...what you truly want...make this the hub of your efforts and 20 years later you wont be unhappy.

I work in a market where commercially the tracks are well troden,

so what i do is find niches, and offer personal and creative

service, go the extra mile, offer to pick peple up at the airport or

whatever is needed, dont bitch about things to the client, and

make new clients based on my personality and attitude and work

after that. A lot of my work is wedding related, and I find that

digital is not the way to go for me, the time on the computer is a

lot, and i like the performance of film, convenience of dropping off

film, pick it up, deliver it. no tweaking in the computer. and i dont

get white blobs for wedding gowns with film, but do with digital. I

do like digital for backing up my formals as it is great for large

prints, and medium format is a pain to work with. so just in the

world of weddings, i have gone thru a lot of thinking and testing

and confirming, every aspect of photography is the same

process. digital has its virtues, but in many cases you dont need

it to succeed. I admit that i llike the look of large digital prints,

they have a sort of silkiness that is very nice, but i dont like it for

live events where the lighting is changing without notice by 2-3

stops like it does in hawaii. give me film for that anyday baby!! so

you need to talk to photogs in same field you like to hear what

they have gone thru. guaranteed its a lot if they are pro, and you

will get a different opinoion form each person, so shoot, think, be

honest- brutally honest about what matters to you, and to your

clients. I know photogs that i think are crazy how they do things,

but they are a success, and everyone has their thing. some guys

think im crazy shooting film, and i have thought and practiced

many many hrs and i think film for my wedding work is the way to

go. anyway, my $.02

ALOT of good advice has been given here Clark... Follow your heart, have a

business plan, get help from the Small Business Association in your town not

to mention the Chamber of Commerce. Don't feel you have to have every

piece of equipment (digital is a medium but you can have a pro lab do it for

you) . Get to know a GREAT pro lab and ask what they llike to work with and

how they work. A good lab can make or break you! Believe that! Make the

rounds with the camera stores that rent equipment and last but not least...

know your "enemy". What I mean is, go to the other shooters in your area and

see what they do. Put it all together and find a neiche for yourself. I have been

a pro shooter for some 25+ years and wake up every morning with a smile on

my face and WANT to get to work! Don't do something you hate because it will

show in your work. Photography IS a visual and it WILL show. Believe that

too! Don't be afraid to ask questions of your peers and don't let the paper work

slide. The funny thing is, when your trying to market yourself, your not doing

the appropriate paper work and visa versa! You need to find a balance. If your

not marketing your self, you will see the downward trent in 3-6 months!

Clark, you're getting a lot of 2 cents worth here, and my humble advice would be to listen to ALL of them, because every one of the contributors has made a valid point from their perspective. However, going by your initial questions, my own starting point is this ... (and perhaps some would agree with it) ... if you don't know your market, you will go bust. Entrepreneurs, small traders, self-employed, etc, survive/succeed in business by finding, knowing and going with their market. <p>Secondly, your initial investment will never go as far as you first predict, so wait till you KNOW. <p>Anything else is Art, and you pay for that yourself.