Quick questions about opinions on freelance

[ben_lee4]

Hey all,

I am a student at a high school in Vermont, I have been heavily into

photography for about 3 years now. In an entrepreneurship class of

mine we set out to create a mock business. I had the idea of a sort of

business intermediary between publications and freelance

photographers, but with permenant employees. I need to administer a

survey and I thought that photo.net might be a good place for some

answers. Anything anyone has would help me out...

thanks for your time - here is the survey:

 

 

Roam photography is an organization of professionals who provide a

reliable photography service to help secure the financial careers of

freelance photographers and insure the results to various

publications. The following survey will help with gathering knowledge

on photographers? thoughts or needs related to freelance occupations.

Thank you for your time and help.

 

A simple Yes/No answer will suffice for all except question #12

1. Is the freelance photography market too risky for you?

 

2. Are there enough well paying and secure photography jobs?

 

3. Are client relations the least appealing aspect of freelance

photography?

 

4. Is initial funding an issue for freelance photography?

 

5. Are transactions between photographer and publications too

risky?

 

6. Are transactions between photographer and publications too

slow?

 

7. Is formal education important for a professional photographer?

 

8. Is professional experience important for quality results?

 

9. Is digital photography helping news photography?

 

10. Does traditional photography, as an ideal, appeal to you?

 

11. Is the business aspect of freelance photography unappealing?

 

12. What percentage of a freelance income is the business aspect

worth?

 

13. Would you be willing to work for a company which handles all

business aspects for a portion of each sale?

[randy_santos]

1 No

2 Yes

3 No

4 No/Yes to broad a question

5 No

6 No/Yes What transactions? Hiring? Payment?

7 No

8 Yes (consistent quality yes)

9 Yes

10 Yes

11 Yes/No Sometimes

12 ??

13 No

 

Good Luck! Good idea for your project.

[randy_santos]

Something to consider: In your business model you should consider specialization. Freelance is such a broad term, you need to more clearly define your market. You will have to market yourself to photographers, and market yourself to publications. Consider a specialty such as sports photography, or travel, food, celebrity, nature, and so on. Once you choose an area,such as travel, then don't just limit marketing yourself to publications, think broader use like

book publishers, graphic design firms catering to travel/cruise industry, website licensing and stock usage, and so on. We live in a wonderful world of instant global communication.

[roger_hicks1]

Dear Ben

 

1 No 2 No 3 Yes 4 No 5 No 6 Yes 7 No 8 Yes 9 Probably, not my field 10 Yes 11 Yes 12 10-15 per cent 13 No, unless they had good INTERNATIONAL contacts, and besides, how are they going to find the work for me? Selling is the hard part; the rest is easy enough. I first worked professionally some 30 years ago and have been freelance for 25 years or so.

 

A question for you: how does your idea differ from acting as an agent, apart from the fact that you don't appear to have any mechanism for getting the work in?

 

Cheers,

 

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)

[jtk]

The business aspect is the same as in other businesses. Get some real sales experience.

 

Move to the real world (Dean should have done that), become a bicycle messenger, figure out who the real photographers are, beg for an apprentice slot, starve for a year or two. Step up to the plate, pay dues.

 

You need to be at least OK as a photographer and you need to be very reliable.