Pondering a Sports Photography Business

[zackojones]

Greetings,

 

Since I've been asked by parents for prints I'm going to get setup to sell

prints online. For those of you that have already done this what size prints

sell the best for you and if you don't mind post your price per print. I'm

haven't yet decided if I should try to sell at a lower price and hope to have

high volume or sell for a higher price to make as much as I can from those

images that do sell. Because I shoot with a 40D I've been thinking of limiting

my offerings to the following sizes: 4x6, 8x12, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30 and 24x36.

 

I'm also considering making this into a side business according to Dan Heller's

web site (Thanks for mentioning it in other posts, Ellis) I would be creating

a "Vanity" business because earning income from my pictures is secondary. From

what I have read on other forums and here online sales are a so-so way to make

money from your photography so is it really worth the time and effort to set

this up as a business? I know I should talk with a CPA and plan on doing that

in the very near future but I'd like to hear from those that have been there

and done that already. Was it worth the time, effort and expense? One of the

big attractions to creating a business is the tax breaks I perceive I can get.

With that in mind am I going into business for the wrong reason?

 

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

Well, you need to go into a business to make money. If it's your source of income to live

then re-read my first statement.

 

My recommendation is to run this as a sideline, keeping your present job and see how it

goes for you. In my world, on line print sales aren't where I put forth my efforts for

various reasons. The larger the print to be sold (more money) I find I need to have the

client in my studio where they can see examples.

 

Be prepared to put a lot of hours into this venture, the more you put into it the luckier you

will get. I was up until 3 AM just a couple days ago finishing a project as I always deliver

the goods to the client quicker than I tell them.

 

Join an organization that could help you. I belong to both the PPA and the TCPPA and they

are a bunch of wonderful people, working hard to earn a respectable living in this

industry.

 

Best!

[jim mucklin]

Zack,I can tell you what not to do. If you are serious about it, like bill said you must run it like a business. Develop a game plan. I noticed that you asked about prices,that all depends on your costs,location,income of the area you are in. Many guys make the mistake of charging a few dollars over there print cost. I could make a really long list but time to shoot,post process time, insurance, wear and tear, travel, it all adds up.As far as selling at lower price,don't do it. How many photos of Johnny can you sell, how many schools, games can you do before your sold out, sure new kids will come and go but you can saturate the area quick. You also mentioned about time, effort and expense. It's lots of time and expense, even with used equiptment i was in the red for the first year. Its one of those things you have to love what your doing, if your doing it for the money, get a part time job or 2nd shoot weddings. A few other thing to consider, in my area we have a large school complex and as my neighbor explained to me, he's on the school board that no one has ever been able to get in because so and so has a "special deal" they come and do the class photos and the team shots, but that's it and no one is allowed on the field, etc. We have some really good ss in the area and they explained it's all politics and "donations" so check first, here they let us submit our "what are you going to do for us" forms at the begining of the year. Also with all the pervs many parents don't want their kids photos taken. I just did a Karate school and two of parents explained to me what they would do if I took there kids photos.Please consult with an accountant in your area and an attorney. Four months in my first year I was contacted by the IRS, one of my competitors felt it was their civic duty to report me, in the state where I live if you receive monies you pay taxes. You can check out sports shooter and you'll find some guys in your area to get an idea on prices, web site, etc.

Good luck with your venture</p>

jim</p>>

<a href=http://www.jimmucklinphotography.com/>my non sports site</a>

[zackojones]

Bill & Jim: Thanks for your replies. I am looking at making this a side business and I know there's still a lot of unknowns that I need to resolve. I have an established relationship with one of the local high schools to shoot sports pictures at any home sporting event I can cover. I provide low res files to the coaches/year book staff for their use at banquets or in the year book. My market is very, very small so I haven't yet determined if it's worth the time and effort to get established as a business just to sell a few prints of Johnny.

 

I have been considering creating proof sheets and bring them along to games so parents can look at them and see if they want to order a print or two. If the print sizes are small I could just print at home.

 

I will create a business plan and then consult with a local CPA that specializes in small businesses to see if this venture is worth the time and effort.

[alan_myers]

Hi Zack,

 

You've gotten a lot of good advice already.

 

Look carefully before you jump into this...

 

1. The very first thing you must do is find out about any and all competition. There are hordes of wannabe photographers getting into this sort business with high hopes, a cheap kit camera and lens and not much more to go on. You need to know if they are out there, and - if so - what they are charging. If there are one or more of these "low ball snap shooters" active in your market, it might not be worth your while to show up, let alone put the wear and tear on your camera equipment.

 

2. "Proof sheets at the next game" won't cut it. The best business model is to sell prints on site *and* online, plus bring proof sheets of all the year's prior events to each and every game. If you don't sell on site, you leave all the impulse buyers' money laying there on the table for someone else to pick up. Unfortunately, since you are busy shooting the event, you'll probably need to draft someone to do the printing for you (unless you invest a lot into a self-service "kiosk"... see below). There's a cost in that, in all likelihood. We charge at least $1 more for our on site prints, than we do for the same size online. And the on site prints are before color correction, sharpening and editing is done... So the less expensive online prints are actually better quality. But, some people are all too happy to pay, to have it immediately.

 

I'm looking into setting up an event trailer right now. It's a substantial investment up front, so I need to develop some more venues and perhaps even arrange to lease it to other event photographers in between my own gigs.

 

Still, it's not always practical to offer on site sales of prints. For small events, I just set up a table with proof books from previous events, lots of business cards and sales flyers pointing to my website. There's also always a sign up sheet, where people can provide their email to receive notification when the the day's photos are uploaded for viewing. I work with the event organizers and announcers to get a few plugs on the PA system during the day, pointing folks to my self-service table.

 

If/when I put together the event trailer, that may be a better solution at small events when I'm working solo. It will have a self service kiosk, where people can come to look at the day's photos on computer monitors and can even place orders themselves, right on the spot. Those orders are automatically fulfilled and shipped out, once the day's work is uploaded online shortly after the event.

 

For larger events, currently we set up a tent with several tables and have a person doing sales and printing. They take care of downloadinig from our flash memory cards throughout the day, create proof books that people can look through, and make the prints for customers. Even with the trailer kiosk, at larger events I'd want to have a person manning it to help download images and offer immediate prints, too, if wanted.

 

3. Forget about fulfilling orders yourself at home. It's just not cost-effective, it's very time consuming, you need to be able to take credit card payments and you'll have a lot of up front costs to get the necessary equipment and supplies.

 

I have a pro account with www.printroom.com and leave the order fulfillment and payment collections up to them. Thus I can offer 45 different print sizes/styles without investing in all the mandatory supplies and equipment, plus an array of photo printed products. There are several other services, so shop around. I've gotten very good customer feedback about the print quality and service from Printroom, so I plan to continue to use them.

 

One small trick, Printroom only uploads thumbnails of images into your galleries there. Once an order comes in, they email you a request for the full size image. I have it set up so that each order "requires approval" from me. That way I can re-crop and adjust images to practically anything a customer might order. I don't do the final sharpening, color correcting and fix redeye, etc., until a print is ordered. Before I started doing that, customers occasionally ordered a size that didn't crop right and there was no way to correct the problem. Plus, I was doing a lot of editing work "on spec" for images that never sold. I got smart, finally!

 

4. Work closely with event organizers and establish yourself as the exclusive "official" photographer for any event you do. I work solo and occasionally with another photographer at large events, and we decline to photograph an event unless we have a guarantee of commercial exclusivity. It's simply not profitable enough to share with one or more other companies snapping away madly around most events.

 

You can't do much to prevent soccer moms with their digital point n shoots, dads with their toy D-SLRs, or just about any relative or friend with a cell phone camera. They are your competition too, believe me. However, one thing you can do is take far better pictures and work with organizers to get exclusive access to certain areas. That will make your stuff stand out. A lot of my customers tell me "I /my spouse/etc. took a bunch of pictures, but yours are so much better!"

 

Incidentally, in addition to the economics of the matter, often safety is another reason we refuse to work in unrestricted shooting situations. We really don't want a crowd of photographers tripping all over each other, and possibly stumbling into event participants as well! (And I shoot a lot of horse shows, where some of the participants weigh over a half ton!)

 

5. Cultivate your relationships with event organizers. Many of the groups I work with are non-profit/volunteer organizations and they often contact me for photos to use in their newsletters, premiums, programs and elsewhere. I ask for and get photo credits, which are free advertising as far as I'm concerned. They often are happy to provide me with a link on their websites, too, directing folks to my photo galleries.

 

Another thing I do is get involved in sponsorships. At a recent horse show, it was their Finals event, so I offered four free photo montages as prizes for the series winner in each category. That got me a lot more free promotion and advertising, plus was a way to plug a new product I was starting to offer. The advertised retail "value" of each prize is $65, but in the end will cost me about $25 apiece. I got a lot of advertising for my $100 investment! And, as of yet, no one has redeemed their prize, so I really have spent a cent! Actually, I hope they do and will proudly display them to their friends, who in turn will place an order with me!

 

Another example, a different facility had a year end awards banquet last month. I offered to go and photograph it and, hey, got a free meal worth $40! Realistically I didn't expect to make any sales of photos taken at this event. But, I took along my proof books of all the events I'd photographed for them throughout the year. Those were a huge hit and really made the rounds of the room during desert and dancing. It also was an ideal opportunity to chat with and get to know better a lot of the participants, whom I'd photographed all year long.

 

In the end, I put together a photo album with about 50 or 60 pics from the dinner party, and shipped it off to the owner of the facility. That was a "thank you" for inviting me to all the other events throughout the year, plus it's her birthday! Oh, and so far a few new orders have come through, as a result of the proof books at the dinner party.

 

Finally, I have to say that even though I'm in Silicon Valley where we have been insulated from a lot of the economic woes around the U.S., this year has been tighter than years past. The luxury of a vanity photo from an event is often the sort of thing cut from people's budgets, when they are having to pay $3.50 for a gallon of gasoline or a loaf of bread, or when their mortgages payments adjust upward painfully, or just when consumer confidence is flagging.

 

You asked about sizes and prices. I'm sure it will differ quite a bit lot from one market to another. However, here we mostly sell 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10. Online they are priced at $7, $10 and $20 each, respectively.

 

On site, we usually only offer these three: 4x6 are $8, 5x7 are $12, and 8x10 are $22. There's a little added to cover the cost of hiring a printer.

 

Online we have larger sizes and a variety of higher priced products, and see occasional sales of those. But, the vast majority of sales are those three sizes. (Note to self: Need some more samples of the higher priced stuff, to show off at events!)

[zackojones]

Alan: I meant to post a thank you note several days ago but I forgot. You've given me a lot of things to think about and I have contacted a local CPA and will be meeting with him soon to iron things out.

[paula_kline]

So....Zach, what did you decide to do? I am very interested because I find myself standing in the same place you were in last December! Thanks for any remarks or info you might post.

[zackojones]

Hi Paula,

 

Well I actually did a whole bunch of nothing. I found out that my primary job responsibilities were drying up there in Warner Robins so I made arrangements to transfer to Charleston, SC. Since I didn't have an inside connection with any of the schools here I've pretty much ditched the side business. Instead I'm branching out into other areas (landscapes mostly) and just having fun with my photography. I may contact the local folks around here to see if anyone needs any support for the upcoming school season.

 

Best of luck if you do get into the business.

 

Zack