starting a photography expedition company

[marianne_larson1]

Hello,

I live in Kelowna BC Canada

A college and myself would like to start our own photography expedition company.

I have been doing research all morning online and can find nothing on how to get

started or who to talk to. Does anybody have any ideas.

Thank you

[alan_myers]

Hi,

 

I personally don't have any experience with this. But might have a few ideas to help with your research...

 

How about contacting others offering that service and discussing with them? There are a number of these companies advertising in many of the photo magazines, although I'd particularly look in Outdoor Photographer. There always seem to be a dozen or more photo expeditions being advertised in there, from big companies to small specialists.

 

One person who comes to mind is George Lepp. He used to run a photo/digital school here in California, more than expeditions, but I imagine it's similar. He's sold the school, and moved to Colorado. However, he's easy to find and always quick to respond to questions. If nothing else, he might be able to recommend some other people to talk to. He is a columnist in Outdoor Photographer (which has a website), but also has his own website.

 

Joe MacDonald and his wife have offered a lot of "outdoor classroom" expeditions over the years, too. He's another person easy to find on the Internet and might be able to give you some guidance.

 

Finally, I think Art Morris at www.birdsasart.com has offered some similar expeditions, too, with the focus on bird photography of course. He'd probably be happy to help.

 

I get a ton of mailings about expeditions, probably because I'm a member of NANPA (North American Nature Photographers Assoc.) Speaking of which, they have several expedition companies as members, a membership there might be useful to you, depending upon the type of expeditions you plan to offer.

 

Best of luck!

 

 

 

I suspect this is an advertising intensive type of business. You'd need a big budget for that, I'm sure.

[Jerry_]

...and you will need to look into the 'cost' of having insurance for your customers. Perhaps a visit to a local lawyer will give you some insight of what you will need to handle the unexpected injury of one customer of a expedition run by your company (in the future, when you are up and running as a business.)

[Ian Shalapata]

Hi Marianne,

 

The first bit of planning would be to retermine where you'd like to take people. What's the draw, what types of photo ops are there? What emphasis will there be on the hiking/photography? What size groups do you want to take out? Are these day trips or longer excursions? If longer, are you providing accomodations/food/transportation? Are you thinkng of traveling outside of the Kelowna area? Outside of BC?

 

Answering each of these questions will open more questions to you.

 

After answering every question that comes along, develop a business plan to determine your direct/indirect cometition, target markets, associated costs, contribution margin, etc.

 

To help withthe business plan start looking into liability insurance and what kind of business entity would best protect you against any possible law suits. Get legal advice at this point.

 

You need to look at how to best advertise to attract your target markets and the different marketing materials you'll need.

 

Lots to do as this list is not exhustive. If you'd like to correspond further, grab my email from my profile and we can talk. I used to own/operate a guided hiking company in Ontario.

 

Best of luck,

 

Ian

[david brown]

Hi Marianne,

 

All good advise above, when doing you business plan think SWAT

 

Strenghs

 

Weaknesses

 

Attributes

 

Threats

 

on every question you ask, this will help identify what you need to do to be successful.

[Ian Taylor]

Actually, SWOT.

<p>

The O is for 'Opportunities'. The first two are internal, looking at yourself. The second two assess the external environment. A great exercise for any new business.