home studio to store front studio

[stephanie_martino]

<p>Hello all! I have owned and operated a portrait studio from my home for about 5 years now. I specialize in babies and kids. I get the occasional family, maternity and senior portraits. My clients are very loyal and I am constantly gaining new ones. But in a way I'm feeling like I kind of reached a plateau, creatively and income wise. I have very limited space in my studio. I'm feeling like I need to charge way more. In your experience, what was it like going from a home studio to a downtown, store front studio? I have so many ideas but can't possibly do them from home because space is an issue. I know I will need to get a loan because I don't have the money for startup costs. What are the differences between working from home and owning a store front as far as licensing, insurance etc? Any advice would be great! Thanks!</p>

[allenahale]

<p>I have no experience with either a home studio or store front studio, however I know a very successful photographer in Northeast United States. His photographs have been used by Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Stern, Discover, USA Today, Nature, The Guardian ... his studio is the kitchen of his home. He does not have a downtown store front studio although his home is downtown. For me this says a great deal - to be successful and internationally known, you do not need a store front studio ... especially all the expenses of such a location. You have to be creative, consistent, and dependable. I suggest that you advertise your willingness and ability to go to people's home to photograph their children and babies - place where the children and parents feel comfortable and secure - locations which have more emotional attachment and significance to your clients.</p>

[Rick Helmke]

<p>Open a storefront and you will definitely need to charge more just to cover your new expenses which go way beyond rent. Power, internet, business license, taxes, decorating and more, most of that is every month. Be careful, landlords and property managers can be a crafty bunch, they are in it for the money and that's fine but you need to get some guidance before you sign anything. I keep wanting to do something similar but keep finding reasons not to. It's a very big step.</p>

<p>Rick H.</p>

[henkelphoto]

<p>Depending on where you live, you might be able to get into a "co-op" studio. You basically rent a portion of the time available in a week for a shooting studio. Sometimes they include an office space, I've even heard of one such studio having a secretary that all the renters pitched in to pay for. </p>

<p>This way, you still don't have to file all those forms with the city, and the time that you would be idle, you're not paying for. </p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>Add up the rent, utilities and other costs of the storefront studio and that's how much you will have to net each month just to break even compared with whatever your numbers are now. And unless you're in a situation like Jerry mentions with a shared receptionist/secretary, you may also have to hire someone in that role -- with a storefront open to the public, customers expect you to be open during regular business hours and for someone to be there whether you are there yourself or not.<br /><br /></p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>I agree: the overhead, risk, and logistics of maintaining, manning, and paying for a retail studio are huge. Never mind the rent, insurance, and utilities - you're going to have to buy decor, remodel to make the environment friendly to photographic and video lighting (most retail spaces won't be well suited to that at all), and possibly deal with expenses around requirements for a handicap bathroom and access, etc. <br /><br />Personally? I'd buy a small RV or Sprinter or similar: partition it so that the rear half is rigged for the storage and transport of lighting gear, backdrops, and some related odds and ends. Set up the front half with the right computer hardware to do on-the-spot post and light-duty printing as needed. People are busy ... bring your services to them. Offer neighborhood promotions so you can book time with three or four households on one visit, and give the host house a discount. That sort of thing. <br /><br />This would also allow you to bring your rig to events, trade shows, etc. <br /><br />Just some brainstorming. But it would leave you flexible, and without having to sit, 6 or 7 days a week, in a retail location where you may or may not be seeing steady traffic - when people who want shots at a favorite location, or with their horses, or at their place of business can pay for what this economy is best at: providing the service of convenience. Do for family portraiture what Amazon is doing for <em>other</em> forms of inconvenient walk-up retail: killing it, for a price.<br /><br />I don't do this work full time, but when I do, other than some product photography, it's always on location for customers that seem very happy to pay a premium not to have to make arrangements to move themselves somewhere else.</p>

<p>Here's what I'd do with that same money (probably LESS money):<br /><br />Technology is improving by the minute, when it comes to things like lighting. Instead of putting thousands in</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Apprently I was asleep while I was editing that post! </p>