starting my small business

[BrickHouse]

Lets see you put your money where that mouth is. Where are the pics!!! WE WANT PICS, WE WANT PICS (chant slowly dies off as nobody joins in.........)

 

[Braineack]

We want a pitcher....

using tapatalk.

 

[Designer]

I feel like I am being mocked in alot of the comments on this thread, which upsets me because I came on here for help with certain things that I am not familiar with.

If you had been reading and posting here for a couple of years, you would see that nobody has actually been mean to you.

Yes, the answers were varied and sometimes off topic, but I didn't notice any rudeness.

But of course, this post is rude, so don't read it.

 

[astroNikon]

A Model "Contract" isn't to help the business per say.

It's to protect you from someone that wants more than what you are offering for a particular price. If you ever end up in court (small claims, etc) for any reason (and we never want anyone to end up in court), the judge's first question would be .. "let me see the contract".

People here just want to help you past some hurdles that you don't want to find out the hard way.

 

[The_Traveler]

People respond to what you presented.
We've heard routinely from people with little experience or skills that want to start a 'business' and, without you saying anything different, we can only assume you fall into that group.

 

[MeganChristine]

I

People respond to what you presented.
We've heard routinely from people with little experience or skills that want to start a 'business' and, without you saying anything different, we can only assume you fall into that group.

Actually, no one responded to what I presented. Just putting that out there.

 

[tirediron]

I

People respond to what you presented.
We've heard routinely from people with little experience or skills that want to start a 'business' and, without you saying anything different, we can only assume you fall into that group.

Actually, no one responded to what I presented. Just putting that out there.

Actually, they did. You put this out there:

I'm definitely no where near contacting an attorney etc and making it a legal business. I'm just starting out and would prefer to build up clients before I go into all that extra stuff.

and people responded by trying to help you understand that this is NOT the way to go about starting a business.

With respect to your question on which business model, I would always advocate for the 'sell prints' vice 'images on disc' model. Once you've turned over the disc, you're pretty much done with tha client, unless they come back for another session. When you retain the digital files and sell prints, then when they want more prints, they have to come back to you. Now, in this day and age of cell 'phone snaps and facebook, it takes a little more salesmanship to sell prints. One of the things that I do is show them an 8x10 from the lab I use beside an 8x10 from Wal-mart. That usually does most of 'selling' for me right there.

 

[astroNikon]

.... One of the things that I do is show them an 8x10 from the lab I use beside an 8x10 from Wal-mart. That usually does most of 'selling' for me right there.

Ingenious !!


See all the great ideas you get from this group.

 

[MeganChristine]

Yes, never thought of doing that! Definitely will have to do that. Now just need to narrow it down to a photo lab to use.

 

[jsecordphoto]

Yes, never thought of doing that! Definitely will have to do that. Now just need to narrow it down to a photo lab to use.

So you haven't had photos printed from a lab before? I mean you really should figure ALL of this stuff out and have experience with all facets of the photo end before thinking about getting into business. Printing is it's own art...are your monitors calibrated? Do you have experience processing photos for each print medium (different paper types, canvas, etc.)?

 

[astroNikon]

Yes, never thought of doing that! Definitely will have to do that. Now just need to narrow it down to a photo lab to use.

So you haven't had photos printed from a lab before? I mean you really should figure ALL of this stuff out and have experience with all facets of the photo end before thinking about getting into business. Printing is it's own art...are your monitors calibrated? Do you have experience processing photos for each print medium (different paper types, canvas, etc.)?

Costs more than Walmart too ... adjust business prices accordingly.

 

[Chifor Iulia]

You could search for similar companies in your area and make and average price,maybe even lower for the beginning

 

[astroNikon]

print labs ==> Pro Photo labs Photography Forum

 

[tirediron]

You could search for similar companies in your area and make and average price,maybe even lower for the beginning

Unfortunately, that's just about the worst way to determine pricing since it doesn't account for your costs. You need to determine what your hard/fixed costs are, then determine how much of a salary you want, add those together, and divide by the number of sessions you can reasonably expect to conduct during a week/month. From there you deterimine how much you need to make on each shoot, and based on what you sell, and the cost of those products, what your prices should be.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I wondered about zoning, if you have people coming and going neighbors might start to wonder... That might be something to check into before you start scheduling sessions if you haven't yet.

And you mentioned newborn photography, which brings up what could be another whole thread, but there's plenty online about baby photography that seems to be using poses and equipment that may not be appropriate. Please look up info. from child development sources, not just from people with cameras.