I any one leasing equipement? need some advice from business owner.

[ghache]

Is anyone leasing equipment ?
For the past couple of months, I have been quite busy with my photography and I am really considering opening up my own studio on my own and register it as a business.
I found a nice location for cheap where I can setup my studio and I am happy!
I currently own pretty much everything I need to setup the studio and shoot but my only concern is my camera. I currently shoot with a D90 and own a 50mm 1.8 and a Nikon 24-70 which is perfectly fine for studio use. Since I am stepping up in having a studio and registerer it as a business, I do not want to have to refuse wedding or any assignment because I know my d90 is not up to the task and that i dont have a backup body. Some might say it is feasible and some will say no but I do not think I’ll be able to offer the quality of service I want to offer with the body I have, especially wedding and other low light assignement
Since i spend all the saving i had on lightning, softboxes, stands and the new 24-70, I am low on cash right now.
At this point, a full frame body and a 70-200 is not only something i WANT but also something I need considering the way things are going.
Here an option I am really looking at is the “Leasing” option vistek offers. They finance the gear for a minimum of 3 year (I am not sure what the minimum term is) with a buyout at the end of the lease which is 10 $. (Similar term while leasing a car).
The good thing about this is I would not have to drop several 1000’s of dollars on equipment right away since money is tight, interest rate is fairly low and since i will be registering the business, the monthly payment will be added on the leasing expense for the business which is nearly 100% deductable vs. the 50% of a buying expense. . At the end, the equipment will nearly pays for itself. I might be wrong but this is what I understand in all of this.
I just want to know if someone else is doing this type of leasing plan and is this is profitable for a registered business versus buying it right away.
As a good new business practice, the monthly payement will be really low since since i wont be getting 10k of stuff of course so i can make the payment even if the business is not going strong. there is risk for every new business i guess
Any input anyone?

 

[tirediron]

Put down the camera, and pick up a catalogue from your local adult-ed facility. Register for all of the small-business and entrepreneurship training they offer.

 

[ghache]

Put down the camera, and pick up a catalogue from your local adult-ed facility. Register for all of the small-business and entrepreneurship training they offer.

I was thinking about doing this.
I also have a friend who is a successfull business owner. He owns about 4-5 strong running company including a car dealer ship, garages, beauty services, real estate and condominiums who is more than willing to give me a few trick in running a business.

I just wanna know if someone is leasing equipement like this and are they recommending it?

 

[Tbini87]

You packed in a ton of stuff into this post and I got a little lost. Is the problem that you don't have enough money to buy a full frame body and a 70-200mm lens? It sounds like you are just going to have to find a way to finance the gear and you might already have an option available. You could also use the money from sessions now to pay for more gear as you save up and can afford it. I wouldn't buy any more gear than you need for your studio until you actually book a wedding. Having nice gear sitting around and hoping someone will contact you about a wedding doesn't sound necessary. Couldn't you also rent the extra gear if you booked a wedding and couldn't afford to buy it up front?

 

[ghache]

You packed in a ton of stuff into this post and I got a little lost. Is the problem that you don't have enough money to buy a full frame body and a 70-200mm lens? It sounds like you are just going to have to find a way to finance the gear and you might already have an option available. You could also use the money from sessions now to pay for more gear as you save up and can afford it. I wouldn't buy any more gear than you need for your studio until you actually book a wedding. Having nice gear sitting around and hoping someone will contact you about a wedding doesn't sound necessary. Couldn't you also rent the extra gear if you booked a wedding and couldn't afford to buy it up front?

I could deffinetly rent the extra gear as a need it.its not a bad option for lens since its fairly cheap, However, the bodys are quite exposive to rent.

Thats what i did in the past a few times already and i feel like its starting to be a waste of money since i already spend a few 100's on rental. Thats why i ended up buying the 24-70. I was renting it 3 days a week

 

[tirediron]

...I was thinking about doing this...

...I just wanna know if someone is leasing equipement like this and are they recommending it?

They might be and they might do, but that doesn't mean that it's appropriate for your situation. To make a valid recommendation, you'd have to give us your whole cash-flow break-down. My own feeling is that given the relatively small cost (~$4-5K for the two items) that it would not make sense to do this for any more than a very short time, and that you would probably be better off taking out a small-business loan to purchase the equipment, BUT I don't know your economic situation, costs, etc.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Look at all your options for borrowing, and use the option with the least interest.

Are you already making money?
Are you fairly certain business will pick up quickly?

Honestly, I would wait till you can look at your regular, steady income to decide.
But be it a small biz loan, personal loan, credit card, or leasing wit option, they all have one thing in common, and thats the interest and length of loan. Nothing wrong with getting a long loan and paying it of early. You have to look at the maths. We/I can tell you what would be best, because we/I don't have all the necessary info.

Good luck to you! Having your own busness is exciting, rewarding, challenging, worrisome, awesome, frustrating, and more even more adjectives.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I have never leased anything. The way I look at it, I either don't need the gear or there's a job that's going to pay for most it and I'll try and line up similar jobs really quickly so that the gear is paid for in no time.

Now, my understanding of leasing is that you do that with things that lose value really fast. Such as cars. And you don't buy the leased item at the end of the lease, you just get a new one. In this case, the body might be good to lease because bodies do lose value fairly quickly. Lenses don't however...

But you can figure it out but doing a bit of calculating. What is the actual cost of the item at the end of the lease? And I don't mean what you have to pay to get the item at the end of the lease, I mean the total cost over the life of the lease.

I will use real estate as an example because that is something I invested in and understand. True, it's a loan not a lease but it should still give you an idea of how to look at this leasing you are considering.

Let's say you buy a house for $100,000 with a 30 year mortgage. What your interest rate is will make somewhat of a difference but it is generally accepted that you will pay 3 times as much as the buying price over the life of the mortgage. Now, people will tell you that it still is a great thing to do because the interest is deductible. It is true that the interest is deductible but your taxes are not lowered by the same amount as what you deduct.

Your deductions lower your taxable income but how much do they lower your actual tax bill? That's the thing no one ever can tell you because they don't take the time to figure it out.

So, at the end of your loan you've paid $300,000 (3 times the selling price) for the house. Do you thing you saved $200,000 on you tax bills over the last 30 years? No way.

All that to say that loans and leases were devised to make money for the banks. Not for you. Do some serious calculating before you go into a lease agreement.

 

[gsgary]

There is nothing wrong with the camera you have, if you get a big job hire for the day-week you could even hire a Hasleblad or D3X 1 payment because you could be paying out with no work