The Photography Business Mountain

I've talked before about the photography business and essentially decided it would be way too much work to start one and not financially smart.

I just found a really long thread on DPChallenge by Eyesup that really puts the expenses and amount of work in prospective. Especially notable is Eyesup's quote of Prof_Fate's back of the envelope calculations of how much it takes to keep a photography business in... business. Then, check out Prof_Fate's assessment of the expenses on 02/28/2008.

I'd love to quote some of it here to give you a bullet point idea of what the thread's point is, but if you are at all interested in starting a photography business, then read the thread.

What I will say is that, as a 'mom and pop' operation (meaning the husband and wife both work for the business) needs to bring in about $200K in sales every year to just break even (that does pay the 'salaries'). In this area (the San Francisco bay area) I'd expect you have to earn substantially more to break even ($300-400K). The real trouble is getting started, because you won't make nearly as much when you are getting going.

Photography is a hard, hard business...

A Business Plan Guide

I ran across a good business plan link in a DPC thread so I thought I'd share it. It is a very complete outline for a business plan, and although it is from the Vermont Small Business Development Center, it is pretty much independent of locality and relevant for almost everyone. Obviously, if you are like me and you won't be applying for outside funding, this type of thing is overkill, but it is a great way to keep track of everything you need to worry about. The exercise of writing a business plan, even an informal one like mine, is a great way to get your thoughts focused and make progress.

Personally, I need to find a resource that gives me a checklist for what I need to do to set up a business in my area. I'm ok delaying though, because I'd like to first determine if my business plan will work before I start buying insurance, permits, web space, etc. Two resources I found are:

• Silicon Valley SBDC: Of note is the legal structure page, a good summary of the differences and how to register. Also provides free counseling.
  
• US Small Business Administration: A huge site with tons of information including a small business planner.

Photography On Campus

So, today I will attempt to answer a question from my business plan:

Is it legal to photograph on Stanford campus without a permit?

Much of my business plan is built around the use of Stanford campus for location photography. Well, it turns out I was a little naive in my assumptions that Stanford would be an open studio for me, but all hope is not lost. For those of you who don't live near Stanford, this entry is still quite relevant because it relates to photography in any privately held area, especially university campuses.

The first place I looked was the Office of University Communications, which is responsible for coordinating interactions with the outside world, either disseminating Stanford information out into the world (like press releases and news) and controlling the outside world's intrusion into the university (controlling Stanford's image, websites, photography and videography of campus). For photography, all commercial photography must request permission to use the campus. Most of the relevant information is in the list of photography policies.

After looking at that page, I contacted the Communications Office to ask about whether I'd be likely to get permission and if blanket permission for a restricted set of activities would be possible. What ensued was e-mail tennis for much of the morning where it seemed like the woman I was chatting with was trying to evade my question. I know now that I had misread an important part of the policies but she was patient enough to get the message through. At one point I told her anything she said would be off the record, so I won't reproduce any of the conversation here.


What I will do is highlight the important statements on the Photography request policy page:

• Exploitation of the Stanford name is prohibited. In other words, advertising that I specialize in photography on Stanford campus is a no-no and can get me sued. I can request permission to do so, but I doubt I'd get it. I'm better off advertising location photography in the Palo Alto area, and then if people ask, tell them that Stanford might be an option. There goes SUPhoto as my company name! No biggy. Really, this doesn't impact me much, except my blogspot name, stanfordphoto.blogspot.com. I'm going to look into changing the blog address without disrupting my (meager) traffic.
  
• Videotaping, filming, commercial photography or professional wedding photography is prohibited without permission. Permission is rarely granted. This was what I missed my first, second, and third times reading through the page. Pretty much shuts down all hope of using Stanford for my commercial portrait shoots. Except...
• Wedding photography is prohibited except for couples being married at Memorial Church or those with a Stanford connection, including alumni, students, faculty and staff. Ahh... An opening. If my clients are Stanford students or alumni, I might have a chance of getting permission because of the connection. Maybe not on a super-regular basis, but if I prove that I'm not out to make a lot of money or hurt the Stanford name, it will be allowed.
  
• Requests for filming or photography must be made in writing at least five working days before proposed shooting. In other words, I need to request permission before every shoot. In writing. Not something I'll want to do a lot.
• Non news-related requests must include the following information: ... Proof of adequate insurance coverage and indemnity. This is a whole new can of worms I need to add to my business plan. Not just for shoots on campus, but anywhere I shoot, if I do it for money, I need to have insurance for my equipment and in case anyone gets harmed. For Stanford, I expect the indemnity is to prevent Stanford from getting sued. This might be as simple as a clause on the contract removing any responsibility from Stanford (or me) if an injury occurs.

So, overall, it is not legal to shoot without a permit, unless I am not taking payment for my services. So doing my TFCD shoots on campus is perfectly within reason (as long as I don't make a nuisance of myself). But if I want to take paying customers, I should get insurance and get permission from the communications office before I take any pictures.

Overall, I need to adjust my business plan to focus less on Stanford and more on me as a photographer.

In the bigger picture, there are two take-home messages:

1. On location photography is a hassle, especially since you need to worry about permission and insurance. That's why people pay extra for it.
2. Running a photography business is less about the photography, and more about everything else. I've been hearing this for a while, but until I started wading into the realities of pricing, ordering prints, marketing, and permissions, it never really hit home.

This just in! While I was writing this entry, I was also corresponding with the communications office (again). Apparently I 'wore her down', and she has given me the OK to do paying shoots on Stanford campus as long as they are Stanford affiliates. If I start doing a lot of volume, then I'll need to contact the communications office and renogiate (mostly for insurance reasons).

That's good news and allows me to tap into my main market (of poor grad students), at least initially.


[Photo courtesy of my wife. Used with permission.]

How to Print Portraits Correctly (or Not)

I finally got my first TFCD shoot CD to the client last weekend. The editing wasn't that complicated but it was time-consuming deciding what I would do, why, and how I'd do it. It took me about four hours total to edit 15 pictures... But now that I have the routine down, it should go much faster.

RawShooter Essentials 2006 was indispensible for the editing and it really is designed with workflow in mind. As I get better with it, I realize just how good of a tool it is. I'm so disappointed Adobe has since acquired RSE (and no longer distributes RSE) but there are plenty of copies floating around on the internet which still work (and are legal!).

The hardest part of the editing was getting the color balance correct. I did other editing too (levels, some cloning, some other tweaks) but I spent the most time puzzling over what color a babies skin should be. Without a well-calibrated target (plain white paper reacts too much with UV outside) I had to adjust each image by hand, especially since I was shooting in mixed shade and morning sun. For more on color balance/white balance, see Quick Tip #5.

Hand in hand with this, even if it looks right on my monitor, it may not look right when printed. After all, there's the ambient color of the room (when viewing the monitor and/or the print), the monitor color balance, and the printer calibration. If any of those are off, what I see when I edit the image on the monitor will not be what I see when I view the printed version. Not only that, but the printed version varies a lot by where you are viewing it -- ever get handed a photo in a dark restaurant and then spend two minutes puzzling how to actually see it well in the dim lighting?

As a test, I uploaded two images, this fuchsia shot and a shot of L., to Costco and printed two sets of 4x6s: one set with autocorrecting on, one set with autocorrecting off. The baby shot ended up looking a lot better with autocorrection since the uncorrected version looked too blue and too dark. On the other hand, the fuchsia ended up looking much better without autocorrecting (although it was still a touch dark) since the autocorrecting caused the highlights to blow out. I have to assume the autocorrection is calibrated for skin-tones. For now, I'll be printing all portraits with autocorrection on to avoid mistakes on my end.

In an inexcusable violation of the scientific method, I used luster for the non-corrected and glossy for the corrected shots. I was able to compare the glossy and luster looking at the advertising photos Costco put in (why does Costco throw in two ad prints and a proof sheet into the envelope when you just order one print?). It appears the luster coating caused the images to be slightly darker and lose a little resolution (as might be expected), but it may also be that Costco runs the autocorrect algorithm on their ad prints too.

But, lets say money isn't an object, what is the right process for controlling my color and printing?

1. Situate my monitor in a room with carefully controlled ambient.
2. Calibrate my monitor with a Spyder2 Express (DPNow review) or a similar device ($60 at Amazon).
3. Shoot using custom color balance based on a calibrated target. PhotoMedic gives a good description of how he uses a Balance Smarter ($60 for 12") to set his color balance at the time of the shoot, then he doesn't even need to mess with it later. I've been searching for a cheaper alternative, but haven't found anything yet.
4. Download ICC profiles from Costco (or whatever printing shop you use). That link (and this one) also gives a ton of information about how to use them even if you use a different lab.
5. Convert the image (which is correctly color balanced for sRGB) to the ICC profile of the given printer. Paint Shop Pro XI cannot do this, but there are stand alone utilities that can (Costco/Dry Creek Photo has a TIFF converter). Photoshop CS2+ can do it also.
6. Upload and print with autocorrect off. Make sure to request the printer that corresponds to the ICC profile!
   

So, for $120 I could get everything I need to have a calibrated workflow from capture to printing. Not bad, but I'd still have problems with controlling ambient (my photo computer is in the living room, we have a large window right next to it, and my wife likes to watch TV in the dark). But there is a larger issue, which makes me draw the following conclusion after a few hours of research and a few experiments:

Perfectly calibrated printing isn't critical for my portraits.

Yeah, I know, that's not what I expected when I went into the editing process. But lets look at the primary problem: no matter how carefully I adjust the color and control the processing from capture to print, once it is printed and framed, I have no control over where and how it will be hung. And when the ambient changes, so does the color balance of the image. Our eyes compensate pretty well, but not if the lighting on the picture is significantly different than the ambient... like a wall that is anything but pure white or gray.

I suppose if I really wanted to get high-end, I could figure out how to color calibrate to different types of ambient then coordinate with my clients to make sure they hang it in the right place. But I'm not nearly high-end enough to do that... yet.

For now, I'll just let Costco correct any color issues, and focus on the more important stuff: pose, expression, technicals, etc.

Market Analysis: What do other photographers charge?

Ok, so I spent an hour and did a quick survey of some of my 'competitors' in the area. There are hundreds (thousands?) of photographers in the Bay Area and by no means have I done a complete or well organized search. Instead, I just did a quick web search for some higher-end photographers, then a Craigslist search for some of the lower end photographers.

Legal Stuff: I don't endorse any of these photographers nor do I discourage you from visiting their sites. They just happened to be the ones who listed their prices online. I am not providing reviews; I have never even met the photographers mentioned let alone used their services. I suppose you could use this page as a starting point to finding a family photographer, but don't sue me if you do try one of these photogs and you have a bad experience. Likewise, don't sue me if you are one of the photographers mentioned and you don't want to be on the page -- just leave a comment and I'll take you off.

The number one lesson I learned while doing this search (aside from the 'going rate'): a well organized, polished website is key! It is the first thing most clients see, so if you put a website up, make sure it looks nice. Minimalism is fine, but make sure you don't have dead links, poor spelling, and it doesn't crash anyone's computer. And above all, make sure your portfolio has only your very best shots in it.

Overall, I'd say the photographers below are worth every penny you pay them (probably even more for some of them). So, here we go:


Starr Photography
Specialty: Babies, children, and maternity, on location.
Session Fee: $275 ($200 Tues-Fri) for 1 to 2 hours (+$25 for each person over three)
Proofs: 25-30 edited images
Prints: 5x7 $45, 8x10 $75
CD: None offered.
Packages: "Belly and Baby", $1450, includes two shoots, 25 5x7s, $250 in print credits, and 50 birth announcements.
My Take: High-end child photographer with beautiful images. Yes, her prices are high (especially for prints), but I think she's got the experience and natural ability to back that up. I really like that she doesn't set a time-limit on her sessions, it shows she cares more about the portraits than scheduling lots of clients.


Christine Krogue Photography
Specialty: Babies and children on location, also maternity, seniors, families.
Session Fee: $75 for 1 to 1.5 hrs (+$15 each person over 4)
Proofs: 18-25 images
Prints: 5x7 $22, 8x10 $32
CD: Proofs, full-res, $250 (requires minimum print order of $350)
Packages: $600+, including CD
Also offers: Session album ($350, complementary for large orders), slideshows ($75, with $400 min order)
My Take: Christine has a nice site and has obviously thought through the business side thoroughly. She does offer CDs, but only if the customer buys a lot of prints to ensure she makes approx $600 on each deal. Her session fees are low, so I expect she makes up the money on print sales.


Loic Nicolas Photographer
Specialty: Headshots, portraits (does almost everything though)
Session Fee: $250 (includes ~1 hr studio shoot, viewing and proofing after shoot, rough + edited CD)
Other Options: On location +$50, Extra shooting +$150/hr, Extra editing +$50
Proofs: 20+ images
Prints: 5x7 $30, 8x12 $50 (I assume extra editing is included)
My Take: Loic seems to have a different approach than most: make the client pay for the shoot and don't worry about prints. Instead, he lets them choose the proofs at the shoot, hands them an unedited CD before they leave, and mails them an edited CD later. Definitely cuts down on overhead but lowers the maximum he can make off the customer. Personally, for the quality of his images (he's definitely talented) he could probably charge more. He does offer a 'Princess Color Treatment' in which he adjusts color/saturation, does full retouching, vignetting, etc for $100. So, it looks like his business model is to get pictures the customer likes, then charge them more for retouching (especially for headshots or online dating). In that sense, he probably makes around $400 on an average customer, not bad, especially when he doesn't need to schedule a viewing. Overall, the business model I'm considering is closest to Loic's.


Smiles Creative Imaging
Specialty: Portraits and weddings
Session Fee: $75/hr
Proofs: ?? (unspecified)
Prints: 5x7 $10, 8x10 $15
Packages: $55 to $450 for packages of prints (in addition to session fee)
My Take: SCI could really benefit from some work on their website. It was hard to navigate and lacked some critical information (such as, how many proofs does the client get?). It appears SCI is a pretty young company, and that is also reflected in their low prices. Of all the sites surveyed, the numbers I've been thinking of are closest to SCI's numbers. But, they also need to rethink their pricing strategy -- it'd be cheaper for a client to buy a bunch of smaller packages than one big one ($35 off the print cost when you pay $450?).


Ok, so that's the end of my quick survey. I learned a lot about the market and it really helped me to think through what I'd like to do. This is what I've learned/decided:

• For a top photographer, expect to pay $600+ for the shoot and a decent number of prints.
• CDs are becoming more common, and delivery of only the CD is not unheard of.
• On location costs more, even though it costs me less at this moment. Mostly because of travel time and the unknowns involved.
  
• I should charge $75-100 for a session fee but be flexible about the time (like 1-1.5 hours). I can (and should) give discounts to those who can't afford full price if I price myself a little higher.
• The value of a CD is $200+ considering print prices. If I charge $100-150 for a CD with about 10-20 lightly edited proofs, I should be in good shape.
• Limit the amount of editing I provide with the session fee/CD, but offer more for a price ($30-40 an hour).
• Allow them to purchase prints individually, maybe $10 5x7, $15 8x10. Personally I always resented the high cost of prints, but it is so standard I think I should support it to some degree. Most clients will opt for the CD anyway.
  
• It is possible to do a viewing right after the shoot, but I'd need extra equipment and I'm not wild about them falling in love with the technically poor images. The viewing is better afterwards, so I can upsell on specialty prints (canvas?) and/or extra editing.
• If I provide a CD, I could include 4x6s of the proofs for cheap, and it'd make the customer very happy. But don't provide 4x6s alone because some customers try to enlarge them to avoid purchasing prints.
  

Obviously, I still have the informal surveys of my TFCD clients, which hopefully I'll get to in the next month as I do more shoots. For now, I'm really starting to get a firm idea of what I want to offer and my prices. With that, I'll leave you with...


WHAT NOT TO DO:

While searching on craigslist, I came across the following ad (copied verbatim):

Family photograpy, etc.

Hi, I'm an amateur photographer whi is 17 years old and need some equimpent, so I've decided to take family portraits. My prices are very cheap, as I am not a professional yet. If you'd like to see my website with some photos, it can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99554208@N00/
As you can see, I take mostly skate photos that deal with flashes, but would be offering my services in outdoor lighing situations at the location of your choice. I am new to this, and have as much access as you do to printing places, so you will recieve the RAW photo on a data CD so you can choose what is next for the photos. They are digital in case you were wondering. Email me and we can work some sort of price out, I want both of us to be satisfied

Ok, where to begin...

First, I've included the guy's Flickr address so you can see his portfolio. He's not a bad shooter at all. In fact, if I was to hire someone to help me with an on location shoot which required flash photography, this is the kind of guy I'd want: experience with off camera flash, in the field, with fast moving subjects. He also shows a lot of creativity and talent. But, talent does not equal business sense.

And that's the thing: to be make money at photography, you almost need to be better on the business side than the photography side. (There's hope for people like me which don't have much talent!) His Craigslist ad pretty much runs the gamut of what not to do:

• Make sure you check your spelling and proofread your grammar, especially the important words, like photograpy in the subject.
• Don't tell your clients you are 17 years old and your sole motivation is to buy some new equipment.
• Don't tell clients that you are 'new at this'.
• If you list a portfolio, it should probably have some family photos in it. Not pictures of your friends doing skating tricks. Above all, don't include the pic of a skater-dude flipping the bird to the camera.
• Don't deliver RAW files on CD. Less than 1% of the population even knows what RAW is!

Again, I'm not writing this to make fun of the guy, I think he's quite talented. I'm just pointing out his many marketing and business mistakes. The only response he'll get from that ad (if he gets any at all) is someone who wants to take advantage of him. It'll be a drop in the bucket in terms of earning money and he'll probably get turned off on the photography business in the process.

Instead, he should do one of two things:

• Post an ad for doing skater pics. He knows what he's doing, his target audience will relate to his portfolio, and he'll know how to relate to them. The downside is most skater types don't have a lot of extra cash around for photogs.
• Take some pics of his family, clean-up his post, and set some reasonable (but still low) prices. He'll probably get a little business, and once he gets started, those pics can go in his portfolio.

If I've learned anything in this research, it is that there are a lot of photographers out there and a lot of ways to set up pricing and services. There are many things that work and few that you shouldn't do (although the guy above covered a lot of the don'ts).

At this point, I just need to decide what I am most comfortable with, and then start shooting and get the experience and portfolio pics.

Putting Up a Shingle: A Business Plan

If you are a regular reader of this blog (all two of you) you know I've been hinting at going into business for a while and lately I've been promising a business plan but have been procrastinating intensely. Well, no more, this needs to get done.

The basic structure is an outline listing what I have, what I need, what I need to get done, and what I need to learn. As I address each issue, I'll put up a separate blog entry but link to it from this page (and link back to this page). That should keep things nice and organized. If I've solved/settled an issue, it will be in green, if it needs to be done, it will be in red (and if it is somewhere in the middle, it will be some other color).

So, how to start? Well, I'll just loosely model it after the example business plan at Bplans.com. For convenience, I'll refer to the 'company' I create as SUPhoto, even though it is pretty much going to be me (and possibly my wife). I tried to make my first draft all business-like, but it didn't seem... right. So, I've adapted it to my blogging voice, but using the basic structure and some of the terms.


Executive Summary:

SUPhoto is an on-location portrait photography company specializing in families and children on or around Stanford campus. SUPhoto will be positioned as an alternative to Sears or Walmart for middle to low income families such as those in Escondido Village on Stanford campus. Above all, the goal is to provide high quality, unique, on location portraits at an affordable price.

As a graduate student on Stanford campus, I feel that there is a big gap between the budget portrait studios like Sears and Walmart and area photographers willing to travel for on-location portraiture. Most of our friends and neighbors stretch to pay the rent each month, let alone pay for portraits once a year, yet all of the families near us have young children and like to do portraits (pressure from relatives and grandparents also helps). I am uniquely situated in contact with a large number of young families, in close proximity to the scenic Stanford campus, and in tune with the financial strain of our prospective clients. Furthermore, the close proximity of my neighbors allows word-of-mouth marketing to be very fast and effective (as past experience has shown -- rumors get around REALLY quickly).

My overall goal is to develop SUPhoto to be a reliable source of part-time income within a year averaging one sitting per week. Ideally, I'd like to get to that point by Christmas season, but I'm unsure if I have the time to do it, especially since I've already got two jobs. I have no desire for a full-time photography company -- I've looked at the numbers, and it seems like a lot of work and I would burn out quickly.

Beyond family photography, I would like to explore/add other specialties such as babies (including in-hospital or in-home) and senior portraits. Senior portraits, in particular, might be easy for me because I already have a lot of contact with juniors in my SAT prep job.

Action Items:

• Determine legality of senior portraits from contacts made in my other job.
• Do a few (free) trial shoots of seniors to see if it is feasible.
• Once established, explore baby photography.

Start-Up Costs:

The good part about location photography is the start-up costs are minimal. If I was trying to build up a studio with strobes, my costs could easily get to be a few thousand before I can even take any portraits. I also have almost everything I need to get started right now, but a few necessities are needed. Honestly, this is a cross between a shopping list and an inventory, but it will help me get organized.

Other than a few more pieces of equipment and a generous donation of time, I have everything I need for minimal shoots.

Camera Equipment:

• Wide-angle zoom: Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8
• Telephoto zoom: Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 USM (yes, that is why I bought the lens so quickly)
• 90-100 mm F/2.8 macro prime (ok, who am I kidding, I don't really need this...)
• Super-wide zoom lens (like a 10-22). Not as necessary for portraits, but it could be useful for specialty shots.
  
• Back-up camera body (or a new primary body): Canon 30D (or 20D). While a new camera body is a big expense, it will prevent me from having to cancel shoots if my camera dies. It will also allow me to have a wide and telephoto lens at my disposal for special events without swapping lenses. Update: I'm planning on a used or refurbished 20D, just need to scrape the money together.
  
• Carrying bag for camera equipment (lenses, camera, batteries, cards, etc). It needs to protect the equipment, but be easy to carry and give me quick access to the equipment on a shoot.
• Lighting bag to carry lighting gear (if not contained in above).

Lighting/Misc Equipment:

• A reflector for outdoor shoots not using the sun.
• A second light stand.
  

Admin/Software:

• Label maker for the CDs I burn.
• Custom envelopes for print delivery.
• Establish which software to run the viewings in and purchase it if required.
• Establish workflow, back-up, and storage procedures.
  

Legal Issues:

Luckily, there aren't too many legal issues to worry about, but there are a few things I need to establish:

• Is it legal to photograph on campus without a permit? No, not if I get paid (unless they are Stanford affiliates!).
  
• If necessary, how do I get a permit? Notify the Communications Office.
  
• Basic TFCD contract and model release (see here and here).
• Full model release for families, models, and minors.
  
• Full contract including prices, terms, etc.
• Do I need to declare SUPhoto as a business? What type? What forms do I fill out?
• What tax issues do I need to deal with?
  

Products and Services:

One of the hardest parts of non-studio photography is to distinguish your shots from snapshots that the client could make. Because they aren't going to pay you much if they think they are just paying for you to use a slightly fancier camera that they could use themselves if they didn't have to be in the picture. But if they know you can get professional looking shots that they can't, they will pay you a premium for that expertise. So it is important for me to distinguish my portraits from 'standard' shots.

Obviously, with my experience, I should get the technicals correct (like exposure or focus) more often than an average Joe (or Jane). I think where I can really distinguish myself is the use of off-camera lighting, which is something average people have no ability to do, and it lends a little something extra to the photo that will catch your eye. The difficult part of that is actually doing the lighting, which I need a LOT more experience with. I'm going to try to do that this summer.

Beyond that, I need to decide what I will (and won't) offer my clients. Definitely, I won't be offering an indoor studio, simply because I don't have one, I don't have space for one, and I don't have the money to rent time in one. That may be something for after my next move, but right now, no.

My basic model will be a sitting fee along with a CD for them to purchase. I feel strongly about giving them full re-print rights to the CD (but not the copyright) and increasing the price of the CD accordingly. I'm not against offering prints, but I won't use prints as a way to make my money like most photographers. With my demographic (educated and frugal families) their BS-o-meter will be triggered if I try to charge them $5 for a 4x6 and tell them if they want any more pictures (or to scan it) they have to pay me more. I'd rather make them pay a little more for the sitting and CD and not count on reprint sales.

Action Items:

• Learn outdoor lighting with reflectors and flashes. And not just a little, I mean really make my pictures pop with it. Probably a great first step will be to go through Strobist's Lighting 102 to force myself to practice the techniques.
• Come up with my sequence. For instance, first we have a pre-shoot chat, then the shoot, then the viewing, then delivery and follow-up. There's a lot of rough edges along the way that I need to smooth to make it better for the client AND save me time and stress.
• Set up a calibrated editing, viewing, and printing system that reliably produces good results. I know how, but haven't done it yet.
  
• Come up with the valuation of the CD. How much is a CD worth? Should I include all high-res images or only those that they select? How many images should I process for them?

Market Analysis:

Before I set my prices, I really need to figure out what the going rate in the area is. I feel that I can price myself slightly above Sears or Walmart (especially for the sitting fee, since my clients won't pay for reprints). But I'd also like avoid underselling myself too much since it is a business after all.

Furthermore, I really need to know what my target audience (young families) is willing to pay. If I price myself too high, I won't get many clients, but if I price myself too low I'll be undervalued.

Action Items:

• Survey area photographers, specifically on-location family portrait prices.
  
• Do a similar survey for senior pictures.
• For the TFCD shoots I do for my friends, ask them after the fact (and maybe before) what they'd be willing to pay for my services. That should give me an idea of what a typical family is willing to set aside for portraits.
• Based on the market surveys, determine exactly which services I will offer and what they will cost.
  

Marketing Strategy:

This one's easy. For now, just word of mouth, e-mailing my friends, and maybe a post on Craigslist. Craigslist or other classifieds, in particular, may not be worth it because there are a lot of photographers posting on there, and in order to do it, I really need a web site...

Also, for each of my TFCD shoots, I'll provide each client with my price list and let them know they got a discount and how much it would have cost them without the discount. Then, when they talk to their friends they have knowledge about my pricing and/or give them a card.

I should also set up a website, but for now, just an entry here might do the job. A more formal website could wait a little while until I've built my portfolio and have time to set it up.

Action Items:

• E-mail friends to set up TFCD shoots before July.
  
• Create a card.
• Create a price list.
  
• Create a website.
  

Financial Plan:

I really have no money to sink into this business since we are just scraping by as it is, so the primary financial rule is to not spend money that I don't have. In a sense I have already done that (by buying my camera equipment) but that's where the line between hobby and business gets really fuzzy. I'm fine with donating time to the cause, but I'm willing to sacrifice the look of a business in order to reach profitability as fast as possible. Initially, profits will be just rolled back into the business (even if it is just to reimburse me for equipment already purchased).

If I can earn enough money from selling within our local area, then it will be time to look into web-site hosting, printing cards, advertising, etc. Mostly, I want to be able to pull the plug within the first year if I decide it is necessary without harming the financial stability of my family.

Action Items:

• Account for cost of all equipment and software purchased so far, so that I can include that in the cost of doing business and reimburse myself for those expenditures.
• Create an accounting spreadsheet (or system of spreadsheets). Alternatively, identify free or inexpensive accounting software I could use for that purpose..
  
• Determine the cost of doing business for bare-bones shoots. This includes equipment costs, my time, gas, CDs, printing costs, etc. This number is necessary to make sure I am not losing money just by staying in business.
• Determine break-even point. How many shoots do I need to do to stay in business? What if I expand?
• Project into next year so nothing catches me by surprise.
• Determine tax law, what needs to be reported, and what deductions I can make for SUPhoto business expenses. Did you hear that IRS? I'm not doing this under the table (well, unless I only do one or two shoots and give up).

Personnel:

Obviously, I'll be employed part-time by SUPhoto, but what about an assistant? I used to think an assistant was a luxury, but after doing two shoots, I realize just how helpful it would be to have someone to set up and keep an extra set of eyes to let me focus more on the portraits and poses. It would also speed the shoot up and make the clients feel more comfortable. But, obviously, finding good help willing to work for very
little money is hard.

My wife has offered and part of me thinks it is a great idea, and part of me is a little worried. On one hand, she's detail oriented, can do make-up, and could be very helpful. On the other hand, we're both used to being in charge and I'm concerned we might clash a little bit (mostly because I have trouble giving up control). The biggest problem: if my wife and I are on a shoot, where are our two children? Having my two kids on a shoot would be way more stress and trouble than any benefit to having my wife there. So we'd need a babysitter, but if we can't find one that will work for free or a swap, it probably won't be cost-effective.

Action Items:

• Take my wife on a shoot to see how it goes.
• Determine the value of having an assistant on a shoot -- would a local teen be able to help? What can I afford to pay?