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Home Photography Studio

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Aldomoro

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My girlfriend and I came up, over the weekend, with the idea to open a home photography studio at my place. We have a lot of friends with kids, and they were complaining about not being able to find a photographer for a Christmas-themed session (especially for their kids), or about the high prices they request for a few photos.

Since I have been in this field for many years at different events and she has an eye for decorating, we decided to give it a shot.

It's already november, so we have to do it quickly enough to take advantage of the favourable timing.

Here's our plan and what we did so far:

1. Borrow a camera, lenses and 2 flashes from a friend, in order to have 2. - DONE
2. Buy a studio setup (lights, 3 backdrops etc.) - DONE
3. Buy decorations for Christmas. - DONE
4. Clean up the living room in both homes. (I live with rent in another city at the moment) - DONE
5. Come up with a name for the business. (we have a few options here, but we still don't know if the name should be in english or our native language)
6. Design a logo. (I have some skills in Photoshop, I was thinking that it should be a simple text with the name, but eye-catching, a nice contrast between the font and the background)
7. Open up Facebook and Instagram pages (I'm thinking that for a month or two, until we have enough material for a portfolio, we won't need a site)
8. Write the (initial) copy for social media.
9. Write a form (which the client will fill out before the session) which specifies if he is ok with us publishing their photos to promote the business and from which we can make an e-mail list and, why not, a phone number list, for future offers and communication. A kind of contract, basically.

So far our spendings are about 470 $ (money we saved the last few months). We live in a relatively poor country, so prices are a bit lower, but so are our earnings. We also had the advantage of me already owning a camera and a good-enough laptop for editing.

We already have our first "clients" lined up. Next week we will have two sessions, one with a coworker of mine with her 2 boys and a family friend with her daughters. Next weekend we will move the studio in my hometown and there we have another 3 sessions.

Promoting and pricing

My cousin has a small business in which she sells personalized decorations for children. She has a lot of work and has a community of people that always buys from her. Seeing as we will begin with the same demographic in mind (parents with little children), we asked her if she would promote our starting business with her followers and she agreed. I hope this would give us at least some clients and from there we hope it would create a snowball effect.

I thought about Instagram and Facebook ads, but I don't know the first thing about them (there are a lot of forum topics about this that I have bookmarked but didn't get to read). Another problem about this would be the cost, as we are almost at the end of the budget we alloted for this.

The pricing scheme is another thing we haven't decided on yet. In order to dip our feet into the market, I think we need to present an offer that makes us attractive for the market, as we aren't well know at the moment. The average session (just for 30-40 pictures in a digital format) is around 60$.

I want to offer 4 or 5 plans, and promote it as a 50% discount from the usual price until around the 10th of December:

Plan A - 10 edited photos (sent digitally) with only one set of backdrop and decorations ---> either FREE (this was my first idea) or 15-20 $
Plan B - 30 edited photos (sent digitally) with 3 sets of backdrops and decorations + A special Gift (which would be a little decoration, with a thank you letter, or a future discount, I haven't decided yet) -->> 35 $
Plan C - 30 edited photos (sent digitally) + 3/4 photos in a nice photo frame + a 2-3 minutes clip from the shooting (works better for children) + Special Gift --> 45 $
Plan D - 30-40 edited photos (sent digitally)+ 3/4 photos in a nice photo frame + a 2-3 minutes clip from the shooting + an album of 20 photos (the album would cost me about 40 $ to print) + Special Gift ---> 100 $

The prices are just an idea and are applicable if we have clients after our first sessions (we will do those for free). We would have to rely on strong word of mouth and for sure, the quality of the work.

Any advice or idea would be appreciated. I'm pretty new to this and, even though I've read a lot of books and the experience from a lot of people in this forum, I know that I will have to learn by doing.

I will try to keep this updated with our progress.
 
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broswoodwork

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We already have our first "clients" lined up.
Congratulations!

I've seen photographers do viral promotions where the clients share their pictures on their personal Facebook profile and invite their friends to vote for them to win some contest by liking those pics on your photography page. Seems to do an alright job of spreading awareness, because the clients will have stronger organic reach than your page.

I did the above myself with a product giveaway way back when I first started getting serious, and the viral reach, in conjunction with a boosted post, rocket started my business.

I know facebook changes the rules constantly, so your mileage may vary here.
 

Aldomoro

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Congratulations!

I've seen photographers do viral promotions where the clients share their pictures on their personal Facebook profile and invite their friends to vote for them to win some contest by liking those pics on your photography page. Seems to do an alright job of spreading awareness, because the clients will have stronger organic reach than your page.

I did the above myself with a product giveaway way back when I first started getting serious, and the viral reach, in conjunction with a boosted post, rocket started my business.

I know facebook changes the rules constantly, so your mileage may vary here.

Thank you so much for this suggestion. I have some friends that won a contest like this, but never thought about the growth the page was getting from this.

Will definitely try this after the first few months.
 

broswoodwork

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Thank you so much for this suggestion. I have some friends that won a contest like this, but never thought about the growth the page was getting from this.

Will definitely try this after the first few months.
I look forward to reading your progress! You seem like a guy that just STARTS doing stuff, without getting bogged down by website font sizes and the word "can't", which is exciting and awesome. Welcome to the community! :)
 
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Aldomoro

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Dec 29, 2018
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It's been almost two weeks since I started this thread, so I guess it's time for an update.

The last 10 days have been a little bit hectic, as we wanted to start this business quickly enough in order to be able to have some orders for Christmas.

We had 5 sessions so far, mostly to friends and family (that means free).


We started promoting heavily on Facebook (our page already has over 600 likes), mainly through shares of friends and at the moment we are posting once a day (our usual reach is between 2.000 and 4.000 people, with engagement between 200 and 1.300 people).

We have an Instagram page but atm it has around 50 followers.

I'm strongly thinking about using Facebook ads for a while to see what results it might get us and also thinking about posting twice a day (once with photos from sessions, once with our offer and a "take action" message).

We currently have 4 reservations/orders for the month of December, several other people calling or messaging for information, but not making a reservation.

So far I'm ok with our progress, but I'm considering other options for getting the word out there.

This is my page (it is in romanian) Foto Imera. (sorry if I'm not allowed to post it)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

ShamanKing

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My Newsfeed is bombarded with new and experienced photographers. What differentiates you. Out of every photographers work that I've seen, my favorite comes from a person that spent more than 10grand easily on just equipments. Not saying that's what it takes but just my taste.

Have you tried following up with those that message you for information?

Also the college semesters is ending soon perhaps post in the Facebook groups for graduation pictures.

Do people still take photos inside or is the trend more of outside scenery now.

I apologize for my scattered comments.
 

Aldomoro

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My Newsfeed is bombarded with new and experienced photographers. What differentiates you. Out of every photographers work that I've seen, my favorite comes from a person that spent more than 10grand easily on just equipments. Not saying that's what it takes but just my taste.

Have you tried following up with those that message you for information?

Also the college semesters is ending soon perhaps post in the Facebook groups for graduation pictures.

Do people still take photos inside or is the trend more of outside scenery now.

I apologize for my scattered comments.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been pretty busy lately.

Equipment is very important, luckily, so far, we could do our job with what we had, with some minor problems. (I am planning on buying a new PC for the post processing part, my old laptop is showing its age). As per what differentiases us, in the beginning it was the below-average price, but now more and more people tell us that they are coming to us because they liked the photos they see on Fb, IG (so I guess that's a little bit of confirmation right there).

After the winter is over we plan on focusing more on outdoor shootings.

About the following up part, I don't think I understand. What kind of information do you mean?
 
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Stargazer

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A tad late for Xmas but some future food for thought.

Do you live in a city or town?

Go to the businesses and offer them an offer for their staff.

So you charge $60 (just going on the above)

The business puts in every staff Christmas card (you can buy the cards too to eliminate that possible hurdle) a letter promoting you and that they have negotiated a reduced rate of $30 if interested people get back to you buy xyz date (as multiple block bookings give the logical reason for the reduced rate)

You can adapt this through the year.

Zero internet stuff required therefore zero internet competition to worry about.

I would have bundles of cards/ vouchers already in the boot of my car so after a quick pitch to HR ask how many staff there are and go and get the bundles.

The company has now just got a card and present for their staff at zero cost and 5 minutes of chatting to you.

Some will say yes some will say no hence town being good as it is a 5 minute pitch and move on.

Dan
 

minivanman

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Follow up = they have already contacted you but have not booked an appointment so now ask them something like..... Just wondering if you are still interested.
 

Countach

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story time: my dad was a studio photographer for many years but in the mid 90's he saw the writing on the wall with digital cameras/computers/printing etc. and got out. My experience is this: having a camera and some lights doesn't make you a photographer. Both my kids have had their HS senior pictures done by these "photographers" and then by dear old dad.

Those guys took about 500 shots and out of those only a few were anywhere near decent. Gave my dad my 10yo DSLR with the cheap lens and he only took about a dozen pics that are far superior. Knowing posing, lighting, composition, backgrounds, framing, how cameras/film work, etc. are key.

Its not the equipment, although when he was still in it, he had a $$$ Hasselblad(?) that did produce amazing film images. Learn the fundamentals, get good at it, and there's your USP. ...and your justification for charging more. BC that's just ridiculous cheap, and would turn me completely off.
 
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Tourmaline

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@Aldomoro What is your goal with this? Are you wanting side money or is this to be a business that can stand on its own two feet?
 

Aldomoro

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Update time.

The Christmas period is over. All things considered, I am pretty content with how things went. We made more money than we invested (even though just a little bit over).

We had about 25 sessions (given that we could only do weekends, an ok number), and the feedback from people was very good. Almost all loved the photos and thanked us a lot. We gave a 20% voucher (for a future session) to people that had a pricier plan and some of them manifested their interest for a Easter session, or one for children's birthday.

We had them fill a form with name, phone number, date of birth and e-mail, and plan to send a (I think monthly) newsletter to them with our future offers and types of sessions. Also, we will send them an e-mail one week or two before their birthdays, with best wishes and a call-to-action for a birthday-themed photoshoot.

Given that Christmas was a perfect moment for this idea and in the following weeks things will die down a little, I want to focus a little on the marketing part. I bought a few courses on Facebook ads and Instagram and plan on going through them in order to improve our social media game. Also, I made a MailCheat(Chimp) account and sent some test newsletter to friends, in order to get the grip of this part I had known nothing about. If any of you know about a better service for a beginner (and as cheap as possible for now), I am open to suggestions.

To be honest, I don't know how things will work out in the following months. We plan on doing Valentine's Day photoshoots for couples and then Easter. Then we plan on doing some outside sessions, but we'll have to wait and see how things go.

In the meantime...

Given that we don't know how things will go now that the holiday season is over, we thought of doing some other things in order to keep moving. My girlfriend had an idea to make floral decorations, first to sell on a craigslist-like site, but then maybe to sell for weddings and events.

I think that this might be a chance to go to a direction I intended from the start.

@Aldomoro What is your goal with this? Are you wanting side money or is this to be a business that can stand on its own two feet?

My end-goal with this would not be to have a studio, but to go to the advertising side of things. In the beginning that means product photography and video, but then I hope to build a full-fledged advertising company (that would produce content for businesses and, why not, take care of their social media accounts).

I know that this is a long-shot and there are already a lot of companies like this (even in Romania), but I am going to try anyway, because I really want this.

This studio was something that we could do right at that moment with the resources we had, it was more like a challenge for ourselves, to dip our feet in the "business world". It's a great start from our perspective and only got us wanting more, so even if tha's all we get from this, I am satisfied.

As usual, any advice is welcome.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this.
 

Xeon

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Not sure what's the photography scene like in Romania and how in-demand are indoor photography sessions there.

There's this business model in Ukraine where they've all these beautifully done-up interiors (themed photostudio rooms), and also supply makeup artists and dresses, accessories.
Other photographers then rent these type of rooms for their own photoshoot, and if the client requests for makeup artists and dresses, they also charge a fee. But then again, this type of thing works there because a Ukraine photographer once told me Ukrainians love indoor photoshooting sessions and it's pretty popular there. They rotate the room designs every now and then, so people get interesting backgrounds in their shots.

Mind you, these rooms are not just empty rooms with a bit of backdrop and furniture. They're fully done-up interiors, totally Instagrammable.

Not sure if other countries have such stuff, but I guess for people into the photography industry, this is one potential idea.
 
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