Sharing a Studio/Meeting Room

[Jono A]

The recent posts about studios/meeting rooms for wedding photographers really got me thinking. I am probably like a lot of people here in that I am building a new business and have to be very careful about how best to invest my money. My apartment is not suitable for having clients visit, and I am not keen on lugging heavy albums around town to show potential clients. I am thinking that If I could get a small number of wedding shooters together we could set up a small viewing studio that we would share, with sofas, coffee table etc. It would need to be set up in a way that it can easily be swapped over for each photographers use, so you can easily take pictures off the walls and store them (so a small store room would probably be needed for pics & albums). A web based booking system would also probably be needed. It may be too complicated to set up as a co-operative, but I might also think of buying a suitable place and offering this as service to other local shooters to help pay the expenses.I know this is not clearly thought through yet but what do you guys think of the idea. Too much trouble or would any of you use such a service. For me its probably the only way I could afford a studio facility in the near future. John

[mmahoney]

It sounds to me like there is more work involved in setting up and tearing down the proposed meeting space than there would be in just taking around your portfolio to the various potential clients.

Plus these co-operatives can have their problems as many share responsibility to maintain & regulate it's use but few do their equal share of the work. With the right people it's an OK idea but with the wrong ones can be a disaster.
Mike