Opening New Studio

[LuckyStar08]

Hello,
I've looked through the threads for a similar post rather than starting a new one, but couldn't find what I was looking for.

I just rented some space and I am opening a studio. It's in the beginning stages now. We're got quite a bit of cleaning, painting, etc. to complete.

I'd love advice from other studio owners/operators about essential things to have, insurance, marketing, whatever. If you've got advice and don't mind sharing, please do so. It will be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your words of wisdom.

Kindly,
Stacy:)

[sapearl]

Hi Stacy - that's great news and I wish you will in your new endeavor:D. I don't own a studio myself, having worked out of my part time for nearly 35 years now, but there are plenty of folks here who do and should be able to chime in.

What sort of work will you be doing/offering? Will other people be renting "use" also? Will you also have space for a physical gallery? Will the studio be designed to be self-supporting, or will other income (another job) help fund it? Best of luck ;) - Stu

[LuckyStar08]

Hi Stacy - that's great news and I wish you will in your new endeavor:D. I don't own a studio myself, having worked out of my part time for nearly 35 years now, but there are plenty of folks here who do and should be able to chime in.

What sort of work will you be doing/offering? Will other people be renting "use" also? Will you also have space for a physical gallery? Will the studio be designed to be self-supporting, or will other income (another job) help fund it? Best of luck ;) - Stu

Thanks for the response Stu :)
Nobody else will be using the studio unless I let them. ;) I do have a lobby type area that will be my gallery also. The studio will not at this time be self supporting. My husband works full time and I have other income besides my photography to help support the studio. I'm shooting for a New Year's Eve grand opening. Hope this answers all the questions.:)

[airfrogusmc]

I work out of a home office because EVERYTHING I shoot is on location but I can tell you that insurance is a must. It does depend on what type of work you're going to be doing as to what type of marketing you need to do. I've been a pro since 1978, full time since 86 and have had my own full time photography business since 91. I worked as a staff photographer for a hospital for the 10 years before I started my business so my focus (:lol::rolleyes:) has been in health care and traditional types of marketing wouldn't be as effective as connections and word of mouth.

I did have a med high end wedding business before I got divorced (10 years ago) and I worked allot with wedding consultants and thats how I got the majority of my weddings and repeat business or referrals from brides. I haven't shot weddings in almost 10 years so the web and that type of advertising for that type of business is foreign to me.

When I got divorced I made a clean break and decided to do only commercial work. I finished all the jobs I had booked and never regretted it. I still have an old client once in a while that will talk me into shooting a wedding for them but the industry has changed SO MUCH. I was med format (hasselblad) and multiply lit almost every shot even candids (assistants with strobes and slaves) and it was still all prints.

The best advertising I would still say would be word of mouth but I would certainly think if you were doing weddings/portraits you would need a strong web presence. Also some areas of commercial work it would be a must.

Debt, its a business killer especially early so manage it carefully and also learn the cash flow for the type of work you do and put away for those days the invoices or brides are late with payments. Do every job as if it were the most important job you've ever shot. Put out a good consistent product and always think in terms of repeat clients and HAVE FUN and you will probably be successful.

[LuckyStar08]

Thank you so much for your comments. They're most helpful. I want to focus mostly on glamour/boudoir, senior portraits, and some weddings. That is the main reason I wanted a studio. I got a crazy deal on the studio, so my overhead will be minimal. I am not taking out any loans. All my equipment will be bought using cash. I will start with the bare minimum and work my way up; investing the money I earn back into my business. I have already starting giving a lot of thought to insurance and begun making inquiries and determining what kind/how much etc.

[aram535]

I'm sure this goes without saying that having a nice clean website with exact -- EASY TO FIND -- information on how to get in touch with you and what your ball part rates are is very important.

You also need to start learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If at all possible, for the first couple pages of your website don't use all flash. Use text, layed out nicely so that the search engines can pick it up and make you available to the searchers. This is one of the hard rules that most photography sites break and they end up having come up with all sorts of wacky solutions to get listed.

[sfaust]

If you don't read long posts, here is the short version;
Opening a studio is a lot of work. Might as well start now and read anyway ;)


Stacy,

I've been through that process, and having run a commercial studio for a few years now, here are some thoughts off the cuff;

You will definitely need a web presence. It should be clean, very easy to navigate,


Advertising will be very important. Word of mouth is good and can carry a business

The industry is rife with competition, and you need to clearly stand out in order to do well. A photographer could easily plug along just making ends meet with minimal effort. But in order to be successful, finding a way to stand out will make the difference between paying the bills and making a decent income. Over-promising and under-delivering will give you a mediocre reputation. But under-promising ad over-delivering will do the opposite. Any client loves to expect one thing, but then get more. Those little things can be built into your prices and will make a world of difference.

It could be something as simple as having some nice deserts, pastry, fruits, drinks, etc, delivered in a nice atmosphere during the portrait and image review
sessions. A nice thank you card delivered a week or so after delivering the final images, nice ambiance and amenities in the studio, and so on. Pay attention to the little details, and go that extra mile for the client.

If you give them that little bit extra, it gives them something to add to a conversation when talking with friends. Rarely will someone blurt out they had their portrait taken at XWY if it was uneventful. But if you served them strawberries and high end chocolates, a glass of wine, you had some nice background music, etc, the photography session will work its way into many conversations thus furthering your word of mouth advertising. People like to brag, so give them something to brag about.

Price for the clients you want to attract. You can do 100 portraits a week at $50, or 10 portraits at $500 and make the same amount of money. But you will make far less doing the 100/$50 because of the overhead. If you have a good product, deliver an exception service, you can market to the higher end clientele and work less for more money. Don't compete on price, but compete on service and quality. If you want to be a high end portrait photographer, start with that in mind. Hold off on starting up until you can deliver the quality. Then match the studio ambiance, services, etc, to match the high end market. Target your marketing to that audience, and you'll do well. Starting small and cheap, then trying to build up to that market is like taking the long away around, you may never get there. But setting your sights correctly, taking aim at that market from the beginning and devoting your business plan to get there will work. Rarely does a fine french restaurant start as a Denny's ;) Their sights are high end from the start.

Retain your clients. Market to them frequently. It cost you less to retain current clients, than it does to find new replacements. So once you have a client, make sure you market to them with special promotions, follow up offers, etc. Some studies show it cost 10 times more to find a new client, than it does to keep an existing one. So if there are ever any issues with a client, it pays to make it right. Clients remember this, and you can turn a negative into a positive. I usually don't have any problems with clients, but when I do I bend over backwards to make it right, and I've taken some large losses in doing so. But the client ended up happy, and a loyal client. Saving a few dollars but letting loose a unhappy client is far worse. A happy client tells a couple people, but an unhappy one tells many. You don't need the negative press.

Speaking of business plans, have one. Write it on a napkin if you must, but have a plan. Use it to set your goals, ideas, plans, and concept. Then use it as marching orders. Set a timeline, review it often, revise as necessary. Include as much information as you can, from simple ideas and concepts, to financial goals. Lay it all out, all the details.

Insurance is essential. Liability for the studio should be covered. Equipment coverage seems to be the first thing people think about since thats where they see the obvious value. But the value lies in everything you own, from your home, possessions, savings, etc. I'd much rather loose my equipment, than loose my life savings because someone sued me for liability reasons and I lost. Liability insurance first, equipment second if you can afford both.

Cash flow and debt management is important. Very important. There are good proven ways to properly manage your finances. It's a balance of income, payables, debt, and cash flow. Debt can be very good and work for you, but can also drag you down easily. It can help you build your business, while being debt free can hold you back. Carrying debt is financially sound as long as you carry the right amount. Ie, leasing equipment that allows you to add services to your business can help you build that business quickly. There is no reason to wait to save up say $30K for a digital medium format setup to go after the high end advertising, if you can lease it for $1,000 a month now and generate $6K in billable income to offset it. It allows you to enter that market 3 years earlier than you could if you had to wait and save up the cash. That could put you way ahead of your competition. They key is, use it wisely, but do use it.

Business skills are as important, in fact more so, than the photographic skills. A mediocre photographer with excellent business skills will do much better than an exception photographer with no business skills. So make sure your training is half business and half photography. There should be just as many books on marketing, small business financials, business 101, etc, as there are books on photography and technique. And I'd be willing to bet that for most photographers that have failed, there book shelves are stacked with books on photography and little on running a business.

Make sure you are adequately funded to start. Don't try to do it on a shoe string. You need capital to get things rolling, marketing campaigns, start up cash flow, etc. I wouldn't advise starting up without a years worth of expenses tucked away, after the start up costs have been expended (studio build out, decor, required equipment, computers, etc).

Make sure you understand all the legal aspects of running the business. Filing for local DBA, organizations structure, collecting and filing state sales taxes, federal taxes, estimated tax filing, etc. Hire an accountant from the start. They will help you with all these details, as well as helping really understand your overhead costs. You can't set your prices such that you can guarantee you will be making a profit unless you really understand what your 'real' costs are. I get a lot of photographers asking me about pricing and such in my workshops, and the first thing I ask them is how much does it cost them to do the job. Rarely do they have the correct answer. More often than not, they cite their equipment is paid for, so their overhead is just their time, travel costs to and from, and editing, packaging, and delivery costs. There is so much more.

You need to approach it like you would for an employer. Would you take a job if they asked you to pay for your own computers? Paper clips? Printer ink? Health insurance? Heat? Desk? What if they offered you $60K a year, but said they would need to deduct money for the company's advertising costs? Building overhead? Electric and utilities? Human resources? Taxes? If you aren't counting the time you spend making the website for your business, that comes our of your pocket in the end, and you are in fact like working for the employer and having them deduct for the company's overhead.

So make sure you understand all the costs to run the studio, down to the paper clips, and make sure it's covered in the pricing. Set your salary and start drawing on that from day one. It can be low, like $10K for the year, but do draw a salary. Then double it each year until you get to your desired salary by the 3-5 year mark. If you aren't drawing at least a minimal salary, why are you doing it? It would be more of a self funding hobby than a business IMO.

Last but more important. Do a sell assessment on your own skills, reasons, and desires. Is it the allure of shooting that draws you into the business, or the allure of running your own business. There needs to be a balance between the two. If you enjoy shooting, and aren't as excited about the business aspects of running a photography studio, you probably want to think twice. Running a studio is hard work, more business and less photography, and you will be working long hours. You really need to want the business side, probably even more than the photography side. If not, it might be wise to have a partner to run the business side, while you can focus on the photography. You can get really stressed out doing the business end, which is about 50-70% of what you will be doing, if you really want to be doing just the photography. A good skills assessments is something worth doing. It would be good to find out now that you are likely to let all the business work slide, before it becomes an issue when the business work comes piling. You'll be doing taxes 4 times a year, lots of accounting, legal paperwork, filing copyrights, keeping up with the legal aspects of the business, paying the bills, and so on.

Thats all I can think of, and have time for. A quick mind dump. Hope it helps, and if I think of more I'll add an update.

Good luck. It's a satisfying experience to know you can carve out your own space in the business world, and make it work.

[airfrogusmc]

Stephen, that post should be a sticky. You hit on just about everything and hit it dead on.

My only comment that would be just slightly different is your photographic skill should match your business skills if your in it for the long haul. Your vision and style will separate you from everyone else. Will allow you to get certain clients that want your vision. If you lack technical ability you wont keep those clients. You're only as good as your last job.

But also you need business skills to maintain your business. I know an incredible photographer thats been very successful that is the worse businessman I've ever met. His wife runs the business he runs the creative.

[LuckyStar08]

I'm sure this goes without saying that having a nice clean website with exact -- EASY TO FIND -- information on how to get in touch with you and what your ball part rates are is very important.


Thank you. I do have a website up that I did myself. I think it's adequate for now, but I would like to hire someone to do more with it.

If you don't read long posts, here is the short version;
Opening a studio is a lot of work. Might as well start now and read anyway ;)


Stacy,

I've been through that process, and having run a commercial studio for a few years now, here are some thoughts off the cuff;

Thats all I can think of, and have time for. A quick mind dump. Hope it helps, and if I think of more I'll add an update.

Good luck. It's a satisfying experience to know you can carve out your own space in the business world, and make it work.

What a great post; so full of important information. Thank you so much for sharing so much with me. I will be giving everything you said some serious thought. I really appreciate the time you took to share all that.

Stephen, that post should be a sticky. You hit on just about everything and hit it dead on.

My only comment that would be just slightly different is your photographic skill should match your business skills if your in it for the long haul. Your vision and style will separate you from everyone else. Will allow you to get certain clients that want your vision. If you lack technical ability you wont keep those clients. You're only as good as your last job.

But also you need business skills to maintain your business. I know an incredible photographer thats been very successful that is the worse businessman I've ever met. His wife runs the business he runs the creative.


My husband has a degree in Business Administration and will be helping me with the business side of the studio and also my marketing.

[sfaust]

What a great post; so full of important information. Thank you so much for sharing so much with me. I will be giving everything you said some serious thought. I really appreciate the time you took to share all that.

You're more than welcome.

My husband has a degree in Business Administration and will be helping me with the business side of the studio and also my marketing.

You lucky dog! My wife is a VP of Marketing and helps a little with the business, but she really doesn't have much time to spare, so I try not to burden her. So I plug along on my own, and get advice as I need it. It would be great to have someone that knows what they are doing just pick up the business side of things for me, but I'm also not sure I would like to let go of it either. I do enjoy both aspects of the business.

[LuckyStar08]

We live in a small town in Minnesota and right now my main goal of the studio is a place to work and create and dedicate to my craft. In 5 years we're moving to Texas and I want to have the resources/skill/experience to open a high end studio there. Probably near the Houston area. I have a lot to learn; not just about business, but about photography. This forum has been an wonderful tool. I haven't been a member here that long and already I've learned so much.

[PrincessGinger]

Obviously, I don't have any advice on opening up your studio, but wanted to wish you good luck!

[airfrogusmc]

Sometimes the best combo can be a good business person married to a creative. That way the creative can concentrate on just the creative. Sometimes it can be very hard to do both.

Again GOOD LUCK and always put out the best product that you possibly can CONSISTENTLY and you will be fine.

[LuckyStar08]

Obviously, I don't have any advice on opening up your studio, but wanted to wish you good luck!

Thank you :)

Sometimes the best combo can be a good business person married to a creative. That way the creative can concentrate on just the creative. Sometimes it can be very hard to do both.

Again GOOD LUCK and always put out the best product that you possibly can CONSISTENTLY and you will be fine.


Thank you :) He definitely nurtures my creativity. He's my biggest fan. :)

[crimsonblack]

congrats on the studio.

[josh5k]

Ermmm - perhaps you were a bit late? :-)