Making money with volume sports photography

I recently started a sports photography business, where I go to schools and shoot team and individual (T&I) photos of their athletes. I'm mostly targeting high schools for this as I enjoy working with the stronger athletes, but I envision working with all ages (10-18) as I pitch more schools/sports leagues and expand.

My first big shoot was for a large high school, where I just shot 140 football players. I have a system that I believe improves considerably on the ordering process (no envelopes, all online ordering) and a more refined/studio session feel with the photos (vs. taking photos against a standard cloudy sky backdrop). The AD and school love the photos, the kids enjoyed the photo session, and overall it went very well. They are going to have me back for their next season sports.

So far, the photos have been available for order for about 2 weeks, but the number of orders is quite a bit lower than I anticipated. To date, about 24% of the athletes have placed orders, or about 34 orders out of 140. People can order through packages, ranging in price from $30-$50, or a-la-carte, with 8x12's going for $12, for example. Digital downloads are also available. I think the pricing is great, the photos look great, but can't figure out why my order numbers are low. Perhaps it's due to them being high school athletes vs. younger ones?

I would love to hear from others who are doing team and individual photography on this. Are your percentages higher? What do you do to get a higher percentage of sales coming in?

I'm new in this game (but not in photography – I've been shooting professionally for 15 years) so any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

Ryan_Chandler1 wrote in post #18954090
....but the number of orders is quite a bit lower than I anticipated.

Can I ask what you based your sales projections on?
Everything I have seen over the last few years about shooting on spec has said that it doesn't work/is getting harder and that confirmed orders in advance is the way to go.

One shoot at one school is a low sample size unfortunately, even though there were a lot of athletes. There could be so many factors affecting the purchasing, like age as you mention. You're going to have to trial your system on more groups of people. I know it's hard as a business to keep trying something that might not work but you won't know until you do.

DesolateMirror wrote in post #18954120
One shoot at one school is a low sample size unfortunately, even though there were a lot of athletes. There could be so many factors affecting the purchasing, like age as you mention. You're going to have to trial your system on more groups of people. I know it's hard as a business to keep trying something that might not work but you won't know until you do.

Thanks! I realize I haven't shot that many yet, and I have a small sample size to draw numbers from so far. Fortunately, this is a sideline to my main business, so I don't need to make money on it (yet). There seems to be a lot of interest in my work so far so I'm going to continue it among different leagues/schools, etc. then do a true evaluation.

I may also try pre-ordering on the next team, but trying to keep the process very streamlined and efficient and that adds another layer to it. At this point, everything is worth testing.

Ryan_Chandler1 wrote in post #18954133
Thanks! I realize I haven't shot that many yet, and I have a small sample size to draw numbers from so far. Fortunately, this is a sideline to my main business, so I don't need to make money on it (yet). There seems to be a lot of interest in my work so far so I'm going to continue it among different leagues/schools, etc. then do a true evaluation.

I may also try pre-ordering on the next team, but trying to keep the process very streamlined and efficient and that adds another layer to it. At this point, everything is worth testing.

If you have a list of e-mail addresses from the first shoot you could e-mail them a quick one question survey like rate your experience or rate the photographs 1-10. It's one of those old sales tactics that might get a few more bites. Just don't make it look like sales or spam - we all hate those.

I'm doing this now for the first year, and loving it. I do the shoot with the school team, and I have an iPad with an app I build that gets the student's first and last name, jersey number, parent/guardian's name, phone number. I then take the results from that and I know what order they are in when I shoot them.

I reach out to parents and if I have the wrong number, I get it from coach.

I text them my proof gallery that's heavily watermarked but first they go through an app that explains my process, what they'll see in the proofing, and what the final product will look like from a previous shoot.

They then place orders and I make money.

It's my first year doing this, so I'm learning as I go.

(Example of the group / individual work i'm doing attached)

you're charging too much. if you charge $15-$25, you'll get 80% buying rate and make much more money.

Curious, do you set a deadline and make it clear of when that deadline is? I notice that the majority of my orders tend to come in right before the deadline as most people procrastinate.