Photography Studio - Question about Choosing a Location?

I am currently looking for a studio for my photography business needs. Mostly I do commercial work + weddings + portraiture.

I currently live in Philadelphia and it is great because there is an abundance of work here and there are also a bunch of great photographers at different levels of the game so all is well. Plus this city is great for the arts!

Anyways, to make a long story short. I am looking at two options...
1) Get at large studio in the ghetto area of the city. Factory style loft with 14 foot ceilings and 2300+ square feet open floor plan. Cost would be around $1200 per month + utilities + cost of constructing the studio to suit my needs.

2) Get a Store Front style studio in the suburbs or New Jersey for cheaper. This option would provide less space and I would not be as close to Philadelphia so clients will have to do some traveling to get to me. But I would be in a nice area with fewer scary looking alleys and natives...

I am kind of nervous about having professional clients and potential brides come to my studio if it is in the ghetto with natives crawling the streets trying to sell crack. But I would definately fix the studio up really nice and it would be very secure so once inside, the place would look like you are in a nice modern safe area. Plus 2300 square feet is a nice amount of space.

Or I can get this one place in new jersey that looks like any other small photo studio with 2 full sized glass windows on either side of the entrance and a nice brick sidewalk with a polished metal bench out front. The place looks like any other quiet town.

Right not I am looking at two options. 1) $1200/month + utilities for the large 2300 sqft factory style loft with open floor plan. 2) $600/month + utilities for the small 650 sqft store front style place in a small quiet town in NJ.

I can't decide what to do...

Option 2

liza wrote in post #4555194
Option 2

+ 1

Also with having the studio in New Jersey I believe I would have to pay additional expenses:
NJ State business lisence
NJ County business lisence
NJ Taxes + PA Taxes

But one thing is that my insurance would probably be cheaper!

Plus I'm sure the small town area photographers probably charge far less than what do coming from the big city so I would probably be sitting alone with no local clients.

Well, don't go for a ghetto location! Clients will feel MUCH better coming to a studio in a residential area.

Adaptive wrote in post #4555322
Plus I'm sure the small town area photographers probably charge far less than what do coming from the big city so I would probably be sitting alone with no local clients.

Don't market yourself based on price, but rather on the quality of your product.

Read this:

http://www.wedshooter.​com …rketing-to-the-next-level

Well I think the clients serious would RATHER travel a bit to NJ than go to Ghetto Philly. Ghetto Philly's pretty scary...

There is a reason why it's the ghetto ya know...

If other busniesses can't survive there then neither can you.

Option 2.

It really all depends on your target market and your photography needs. If you need a lot of space in which to shoot, then go with the bigger space in the hood. If all you're shooting are small portrait set ups, then the retail space will work.

You also need think about what your clients expect. Commercial clients are used to going to funky places since that's where more photographers are. For years, I had a huge space in what was then the dingy section of San Diego. (Drunks in front. Crack whores in the back.) No commercial client ever complained. In fact, they loved it.

Wedding clients will come to you pretty much wherever you are. Having a storefront probably isn't going to have much impact one way or the other. It's certainly not enough of an impact to justify the extra expense of retail presence.

The only clients that having a storefront will positively impact are portrait clients. You need to go to them and be in front of them. If your goal is to maximize your portrait business, then you really need to go with the nice storefront or at least be in the right neighborhood.

The flip side is that having a nice portrait boutique will probably turn off the commercial clients. They're used to bigger spaces in the funky part of town.

You can't please everyone. Just figure out what market segment is most important to you and then choose accordingly.

John

There are some very good points being made in this thread.
Thanks to all who have replied.

A ghetto will usually always be a ghetto. Decent areas become ghettos when good people and good businesses move out and the wrong people move in. A ghetto can become better but it takes time. Generally the stereotypical US ghetto involves drugs, organised crime and lots of violence. I say stay out unless you are prepared to carry a .45 ACP and have an armed guard or two permanently stationed at your premises.

rhys wrote in post #4558144
A ghetto will usually always be a ghetto. Decent areas become ghettos when good people and good businesses move out and the wrong people move in. A ghetto can become better but it takes time. Generally the stereotypical US ghetto involves drugs, organised crime and lots of violence. I say stay out unless you are prepared to carry a .45 ACP and have an armed guard or two permanently stationed at your premises.

A ghetto is not forever a ghetto. Things can and do change. The place where my old studio was is now a neighborhood of expensive condos. Given that the location being considered is an old factory, the area is probably more of an industrial area. That means that nearby you most likely don't have rows of low income apartments with gang-bangers drinking malt liquor all day and looking for trouble.

Besides, one man's 'hood is another man's home. At my old studio, I had some clients who would call me from the SUV parked out in front - they were too afraid to walk the 20 feet to the door. They just didn't know any better. Ignorance begets fear. The reality is that I'd come and go at all hours and never have a problem.

If I ever felt that I needed a gun and heavy security to be secure, it would be time for me to move and/or get a new outlook on life.

Changing gear, I think your 600sf space is going to be too small. It's amazing how quickly you can outgrow your space.

John

One thing being forgotten here is a very important part of a successfully business. Appearance is half of what draws clients in. If you have a business in a location where potential clients are afraid to park there BMW then you will loose there business. If you are in a location where clients could be mugged then they will think twice about hiring you. If your studio is grungy, dirty and nasty looking on the out side people will think twice about hiring you. If there are degenerates outside your studio selling drugs and prostitutes hooking on the corner then you should seriously rethink that location. Not only for the image of your business but the safety of yourself and your clients.

Half of the sale is getting the clients in the front door. If they wont walk in how are you supposed to show off your work?

If your store front is in a respectable part of town then potential clients wont be afraid to park there car, worry about getting mugged. If the studio front looks upbeat, classy, and stylish then they will walk in and check out your work.

The ghetto will always be the ghetto unless a good sized development company comes in and build expensive condos and shops. The ghetto is the ghetto for a reason just as the nice areas are nice for a reason. If you want to attract clients who can afford the prices you want to charge then position your business where those clients are likely to be.

Ultimately the decision is dependent on what you can afford , space needed, what you want your image to be and the ability to turn a profit that satisfies you. My bet is the ghetto wont help you turn a profit. It will only hinder it.

John Mireles wrote in post #4559448
A ghetto is not forever a ghetto. Things can and do change. The place where my old studio was is now a neighborhood of expensive condos. Given that the location being considered is an old factory, the area is probably more of an industrial area. That means that nearby you most likely don't have rows of low income apartments with gang-bangers drinking malt liquor all day and looking for trouble.

Besides, one man's 'hood is another man's home. At my old studio, I had some clients who would call me from the SUV parked out in front - they were too afraid to walk the 20 feet to the door. They just didn't know any better. Ignorance begets fear. The reality is that I'd come and go at all hours and never have a problem.

If I ever felt that I needed a gun and heavy security to be secure, it would be time for me to move and/or get a new outlook on life.

Changing gear, I think your 600sf space is going to be too small. It's amazing how quickly you can outgrow your space.

John

The problem is that while a ghetto might get out of being a ghetto, it will take many years. My sister-in-law bought a house in a rundown area of town that's now beginning to come up so after 10 years in that rundown area she sold at a massive profit and bought a house in a nicer area.

10 years is a bit long to sit and wait for decent clients to come. 1 thing I will point out though - whatever place is finally obtained - parking is very important. Nobody will visit premises that they cannot park outside. Done it myself - can't park outside that shop so I go on to the next.

Find a medium priced loft with 1500 sf. I found a newly renovated loft building with ameneties that Clients enjoy. They call me from the front gate and I buzz them into the secure parking lot. I have some of the best restaurants within ten minutes and we often go out for lunch rather than delivery for shoots.