Opening shop!!

Hey guys. So I plan on opening a SMALL photography and design studio in my town and I would like any input and advice yal can give me to start off. Anything from how to charge them, to how to manage it right. any and every tip would be appreciated. Thanks.

BTW: i plan on doing everything from Portraits to location shoots with photography and graphics, business cards, flyers, signs, and any other graphic related stuff on the design side.

Hi Cody and good luck with your venture.

Do you have a good accountant and thorough, sound, business plan? Those are two key elements that would be essential to a successful operation. As for what to charge, only you can determine that based upon what the local market will support, what your competition charges, and what it's necessary for you to charge in order to stay in business.

Will this be a supplement to a regular FT job, or your sole means of support?

well heres the deal. I dont need to pay rent or anything for the studio because my father owns the building. so i would pretty much be making 100% profit. Ill check prices of other local places. Im working on a business plan now. This is just a test to see how it does. I guess you could say side job. Like i said, its nothing big. Ill put out a sign and flyers and prob put an add in the paper. and be open for appointments only.

Regardless of you costs or lack of,
A good business plan,
marketing plan,
Realistic pricing,
Insurance,
Accountant,

In order of Importance.
Don't kid yourself, you will not be making 100% profit.

Good luck with it and as others have mentioned talk to an accountant and lawyer and get that squared away.

Not sure about America but here in the UK one thing people always forget is to get Public Liability Insurance. If someone has an accident in your studio your covered.

gtrrocker02 wrote in post #11414401
well heres the deal. I dont need to pay rent or anything for the studio because my father owns the building. so i would pretty much be making 100% profit. Ill check prices of other local places. Im working on a business plan now. This is just a test to see how it does. I guess you could say side job. Like i said, its nothing big. Ill put out a sign and flyers and prob put an add in the paper. and be open for appointments only.

I will agree with everyone else that suggests you contact professionals that know what they are doing to help you set up businesses, accountant, lawyers, etc. Certainly getting suggestions off of a forum can't hurt but please tell us you are the rest of this the right way.

You are very fortunate to have a father that will allow you rent free but that hardly constitutes all revenues will be profit. Are you staffing this, even if it is by yourself you have to have a salary. Is your father paying for all the utilities. Then there is the insurance requirements as was mentioned by PeteA. If you go to a bank to get a line of credit you will have to have a business plan.

I wish you luck but somehow I get the feeling that feel that you have a rent free building you are going to be rolling in the dough. I would suggest even a night course in business management. Most photographers that fail operating a full time business do so not because of their photography it is because they can't run a business. I'm not saying that this is you but certainly something to think about. There are plenty of costs beyond the rent of the building. What happens when the economy picks up and this space could be rented out by your father. Does your plan still stand up if you have to pay him market rates.

I further agree with the others that it will not be 100% pure profit. You will need to have various forms and contracts drawn up, all the legal stuff to protect yourself, and you will have to allocate money for advertising, hosting, domain name, all the little nuts and bolts details. That can easily eat up $100/month on average when you consider all the little things we tend to overlook.

There is really an excellent book out called Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington. I purchased it earlier this year and it's chock full of helpful info like how to bid a job, setting up contracts, how to effectively negotiate, etc:

http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1291807​769&sr=1-1

When the current edition was released there were at least a couple of discussion threads here talking about the book. I don't recall the link offhand, but if you do a search I'm sure you'll find it. - Stu

Opening New Studio

Lots of links here:
Getting a business license as Sole Proprietor or LLC

wow. now thats what im talkn about Thanks for all the advice and tips! ill see who i can talk to about the legal stuff and everything else. and thank you SAPEARL, ill definitely look into that book.