On Site Event sales set up

Ann McRae

I am setting up for some on site event printing sales.

This is what I was thinking:

An iMac Mini

Time Capsule for backup and storage there.

My 23" cinema display for my worker to sort and edit.

Several cheap monitors for viewing.

A wireless internet stick so I can use Google Check Out for CC payment.

SmugMug coupons to rally further sales!

and I am not sure what for prints.

Genius or Idiot?

Matt S

Interesting, I have turned down several jobs like this simply because I did not want to invest in the printing equipment to be able to do it on site. Now if this were going to be a large part of the work I tend to do it would be different. I hope you pull it off.

some things to consider

Time: how long from shot to print? How long does the printer take? how many per hour can it do? Can your assistant keep up?

Expense: How much equipment do you need to buy? How much for ink and paper? How much for your assistant? Taxes?

Profit: How much can you charge per print? Are people willing to pay enough to cover your cost and pay you something? Do you have enough of these gigs to make it worth the investment?


I am sure you have though over all these things, but I just though it should be mentioned. I think there are profits to be made with this type of business. There are only a couple of outfits in our area capable of truly doing this type of work and honestly I refer people to them now. I hate to turn down work, but if someone is better setup for it then I can save the investment for other areas where I intend to compete.

catspaw

Clarify : are you trying to sell prints on site, such as those that'd be ordered and delivered through SM or are you trying to print prints on side and sell the actual product immediately?

Matt S

I guess that's a good question, i assumed she meant printing on site. If not, throw out my whole argument.

Snowgirl

There's a local company here that goes to sporting events (including horse shows) and does exactly that. They have 2 shooters plus one assistant who downloads cards, takes orders, does minor editing, printing and sales.

I see two problems with what they do (especially since horse shows are my thing - along with a few others on this list):
1. They don't know horses and they don't know the individual disciplines (e.g. dressage vs. reining or show jumping or cattle penning). Therefore, they don't know where to be and what action to anticipate. Consequently, their shots are mediocre at best;
2. That's a lot of staff (3) for small horse shows and the sales don't justify the staff and set up (multiple monitors for viewing etc.).

Another person in my area does it with one shooter, one admin. assistant (her mother) who takes orders - but no on-site printing - just viewing and ordering.

A third does it the same way I do - alone. So viewing and ordering is sporadic because most of the time I'm out shooting and leave cards so people can find my SM site, look and order. Truthfully - that's not working so well - in large part I believe because of the exchange on the Canadian currency and the delivery hassles getting through the border (not SM's fault - just the way Cdn. Customs people act - grr - another topic altogether).

Whether it's a good idea or not depends on your business model as Matt S. queried.

bob swanson

It seems to be a lot of effort and labor for what you are doing. What is the size and type of event?

Ann McRae wrote:

I am setting up for some on site event printing sales.

This is what I was thinking:

An iMac Mini

Time Capsule for backup and storage there.

My 23" cinema display for my worker to sort and edit.

Several cheap monitors for viewing. Cheap monitors display poor results.

A wireless internet stick so I can use Google Check Out for CC payment. What is the average amount of your charge? Is it necessary to get credit authorization on location?

SmugMug coupons to rally further sales! What are the SM coupons for? Why not post the images on SM and have them do the printing?

and I am not sure what for prints.

Genius or Idiot?

I've been fighting doing "on site" printing for years but could not justify the expense for the return of business. I also have not been able to see the quality of prints from anyone that I've seen do this compared to having a professional house do the printing. Just my thoughts, bsvirginian

Ann McRae

Hi everyone

Well, I have been thinking and asking about the business part of this for years. I have been asked to bid, and won, two events that DEMAND that there be printing at the event.

As snowgirl had alluded, event sales without prints, in my experience, are really slow to non existent. There is a requirement for immediate gratification or folks don't buy.

So I decided to pursue these two major events. I am aware of the pitfalls and prepared for them. However, one event is a National championship with 350-500 competitors and their families and the other is Provincial championship with 200 competitors.

What I would like advice on is the actual hardware set up.

SCP

Snowgirl wrote:

There's a local company here that goes to sporting events (including horse shows) and does exactly that. They have 2 shooters plus one assistant who downloads cards, takes orders, does minor editing, printing and sales.

I see two problems with what they do (especially since horse shows are my thing - along with a few others on this list):
1. They don't know horses and they don't know the individual disciplines (e.g. dressage vs. reining or show jumping or cattle penning). Therefore, they don't know where to be and what action to anticipate. Consequently, their shots are mediocre at best;
2. That's a lot of staff (3) for small horse shows and the sales don't justify the staff and set up (multiple monitors for viewing etc.).

Another person in my area does it with one shooter, one admin. assistant (her mother) who takes orders - but no on-site printing - just viewing and ordering.

A third does it the same way I do - alone. So viewing and ordering is sporadic because most of the time I'm out shooting and leave cards so people can find my SM site, look and order. Truthfully - that's not working so well - in large part I believe because of the exchange on the Canadian currency and the delivery hassles getting through the border (not SM's fault - just the way Cdn. Customs people act - grr - another topic altogether).

Whether it's a good idea or not depends on your business model as Matt S. queried.

I am also a Show Photographer. Here is my Set up.

1) Laptop with nothing but lightroom on it.

2) External Hard Drive

3) Wolverine Portable photo safe

4) A billion Business cards

5) 1 Cute Puppy

6) My Assistant

I recently tried the "Just take pictures and hand out cards" that did not work out. Especially not with the other photographer there who was selling his for $6 bucks.

I am doing another show next weekend and I will taking a Laptop with me this time for viewing and pre-payment. I did try the printing on site and will do it if required but really it is a huge annoying to carry around machine. Instead I take orders and prepayment, edit the photos upload and send via Smug Mug.

I also tried doing this all myself without any printing labs, printing it all myself. Holy crap never again I was behind by months!

I have found the method I have worked well. I am soon going to be leaving the laptop behind and be using other means of Display. Shows are SO hard on Laptops.

Also, for shows that have win shots. I sell the win shots for .50 cents. (I wish Smug Mug had an ability to offer them for free and charge me the 21 cents)

Matt S

Ann McRae wrote:

Hi everyone

Well, I have been thinking and asking about the business part of this for years. I have been asked to bid, and won, two events that DEMAND that there be printing at the event.

As snowgirl had alluded, event sales without prints, in my experience, are really slow to non existent. There is a requirement for immediate gratification or folks don't buy.

So I decided to pursue these two major events. I am aware of the pitfalls and prepared for them. However, one event is a National championship with 350-500 competitors and their families and the other is Provincial championship with 200 competitors.

What I would like advice on is the actual hardware set up.

Well it sounds like you have most everything you need then. I am sorry if I misunderstood your question in the original post.

The Printer is the missing link. There are printers specifically for this type of purpose (like the one linked). They are not cheap, but you sounds like your going to be doing a fair amount of this in the future so it would be worth it. Look for a printer that can print a great deal before needing an ink change out. Also check into ink replacement cost before you buy as that's where the real cost is (my cannon costs nearly $1000 to replace all the ink).

Then the other big one is making sure you have a good assistant as they are going to be busy keeping up. I am sure you are capable of the techno part of things, I would focus on the process. Create a routine for getting shots to computer, ordering and prints.

BradfordBenn

I am not a photorgrapher like you guys, but I do have to do various "one chance events" so I have learned to take the approach as my boss laughs at me for of "Belt, Suspenders, and a piece of rope" approach. I bring spare everything that is critical path. So while printers might be expensive, I would bring one more than I think I am going to need, and for ink and media bring as much as I can possibly find. Heck I often travel with two or three computers, just in case...

Rocketman766

Wow, this is a hard thing to tackle. I just had my first event this weekend where I set up to display/print onsite. I don't know where to start...lets just say it was a learning experience and a small disaster! I was asked to do this on short notice. Having a fast way of getting the shots from the camera to the customers eyes is critical. Having someone who knows what they are doing behind the computer is just as critical. I probably lost most of my sales on this one due to not being able to get the photos in front of the customers fast enough. I will give it a few days to see what the final damage total is, but definitely learned a huge lesson. I am going to take a step back and re-evaluate the whole situation. I do agree that there is an initial investment to be made if you want to print onsite, but its hard when you have to lay out the funds from your pocket first, and then realize you didn't do enough ..... sorry if this turned out to be a hijacking of the thread...

Cygnus Studios

This is really tough. Good help is the absolute key. I use two monitors plus a laptop for viewing and editing. As little editing as possible.
I use the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Professional Edition for the printing. Let's me do everything from 4x6 to 17x22. Pretty fast also.
I use a minimum of 2 helpers at large events (100 or more photos).
For portrait shots, I upload 10 to 15 shots at a time depending on how fast I can get the subject in place. This keeps the pace up so that clients can buy the photos quickly.
For random shots (general event) I upload every 50 shots with scheduled times for viewing and photo pickup.
One helper carrying the mem cards back and forth and the other helper uploading and organizing.
The faster you get the images in front of the customer the more sales you will get.

Snowgirl

Scheduled viewing/ordering times - good idea
That really hit me as brilliant when you don't or can't have additional staff to help out. Just a simple sign "drop by at x o'clock to see this morning's photos" or something like that. Brilliant.

clcoronios

I'm thinking for a show that size (200-400 entries), you are going to need more than one EFFICIENT, KNOWLEDGABLE, TECHNO-SAVVY assistant. Or one of those and one top-notch customer-service person.

Of course, I don't know what kind of event you're talking about - don't think you mentioned - but I do horse shows and I know that with the amount that I shoot, one person at the booth cannot download, cull, set up a slide-show, answer questions, tell people how to fill out the order form, answer more questions, print photos, package orders, take payment (credit cards too? online on-site or when you get home? do you have a knuckle-buster or will s/he have to write out #s?)..... It just ain't a happenin' thing.

Good luck!

Carol

Rocketman766

clcoronios wrote:

I'm thinking for a show that size (200-400 entries), you are going to need more than one EFFICIENT, KNOWLEDGABLE, TECHNO-SAVVY assistant. Or one of those and one top-notch customer-service person.

Of course, I don't know what kind of event you're talking about - don't think you mentioned - but I do horse shows and I know that with the amount that I shoot, one person at the booth cannot download, cull, set up a slide-show, answer questions, tell people how to fill out the order form, answer more questions, print photos, package orders, take payment (credit cards too? online on-site or when you get home? do you have a knuckle-buster or will s/he have to write out #s?)..... It just ain't a happenin' thing.

Good luck!

Carol

Could not agree with this more!!!! As you can see by my post earlier, I think I will try to have at least 3 people for my next event.