advice needed

AMI4U

Hello
Im new to the sales part of being a photographer :clap Just jumped in head 1st with SmugMug business! I shoot with a canon 7D 24-135mm kit line an 85mm L lens and My Baby 70-200 is usm II I started with sport photography just going to local games and shooting... I don't know how thats going to go but hopefully in the future these images would be sold for memories to come..But I need Money NOw I want to do kids parties I just Purchase a program call. photo key 6 green screen removal and want to do kids birthday parties would like to print on the spot and also have cheaper rates on my smugmug business.. I can use any background I choses or customer can choses just wondering a good price to set up and how much would a 5x7 or 10 should go I dont know with my ink printer yet i started with like $80 bucks in ink and 4o in paper... any advice

Glort

AMI4U wrote: »

I want to do kids parties

That's nice.
Why do you want to do kids partys? Did you think of covering them because you think it would be fun or you would like the work or is it because the research you have done so far shows this to be the most viable and profitable business in your area with the resources you have and can afford to get?
If you want to make money as you say, you need to pick a market that there is money to be made in. Choosing something because you want to do it and it gives you the warm and fuzzies rather than basing the decision on research, facts and numbers is a good way to waste a lot of time and effort on an unprofitable venture.

The first thing that comes to my mind when you say you want to shoot kids parties though is does anyone want you to shoot their kids parties and are they prepared to pay a worthwhile amount for it. ? Second thing is, How will you get yourself in front of these people that are looking for someone to Photograph these parties so you can even talk to them about hiring you?
Simple but hugely important questions straight off the bat.

What is your advertising and promotional Budget? Where are you going to promote yourself? Got your Biz cards designed? Where are the parties held? How many kids do you expect to shoot on average? How long you going to shoot for? How long you going to need to print?

Have you got Public liability insurance? You'd be an idiot to even start this kind of work without it. Some kid pulls over a light stand on their head and gets a scratch or it wipes out a window in a house or breaks a valuable vase or..... It's you they will go after not the kid.
If you shoot at venues, you may find some won't let you in the joint without it and even if they do, if something happens you won't be covered under their insurance.

How much are you going to charge? Are you going to sell on spec, charge an all up coverage fee or an attendance and then for prints?

would like to print on the spot and also have cheaper rates on my smugmug business..

Why in gods name would you want to do that?

That is completely arse about. Your costs will be higher for snubmutt so why would you charge less?
The idea is to charge your standard rate onsite and make the onsite a lot more expensive so you encourage people to buy and secure the sale NOW. Never let someone walk out the door with money in their pocket when you can relieve them of it at that moment.

You will also find that people will pike on buying onsite with the excuse that they will buy on line which few or any will every do. Online selling is an outdated and near useless business model and best avoided all together. Onsite is your best bet far and away. The only other alternative would be to charge an up front fee and then make all the images downloadable for free off the site.
That way you don't car if they "order" or not and you also don't care if they repo your images off which is as sure as sunrise will happen.

By now your thinking I'm harsh and hard but that's exactly what business is and hopefully I'm opening your eyes to a whole bunch of stuff you haven't thought of but need to.

It doesn't matter a fig what camera and lenses you have, you can own the best the camera store has to offer but that isn't going to help you one single bit in landing clients. You mention camera gear and software but do you have any lighting?
I do a LOT of green screen work for parties, corporates and charities and I can't see how you could successfully do it without a decent studio lighting setup. Forget speedlights, that isn't going to cut it.
If you haven't got lighting or the funds to buy it, you better think up another way to earn a quid with your camera right now. I bought a cheap Chinese 4 light Kit when I started doing a lot of outside work to save knocking and bumping my good studio lights around. I didn't expect to get much out of them and kind of thought of them as a consumable. For the money I make on this work that was fine.

The thing has been these lights have stood up to a hammering for more expensive lights I have one in the past would have never come near and they have worked faultlessly. I can buy at least 2x 4 light kits for the price of one of my good lights and I think that's exactly what I'll be doing in future.
For the work you are looking at, get a cheap and cheerful kit off fleabay and you won't regret it.

I would have suggested you do your homework and worked out how some sort of idea of the size of the market in your area, how many competitors there are, what the going rate is, what the competition does and how you are going to promote yourself to potential clients before you even thought about shelling out for the software.


Read my other rants on onsite printing and bulk ink systems for printers. Buying OEM ink will severely eat into your profits. It was costing me around 80-90C per 8x12 in ink using OEM when I stared event work. WIth the bulk ink I buy in litre bottles it costs me under 5C. Thats a big difference especially to your bottom line.

I can use any background I choses or customer can choses just wondering a good price to set up and how much would a 5x7 or 10 should go I don't know with my ink printer yet i started with like $80 bucks in ink and 4o in paper... any advice

My advise is you are jumping the gun way ahead of what you should be looking at.
I can tell you enough to give you a flying head start with what you want to do as far as shooting greenscreen and onsite printing goes but that would be like teaching you how to do aerobatics in an airplane before you know how to take off and land. You need to know how to get off the ground before you start worrying about barrel rolls and split s maneuvers.

The business stuff is boring and mundane and unexciting or glamourous. It's also absolutely essential if you are remotely serious about making money or being successful in any trade or profession.
I advise you write a business plan. It will wake you up to a load of things you haven't thought about but need to know and work out.

And again, don't even think about this without insurance. I wouldn't go near a kid without it here in Oz and we are not nearly as lawsuit fanatical as what the states seem to be.

Go crunch the numbers, find out about the business you are looking at and when you have done that come back and ask questions that can really help you.