Help with wife

goldenstarphoto

Hi there, I thought the title might get some attention. Actually my wife and I work very well together as photographers. The problem comes with the sales area. I am perfectly fine with letting Smugmug handle all the sales, lab, and mailing aspects of our business. My wife (Cathy) thinks that this is to unpersonable and believes we can make more money by having our pictures printed locally and then mail them ourselves with our envelopes (logo's, letterhead, thank you notes, etc.) Does anyone out there have any advice or past experiences? Thanks in advance. Doug
www.goldenstarphoto.com

Tango

have some test prints made by both places or all places in question and you will "see" your decision made for you....

been there done that....

dogwood

Just curious-- but being more "personable" also means more work for you. So will you charge more to cover that additional work?

Also, just my experience, but my clients tend to care about the photos, not the packaging they arrive in. I thank everyone who orders with a personal email, but honestly, the profit margin on print sales is not very high. Digital downloads have a MUCH higher profit margin (for me anyway) and really don't require any work other than posting the images. I'm finding about 75-percent of my orders are for digital downloads and I'm more than happy to let SM handle those orders for me. I literally have to do nothing (other than write a quick thank you email) after a digital download order is placed.

So how will you handle digital downloads? Not offer them? Again, at least for me, that would be a HUGE mistake. Many of my clients want myspace pics or whatever and don't care at all about prints.

nipprdog

goldenstarphoto wrote:

and believes we can make more money by having our pictures printed locally and then mail them ourselves with our envelopes (logo's, letterhead, thank you notes, etc.) Does anyone out there have any advice or past experiences? Thanks in advance. Doug
www.goldenstarphoto.com

You'll make less money. Because, instead of being out in the field shooting, you'll be at home in the office, or at the lab, or at the post office, etc.

RustingInPeace

Sounds like a waste of time...
Sounds like a waste of time...if you are just talking about packaging. On the other hand if you talking about actually "SELLING" that's different.

I print most of my prints with Bay Photo. Print costs are reasonable and quality is high. I do repackage my prints in nice gift boxes, etc. However that's not what sells. That's just a little extra fluff. Bragging rights at work (I love to deliver to offices when I get a chance). I do it mainly because of the way I sell. Face to face sales are far more profitable, by a factor of 3 for me. I offer the smugmug service for convenience of my clients and their relatives.

If your wife is interested in actually "selling" it's worth the investment of time. If she just interested in busy work, it's a total waste.

mike.strock

RustingInPeace wrote:

I print most of my prints with Bay Photo. Print costs are reasonable and quality is high. I do repackage my prints in nice gift boxes, etc. However that's not what sells. That's just a little extra fluff. Bragging rights at work (I love to deliver to offices when I get a chance). I do it mainly because of the way I sell. Face to face sales are far more profitable, by a factor of 3 for me. I offer the smugmug service for convenience of my clients and their relatives.

I do some of RustingInPeace does, print through Bay Photo, delivery by hand, etc.

But I am using Smugmug more and more, because it cuts down on my 'non shooting' time. Plus, they ship to Canada. I shoot softball tournaments, and it turns out, a lot of teams are from Canada. Go figure. So for me, it more than makes up for the fact that I'm paying Smugmug a percentage by them taking care of the hassles of shipping. Doesn't seem impersonal to me at all, seems like good business sense.

Mike.

jonh68

Since you get an alert to customers who buy the photos, you can send emails thanking them. If you want to spend more time, you can send them letters. Like other have said, if your wife wants to spend more time with office work, she can. You just have to determine the cost/benefit. The reason to have smugmug in the first place is to make it easier on the customer and the photographer. If you are going to spend time printing, mailing etc, it would be better to use photobucket for free.

cmorganphotography

I let smugmug handle all of it for me. It's quick, easy, efficient. Much emphasis on efficient. Plus! Smugmug always has their staff on hand and they are quick to respond for anything for you or the customer. Plus, I keep in touch and let them know I'm there, I offer any help during their process, ask for feedback and get it. I make sure I follow up and that's where my personality and "good business" comes into play. Smugmug does the legwork and I offer the personality to go with it.
I do have to choose this fall though... I'm thinking I'll just smugmug the prints to myself and then mail them out... seems so much easier than dealing with the prints. Plus!!! Smugmug prints your name or the business on the back of the prints AND their printer is a high quality lab and if you're thinking of using Walmart or Target [albeit good for p+s prints] and cheap, you have to make sure your prints had some good post production work on them to make it worth it. Otherwise, the prints won't look great which does nothing for you and upsets the customer.
I hope I helped!