I live in Laguna Beach, CA which is blessed with beautiful views, picturesque Pacific beaches, and lots of tourists from all over the world.
My business idea is to plant myself at places the tourists go to enjoy the views. I'd identify myself as a professional photographer (the 1DMkIII with 85L attached would help ), then ask them if I could take their portraits with with a picturesque backdrop. I'd then post them on a website for customers to purchase prints from. I'd hand them a business card with my web address on it, name, phone number, etc. I could also sell some landscapes that I've taken in Laguna Beach from the website.
My questions are:
1. What percentage of people would actually go to the website and buy something (for a reasonable price)?
2. What website/storefront service would you recommend, particularly considering some tourists may be accessing and ordering from another country?
3. What legal issues could I face?
Why do I want to do this? Well, I don't want to quite my day job (which isn't photography related), but I would like to make a little income to help pay for my hobby. It would give me a good excuse to get me out and around doing something I enjoy. I could also generate a little income to help in retirement which is about 7 years away. It would also be a flexible schedule since I would only do this when I want to.
Thanks for reading this, and I appreciate any thoughts you have!
Doesn't sound like a great idea to me. I just don't imagine you would get many people in that context coming back to your site.
However if it is only time setting it up then why not try it? If you have nothing else to do then trial and error are good ways to learn.
You would have a lot more luck picking up one of those sub dye (or dye sub) printers that can spit out a quality enlargement on the spot. Do the shot and let them order there and then.
Use one such shot to create 4 sample packages starting at no less than $25 (being 5x7) and upwards from there to perhaps a $75 package.
Look into setting up with Bpay so that you can take credit card payment on the spot using your cell phone.
Check with local laws first. There may be licensing and permit laws to do that. A person I knew tried that in Galveston. Made a lot of money till the city shut him down!
My only question would be with regard to you simply planting yourself at these tourist places, and taking photos to sell. For instance I doubt that anyone would be able to setup at the Grand Canyon, shoot, and then sell photos without the appropriate permits, permission, etc. If the areas are in fact public you still may need some kind of permit.
I have to concur with Marcus in that I'm not sure it's a sustainable business plan. Most of the places I've seen this done do print onsite mainly because they know that once you go home, you may log on to look but you're probably not going to buy. While I certainly believe in thinking outside of the box, if you're looking at this as a secondary income for retirement you may want to look elsewhere for that. There are many people here who do much more than take tourist snaps and still find it a challenge to pay the bills let alone save for retirement.
Don't do it .. take a few hours and browse some archived threads about slow sales from events like weddings, sports, & parties where the photographer actually was asked to cover the event. And has extensive and targeted onsite marketing which fails to produce profitable results.
Most of your target market probably have their own cameras with them and the kind of holiday pic they are looking for does not require a MKII to take .. a P&S will suffice.
Plus the chance of these tourists keeping your business card and ordering one print a few weeks after returning home is remote.
In all courtesy, this is one of the lamest make-money ideas I've yet to see here.
Do any of you know what resources (books) are available for different business opportunities in photograhy? I'm not looking to support a family of 10, just make a few bucks to buy equipment.
You would do better to take their email address and send the photo to them with links to your storefront.
As for ways to buy equipment...take really nice shots, frame them, sell them. Art fairs, local coffee houses, etc are always looking for good art that you can hang and sell. If your stuff isn't that good, then time to rethink earning money from photography.
), then ask them if I could take their portraits with with a picturesque backdrop. I'd then post them on a website for customers to purchase prints from. I'd hand them a business card with my web address on it, name, phone number, etc. I could also sell some landscapes that I've taken in Laguna Beach from the website.