Jeff Martin wrote:
I have been lurking here for some time gathering info and learning a great deal. I am in the process of writing a youth sports photography business plan for an investor and I have a few questions for the pros here. I'm trying to make some financial forecasts and would like to get a gereral idea of the income potential for this type of photography. I live in an area with a population of over 500,000 within 50 miles. I can go full time within a month. Another question is how much actual time do you put into the business including shoot time, processing, website updating and order processing. My wife is concerned with the amount of family time I will have when I start this business. I will have more questions later. Thanks...Show more →
Jeff:
...lots of variables here to give specific advice.
Here are questions only you can answer:
-How good are you?
-How tough are you?
-Do you give up easily?
-How much time are you willing to spend in this business?
-What kind of gear do you own...pro...serious amateur...consumer grade?
-What kind of experience have you had in running a small business?
-What kind of experience do you have in sports photography?
-What's the competition like in your area?
-What contracts are locked up in your area?
-Do you have any contacts with local AD's, youth board members, promoters?
-Do you have any current business?
-Are you really serious about doing this full-time?
-Do you have a degree in photography, work history or any studio experience?
-What do you expect to make?
-Do you have a studio?
-Do you have a website?
-Do you have qualified assistants?
-What does your investor expect to make from this?
-Do you have business insurance with $1,000,000 to 2,000,000 in liability coverage?
Have you ever herd of MyCapture? Load the photos onto their site, people check out the photos and order through them. They do all the printing and shipping. They offer a full line of items form coffee mugs to Christmas ornaments. They take a small % and the rest is yours. The paper I work for has made 5K in the past 9 months without even trying. Check it out.
Lee
For 12 months I did the selling and printing onsite. After talking to Hammy a few times I only sold onsite for the first 3 months of this year. I did not notice a drop in sales, in fact, sales were up.
For the past few events I have been offering large prints (12X8 and 10X8) and CDs onsite. This way, if they want to take a print away with them they can purchase a larger print that is not only more profitable, but also saves us on the most expensive items to ship. If the shot is good out of the camera, there is not much resizing needed and printing is quick and easy using the Mitsubishi 3800.
We don’t do the print in a minute thing anymore. We simply give the people wanting to go home with a print a ticket when they order. Before they go hand the ticket back in and collect their prints.
If you want to get rich with little effort and live off the proceeds with little effort, look elsewhere.
If you want to put in a zillion hours and make a living (see Hammy's post above), then it might be possible. On the other hand, you could still put in the same zillion hours, and still not make much money.
It takes real dedication to run your own business successfully. Ask anyone who owns a successful business and they will tell you this.
Sorry I haven't replied to any of the posts here since my first. I have been out of town working. Thanks to all for the advice given. It has opened my eyes a bit and made me re-evaluate some things. I do not plan to get rich doing this. I would be happy even if I only made as much as I do in my current job. As far as working hard, thats no problem. I just worked 132 hours in 2 weeks. What I don't have I will get. Equipment, knowledge, etc. The time issue is not as big a deal as I thought. I spend way too many hours away from home now.
