[Pwn4g3_P13]

Hi guys & girls, ten second introduction, picked up a 1mp sony at the age 6, aged 15 went splitsies with my parents on a K100D, and I recently celebrated my 17th birthday.

After being disgusted with the pricing schemes of local photographers, the organisers of the year 13's years leavers ball/prom are asking me to cover the event.

My current set-up;
Pentax K100D

Pentax DA 18-55 3.5-4.5 lens-kit
Pentax F50 1.7 (broken autofocus assembly)
Pentax F35-70 3.5-4.5 (gorgeous little lens)
Sigma 70-300 4-5.6

Pentax AF540 FGZ flashgun
Cactus triggers

And to meet the requirements of this event I plan to buy
Upgrade to K10D
BG-2 Grip
GFong Lightsphere

For this I have budgeted 200 pounds ($300), which is the minum amount of profit I need to make from this event.

Now, the pricing schemes;

Monkeybusiness(local photographers)
6x4 - 14 pounds ($23)
A4 size - 30 pounds ($45)

My prices
6x4 (10p to print) - 2 pounds ($3)
7x5 (20p to print) - 3 pounds ($okey, it's x1.5 the cost in pounds)
A4 (1.30 to print) - 5 pounds

2 pounds P&P costs

Now, here's the maths;

Lets say, in a five hour slot, 400 keeper photos, on the fly photography, no crappy sparkly silver cheesy backgrounds. shot Raw, basic editing in PS (spot removal, complexion clearing...the basics)

Roughly 100 students

Average of 2 photos each, at 6 pounds average value per order (excluding P&P)

50p average printing cost per order

5.50 profit per order, x100 orders

550 pounds profit

That figure seems a bit high to me, but I can't see anything majorly wrong with my maths...So anyway, can anyone see anything wrong with my equipment list/ financial planning? I hope that by keeping prices ultra low I could hopefully make more profit overall, and I don't want to rip-off my schoolmates...I think my 18-55mm lens kit will be satisfatory..this isn't gonna be fine art photography...But i'm welcome to suggestions for lenses. I plan to go thorugh PhotoBox for the printing, as they're the guys I usually use for personal use, but I need suggestions for allowing the students to view/order online through PayPal, as well as protecting the photos.

Long post I know, maybe I'll make this into a community resource at some point for amatuer commerical photographers.

Thanks for any help/support!

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Last edited by Pwn4g3_P13; 06-06-2009 at 09:35 AM.

[flyer]

First thing: don't count the money before it's in your pocket.

Second thing: if you undercut the "monkeys" too much, word will spread, the monkeys will give you a hard time later on, and nobody will want to hire you for a reasonable rate.

Third thing: for that kind of event, go with the K100D. It is more than enough for such a thing.

Fourth thing: your maths are wrong when it comes to profit per picture. Take into account all the time spent taking the pictures, post processing and printing, and you are way off. I think you should go for a commercial lab. Their cost will be more in line with what you intend to charge.

That is, if you can do a decent job of taking the pictures to start with. And, saying this, I'm not in any way meaning you can't do it. I just mean that it takes more than a camera and printer to do a job like that. Good luck anyway.

[Pwn4g3_P13]

Hi Flyer! thanks for the advice, i'll try and address your points one by one;

First thing; Yeah, counting my chickens would be foolish, I just want to try and ensure that I can at least make enough to cover my investment, any more is a huge bonus...

Second thing: of course i'm not trying to put anyone out of business, this is just going to be a private arrangement between me and the school, while i'm in school/possibly in university, these are some of my close personal/famly friends, and even charging them 2 pounds a photo seems a bit unfair, given they cost pennies to print.

Thirdly, my K100D battery life is now simply appalling (the voltage drop after 100 photos is enough to get the no battery sign), and after three years, I feel iv'e earned a k10D, but yes, I fully understand that at these size prints noone will noice the difference in Megapickles...However, I have my aunts and uncles wedding in the summer...who knows then...

Fourthly: that maths is using the prices from PhotoBox, an online lab I have experiance with....I don't fully understand what you mean...and iv'e allowed myself roughly 20 hours editing in total, whch is fully accounted for in my pricing.

And of course, it's all useless without good photos of course, but iv'e been doing events/school production/leavers days nonforprofit for three years now i'm reasonably conifdent in that respect.

I don't mean to sound dissmissive/ungrateful, you have far more experiance than me i'm sure! Thanks for your help!

[flyer]

Hey,

I'm not trying to convince you to drop the whole thing, but to make sure you covered all the bases to avoid losing your shirt in a venture that wasn't well thought out first. If you think you have the know how, then go for it. I'm all for entrepreneurship. Just make sure you don't start something you can't finish and leave your customer with high expectancy just to realize they won't have the sought after pictures. Whatever you decide, good luck.

[alohadave]

Second thing: of course i'm not trying to put anyone out of business, this is just going to be a private arrangement between me and the school, while i'm in school/possibly in university, these are some of my close personal/famly friends, and even charging them 2 pounds a photo seems a bit unfair, given they cost pennies to print.

Stop that mindset right there. You are selling a service, not prints. It doesn't matter what your costs are.

If you can provide a service that people are willing to pay for, then there is no reason to feel bad. Besides that, people have a certain expectation for what these kinds of prints sell for. Selling for way below market price will just make you seem cheap.

It sounds like the school is looking for someone to take advantage of to get a service for cheap.