blog

Groupon Voucher Scheme

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:03:37 +0100

Groupon Voucher System

It is some time since I up-dated my blog but I don't see the point of writing just for the sake of it. But in the last few months I have tried something new for me, though I know other photographers have been doing this for some time. That is teaching photography outside the confines of a regulated educational establishment. Many photographers have been affected by the downturn in the economy, and I have noticed that quite a few have turned to offering courses to keen amateur photographers in location and studio techniques or just advancing the amateurs general interest in photography, like night-time photography, or taking pretty pictures. Quite a few photographers have done so in Edinburgh, my home town.

For the past few years my income has increasingly come from education, teaching day and evening adult education classes in photography, Adobe Photoshop and computing; as my commercial photography has declined. My work was in the in-house publications market, photographing company directors, and senior management, for the banks, and large companies. However, this area started to decline even before the present recession, as much of the previous published work moved to on-line resources and the photography was undertaken by the press manager or keen employees interested in photography.

So, I moved sideways into education. But I am still self-employed and all my teaching is based on term time contract work, so I have to find extra income during the quiet months. The longest quiet time for me is the summer months, when most council run adult education courses come to an end.

This year (2012) I tried something new, I ran photography courses based locally to me around outdoor photography. I did this through Groupon for a number of reasons of which I will now tell you about.

I have considered running courses in the past, and have tried to do so with the help of another like-minded person. We ran a few courses some years back in photography from a room hired from a local college. But this required payment for hire facilities and advertising. We found that with these costs the profit for two people teaching was not worth the time or effort and soon stopped the courses.

So, there are a few pointers one has to make at the start: keep your overheads low. I don't have a studio, so that was one good reason to do an outdoor based course. Decide on what area of photography you are, or feel you are, strong at and plan the lesson. Don’t just hope that you can make the course up as you go along on the day – though do be prepared to have to adapt some of the course to what the students wish to learn or already know. If you do have a studio, then it might be an idea to run the course based in the studio, but be aware that this might incur extra insurance costs, health and safety considerations, age limits, numbers of students able to be in the studio at the same time, etc.

How to advertise your courses? The previous courses I was involved with relied on the contacts provided by the college, basically their mailing list. This proved to be too small, and ineffectual. But buying advertising in the press was ludicrously expensive, hundreds of pounds for a small advert over two days and could not be justified on the charges for the course we were running. I am sure you are already aware of the cost of advertising. Short courses, or special limited time offers, often cost more to advertise than they bring in. This is where I found Groupon so useful. Admittedly there are problems as well. But to start with the good points. Groupon, and the other similar companies, have huge data basis of potential clients that would be extremely difficult for me to access any other way. They take on the advertising of the course, or other offer you might have, without asking for any upfront payment. In this way it costs you nothing to advertise, and if you don't have a large enough response for the offer to go ahead, it has cost you nothing. However, the threshold for the offer to go ahead is usually quite low and given that they are advertising to hundreds of thousands of people, it would be surprising if the offer did not go ahead.

So, how does it work?

You contact Groupon and they will send a representative to meet with you to discuss the offer, and what the offer includes, along with how much they will charge and finally what cut you get. They will want to make sure you are who you say you are and will check you out. All their offers are based on a reduction of the original price of around 80%, so your original charge has to take this into account for any offer you are making. Therefore, if your original offer for a course is £100, say for five people to be on the course, Groupon will probably advertise the course for around £25. Obviously this is not what you get. You will be offered around 40% of that price. There will also be VAT to pay, though that is charged by Groupon when the clients buy the ticket. If you are VAT registered you can claim it back.

So, this where your sums have to come in. Are you able to make a profit on £13 per client, when you originally wanted to charge £100 per client? Do you need to have extra people on the day or offer more days or reduce your costs in other ways? It might be that you offer something else on the day, like a print, which is not included within the original offer, but once the client has taken a photograph they might wish a print to put on the wall. This would be charged at the usual rate, or, as a special, it could have a premium rate. In this way income can be enhanced from what would appear on first glance a cheap offer. However, there might be advantages to taking the hit on your costs. The obvious one is that you are quickly able to put together a client database of your own, though Groupon will not pass on the email addresses of the clients directly to you. But you could, and maybe should, have a feedback form on the course, or offer, and within the form would be a request for email details. Or you might offer another add-on for those who attend the course, like a print for example. But for the clients to claim this they have to email you and, low and behold, you have their email without having to ask for it directly.

I ran a course for a number of reasons; one, the course was run over a quiet income period, so any money coming in was better than none. Two, I was able to build up a client database for me to advertise other courses, those on the official adult education list that I teach, and any others I wished to run privately. Three, it is very good practice to have to teach, or instruct, other people of various levels all in one day. It keeps you on your feet and as an instructor/tutor helps you to think quickly and find ways of explaining quite complex concepts in a simple manner. Just because you know how to do something doesn't, unfortunately, mean that you can pass that information on coherently. Often people believe that teaching people is easy and that no knowledge is necessary on how to teach. But we have all met good and bad teachers and all have had the prerequisite knowledge of their subject, so what is the difference; they all know the same stuff so they should all be able to teach equally well. If you are considering running courses, then I would advise very strongly that you do at least a basic teaching course and have some understanding of learning styles, teaching styles and planning a lesson.

As I have said already, just because you know something doesn't mean you can teach it.

Finally, planning of the course/offer you are advertising through Groupon, or other offer group, remember that you are likely to sell more vouchers than will be used. In Groupon's case, if the buyer does not book then Groupon will keep all the money and you get nothing. I had my clients’ book online through Groupon, thereby negating them having to give me the Groupon voucher, security number or other details. However, I did have them give me a contact phone number when booking, so that I could contact them directly if need be, such as if they were late arriving I could text or call and tell them where I was or see if it was worth waiting for them before starting. By having the clients book online I could redeem the voucher on the day the offer became active whether the client turned up or not and so receive my cut. Without booking online I would have to wait for the client, take the voucher of them and then log into Groupon to redeem the voucher by inputting the voucher security number. Online the client does this at the time of booking, as all I have at my end is the voucher reference number. I have to have the voucher security number to be able to redeem the voucher as this proves the client turned up.

In my case the vouchers sold well, but this does not mean I will have full booking. However, it does mean making time/days available for those wishing to come on the course or take up your offer. Initially I did decide to make enough days open for a full use of all vouchers. Within the first couple of weeks I found that the keenest clients booked straight away, and I was able to start closing days down days that had a poor response. I did request clients to move from one day to another if there weren’t enough people to justify running the course. I put on my website that a minimum number of people would be necessary on the day for the course to run. I decided at least a week in advance if numbers were adequate for the course to run, so that those booked on the day had enough notice to change to another date if necessary. In fact I found that I had about a three quarter take-up of vouchers sold and in future would open enough days for that kind of number, but allow for extra possible days in my diary in case a higher booking rate does occur.

Advantages of Groupon or equivalent company:

Large advertising network at no direct cost to you.

Potential for you to create your own database of potential clients.

Income/turnover during quiet times for your business.

A way for a new business to generate interest and turnover.

Disadvantages of Groupon or equivalent company:

Potentially inundated with bookings producing high turnover, but low or none-existent profit.

You having to make time available for clients taking the offer, therefore, potentially, having to turn away full paying clients.

To have a realistic return; either having to take on more clients at one time; or more over a period of time for less money.

Things to consider:

Plan your time for the offer to run and when that will be. I have heard of a hair dresser who had a Groupon offer, was inundated with bookings at the expense of regular clients. Be strict about when the offer is open. If the worst comes to the worst Groupon always refunds the offer to the buyer, but your regular clients are always worth two or three times the value of a Groupon client.

Be aware that there are people out there who wish to have offers free and pretend to have bought a voucher. They do this by phoning before the end of the voucher deal period (you should not take bookings before the deal ends), persuading you to book them in and promising to give you the voucher code when it comes in. (If this is the first time you have run an offer you might get very excited about people phoning and take bookings in advance – DON’T) They turn up on the day, probably a little late and apparently flustered, without the voucher, but promising to phone the voucher details in later when they get back home. Because they cause a stink in the office, or wherever, you give way and, of course, never hear from them again. They have had a free offer!! I had one try this on, but because I had everyone book online he couldn’t book without the voucher details. He was extremely obnoxious about this and contacted me several times complaining and saying he had never had to book online before and that everyone had taken him at his word when he had booked previously with other offers. Once the deal closed he never contacted me again. As it happened he didn’t book, as he hadn’t bought a voucher.

I would strongly advise having an online booking system through Groupon (if using Groupon), so that you make the times available and the client books themselves in. It also makes it easier for you to redeem the voucher once the offer is active. This also gives you control over when the offer is available and prevents you from being persuaded over the phone (or someone popping in) to make a booking on their terms. Remember, YOU are making a reduced special offer for your services and as such you must remain in control.

I am not sure you can actually make a business out of Groupon, or equivalent, offers. I have noticed many photographers will offer a service through Groupon, then a month or so later offer the same again through another similar company, and then another, eventually coming all the way round to Groupon again with the same offer. Eventually, I would have thought, there will be a point where you either do have an actual service at the advertised price or you don’t. If you find that your Groupon offer is the only way to have a business, then I would advise finding another source of income, as turnover does not equal profit. If you have fixed costs, and most people do, and your usual charge for your service is £260 and you are offering it at £9 (I have seen this on Groupon) then something has to give. If no one is buying at £260 then maybe you are charging too much to start with. But if you can make the service pay at £9, then the question must be asked, why are you charging £260? Somewhere your business model is wrong – or maybe, as I suggested earlier, you have decided for a short time to take a hit on profits to raise your profile or create a database of your own. It is all down to planning.

I hope that the above gives you some idea as to whether it is worth opting for this kind of offer for your services. Obviously it is based on numbers, therefore wouldn’t be worth it for press, advertising, p.r work, etc, but might be for portraits of family/kids style of work, as well as courses in photography.

Business 3 - Marketing

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:00:03 +0100

Photography Business section Three - Marketing

Business Section 3

Marketing the Business

The basis of marketing is to enable your client base to hear about you as quickly as possible at the lowest cost as possible. Sounds simple, but it is the one thing that is extremely difficult to get right. The one thing you really need to now backwards is how your client base works. What is their method of acquiring your type of product or service?

I will give a recent example of what I consider to be poor marketing. I had posted through my door a flyer for private tuition of children between the ages of 14 and 18 studying at High School. The flyer was for tuition in a town about twenty miles from where I live and would include within the radius of the town about five high schools each with an average of eight hundred pupils. That’s a lot of flyers and many miles travelling by car and foot. I live on a small housing development of thirty houses, of which three have children going to the local school and of relevant age, the rest are young families and most are years of having children at high school. So, the person has wasted their time and effort putting flyers in houses that will have no interest in the service provided.
What would have been a better method of advertising? The school produces an annual calendar and to help pay for this they take advertising from businesses of all types. Nearly every parent with a child in the school buys one of these calendars because the money raised helps towards the school funds. By advertising in this publication the person offering tuition is instantly within the household of the particular client base, not just for the time it takes to cross from the letter box with the flyer to the bin; but for twelve months of the year. In the spring term the school produces a book that includes photographs of every child in the school and various stories of the school year. This is also partially financed through advertising and once again nearly every family buys a copy. Once again by advertising in this book the person offering private tuition would effectively cover their main client base without all the leg work and miles travelled. Admittedly advertising in this way may cost more money up front, but would probably be more cost effective as it gets directly to the market without wasting time. If the person offering tuition did something similar at each school in their area, then time could be saved walking and more time could be spent on practical effort in the business. The only good thing to come from posting flyers is exercise. Posting flyers through doors smacks of desperation, as it is not an effective way of targeting your market. You are as well to take the flyers out on a windy day and let them fly from house to house as the weather sees fit.

So we see here a person who does not know their client base or is unwilling to consider exactly what the best way is to effectively inform their client base of their services. It might be they have missed out on the calendar and book and started this service too late in the year. What should they do? They could start the business a few months later, ensuring that everything is up to speed within their business, so that when they can advertise they are ready for the calls. This might be a better use of their time. Or they might consider going to the schools direct and seeing if a flyer could be included with any newsletters that might be sent. They could offer their time, or some money, towards helping send out the newsletters. My preferred option would be to have researched the market, see what the schools offer by a way of advertising my services and have waited for my advert to come out before starting the business.

First Steps

Research your market. Find out the best way to reach your client base. In photography this might be an advert in the local press, or yellow pages. If you are planning to do wedding photography then introduce yourself to venues that offer wedding services, (hotels, pubs, restaurants etc) and see if they will pass your details on or allow you to leave a card and brochure for potential clients to take away. Make sure that your business start-up coincides with your advertising. It is pointless to advertise and not be able to take clients on because you haven’t got everything in place necessary to carry out the work. Or maybe you are sitting at home twiddling your thumbs because you are ready, but the advert isn’t out for another three months so no one knows you exist.

Web

We have heard for years about the World Wide Web and how this will revolutionise business and create new business. I think a Web presence is essential. It is often the first place people will look to see what you are doing and how good your work is, so make sure you have good work on show. A website is a good place to advertise your service/product and enable customers to contact you. But it is very much a hit and miss affair. A website in itself will not generate much work or sales without advertising. Advertising through search engines is expensive, as they base their charges on ‘hit’ rates and not actual sales, so it is possible to get thousands of ‘hits’ and no sales. Also, unless you are selling internationally, and you might with print sales, it is pointless advertising world-wide and paying for it if your business is only within a fifty mile radius of your house. So, again think about what you are selling and to whom. Do you need an expensive all singing all dancing bespoke web presence or a simple low cost template website? Especially when you are starting up in business keeping things simple is often the best way; you can always spend more on a better site at a later stage. The important thing to remember about a website is it needs to be simple to access and use, quick to download, and must have your contact details on it. Look at a few websites of your local competitors and see what they have. Ask yourself: do like the site? Does it work well? What information do you want and can you get it from their site easily?

Advertising

Advertising your product and service can be an expensive method of attracting custom, but we have all done it at some time. I have advertised in magazines, directories, trade publications, on the web etc and at the end of the day most of my work came through me actually knocking on doors and seeing the client directly with my portfolio. Advertising might have raised my profile, but it was difficult to measure and did not directly create new business, though directories have worked. I no longer pay for advertising. My view is that any advertising should be able to be paid for by the first job I get from it and as it didn’t pay I don’t advertise. Always ask how a client heard about you, as that way you can build up an idea as to which marketing technique works and which don’t.

Direct Mail Shots

I have sent out flyers to specific companies in the past, making sure I had already found out how much commissioning they did and who decided on the commission. I did this every month for a year to every relevant p.r. company in Scotland and had three queries from one company and no actual work from any. The flyers had photos, client list and contact information, so that they could have an overview of my work. I am not a great supporter of flyers of any type.

And finally -

There are always success stories about those who have set up a small business and never looked back. But for every success there are many more failures. The vast majority of businesses fail within their first five years of starting. Photography is no exception to the rule. Remember that it can take many months for your first job or sale to come through and in that time you still have expenses to pay. An apparent large sum of money from a redundancy settlement can soon be wiped out on expensive camera equipment, marketing and waiting for the phone to ring. Knocking on doors was my most successful way of finding clients; phoning them up, asking questions about their commissioning and seeing the actual commissioner in person. This, however, is slow and to build up a regular client base can take years; only to be lost when your contact moves on.

My writings aren’t meant to put you off starting in business (though it might appear so), only to make you think long and hard about doing so; what it is you’re doing and whether you are the person to do it. At the end of the day only you can make the decision and I am someone who thinks it is better to try and fail then not to try at all. But do be realistic about the potential profit, work involved and what it means to be self-employed.

As I have said before, I am available for talks etc on general business matters.

Business 2 - Your Personality

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:44:33 +0100

Business section 2

You and Your Personality

This section is about you or, more importantly, your personality. Why your personality? Because, this is what makes us what we are. How we deal with problems. How we deal with people, stressful situations, AND how people see US.

If all you are going to do is sell pictures via the internet, with no client meeting or discussion then any issues of personality are not going to be a major problem, as long as you can deliver what you promise.

However, when we have to deal face to face with individuals and sell not only our photographs, but ourselves, then personality becomes very important. Knowing ourselves is very important, but difficult to actually do. I have known photographers who have no understanding as to why they aren’t getting any work, when it is blatantly obvious to others. They have difficulty dealing with people, or refuse to deal on-line as they have a fear of modern technology, or they find life stressful and have thought photography would be easy and they quite like it. The difficulty is for us as individuals to be honest about our weaknesses and failings. Usually we ignore them, or hope they will go away.

So, let’s start talking about ourselves. When we work in an office we are usually part of a team. Questions that might be pertinent to ask are: what part of the team do you play? Can people talk openly to you? As a leader of the team (if you are one) do you get stressed? Blame yourself, or others if this go wrong? Feel that the only way to get things done around the office is to shout at people? Are you approachable? Would you wish to work with someone like yourself?

In an office we have to work together. As the boss/team leader you choose your staff and they will probably say they like you because they feel they have to. While in reality they really wish you were dead. So what is the truth about YOU?

These questions aren’t really just about working in photography, but any business where you are self-employed. First impressions are very important and the client must feel confident with you AND in your ability to take photographs that they wish you to take.

I assume that you have a certain confidence in yourself and in your ability to take photographs, to think you could be a photographer and earn money being so. The difference of being an amateur hobbyist photographer and being a professional trying to make is living is huge. Anyone can be a photographer, just buy a camera and some lights and that’s it. I had a discussion with a photographer on this point some years back and he commented that the difference for him between a good amateur and a professional photographer was simple. The amateur could take as long as they wish to take a photograph, re-shoot many times and only answer to themselves for success or failure. The professional has to get the shot whatever the situation, every time, all the time and has to answer to the client. Stress therefore is a big issue for photographers. Stress could be for relatively short space of time, you might only have minutes to get the shot, or it can last for hours where you are dealing with client/s models, set-builders, locations, lighting – the list goes on. How are you under stress?

When we are working in the office we usually work with a small team, possibly the same team for days, weeks and maybe years. In this way we get to know people, have a laugh, socialise and work. Working for yourself, on your own, can bring its own problems. There is no one to talk to about problems. You might be dealing with different clients on a daily basis (kids/adult portraiture) or weekly (weddings). How are you with dealing with many different people and personalities? How are you at being on your own for hours? Are you relaxed and friendly or shy and nervous? A bit simplistic I know, but you get the picture. Working with lots of different people can cause lots of different problems.

Working for yourself means just that – working for yourself. There is no need to get out of bed at a set time, or be at the office for a set duration, or to do anything at all. There is no one watching you, or doing annual assessments or planning training days and office parties etc. There is just You on your own waiting for the call from a client for the first time. Are you the type who is stubborn, but sensible, able to get out of bed even on a rainy day and work, phoning people who have no interest in you, instead of watching day-time TV?

Of course there is no one type of person who will make a success of a business and we are all types of personality depending on the situation and how we feel on the day. However, running a business is about being consistent. No one wants to meet you one day and find you fun to be with and the next morose and despondent. If you are selling yourself as a major part of the business, and we are when we take a portfolio round to show people our work, then first impressions are very important. If you are positive and confident when the client first meets you, they expect that same confidence on the day of the shoot. We have al heard of ‘artistic temperament’, but who wants to work with a paranoid schizophrenic on a daily basis? Not many, and if you are like that then your work has to be excellent, well beyond the norm.

I have met many people who wish to turn their hobby into a profession, especially those interested in photography. But it is one thing taking photos as and when; quite another taking photos for a client within a specified time. When your hobby becomes a job it is no longer a hobby but a business and the bottom line is it has to pay you a wage and make a profit.

There a no typical business men/women, as there are no typical business models or, to put it another way, there are as many business models as there are types of people – but I think to make a successful business and this is especially true of photography, you have to be focussed almost to an obsession, but without losing a grasp of reality about the profitability of the business.

If you think yourself capable of dealing with the stresses and strains of irregular money supply, hours of work and clients, then the nest step is marketing yourself and the business. That is what the next section is about.

By the way I am available for talks to students, etc, on general business matters.

Photographic Business/Freelance Photographer

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:20:58 +0100

There are going to be quite a number of people over the next couple of years who will find themselves being made redundant, or forced to take early retirement, wondering what to do with themselves. A number of them might decide that photography is for them and consider starting a small business. They might already like photography as a hobby; friends, family and wives might say, ‘that’s a lovely picture. You could sell that’. And it might be a ‘lovely’ picture for the family at Christmas. But the question must be – would they pay for it? Real money I mean, not a tenner or twenty quid, but maybe £100 or more. Because, to run a business you have to make a profit: unlike a hobby. So, this article is about starting up as a photographer.

Before I start, you might be thinking what right has this guy got to say whether I start up as a photographer or not? Well, I don’t really have any right to advise you against starting as a photographer, and I don’t intend to. You might be the next best thing in photography since….the last best thing in photography, for all I know. But I have had some experience in the industry and believe that there are some key issues that should be considered before embarking on a photographic career, especially one in your own business.

My experience has been in photography since 1983, when I left college and worked as an assistant photographer in London. In 1995 I started in earnest as a freelance photographer based in Edinburgh, where I still live. (Though I am willing to travel anywhere for the right money to discuss anything photographic to anyone). I have a degree in Photography, a teaching qualification and ample experience.

So, let’s get started. You want to be a Photographer. What does that mean? I have been on a number of business courses and on one the speaker asked me what I did. I said that I was a Photographer and he said, ‘Yea, but what do you do?’ And this reply started me thinking. What is it I do? What is it I’m selling? It’s a simple, but instrumental question, as it defines where you go, what you do and how you do it. The term ‘photographer’ is broad and defines nothing, apart that you probably use a camera, but not necessarily.

The starting point then is to write down what it is you are going to sell. Are you selling photographs you have already taken? This could be directly to specific clients or through an agent, gallery, photo-library etc. Or are you going to find people to take photographs for, i.e. weddings, public relations, editorial, design groups, etc? Once you have decided on the type of photographer you wish to be, then write down what sort of person you think that type of photographer ought to be. Then think again!!

Why think again? Because we have to know where we are coming from to move forward. Why do you want to be a self-employed photographer? What were you doing before? Was it relevant to photography, or for that matter running your own business? As at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what business you run you still need to ask these questions and assess truthfully (if you can) what your expectations really are. Let’s ask some questions and dispel some myths. I will make some broad assumptions here; you have been made redundant and have a lump sum to invest in your future and want to work for yourself so that you are the boss. Or you might have left school and decided that photography is for you, as there is no need for any qualification and you can live at home and your mum and dad will support you. Or you have just left college with a degree in photography and the college thought you were great and you do to; so the rest of the world will think so also, and why waste time learning the ropes when you could just start. Whatever, the question has to be – why do you want to be a photographer? What are your expectations?

If you go to a business seminar they will talk about informing the tax office, VAT, USP (Unique Selling Point) and various other mumbo jumbo. But, maybe you’ve been in full-time employment where you get a monthly income, paid holidays, sickness leave and pension. These financial considerations are seldom discussed at business seminars. At work you turn up, you have a regular routine, meetings to attend, a line manager who will discuss your work and future and you might be sent on training days to ensure you are kept up to date with technology and work practice. You can plan holidays, take sick leave, and assume that on your retirement you will have some money in the bank on a regular basis. Self-employed people have none of that. If you don’t work you don’t get paid – Full Stop. If you are sick, there is no money. Go on holiday, there is no money. And unless you pay for your own pension one hundred percent, there is no pension.

Many people think that being self-employed gives them a sense of freedom. No longer tied to the office and also away from office politics! A world where they can decide when they work and who they work for. Sounds great, but the reality can soon turn sour. Being self-employed means there is no clocking off, you are always looking for work. Every contact is a potential new client, however horrible they are to work for. You work for anyone (usually), and at any time (weekends, evenings) because you don’t know when the next job will come along. Office politics is still there, it’s just that you’re not included in the discussion; but that doesn’t mean the discussion isn’t about you. You might have a good friend in a company who can pass work your way, but they are moved on; you don’t know the new person and they have their own friends. I’ve seen it happen over and over again, as most photographers only have a couple of really good clients providing most of their work and when the key person moves or retires it can be the end for the photographer.

You need to know whether you and any family/partner are willing to put the best part of your redundancy money into a business that, the Association of Photographers say, takes about five years to see a profit. That is a big commitment. If you are still keen to give it a go, then let’s continue.

OK, you’re still with me and want to give it a go. You’ve got a load of money, and friends and family like your photos. You decide to buy the camera, lights, etc, get business cards and letter head made (we all like that bit), and then what? You’ve forgotten one major issue. ‘What’s that?’ you might ask. WORK!! You haven’t any, but you have spent a load of money already. Let’s go back. You have decided on the field you want to be in. You need to research it in your area. Is someone already doing your sort of work? If so, how are they doing financially? Is it their main income, or do they also work elsewhere? You might have spotted a gap in the market or on the other hand, there just isn’t a market for your work in your area. Would you have to move to another town/city to do the type of photography you wish to work in?

For argument sake, let’s just say you have decided to do wedding photography. Every year there are loads of weddings in your area and you’ve checked out the local wedding photography rates. The local wedding guy/s is charging about £1000 per wedding depending on the package. It sounds good. Fifty-two weeks in the year, you should be able to get one wedding a week, meaning a turnover of £52,000 per year. You’d be happy with that (maybe). What happens if you don’t get one wedding a week? Very few photographers do. One a month might be closer to it, so it’s a turnover of £12000 per year and that’s on the assumption you can charge a £1000 per wedding – not so good! So can you realistically charge the same amount as the other photographers when you start out? They have years of experience, know the ropes and have contacts. You have nothing, no previous work, no contacts with hotel, restaurant, pub owners, the local vicar/minister, etc. How do you get known? The other photographers might have a high street presence, shop front, website, and advertising in the local press. This can cost a great deal of money. You decide that you have to be cheaper than all the other photographers (that’s going to be your USP). Is that wise? No, as it means less money for you, probably a poorer quality of work and you still have fixed costs to cover. No bad thing to keep those costs down though.

Fixed costs: None fixed costs:

Not in any order of importance

Mortgage/rent Car

Rates/community charge Holiday/s

Heating Sickness

Electricity Advertising

Water Food

Telephone LIFE

Insurance (car, cameras, Personal Liability, house etc)

Pension

The list could go on depending on your life style

Are you still with me? Or have I put you off?

So, how do we work out our charges? We have worked out our basic fixed costs, so we know the minimum we need. The next aspect will depend somewhat on the field of photography we work in. If you decide to sell prints, then your costs will include printing, framing, delivering and exhibiting. This might be done by you alone, or in conjunction with a gallery or other supplier. Outside suppliers of your work might dictate your percentage of return per sale on each image and then you can work out how many prints you need to sell per year/day/hour etc to cover your costs and make a profit. Fairly straightforward in fact.

Editorial work is usually paid as a set fee by the publisher (depends on the publisher as to how much that will be) for a specific shot. The more separate shots the more money. Some newspapers work on a day rate or period of day rate, set by them. You have to take it or leave it, they don’t care.

Advertising and design usually works on a day or half-day rate, plus expenses.

Weddings and family, kids photos etc, are paid per job and might be different for each client. You might have different packages to allow for time and income differences. The chances are you won’t do more than one job per day.

Working out your rates then is usually sold on the basis of working out your fixed costs, adding some in for unfixed costs, and an amount on top as income. Divide that amount by working ours and you have your hourly rate. Multiply by working hours in the day gives you a day rate, etc.

Other factors will have to be taken into account, of course. Things like your holiday, weekends, bank holidays, clients holidays, etc. Very few photographers work every day, or week, of the year. Of 52 weeks, maybe 42 could be considered as working weeks by the time holidays are taken into account. Then again few photographers work every day of the week, as in paid work. Much of your week will be spent seeing new clients, book keeping, post-production and managing your life, as well as waiting for work to come in.

So any fee budgeting has to include down time, and for some photographers new photography time (unpaid until the shot is sold). For many photographers payment after the work is completed can take months (I’ve had to wait six months in the past for payment of an invoice), but you still have bills to pay and be able to continue working.

The average salary in Britain is around £21,000, so I believe. For anybody in business you have to have a higher turn-over than that to earn that salary, obviously. Tax, National Insurance, various expenditures, (pension, Public Liability, Health cover, etc) has to be stripped out of that before you can pay yourself any money. Plus there has to be enough for a rainy day; the car might break down on the way to a job or equipment failure, you need enough to cover for any eventuality.

I personally believe that it is best to assume that in the photography business three times your taxable salary is needed in turn-over – at least. I know a great many sole-traders are on less or have a much less turn-over and appear to be doing OK. But I have also known photographers who appear to be doing well, but have no equipment insurance, pension, Public Liability Insurance, etc., and I don’t advise that as a way of working. You are then always working into the lowest common denominator – that being cost, and that is not the best way to work. Keeping costs down is sensible, but there are sensible costs that should be paid no matter what. If you can’t afford those costs you are either charging too little, or there is no market for your work.

I have known photographers to have had all their camera kit stolen from their car, but thought they were saving money by not having insurance cover. They weren’t!! I have known photographers to mistake turn-over for profit and make losses – in one case where they couldn’t pay staff at the end of the month and had to get an expensive loan to continue operating. Many photographers quote turn-over when talking about the success of the company. It doesn’t always equate that a big turn-over equals big profit. I knew a photographer with a business with a very good turn-over, running into hundreds of thousands of pounds and was able, by offsetting as much as he could against tax, bring his taxable income down to £15,000. This was fine, until he wanted a loan from the bank and they asked to see his past three year’s tax returns – he had a job getting the loan he wanted.

Photography is a relatively expensive business to be in, requiring regular equipment investment, insurance, and marketing. A cheaper business is writing. All you need is a low cost Netbook computer and away you go. Sell your novel for a million pounds and nearly all the money is clear profit.

Therefore, if you still want to start a photography business, you need to consider a great many things. The type of photography you might wish to do – this could be a number of different ones, but must be feasible in your area. How much do you need to earn as a living and is it possible in your area of photography and region where you live, to earn that amount. Remember, Turn-over must be greater than taxable income by a large margin. You need to have enough money coming in from one job to keep you going until you get paid from the next job, and that amount has to cover for work already done. Cash flow (or rather the lack of cash flow) kills most small companies. We think we will get work quicker than we do and that we will be paid more quickly than we are. You need to have large amount of money to fall back on – or very rich parents!! One photographer I worked for advised marrying a rich woman (he had) and her family money helped cover the poor periods in his business.

This is the end of the first section of my discussion on setting up a business. If you wish to read on, click to Section 2.- You and Your Personality

Photography Education

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:47:06 +0100

First published on johnglynnphotography.com 30/01/10

The Value of Education

Every year, and the last was no exception, there have been articles published relating to college/university education and the value of such learning. In the British Journal of Photography there have been articles covering specific courses and the resulting letters came in two camps – those who had denounced photography education and claimed that there are too many courses churning out too many students with unreal expectations; and those that believe that learning photography and gaining a qualification in photography is a good grounding for those entering photography as a career.

Is either of these camps right? Yes and no is always the answer.
It is true that there are many photography courses, especially at the lower level of the qualification scale, being run by so many colleges it is hard to count. Within a thirty mile radius of where I live there are about five colleges teaching photography to Diploma and Higher National Diploma level, two in Edinburgh alone. And it could be argued that there are too many photography students being produced for the number of jobs available – this is in fact undoubtedly the case.
However, the other side of the argument is just as relevant. Photography today as it is practised is not the same as the one I was trained in back in the early 1980’s and is so far removed from those days it is hard to comprehend the shift. Photography now includes web design, film making/video production, CAD, CGI and a thorough understanding of computer software – especially Adobe Photoshop and its add-ons – plus file types, image management systems, and communication systems that didn’t exist five years ago let alone twenty. In the 1980’s it was a matter of passing the City & Guilds 744 exam based on a technical understanding of photography and film (I know, I have that qualification), and then I learnt even more by working as an assistant in London with very good photographers covering still-life, fashion, room-sets and loads more. But times have changed. The basic premise was the same across most branches of photography – medium/large format cameras with flash in a studio. The film was processed (transparency pushed or pulled a wee bit) and handed to the client a few hours later (or next day even). The luxury of time!!

Colleges today are able to afford the time for students to learn many aspects of image creation – not just the basic technical knowledge required of taking a picture - but also introduce new uses of photography that working as an assistant with a few photographers is unlikely to cover fully.

Here I will introduce my interest in this subject – Education. As I have said already, I have a City & Guilds 744, I worked in London for five years as an assistant photographer covering architecture, location and studio fashion, room-sets and still-life, and catalogue photography. I ended up running my own photography business doing portraiture for in-house publications in Scotland. I have also passed a further City & Guilds qualification in Video and Television Production. In 2000 I began taking photographs using a digital dslr and from 2001 I have never been asked to photograph using film again – though I still have my Bronica medium format camera just in case.
The computer and digital photography has changed everything. My business shrank as clients no longer produced glossy in-house magazines, but moved to on-line variants where the photographs were produced by the in-house designer/p.r. person or the regular staff. I jumped ship and studied, gaining a first class Hons degree in photography and then, more recently, a teaching qualification.

I understand those who see education only as a way of getting a job – this is the old fashioned concept of schooling – get qualifications, find a job and stay there until you retire, or die, whichever comes first. I have even read about politicians who advocate local businesses to become more involved in educational establishments defining and structuring courses around the type of employee they wish. This will not work. Most businesses close within twenty odd years and even large multinationals only stay in one area for that amount of time too. Where I live three major international companies Motorola, Sun Micro Systems and Hewlett Packard have come and largely gone in a little over thirty years. They were, we were promised by the government, the future. If the colleges had relied on those companies for their long term survival, then they too would have closed down.

Luckily education is more than just learning to do something – learn the times tables or learn how to turn the camera on and off. It has to be about enabling and encouraging the student to think, define and argue about what they see and how they understand what they see. Photography education is also about research, communication (visual, written and verbal), team work, time management, planning, discussion, argument; everything that is necessary for not only working as a photographer, but, more importantly, working in any field of communication. I don’t see students of photography only becoming photographers, any more than they did thirty odd years ago when I was at college; but I do see them broadening their ideas and from there being open to new ideas and then discovering what they wish to do and this might include, for some, becoming a photographer.

Photography as a Career and Photography De-Skilled

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:25:38 +0100

First published at www.johnglynnphotography.com 26/08/09

Photography as a Career Choice And Photography De-skilled

I have been involved in photography since 1979, having studied the subject to degree level, and worked as an assistant in London during the 1980’s. Most of my assisting work was for still-life product photographers taking photographs for catalogues and below-the-line advertising clients. Since 1990 I have been a self-employed photographer working primarily in portraiture for editorial and in-house publications.

I have also, since 2000, been teaching photography and basic computing for adults in community education classes.

A few weeks ago an advert appeared for a position of Catalogue Photographer based in an Edinburgh auction house. I applied for the position out of curiosity. It must be understood that the average annual income in the UK is put at about £25,000. In Scotland it might be presumed that the average income might be slightly lower, as London and the South East of England tend to skewer the figures. By www.itjobswatch.co.uk the average income for a photographer in the UK is about £27,000 and www.mysalary.co.uk make the average about £23,000. The job on offer in Edinburgh came in at between £15,000 - £20,000 per year. I presumed that this was for a basic junior position working with a team of photographers.
I was offered an interview last week and went along. The job was as advertised - a catalogue photographer - but they wished the individual to have expertise in Adobe Photoshop so that the photographer could do the cut-outs, internet catalogue, administer the back catalogue and up-load to on-line libraries. There were planned to be twenty catalogues a year with various studio and location shots of items ranging from silver, jewellery, ceramics, furniture and carpets. Travelling to London and the North of Scotland were also expected.
I asked about the team – there was no team. The photographer was expected to work alone and find help if he/she could for moving furniture etc.
I asked about studio facilities – there were none! The work was to be carried out in any office that the photographer could find – move furniture – work around other members of staff, etc. The main office is on several floors so it meant carrying all the items to be photographed up several flights of stairs and they were expecting, on some occasions, to have 100 items to photograph within a day. Though I have done this, it has been in properly equipped studio with lighting and all the items to hand.
Speaking of equipment – there was none. No lights to speak of and no cameras at all.
Salary for this position - £17,500 per annum.
It was suggested that the photographer, once in place, should come with an idea of a budget for setting up a studio, but as no budget considerations had been discussed by the management of the firm for the photographer’s post beyond that of income, where would the photographer begin to start. Medium format digital - £40,000 maybe, full-frame dslr with specialist lenses - £25,000, or a kit dslr £500. Plus lights etc. Given the salary I can guess the company’s preferred option.

So, how had they come to the salary of £17, 500? How had they decided on the job description and what kind of quality of work was expected?

I know there were specific issues at play within the company. The Designer, who was sitting on the interview panel, wanted an assistant to help him with the work load. So that explained the Photoshop requirement. But asking for a photographer to undertake the photography for 20 catalogues per year without providing any facilities, assistance, or equipment I think shows a deeper and more worrying aspect of the devalued importance and subsequent de-skilled profession of photography.
I think there is a belief that a kit camera and lens will do the job. And any problems can be ironed out using Adobe Photoshop. Problems that include no lights. Photography is about photographing light. Without light – hard, soft, high/low key etc - there is no photograph. The subject is almost irrelevant. Good lighting can make a picture. Bad lighting can destroy it. Lighting of products in still-life requires good, I would say an excellent, understanding of lighting. On top of that there must be an understanding of perspective to make sure that the product is shown correctly in proportion – especially if you are bidding for it at auction and are basing your bid on a photograph of the item shown in the catalogue. But, hey, who needs to understand lighting and camera movements when you have Photoshop to sort it out.

On top of this, is a view held by many that all cameras are of the same quality, especially digital and the magic dslr. What I was trained on as a student and assistant back in the eighties when working on product photography – a 5x4 format camera with movements – can know be taken on a £500 dslr with kit lens. I personally think not. But as long as our employers/clients think it, then how can photography, or the photographer, claim to be a profession/al or essential member of a design team.

Photography is seen as cheap and, though a part of the process, not an important one.

So, this company, which has been using a freelance professional photographer, has decided that a person on £17,500 can fulfill the role. This, I think, shows a lack of understanding of photography by the client.

How has this come about?

A number of factors have affected photography over the past thirty or so years. When photographers used film, there was a view held by the public of some kind of alchemy, or magic within the process, that was considered out side the normal realms of the amateur photographer or ordinary person. Even with adverts by the camera manufacturers of the 1980’s professing that their cameras were easy to use and that the subsequent photographs could be as good as those taken by professionals, professional photography was not truly at risk of losing its position within the creative media and photographers could, therefore, make a good living from photography.

However, the digital medium has changed the apparent perception that photography is difficult or exclusive to a trained individual that has a special eye or understanding of the process of making a picture. Digital photography has become painting-by-numbers with the obvious brush strokes hidden. The magic of film, the chemicals, darkroom and specialist knowledge once needed to work with a camera has been removed. The camera manufacturers have sold these new digital cameras on the basis that anyone can take a photograph and if you don’t like it delete and take another. Such an attitude in the public's mind that photography can be ‘snapped’, deleted and instantly forgotten has effectively deskilled the professional photographer and devalued the photograph.

Only a few years ago I was earning £200 - £300 per job photographing for in-house publications and I could do several jobs in a day. So, a modest living could be made from photography. With the advent of digital I was suddenly replaced by the p.r man, designer, and picture editor, and sometimes by the office junior, taking the photographs on a low cost digital camera. The subsequent images were atrocious, (I mean awful – out of focus, weird highlights, flash on camera bouncing off windows etc) but to the untrained eye they were fine and to the accountant they saved hundreds of pounds employing a photographer. So the rates plummeted to about £60 for a job. Many photographers tried to work to this level of pay, snapping and sending in low resolution images and further devaluing the profession.

Can anything be done?

We have to look back at where photography began – at least in the UK to understand where it is today. Photography from its very earliest users and developers was not considered a profession, but rather a rich man’s hobby. This was partly because it was very expensive to do, and partly because it tried to copy paintings rather than develop its own unique character. To some extent this remains the same today. The profession of photography was mainly carried out by wealthy individuals, especially in the UK and this was not broken until the 1960’s. But the photographers never agreed to create a profession of photography. Though there are professional organisations there is no need to join to be a professional photographer. One of the highest rated in the UK is the Royal Photographic Society, an organisation that exemplifies the amateur/enthusiast in photography if ever there was one. Anyone with a camera can start a photography business at any time. With film, as I have said, there was already an acceptance that a certain ability/knowledge was necessary and cost of funding cameras, darkroom, etc effectively prevented the market from being swamped by enthusiasts. But digital, and the apparent ease of taking a photograph, has enabled the market to be inundated with cheap imagery and people believing that they can make a living from photography without any knowledge of photography, cameras, or lighting. It has always been hard to make a living from photography, but know with low returns it is almost impossible – unless you don’t need to make a living from photography. If photographers had to join a professional organisation and hold professional qualifications, then, maybe, photography as a career could have survived the changes in technology; but it appears that it will return to its roots and again become the preserve of the rich and their hobbies. For those who wish to follow photography at college, then developing other skills will be essential to survive – web design, re-touching, and any other affiliated skills will be necessary. Only today in the British Journal of Photography, dated 26 August 2009, a job is advertised for Photographer/Graphic Designer, salary scale £21,000 - £26,000 and another Photographer / Digitisation Assistant, salary scale £19,000 – £20,600. No longer is there a place for ‘Photographer’.

Final Thoughts.

So, where does that lead us? I am not optimistic about the photographer as sole-trader. There will be some who can make a living, but unfortunately the average person, including the average client, perceives photography as a deskilled job that anyone can do for an income of £17,500 per year full-time.