Selling Portraits or Scared by all the cheap prices

[Mark McCall]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Your grasp of the painfully obvious is undewhelming. If you've read this thread as it has unfolded you would see that I address exactly what you said in a prior submission.

I didn't address your prior submission.
I addressed the later one in which you mentioned poachers with inferior equipment trying to grab your business.

Originally Posted by Songman45

In the case of this particular market lowest price sells. So tell me again how price misalignment does not affect business?

Lowest price sells, yet you spend far more than your competitor on cameras, equipment and vehicles?

Spend more to make less?....Doesn't make sense.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Totally off the topic of photogrpahy but in this same business vein:
Wal-Mart knocked out the locals in my home town, hotly pursued by Home Depot and Lowes. Now take notice of the change in retailling. Malls seem to be full of empty leases while strip centers wtih specialty stores are flourinshing. Eventually value is going to mean more than a good price on a narrow line of goods and favor is going to be shown to the specialty, niche market specality shops.

And just to show you how localized markets can be, the Phoenix valley has just the opposite: mall space goes for a premium and we're still building new indoor or outdoor malls, with very high occupancy rates. Strip malls have a much lower occupancy rate around here.

Oh, dear. Will someone please post? I don't want to get the last word in here....

[Brooks]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

And just to show you how localized markets can be, the Phoenix valley has just the opposite: mall space goes for a premium and we're still building new indoor or outdoor malls, with very high occupancy rates. Strip malls have a much lower occupancy rate around here.

Oh, dear. Will someone please post? I don't want to get the last word in here....

The preference for indoor air-conditioned mall shopping in Phoenix probably has something to do with the insufferable summer heat!

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Brooks

The preference for indoor air-conditioned mall shopping in Phoenix probably has something to do with the insufferable summer heat!

Actually, the outdoor malls are the ones that are being built now. Very popular. Misters help during the summer months.

[jfrancho]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Oh, dear. Will someone please post? I don't want to get the last word in here....

Then stop replying....jackass!

[Ed Shapiro]

I don't necessarily want to have the last word either and I certainly don't want to sound like a broken record , however, my stubbornness prevailed. My pet peeve with many photographers is that they choose to exclude themselves from the principles and workings of business within our free enterprise system. They worry too much about the competitor down the street or about part timers and amateurs "robing them of business" that they have lost sight of reality and seem to lead a business life of fear and paranoia. As as others here have alluded to, they misplace their moxie and energy that should be spent on improving their own work and going after business- too much whining and complaining- chronic complaining!

Competition is at the heart of a free enterprise system. Remember folks- all those anti-trust laws and all that anti monopoly legislation- you know- Mr. Taft and Mr. Hartley- those guys. Did every photographer forget his or her high school history or fail the course. In Canada we have the Federal Competition Department- can't get a plainer description than that. Competition comes with the territory of entrepreneurship and if one doesn't like it, they need to get a civil service job, sit at a desk all day and collect a pay check- nothing wrong with that.

Remember the Russian (Soviet Block) car- the Lada? How about those early Russian cameras- pretty lousy eh? That is what comes form lack of competition, restraint of trade and monopolies- well totalitarian regimes.

As far as "education on the street" is concerned, competition should light a fire under your butts and serve as an incentive to do a better job and promote yourselves.

Remember our friends at Wal-Mart- I do! I remember when entire towns were up in arms and protested the opening of a Wal-Mart stores because of their early business mission, that is, come into town, undercut every other business, force all the mama-papa stores out of business and then raise THEIR prices. People would picket city halls and lobby officials to refuse Wal-Mart business and construction licenses. Alas- the cities wanted the additional taxes and employment and besides there are laws against restraint of trade!

Since the first department stores, John Wanamaker's and the R.H.Macy's, Gimbel's and then the discount stores and supermarkets, the big corporate stores are in EVERYONE"S BUSINESS- it's a fact of life. That's why all specialty shops, custom product and personal service businesses have to offer exemplary services and merchandise and appeal to the higher end market.

So here's the broken record part. Please do not misconstrue my receptiveness and redundancy a sign of impending senility- I just want to drill this into photographer's heads: If your are not a mass-production operator, not in the position to offer up your work as a loss leader prices in order to generate business in other areas of your "store", willing to work for fun without profit or are willing to speculate using low priced starting packages and then do hard pressure selling or use bait and switch tactics and /or have an enormous volume of business to compensate for a low profit margin, you can't successfully compete with low priced businesses which are are equipped for all of the aforementioned business models or people who are entertaining an expensive hobbies.

If you want to do high quality photography with comprehensive sittings, high quality prints, retouching and accessory merchandise, you simply can't afford to offer theses amenities at low prices. On the other side of the coin, if you want to adopt a high volume, mass production, quick and dirty business model, there is nothing illegal, immoral or fattening about that either. That is why we call it a free enterprise system; as a business owner you are the final arbiter of your methodologies and business model. There is an old adage that goes something like- "if you serve the rich you will live with the poor but if you serve the poor (OK middle class) you will live with the rich". This may be so- oftentimes I have seen excellent photographers nearly starving to death because the are just investing too much time, effort and money into their product and not being duly compensated for their work. I have see studios serving the middle and low end markets with OK photography and having very impressive bank accounts.

Therefore, don't waste time placing blame on others, being accusatory or cursing the amateurs, the department stores or any other external forces- even the economy. As a businessperson, it behooves you to do the market research, assess you place in the market and go about your business.

That's it- that's all! Use logic- pick your market and work hard! God bless you and all the best of luck!

Ed

[Songman45]

Nice point, Ed. Things change. Sometime we have to look at where we are and what has changed around us. No longer is the cost of adequate equipment prohibitive to all but the professional. Technology has advanced to a point that everything is easier to obtain and use, from cameras and lenses to printers burners and even web presence. Passable results are now acheivable by a broader range of direct and indirect competitors. We are not going up against other professionals head-to-head only but with a whole new class of compititon. Time was when only a professional with a lot of skill and very expensive complicated professional gear could produce professional results. Now that consumer grade equipment can produce results that eclipse pro grade and there is a wealth of amatures so willing to provide the labor, perhaps there is no longer a market for a professional at such events. Is it time to move on?

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Now that consumer grade equipment can produce results that eclipse pro grade and there is a wealth of amatures so willing to provide the labor, perhaps there is no longer a market for a professional at such events. Is it time to move on?

Only you can determine that. Do you make money at these events? If so and your capital costs have been recovered, keep going. If not, maybe you change your business model. If you cannot adapt to the change then yes, it's time to move on.

Adapt, ignore, or quit.

[Songman45]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Only you can determine that. Do you make money at these events? If so and your capital costs have been recovered, keep going. If not, maybe you change your business model. If you cannot adapt to the change then yes, it's time to move on.

Adapt, ignore, or quit.

Its been a lucrative business for 9 years. The downturn in the economy and the rise of fuel costs have made us hyper-sensitive of the indirect compition. We'll have to evaluate after the elections.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Its been a lucrative business for 9 years. The downturn in the economy and the rise of fuel costs have made us hyper-sensitive of the indirect compition. We'll have to evaluate after the elections.

Every lucrative, relatively low competition business gets this. Every single one.

The key to managing it is understanding what's happening and taking advantage of it while you can. That means make the capital investments up front, charge the most the market will bear, aggressively market for exclusivity as long as possible, and when the competition starts eating at your market share, you do one of three things:

Ignore it: adjust your marketing to emphasize experience and relationships but don't change anything in your business model.
Adapt: cut your prices and/or adjust your workflow to reduce costs, continuing your margin but accepting lower sales as the new model.
Quit: shut it down or sell the business to someone who doesn't know the market as well as you do.

[Songman45]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Every lucrative, relatively low competition business gets this. Every single one.

The key to managing it is understanding what's happening and taking advantage of it while you can. That means make the capital investments up front, charge the most the market will bear, aggressively market for exclusivity as long as possible, and when the competition starts eating at your market share, you do one of three things:

Ignore it: adjust your marketing to emphasize experience and relationships but don't change anything in your business model.
Adapt: cut your prices and/or adjust your workflow to reduce costs, continuing your margin but accepting lower sales as the new model.
Quit: shut it down or sell the business to someone who doesn't know the market as well as you do.

Exactly why every business plan has an exit stratedgy

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Exactly why every business plan has an exit stratedgy

Yup. I've switched careers six times with that same philosophy. I didn't want to adapt, I couldn't ignore it, so I left to move into something different.