Photos for business

[fotofast]

I was a professional photographer in London who is now living in Devon. I am very much aware that business people, indeed people in all walks of life, need to have creditable portraits of themselves for publications, business cards, websites, brochures, CVs, dating agencies and so on, and that this need is not being met.

If they want to keep the cost of the portrait down and produce it at short notice, they may visit a photo booth, use a casual picture taken at a party or on holiday or get someone in the office, even a friend perhaps or member of the family, to take it for them.

All of these options will generally produce a low grade, badly lit and unprofessional looking finished portrait which does not flatter them or send out the intended message. However, going to a professional studio doesn’t offer the complete solution either, as the result, price, quality, and time it takes to do it, fluctuate radically.

So I have come up with a solution that I think is workable and solves most of these problems. I am able to produce a well posed studio portrait that is of high quality, fully retouched and downloaded to a CD or printed to take away in fifteen minutes. This service can be offered by appointment (no waiting time) or as a walk-in, walk-out service for just £15 including the sitting.

I have all the necessary equipment and want to trial the idea, but a small high street shop (I need about 30’x 40’ in all) is proving difficult to find and rents have gone through the roof. Therefore, I am asking for suggestions for ways I can overcome this problem and start putting the idea to work. Ideas need legs or they remain nothing but ideas.

[Nat4Beth]

I think you have an interesting idea but would be concerned at where you will be getting the volume of sales in Devon. I guess you need the customers to come to you if the cost will be £15 a time.

You might want to see if you get a temporary pitch within a large city centre shopping area and attract the passing shoppers/lunchtime office workers etc - but I think if I wanted a photo I would simply go to one of the Kodak type shops that already offer this type of service.

Perhaps one avenue would be for you to approach companies direct to offer a service for office pass photos - also companies that visit customers homes need photographic passes these days - ie try writing to your local building contractors to offer a service to provide the photos for the tradesmen to use.

I would tend to enquire into the whole service if going down this route though - ie not only take the photo but produce the actual company pass as a package service.

Best of luck

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

There is definately a market for this sort of thing, but as the previous poster said, I think you would need to be located in a town or city to get the volume required.

Our company recently updated all of our CV photos and we all had to make appointments to visit a local studio.

Have you considered setting up in non high street location like a trading estate or similar with a bit of parking, this would help with a quick turnaround.

Good luck with everything.

Jim