Okay, okay. I put it off long enough. Finally paid the man and joined the new site (I'd been on the RG forums for a few years...)
I see some familiar names - good to see you here! (Even some who swore they'd never pay to belong to this forum!)
For those who don't know me, and give a crap, I'm Terry (A.) Zorich - aka "TAZ" for my initials. I have an event photography business based in Delaware (between Philly and Baltimore on the Atlantic coast). http://www.EventPhotoNow.com
On Sundays I primarily cover motorsports - mainly big motocross club races and other off-road motorcycle racing. On my other "day off" (Saturdays) I often cover weddings, offering both photo and video services. The business is in its fifth year, and remains a part-time deal - I make a fairly comfortable living in the IT field as a "desktop engineer", and I'm finding it hard to give up a relatively stable career that provides a good income. I believe I could probably make the business work as my full-time job if necessary, but I'm not comfortable doing that just yet. Unfortunately, I'm not getting more comfortable by the day; in fact, the opposite is true. Sadly, it's a somewhat vicious cycle: it'll take a long time to grow my business to a level such that it would replace the income from my "real job", but it's taking a lot longer to grow it than if I could dedicate all my time to the business, instead of splitting my time between the "real job" and my weekend business. It occurs to me that my "real job" COULD be running my business if I just made the leap...if I could spend Monday through Friday working on getting new business, doing marketing, and making other improvements, the business would do a lot better.
On the other hand, indicators and trends are not good. 2006 has been a somewhat disappointing year. Although online sales have increased, my onsite and overall sales are down. I've quit covering several different clubs that used to figure prominently on our schedule, because there's not enough money there anymore to raise any eyebrows, and because of new "competition".
Example 1: There's a big autocross club that we used to see four to six times per year. Now there's a guy with a cheap DSLR who shoots all their events and posts high resolution images on his site...he gives them away for free. My equipment is better; my photos are better; and I offer on-site prints and CD's...but I'm just not going to try and compete with FREE. I figure that guy will eventually get tired or realize he should charge for his work, at which time I'd return and take those customers back. If that never happens, I'll just move on.
Example 2: There's a tiny kart track in Maryland that I've gone to several times over the past few years. We don't see great sales there, but it's certainly enough to make it a worthwhile day - and I like to keep the option for weekends when there are no other events, or to avoid oversaturating a given club. This past weekend I showed up to cover their Sunday event, and found out that another photographer came out to shoot the same event. He'd apparently been out on Saturday as well. According to the track manager, he was brand-new to the event photography biz. I should have stuck around to see his setup and make a quick evaluation, but he hadn't arrived yet, and I decided to skedaddle before we were convinced to stay for the day by some previous customers who spotted the truck. There's barely enough interest there to make it worthwhile as the lone photo service, let alone if we have to split the sales.
Other kinds of events I cover are still generating some decent revenue, but I've seen competition there as well. At events I cover, I've only run into a couple guys with setups for onsite delivery, but none of their operations are close to the same level as ours. For example, we sort photos so that customers don't have to look through hundreds of images to find their shots, and we have six viewing stations in a concession-style trailer for easy approachability and the ability to serve more than one or two people at a time. One guy has a nice sample display, but only card table with a single laptop computer, and he doesn't display photos from THAT day's event, I suppose because he hasn't figured out how to do it, or because he won't invest the money or resources. Another guy hangs contact sheets off big wooden easels. A third guy had an old (and somewhat creepy) camper that you had to go inside, with a single computer and a small inkjet printer. But the point is that it seems every day or week or month, there is another guy who thinks he can make money with a camera.
Unfortunately the typical venue owners and club managers are not willing to grant exclusivity; they don't want the hassle, and they figure that more vendors equates to better service for the event participants. What they don't realize is there's not enough business for multiple photographers. If they allow anyone with a camera to start shooting and selling, the people with the most to lose - will disappear, leaving the newbies and their inferior products and service as the only options. The net effect is that the event participants are not better served, but the opposite. Most of these venues are also not charging a vendor fee, so it's difficult for me to complain about the situation. If I WERE paying a fee, I'd expect exclusivity, but then again, most don't want the headache.
I'm not giving up. I'm just trying to figure out ways to survive. To stand above the rash of newbies. To differentiate. To establish my business as the obvious choice. I've got to offer stuff that my competitors don't/can't/won't. Our onsite setup and same-day/onsite delivery is one differentiator, but it's not enough. In most cases, our pictures are better, but that's not even enough. Offering prints and image files on CD is not enough. I need to add alternative products; perhaps shoot in a different style; perhaps add more photographers; do superior marketing; make my customers believe that the competition are inferior imitators.
Time to get to work. Time to adapt.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
From reading your post I guess you are where we were at last year, dealing with the weekend warrior at events we have supported for years.
I too looked for additional product, the problem is that all these products are available to anyone, T's, sweats, mugs, fobs, magnets etc with no outlay and this further strengthens the WEW's resolve not to sell on site.
I decided to take a risk and introduce a contract/agreement with the clubs I service, I took the view that if they want my loyalty/support, (I have been paying a % of business on the day as a site fee) they'd better show me some in return!
I'm the guy who turns up in winter when its -10C and the guy who is there when its +32C.
To my great surprise, I only lost two clubs (One MX, one soccer) who were not prepared to enter in to an agreement, all others understood and agreed with my proposition and so we now have contracts. Quite how they would stand up if tested is another argument but just having an annual agreement has worked great, several uninvited guys have been shown the door and I have been protected, in return some clubs get the %, some get free web sites and at others I sponsor races and or presentations, effectivly I have become an 'Honoury' club member and have a voice rather than just the "guy who turns up and takes our money".
The agreement is important but my feeling is that it is just a tool that has helped formalise and grow the relationship between Event-Photos and the club, perhaps this is where you can beat the opposition with 'people-skills'?
I wish you well and keep us posted on whatever you decide to test!
'Bout time is right! Here's a tiny little pearl of wisdom for you. You can't successfully manage your business from behind the viewfinder. Either turn over the business to someone else to manage and run (yeah like YOU'RE gonna do that!) or else get a reasonably good photographer to take the photos and YOU build the business to match your dreams. You can fight me on this but eventually you will realize that I am right.
I can shoot as well as my son, when I am in practice. He can run the trailer as well as I can. He would rather shoot and enjoys the challenge of getting those perfect shots. I find the building of the business to be an enjoyable challenge. We both enjoy our respective roles. I have a vision for where we are going that he doesn't have. If I want to make that vision become reality, I have to concentrate on that and only that.
I walked away from 100K a year job in 2000 to do this full time. I have four years left on my goal of making 1 million a year and 14 years left to make my goal of 10 million a year. It's tough to make the leap and I can certainly understand the turmoil you're going through. Our turnaround came when we found a focus. We do one thing and one thing only. If you are doing better at weddings, sell the trailer and focus on that. If you are doing better at MotoX, then focus on that. Look at the companies around you and you'll quickly see that the successful ones are focused on doing one thing and only one thing. Toy's R Us doesn't sell hardware. Home Depot and Lowes don't sell toys. E-Bay doesn't have brick and mortar stores and Nordstrom doesn't have auctions. Nordstrom focuses on the high end market while Wal*Mart focuses on the lower end and Dollar General focuses on the lowest end.
Enough! I have to go do some work. Welcome back!
__________________ Norm Cabana
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White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Welcome back. There are only 2 ways to survive that I know of. First is to get some kind of exclusive site license. You've already said that the track owners aren't up to this. The second is to simply compete in the marketplace. If I remember right you had some shots of your trailer and setup posted back when this was RG's site. So you have the equipment, you have the talent, you have the product, now you need the will to fight for your place at the table. Those of us who got into this early had a corner on the market for a while. Any dslr was $1000's and glass was just as expensive. On-site rigs were also a huge investment. That kept the weekenders away. Now we're all seeing the same thing at the events that we have covered for years.
If you cover prep sports drop me a note. A Maryland state league contacted us to cover an event in your neck of the woods but we had to turn it down due to a scheduling conflict. The event is in March (I think) PM me if your interested, I'll give you the contact info.
Eric
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Look at the companies around you and you'll quickly see that the successful ones are focused on doing one thing and only one thing. Toy's R Us doesn't sell hardware. Home Depot and Lowes don't sell toys. E-Bay doesn't have brick and mortar stores and Nordstrom doesn't have auctions. Nordstrom focuses on the high end market while Wal*Mart focuses on the lower end and Dollar General focuses on the lowest end.
Good post. As for the section I quoted here, interestingly, the first store I thought of when you mentioned "companies around you" was one of the biggest and most successful there is...Wal-Mart. And they sell hardware AND toys. And electronics and clothing and groceries and tires and oil changes, too. "Low end" retail strategy aside, they do many different things, and they do them all fairly well. They're sure successful with the approach, in any case.
I believe I can do both weddings and motorsports; neither requires 100% dedication. As you know, Sundays are for racing. As it happens most weddings are on Saturdays. I believe I can manage both. My wife would prefer that I quit shooting motorsports altogether, and concentrate on weddings. I prefer to shoot motorsports (and other action stuff), but I like the weddings as a supplement because they're on Saturdays, and because I know what the day will net me before I even get started, whereas every motorsports event is a crapshoot.
One thing that I have pondered is whether to separate the weddings from the motorsports. A weekend racer might not be concerned that I shoot weddings, but a bride-to-be might prefer a photographer who only shoots weddings. It's hard to tell whether I'm losing any potential clients for that reason, but it's possible. Of course, the beauty of wedding photography is that there are really only about 49 or 50 potential clients per year. (I currently shoot about a dozen weddings per year, and would probably cap it at about twenty.)
I agree with you about the difficulty of managing the business from behind the viewfinder. However, I have no one to whom I can hand the camera and feel completely comfortable. One thing going for me is that I typically (at MX events, for example) shoot the morning practice and then the first round of two heat races, and then I'm back at the trailer for the rest of the day. In some cases it's just me and my daughter, and we don't even open the trailer until the shooting is done. I'm convinced (probably out of necessity) that I can continue to shoot AND run the business.
I think my bigger problem is that two other things get in the way of running the business as well as it could be run: my "day job" and my family. I work at least 40 hours a week at the "day job". Weeknights are often spent filling orders; answering messages; communicating with club and venue representatives; updating the website; keeping records, etc. Weekends are spent prepping for or shooting events. I get little downtime; there's ALWAYS something I should be or could be doing to better the biz. There are a few areas I neglect: working to find new events to cover, and marketing/advertising. More time would allow me to address both...but again, I'm reluctant to abandon the IT job and do photography full-time. Running on a part-time basis, and mostly from March to November, I'm GROSSING slightly less in in my 40-50 events per year than I do working for the man, and I worry whether I can not only make up the difference, but also earn enough over and above to be able to continue to grow.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I raised some of these issues in thread elsewhere on this board. And for now the poacher issue seems to have abated. For now.
The most recent thing I've seen is an up tick in DWC's that use as nice or nicer equipment than what we use. I guess with a Best Buy and Circuit City on every corner and us shooting primarily equestrian events, where in most cases it requires some level of affluence to play, this should be expected.
This past Sunday I had 2 DWC’s (one with a 30D, 70-200/2.8L the other with a D200, 80-200/2.8 VR) from one barn shooting the same ring we were shooting. They were shooting every kid from their barn. To my knowledge they don’t sell the photos, they just give them to everybody. Much like Terry’s “club member” that gives the files away. When I mentioned these guys to the organizer, she hung her head and said, “Yeah I saw them. But they were only shooting the kids from their barn.” I then pointed out that in 2 of the divisions I shot, the “kids from their barn” accounted for 70-80% of the riders. There wasn’t anything she could say or do.
We have exclusivity, for selling the pics, on the jobs we shoot. We try to offer something the DWC/MWC/FWC can’t, like shots from inside the ring, since we have ring access. But there’s really no way to stop these guys. No show or event that depends on the participants and their (parents) wallets to survive is going to tell a Dad, “I’m sorry you cannot photograph your child or their friends.” It just ain’t gonna happen. Unfortunately for us, most people will take the almost as good as “free” item over the really good one they have to pay for. Hey, we all do it to a point.
What I fear is, this is a harbinger of things to come.
Hey Norm, I believe it’s time to start thinking about opening that pick and shovel store!
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
After a long discussion with one track owner concerning multiple photographers at races they have agreed to exclusives. There are 3 of us covering their races, but never at the same time. They were great dividing up the big races between us. Another track I've droped because of this issue. Since I've stoped working there I get calls every week from racers wanting to know when I'll be back. Now the track has stated they are working on changing their policy.
Glad to hear your online sales are doing well. After checking on gallery hits and finding one racer who has viewed his pictures more than 100 times without an order, Norm's "now or never" approach gets more appealing.
Phyllis
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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