This is kind of disappointing. Out of all the members here, only the three of you have responded. What happened? Everyone can't have gone out of business at the same time? Did you not turn a profit?
Hi Norm:- 2007 was a good year. I haven't tallied up all the numbers yet but overall it looks like we did a fair bit more than last year. We managed to upgrade computers and have 2 - D300s in transit right now.
We are in the middle of what has turned into a 5 to 7 year plan to be fulltime. We started with horses, dogs (agility) and youth sports. We found our niche in Dog Shows. We have 9 booked for 2008 and are working on one or two more. We are at the limit right now for part time as the shows eat up all my holidays and a little bit. I have to make the decision when to increase my marketing/promotion to sign up more shows.
We want to try some local agility shows this year and see if we can pickup anything that way.
To summarize 2007 - it was worth it. Great customer service and a really good product are the only way to go.
Cheers
Chris
__________________ "Never Stop Learning"
All Nikon Digital www.photos-now.ca
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
deliberatly cut down from 111days on site to 90. Majority equestrian with a few canine. Direct takings from events was within a few pounds the same, giving an healthy increase in profits despite the awful weather and foot and mouth. The smaller run of the mill shows were generaly slightly down on last year, but the major events showed a very good inrease in takings.
The biggest improvement was what doing less events allowed us to do. In previous years we were so tired we didnt follow up on the onsite conversations. Doing that this year has put a very healthy glow on the figures and an whole set of commisions for next year that dont conflict with event dates. Has far I am concerned next years event diary is already full, unless something very very good is offered.
tony
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Last edited by Tony_Whaling; 12-28-2007 at 02:52 PM.
I don't have the sales numbers handy, but '07 was a down year for me - perhaps 15% overall compared to the previous year. We saw seriously declining sales at most of the events, and I'm glad that I was able to cover more weddings than in years past. In '07 I did fewer motorsports events and more weddings than in '06, and that trend will continue - possibly to the point when I may still cover motorsports and such, but would no longer attempt to show/sell photos at those events. My problem is oversaturation, which I have definitely achieved(?) - for about 80% of the events I shoot, we've been seeing the same basic group of customers for three full seasons now. Although that customer base is of decent size (three organizations with perhaps 800 regular members per), I believe that the excitement and buzz is gone; people who want photos have probably already bought photos from us. Event photographers are more common and numerous than they were a few years ago, and every year it seems four of five new guys appear and only one or two go away. I don't mind a little competition, because I think I do it better than the other guys in my area, but the mere availability of other photo outlets reduces the "wow" factor significantly.
There are a couple of avenues I am interested in exploring to continue doing event photography, but for me, I believe the writing is on the wall, and it says that fewer motorsports and other events, and more weddings and portraits is where I'm headed.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Well I had my worst season ever. I mostly do small ( 1-2 day high end ) equestrin events and I have seen a decline every year in my gross for the past two years with the 2007 season being off by 60% from three years ago. I feel the market is flooded with photos and how many photos do you really need of yourself. I find that I am photographing the same riders over and over again for the past 8 years. Trying to refigure what to do for next year.....
2007 has been my best year yet. 41 race dates and even with rider numbers down sale are up by more than 100%. Don't have the final numbers yet as orders are still coming in. We'll be adding (hopefully) 2 new tracks next season and droping full coverage down to only a couple races with one series that isn't selling well.
What did I change this year? I droped Printroom and started printing 90% of orders myself. Posters and wall clings are the only lab printed products now. Onsite booth with samples at most events. No onsite viewing or ordering yet.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Happy New Year to everyone! Last year was I think a little down, from the past years although I haven't totaled up the year. Two really good events weren't held last year, and the events I replaced them with only accounted for about 25% of those sales, add to that some extra transportation costs and I just figure the bottom line will be lower. I know this year looks busier, as I am already back on the road, with a barrel race over New Years and two rodeos in January that I didn't have last year...
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Here in Ireland it was a total disaster, we had rain every day from the middle of May until
the end of September , the worst effected events were the equestrian events down by 60% . Everybody rushed back to their horse boxes after they had finished their event. nobody wanted to wade through the mud to get to our trailer and those that did had to fight for space under our canopy making it bloody near impossible to view our monitors. Add to that most of the photographs that we took were not that brilliant due to the heavy rains that obscured the riders.Still I live in hope that this year will improve
Rob
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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