The economy vs photography

[David_Buzzard]

Well, it's either a loss they're will to take to build business, in which case they won't be able to keep that up for long, or it's a bait and switch (when you get there, you find that those prices only apply every other Thursday or something). I would guess at the bait and switch, as those prints, at Costco print prices, would come to more than $10.00, which leaves nothing to cover rent, equipment, expenses, etc.

In my experience, these low cost business never really get rolling. People will look for the best value for their buck, but tend to steer clear of businesses offering everything for nothing, as they don't perceive them to be worth anything. They'll get the walk-by and impulse traffic, but they'll never sell the bigger jobs (like $100.00 for a portrait, which isn't much, but a lot more than they're asking now) with rates that low, and those are what you need to get to survive.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

[ChrisPurves]

Originally Posted by Ronald Garrett

How do you compete with that? All I can do is wait em out. I know they are losing serious money at those prices.

Sounds like you need to help them lose business. Have some friends go in to have the $ 9.95 package done and see what they get.
You need to know what your competition is doing. You can then sell against it in an informed way.

Good luck.

Chris

[DougAxford]

I was just talking to 2 of our major summer soccer leagues. They are down in registration for the second year in a row. We raised prices last year but with the lower numbers, the gross sales actually declined. I have to expect the same thing this coming summer.

David, if you're seeing problems in Whistler BC, the rest of us a doomed for sure. Whistler is one of the big boom areas of North America. I have a few friends in Calgary doing (trying) T&I. The same results I am getting. Many sales are great, but offset by more that are lower than they should be.

As you say David, we go through these cylces but I think this one may be a bigger problem with digital hitting full stride and so many 'uncle Freds' that are willing to sell/give away their time.

I just spoke to a friend this morning for an hour that is quoting on an 690 player soccer league that I used to shoot. When I gave it up 4 years ago, I was charging $8.50 per player as league pay for a MM. I could not get enough extra sales to make it worthwhile for us compared to others that were far better averages. He's being asked to bid $6. per MM, taxes of 13% included, league pay and donate 10% back. Holy Sh*t. Simply not worth it, but someone will do it.

Time to sell real estate or life insurance.

[ChrisPerry]

Naw, selling real estate means you need buyers, and right now there are none. No matter how low the interest rates go, there is no money to loan out - banks et al can't loan out beyond what they have in assetts. With house prices (the assets the loaned on in the past) down 20% or more, and expected to drop 10% more this year, banks are in trouble. The folks they used to sell their loans to are worse off.
My Mother in law just sold her house and the buyers had extra hoops to jump through- what was acceptable 6 to 12 months ago (credit, down payment, proof of income and assetts) has been tightened so only the best buyers can get loans. Fewer buyers and more houses for sale and for longer means even lower prices. Too many houses for sale mean fewer being built, so fewer jobs and less all around for furniture, appliance, carpet companies, elec and gas companies, less new houses means less growth in tax base...new housing starts are their lowest level since 1945! There are more unsold houses right now than at anytime since 1980/81 when rates were 20%.

I'll weather the storm - we've no plans move or sell, my wife's job is secure, we're not buying cars or needing credit for anything, and i've got enough booked biz to pay the bills and still reduce the debt. I suspect my overall growth may not be up to expectations, but that just means I'll not get a 1D3 this year. It might also mean I have more time to spend with my kids this summer

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by ChrisPerry

Naw, selling real estate means you need buyers, and right now there are none. No matter how low the interest rates go, there is no money to loan out - banks et al can't loan out beyond what they have in assetts. With house prices (the assets the loaned on in the past) down 20% or more, and expected to drop 10% more this year, banks are in trouble. The folks they used to sell their loans to are worse off.

My Mother in law just sold her house and the buyers had extra hoops to jump through- what was acceptable 6 to 12 months ago (credit, down payment, proof of income and assetts) has been tightened so only the best buyers can get loans. Fewer buyers and more houses for sale and for longer means even lower prices. Too many houses for sale mean fewer being built, so fewer jobs and less all around for furniture, appliance, carpet companies, elec and gas companies, less new houses means less growth in tax base...new housing starts are their lowest level since 1945! There are more unsold houses right now than at anytime since 1980/81 when rates were 20%.

Bingo. That's a bang on accurate assessment for a substantial portion of North America. With Bear Stearns having been sold today at a whopping two dollars per share, we know that changes are a coming.

The challenge is that housing prices are dropping and dropping fast. Compounding this challenge is that for the last several years, much of the gains in employment have been housing related. Now those same people are searching for other opportunities. So as we go through this painful correction, we have the financial institutions restructuring themselves and tightening their lending practices--the drive by and honk system for getting mortgages has passed. And a substantial portion of the workforce is going to search for new opportunities.

For those in the U.S. the following link, which points to heat map of unemployment in the U.S., might be interesting to follow over the next several months.

http://stats.bls.gov/lau/maps/twmcort.pdf (pdf file)

You will be able to view how much your particular area is being adversely affected.

[Ronald Garrett]

To let you know how the economy is around this part of the USA.............
The new KIA plant being built about 20 miles from me recently opened it's temporary offices to take applications for the 2500 openings they will have in about a year. Number of applicants? 43,000 !!

Hummmmnnn, I wonder if they can use an old photographer?

[DougAxford]

Actually, that's what I thought a few years ago until a photo guy I know applied for and got the job shooting all the construction stuff at the new Toyota plant near us. He quickly dropped all his other photo work and is now doing this full time. You might want to give them a call. BTW, apparently there was quite a competition to get the photo job but he lived within the area and got it.

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