OAK CITY ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Robbie Thomas

Oak City Arts Photography

Abstract

I would like to start a Photography company that centers its work on fellow artists. There

is an overwhelming amount of photographers that focus on weddings and other events; thus, I

want to tap into an under-reached market. I want to focus on the needs of the artists who want to

gain popularity and credibility through beautiful representations of their art and personality.

Service Description

This agency will focus on the photography needs of artists and performers. The vision is

to use photography to display the work of artists and build their professional credibility. The four

main services Oak City Arts Photography will provide are headshots, performance shots, 3D Art

Photography, and a website to promote the work of its clients.

Every artist, musician and actor needs a good headshot. In fact, every professional in any

field should have a good headshot. Headshots show potential employers and clients who the

artist is, and first impressions are key. My goal with headshots is to display the artists’

professionalism and personality. I want to design each photoshoot around the specific artist,

enabling their personality to shine through the photo. Each Headshot photoshoot will include two

types of pictures. The first will be in business formal attire in front of a simple back drop. The

second will be more casual, taken outside of the studio with a natural or architectural

background. This picture will be used to show the personality and character of the artist.

Many artists don’t have an easy way to display their art online without the use of

photography. Too often I have seen beautiful art captured poorly. 3d artists and musicians should

not have to rely on themselves or their fans to take pictures of their art. I want to do this for

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them. This involves going to their studios or shows and capturing their work in its best light. For

3d artists, I will have a mobile studio with backdrops and lights for their work. I will strive to

capture the full detail and beauty of their art on camera. I will also take pictures of the artist

creating their art so their clients can see him or her at work. For musicians and other performers,

I will attend their performances with the permission of the venues to take quality performance

shots. I will sell the rights of these pictures to the artist so they can control exactly what they

want to display.

The last service I want to provide is a website that promotes all of my clients. I don’t

want my relationship with my clients to be simply providing them with pictures. I would like to

help promote them by providing a place were I can showcase their work through my pictures.

Each of my Clients will have page on my website with a short biography accompanying the

pictures I took for them.

As This venture grows I would like to expand its services. One particular service that I

would love to add is videography for artists. While this venture Is young, I will not offer this

service. Videography is a very different art form than photography. It requires a lot more editing,

time, and equipment. To do videography with the same quality that I do photography, I would

have to increase my startup costs by at least $3000. In addition, the extended editing time would

force me to triple my prices.

As soon the demand for my services exceeds what I can offer on my own, I plan to hire

another photographer to match this demand. Each additional photographer will start at an hourly

rate of $15 per hour, and will be responsible for conducting photoshoots and editing pictures. I

will schedule their work and match clients to the photographer that best meets the needs and

style of the artist. After I have hired two additional photographers, I will consider hiring a

Videographer. Offering videography services will require a new pricing model, more gear, and

extra software. I will not take this risk until the business is running smoothly and is profitable.

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Opportunity and Need

According to Entreprenurship.com; “Taking photographs of actors and models is a sector

of the photography industry that generates millions of dollars in revenues each year”1. My

business will take photographs of actors and models, but it will not be confined to just actors and

models. It will be for all artists. Raleigh is a great area for this career because it has a

$143.5 million arts industry with about 5,700 full time artists2. Arts in Raleigh are big, and are

getting even bigger. At the beginning of this year the city of Raleigh adopted a 10-year plan to

strengthen the arts culture in Raleigh3, which would naturally grow my client base.

Raleigh is home to an abundance of differing art forms. There are many live performance

venues, from small bars to the magnificent Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Raleigh

is also home to Fine Art organizations such as the NC Symphony, North Carolina Opera,

Carolina Ballet, and the NC Theater. All of these organizations are filled with excellent

performers who are potential clients for my company.

Raleigh has the most live music in the state of North Carolina.4 There are all sorts of

venues in the Raleigh area that fuel local performers, and local performers will in turn fuel my

business.

Target Market

Generally, my target market is artists. I believe that my services could be useful for all

artists. More specifically, my target market can be broken down into five categories: musicians,

dancers, actors, 3D artists, and designers.

For musicians, I will offer three main services — band pictures, individual headshots, and

performance pictures. Every band needs good pictures of the band itself. Quality band pictures

help connect the fans to the artist. It helps them put a face to their music. When I see low quality

band pictures, I subconsciously devalue the band. With quality band pictures, the band can show

their customers how serious they are. These pictures can be used in many scenarios including

1 http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/actors-photo-portfolios2 https://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/content/Arts/Articles/RaleighArts.html3 https://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/content/ParksRec/Articles/Projects/ArtsPlan.html4 http://www.themostnc.com

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album art, posters, flyers and web promotions. Another way musicians can connect with their

audiences is having individual headshots for every musician in the group. These would be

primarily for the band’s website or social media. With individual headshots, fans can get a better

sense of who is in the band and gain a greater appreciation for all of the band members. The final

service I will provide for musicians is performance pictures. These pictures will be used to show

what the band is like on stage. Most bands make most of their money from shows, so the best

thing they can do is to get people to go to their shows. My aim with performance pictures is to

encourage listeners to go to shows. These pictures will show why just listening to the album

shouldn’t be enough. My performance pictures will be used to bring audiences to the shows by

displaying the band at their best.

My pictures for dancers will be extremely similar to what I will do for musicians. From a

business perspective, dancers and musicians operate in a very similar fashion. They are both

performance artists who need shows to survive. My pictures will help them look more

professional to the people who would hire them.

For actors, I will focus primarily on Headshots. Headshots are extremely important for

actors. It is their most valuable marketing tool. When auditioning for parts, the first impression

casting directors have of actors is their headshot. If an actor does not have a good headshot, he

probably won’t get many good parts. I will also offer performance shots for performing actors

and actresses. These shots will give casting directors a better sense of what the performer is like

on stage.

I will offer designers and 3D artists the same services because their work is so similar. I

will bring my mobile studio to their studio to capture their art with proper lighting and

backdrops. I will also offer pictures of them creating their art which will help potential buyers

make the connection between the artist and the art.

These five categories I mentioned earlier will make up most of my clientele because they

have the greatest need for my services, but I will not restrict my business to these categories. My

venture will do work for every types of artist. If 2D artists, photographers, poets, or any other

form of artist wants my services; I will gladly work for them, and adjust my services to match

their needs.

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With all of my work, my aim is to use my skills to help my clients earn greater

credibility, so that they can be more successful in their endeavors.

Unique Benefits & Competitive Advantage

My company will aim to reach a largely unreached market. There are countless wedding

photographers and portrait photographers, but not enough photographers who focus on the needs

of other artists. It takes work to find a good photographer that specializes in arts photography.

While looking at the existing companies I could only find a small handful of professional

photographers with this focus. My hope is to fill this gap so that all artists in Raleigh will have

the tools they need for success.

Risks

As with any start up company, there is the risk of loosing money in the first few years.

Finding clients is not always easy. This business is funded solely based on my work, and if I

can’t find enough clients I will have to take a loss. I am combatting this risk by setting aside

$2000 for advertising in the first year of full time work. I am confident that if I am strategic with

this money, I will be able to find the clients I need.

With the $2000 advertising budget, I will use a mixed marketing strategy. First, I will

display Advertisements on Instagram and Facebook for $20 a day. These ads will only be shown

to people in the Raleigh area, and they will be primarily targeted at people who are interested in

the arts. In order to maximize my funds, I will run these advertisements in week long intervals.

Between each week of ads, I will have a week without them. I will show these advertisements for

6 weeks total, which will cost $840. Second, I will sponsor a Show at the North Raleigh Arts &

Creative Theater. Sponsoring a show will give my business a full-page advertisement in the

show’s program, the shows program will read "Show presented by Oak City Arts Photography”

on the cover, I will be given 12 tickets for the sponsored show, and there will be Oak City Arts

Photography Signage on theater doors This will cost $750. With the remaining $400, I will print

high quality posters and flyers and will put them in as many venues and galleries as possible.

Finally, I will market directly to a few artists whose art is displayed in public galleries by

providing the artists with sample watermarked pictures of their work.

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Another risk that I may face is conflicts over the legal rights of the pictures I take. In

order to avoid some lawsuits, I will hire a lawyer to write an extensive contract that I will have

each of my clients sign. I will also set aside some extra cash for any additional legal fees.

An important part of running a photography company is protecting the photography gear.

Because photographers have to travel with expensive cameras and lenses there is always a risk of

damage or theft of the equipment. I will purchase an insurance policy to cover all of my gear so

that in the event I lose all of my equipment, I will not have to take a significant loss.

Profitability

This business will have a relatively simple financial structure. I will have several fixed

costs up front, but they should decrease as the business matures. Most of my fixed costs will be

legal fees and gear. I will have a few insignificant variable costs, such as transportation costs.

My revenue will come solely from the work I do. Later in this section, I will go into more detail

about how my prices cover my expenses and leave room for profit.

The first two years of operation will be used for building my credibility, portfolio, initial

client base, and saving money. I will start by pooling clients from my existing network and

charging them a minimal price. All funds earned will go straight into the business, for covering

start up costs. During this time, I will charge 25-50 dollars per shoot, and by the end of the first

year I will increase these prices to 75-100 dollars per shoot. If I was willing to immediately make

this a full time business, I could turn those two years into six months, but I am a full time student

earning an entrepreneurship degree with two years left in my degree program. For this reason, I

am going to use these two years to build connections, a strong portfolio, and save money for the

full start up costs.

During the first two years, I will have a few fixed and variable costs. I already have most

of the gear that I need, but I still need a few more items to be be able to run this business

professionally.

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Here is a list of what I already have and what I need:

Have Value Need Cost

DSLR Camera $600 Camera Flash $330

2 Professional Lenses $400 Adobe Photoshop+ lightroom $120

MacBook Pro $1,600 Incorporation form $150

Tripod $50 Website $150

2 backup Drives $ 80 Basic Mobile Studio $170

Allowance for miscellaneous needs $300

Total $2730 Total $1220

This will be enough for me to get started with professional quality, but a more limited

client base. Once I have established a credible portfolio and have saved enough startup money, I

will expand my business by creating a home studio for headshots and investing in more

professional gear. My current camera is good but I will need a better one for consistently good

concert pictures. The same goes for my lenses. They do not capture enough light in most low

light situations.

To the the right are some of my foreseen fixed

costs for the Third Year of operation. This is one of the

more expensive years that the business will see. It is the

year that I will go full time, and the business will start to

bring in significant revenues.

My variable costs will be low, and are basically

just transportation expenses. Thus, I am going to assume

$15 of variable costs per photoshoot.

Once I graduate and am ready to go full time, I

will start using competitive fixed rates and I will buy all

the gear I need for going full time.

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Item Cost

New Camera $1,200

New Lenses, $2,100

Home Studio Setup $1,000

Marketing $2,000

Insurance $300

Taxes $6,000

Legal Fees + Contracts $1,500

Miscellaneous $400

Total $14,500

Below are the prices for my 3rd year of business:

I chose these price points because they are

competitive, but still a little lower than most

professional photographers’. This is a price

range where I can earn a living and pay for

expenses. These price points are loosely

based off of a $20 per hour wage. As I

improve as a photographer and gain

popularity, I will gradually increase my prices

according to the level of demand for my

work.

Here is a sample projected income statement for the 3rd year

To estimate revenues, I used this set of estimates:

2 Performance shots a week for 20 weeks (40 total)

4 headshots a week for 30 weeks (120 total)

1 Group shot a week for 20 weeks (20 total)

Conclusion

I am excited to see what the future holds for this company. I believe that it has a good

likelihood for success. Raleigh will be a great environment for this business. There is a strong

opportunity and need here, and a very high potential for success.

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Service Duration Pictures Price

Headshots 1.5 Hr 5 Edited $175

Group Shots 2 Hr 10 Edited $250

Performances 3 Hr 20 Edited $450

3D Art 1 Hr 15 Edited $250

Add- Ons Add-on Price

Extra Edited Pictures $25 per

Extra Time $30 Per hour

Income Statement

Revenues $44,000

Cost of Revenues ($1050)

Gross Profit $42950

Operating Expenses

Marketing ($2000)

R&D ($4700)

Administrative ($7800)

Operating Income $28,450