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Inside the Home Studio

Lesson 7 of 31

Your Business Support Team: Local Vendors


Inside the Home Studio

Lesson 7 of 31

Your Business Support Team: Local Vendors


Lesson Info

Your Business Support Team: Local Vendors

question from louise pentagonal who's actually joining us from costa rica thanks for tony for all of your knowledge my question is in a home studio how is the best way to deal with the makeup and hair style do clients take care of it or die nor on the normally hire them I suppose it depends on the space available so we were talking about working with support teams where do other people like hair and makeup look island it's the next item like that how funny I knew that was coming um I hate this answer it depends but it does dependent and the reason I say it depends because it depends on if it's a traditional portrait client they almost would never want to pay for hair and makeup if it is a commercial client or an editorial client if you're shooting something for a magazine or for on add a commercial usage than a knight case I think it's it's not on ly desired it's kind of expected and I think that that has to be a discussion in between you and your client on who what you khun what they ...

khun budget because in those cases the client will pay for the hair and makeup not the not the person the sudden not the subject but the client that's hiring you for the commercial job I think I think it's a great question cannon and I'll tell you that there are more and more studio owners uh my girlfriend oklahoma's once she has been interviewing for months and months trying to find hair and makeup person that's available that can come in the studio on a per job basis that lives in the community that doesn't have to drive for an hour and a half and uh she's having a hard time finding one when she does I think she's probably gonna pay him pretty well per job but I think you can price you're work in such a way and we're going to talk about pricing a lot in the next segment I think you can price your work in such a way that uh I think you could include that and let the client know now when you're shopping for a photographer is just know that I'm I'm charging a little bit more but I'm including this and this and this because I think it'll make your portrait better I think it'll enhance this project that we're that we're embarking on together so I'm not sure that I'm not sure if I answered her her question at all um just the thing was running sorry its okay I thought it was just a thing that it was a little liza louise I'm sorry louise I do think louisa that there's some things that you could do uh and that's another one too that you confined uh you know sort of apprentice hair and makeup people that are looking for things to do also and you can always call the make up departments of all the all of the local your shopping mall anchor stores the big department stores they all have people in no people and they have a freelance makeup artist said or even available so there there's options there and the same with the hair style hair styling salons always know where they get their employees there's sometimes there's a school nearby that they're in class and they need hours working in the field so look for those as well yeah question uh just one thing that I have stylist that work on all of my sessions it's included like you were talking about and I've learned that especially with students in various states I don't know about costa rica specifically or other countries but they're actually can be various laws affecting what services they're able to provide and where they're able to provide him so as a business if you're including it in your feet you have to be really careful to make sure you're legally that that they're allowed to do those things in your studio space and all of that well yeah and and and certainly with makeup uh in my state in texas twenty five years ago we had there was a law that we had to use on lee hae pilot genic make up the makeup artist had they wear gloves there was a lot of stuff involved and using a professional makeup artist in your studio for a portrait session you didn't want to give someone you didn't want to get someone that that that might have had a little bit of an illness or a virus or something onto someone's face or pink eye or whatever you know whatever it might have been so those are those are all factors that you have to think about but I'll tell you this I know that on the clients that you use hair and makeup you're going to get your best sales you're doing your best looking clients and you're gonna get the best referrals ever because they look their best and especially in photographing women women love to tell other women where they got their portrait is done and they love to share that and if you've made them look their best and you've gone out of your way with hair and makeup holy moly it's pretty great and with us some of the other vendors to talk about flores and and furniture stores I had an arrangement with the furniture store that would let me borrow anything and I would always bring it back and return it as long as I would bring it back and return it with pictures that they could use that was the trade out I had frames I never sold frames in my business I had free frames in my studio always from one framer because I would give one of his business cards to every one of my clients and every quarter I would send him three or four photographs of something that he had framed that the client would bring back to me and I would photograph it with the frame on it and I was sent him the print of the frame so you I know this it's almost like that old barter system I remember one time a guy walked up to me and he said I really want you to photograph my daughter's wedding but I can't afford you and I said well I said here's what my rights are so I know he said but he said let me throw this at you for consideration I says what's that he said I am a texaco petroleum gas distributor how would you like to trade out free gasoline for the next two years to photograph my daughter's wedding and I want okay so for two years I didn't pay for a tank of gas it's not a bad way to go now I'm sure I'm telling some irish guy somewhere going but I'm not sure how all the legal ramifications are on the barter world and I know a lot of barter sites that have been shut down and stuff but I'm just throwing this out find ways of working within your community with other small business owners it's really helpful I know that in a moscow g oklahoma my girlfriend is working with the radio station now and she's doing their headshots and she's getting on the radio you know it's just I used to photograph all of the herring harris dallas at one hair place for their headshots and that we put behind the receptionist desk so that when you walk in so I can remember who cut my hair last time oh that's her with the red hair great I did all those portrait's and and on all those frame prince that I gave him at no charge at the bottom there are eleven by fourteen and on the bottom on the far right one that was in eleven by fourteen of my logo on a photograph from all those kind of moments those kind of support vendors are huge in your communities huge I think we have to spend some time talking about that okay any questions comments questions comments always now's a good time okay can we go back to talking a little bit more about working with your family and what that means about not just setting boundaries but how do you get a family who might be not wanting tio have your home be partially a place of business for whatever reason how do you kind of win them over to that I know that's a big question but uh well it is a big question I think from from from what I know of that young man back there he basically retired from another career and said basically I've won always wanted to do this and I'm going to go after this in a big way and he told his wife I'd love it if you would stop what you're doing and get into this business with me and she said okay so he brought his wife into the business with him and I think that there's it's always going to be a little bit different for everybody but I do know that um to get them to buy into what you're doing they have to understand what you're doing they understand your mindset and they have to they have to at least go you know I I do want to be supportive and I am supportive of what you're doing they have to have to be supportive uh and then as far as bringing that business into your home as long as you don't invade the entire home and as long as you don't buy invade everybody space and as long as you don't have clients come in at all hours I think it's pretty workable but that is an issue of of clients stopping by at seven p m to drop off you know files or drop off a check or pick up of order and stuff like that that's a problem you need to establish when I said you need establish those very strict hours that's not just for your family that's for your clientele as well your clients need to know that it's not okay to call you on your cell phone at nine thirty p m and they'll do it if you if you'll let him you have to you have to set those boundaries with them that I think you're very very key as well yeah along those lines um a lot of times you you want to list your business address on your website for google maps all that kind of stuff what do you think about that for a home studio I mean would you list your home address as your business address on google maps and your website or do you keep that private and just keep email and phone like how do you address that my response is I would on one condition if the zoning in the community and where I live in the municipality or the city or the state it's okay to have that business in my home and I've got the all the all of the legal rights is to do that if you are operating a business in a residential neighborhood there are some places you can't do that you just can't you certainly can't hang up a sign you certainly can't put out anything that indicates that that's a mean there's it's gonna vary from location to location you have to do the research on that you're gonna have you're gonna have to scope that out a little bit so I'm not quite sure what the answer is uh it's uh it depends I mean I certainly wouldn't hesitate to do that if it's a legal thing to do I do love the fact that when I met some sights when I'm trying to figure out where somebody is I love having a map pop up that's really helpful for me uh because you can just click there no directions bam here's the directions and printed out and go you know it's really helpful I mean we all all of us we live in a world of convenience you know uh I don't even know I don't even want to wait for my burrito warm after the microwave anymore you know uh I heard a comedian say I put instant coffee and my micro and I went back in time sorry but I think that we do I think way do find ourselves we find ourselves getting a little bit caught up in the world of uh everything's gotta be convenient and and that's great and our clients want us to be convenient but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can always reach you and that's that that is one thing that I would be pretty sticky about you might even have a small thing next to your door that's his business hours and list those business hours so there's no and maybe it's on your business card or whatever whatever documents you send out a lot of you put together a price list clothing guide uh all that sort of thing on a pdf and you'll leam out to your clients on everything that you send up maybe you've gotta have the hours on there I think maybe that's a good answer you know all right so we've been talking to me about building your support team and building a team can you talk a little bit about editing post processing and when or whether you would decide to outsource some of that post processing and is that something you do or when when would be a good time do that yeah it's that's ah that's a that's a great question it's a great time for this question I think there are there are a lot of people that you that gain is much enjoyment from the post production process as they do from the shooting that you know who you are and I know I've got a good friend uh he's got a business partner and they are in virginia um jamie hayes and mary fifty taylor and they're just the nicest couple and they are so busy jamie says I will never touch a file I wouldn't do it for nothing not because I don't want to because I don't have time to and I want to go home with the end of my shooting day I just want to get away from the studio go home and sew everything that they shoot goes out he never even looks at it he never transfers it over he doesn't do anything everything just goes out the cards just gets sent out and then I know people that won't let anybody touch their stuff so I think it has to do with a couple of things first off how busy are you are you so busy that you I can't do this or is it something that financially it's to your benefit to go ahead and make it happen I know uh we know a very well known composite guy mr sturdevant er who is so good at what he does with with his compositing but he's getting to where now he can send out his extractions and they could get an extraction done for two dollars and fifty cents he can't extract it fast enough to save that two dollars and fifty cents so he'll back he'll he'll save up five or six and then upload him cinema lout or twenty um center mall out they come back and it's done and they're clean extractions from an outsource company so I think there is something to be said for that I think that I think it's almost like when do you hire an assistant it's kind of like when you hire a service bureau to help you you will know when your business is so busy you can't do it any longer or when there's enough money there that you can afford to help somebody do it and at some point your spouse or significant other is going to say you can't spend any more nights working in front of that machine any longer there's going to be a time where it's like I got to stop this I really you mean it really is reasonable for you to stop at some point as opposed to always telling the kids you can't take him to the park because you've got to go finish this client's files and and I know people that do it all the time and we've got to be very very uh cognizant of that um I want to talk just a little bit about this what were what were in that topic let's talk a little bit about the idea of going back to the assistance again do you guys feel that there are people that can help you now that you know that you haven't approached to help you have you have you given that any thought do you know who it is that you might reach out to our go for because this is an important this is an important part of of the I guess the uh what's the word I'm looking for I guess of the uh transition of your brand or the transition of who you are is a photographer I'm surprised at how much help it is to have another body stand next to me it's more than a little bit it's not it's not just about moving that life stand it's noon far greater than that so who do you know that you can call right now do you know people in your community is there a school in your community does your high school have a department do they have photo construction going on are their kids that are running the yearbook staff that would come work for you my girlfriend's daughter just got invited to be on the yearbook staff at the high school and they told her you're gonna take pictures first day of school and she went to school going I don't know if I can do this of course you can do it but I think it's great because now she's all excited about it and I think that that's what happens is that you find people that start getting excited about that learning process you start getting people that are ready so I guess my my statement to all of you is start thinking when you go home when you get on the plane to go home or when you get on the bus to go home or whatever you're doing start thinking about who is in your community that you can call tomorrow

Class Description



You’ll learn how to:

  • Market and sell in-home shoots
  • Store and organize your equipment.
  • Work with family and client schedules






Penny Foster


Kat Ciemiega
