It also helps if you like what you are to photograph.... I was never going to make it as a pre-divorce ceremony photographer .

 

I was a so called Professional Photographer for 15 years. I was not a talented or great photographer. Still not. I didn't have expensive equipment. Just reliable mechanical stuff. I was good at marketing and I was a very good people person. I was a general photographer. Weddings, Portraits, Commercial stuff when I could get it. I was good at taking shots that would sell well. On the social side I made more out of reprints than I ever made out of the actual comission price. I made a very good living out of it. it was in the film era. I spent more time marketing, distributing, visiting possible clients/Labs etc than I did clicking a shutter. I closed my high Street studio as I didn't spend enough time there and I couldn't create enough demand to warrant the overhead. Though I love studio work. I found it a pretty stressful occupation. I got out when I was offered a 9 to 5 position utilising my business skills and was better paid. I think it's even worse now and wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. But sometimes you have to follow your dream. There are probably plenty out there doing very well.

 

Unlike yourself, Andrew, even though it never started out that way, of all the wedding's I've shot -- maybe 10-15 in total -- they all ended in divorce within less than
two years , the only one that hasn't (and I daresay shan't) was the last one and it was shot on digital way back in September 2005
Cheers,
Jack

 

I have no idea how many of the weddings I shot that ended in divorce.
But I do remember one particular couple as I shot each of their next weddings with new partners.
There was at least something good they remembered about their first marriage.

 

Ya gotta love return customers, Terry
Cheers and have a great weekend
Jack

 

Are you asked to do the second (and any subsequent) weddings? All businesses appreciate repeat custom.

 

It's known as repeat business.

 

I spent a few years in retail about 40 years ago, and recall being told that to get somebody's business once was easy as long as you were cheap, but to get their business again you had to be helpful and professional too. Inevitably, my employer ceased trading because it could never compete on price...

 

They can always find a cheaper supplier, you go out of business because of reputation, and no one can see a good reason to deal with you. If you are good to deal with and good at what you do People come back.

If you can not compete in the same price ball park, like for like, there is something wrong with your business model.

 

Not necessarily. You can be purposefully undercut. The under-cutter themselves may get it wrong, run out of cash and go out of business. By then it may be too late.

 

That may be possible in a business trading only very locally with a single competitor. But it rare. It is usually just used as an excuse as to why a poorly run business goes under.
Price undercutting alone is poor business model.

 

As shown by the energy industry! Selling something for a long term low fixed price to gain market share. Loss leader tactics are also widely used in insurance, communications ... etc.

 

It is called buying business. It is not something small businesses can do safely. I am not sure it is good practice in the long term.

 

The "vote" question.... another case of "buy an electric motor".......

 

Ah ... you are getting back to the poll at the top.

 

I spent 28 years in the cut-throat photo retail business, Chester, and, to this day, I have no idea why I first picked up a 35mm camera ????

Cheers,
Jack

 

In my youth my photography was mainly fashion and beauty. My wife had been a model and I guess that was the inspiration. I recruited some lovely ladies who enjoyed being photographed and seeing their pictures published in magazines. I gave them prints but no payment ( two were professional models). The income probably did not cover my expenses but I enjoyed the creativity and my control. Turning full time professional would have ruined it for me; being told what and how to make a picture. My advise is to enjoy your photography but seek a career elsewhere.

 

It was precisely that fear that put me off for so long. But what I take professionally is not at all the sort of thing I am bothered about shooting as an enthusiast - the overlap of paid and persoal is tiny. So I don't really mind at all - in fact I've found I enjoy it, for the most part - a different challenge, but one I'm comfortable with with lots of transferable skills, and even the things I had never used before - studio flash, for example - I knew how to use after years of photo mags, books and forums.

 

Hence, Robert, in Vancouver, at least, photo retail
Cheers,
Jack