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Unfortunately, though expected, I’ve been refused the lease under my own name. Photolease were great in the end and would’ve allowed to do it in my families company name, however my father refused, maybe to show me how hard this really is going to be.

I’m not worried, I won’t falter.

My options are;

A) Secure a loan to buy equipment (Will be hard)
B) Make a new work flow, using existing equipment and processes.

I’ve just checked out my A3 printer, the bastard has gone and died. No longer powers up despite what power leads or plugs I use.

Lady “bad luck” seems to be my close friend, lucky for me I have backup plans, lots of them.

Back up plan
Assuming I can’t get my dream machine by the 6th

Take photos, show on PC, note photo numbers, take to family store to be printed (Already been agreed, thankfully!) ask customer to come back in an hour.

Pros: No cost outlay, doing it this way will  save me money, no lease, no loans.

Cons: I’m trying to perfect a single studio. I want to test equipment and methods, me relying on something that won’t be in any other shopping centre or building a work flow around it seems like a waste of time.

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Phase 1.9.9 – Getting ready for the next booking, further tests

Things to do:

Look for a sales assistant – First week is sorted now, mixture of solo and a friend helping out.
Make a paper receipt for customers
Design new displays for the studio
Design a new price list / Change the prices

Think about home call setup, the equipment needed, marketing, prices and photographers.

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New graphics / Posters

I’ll be handing out leaflets a week before I’m actually going in – A5 hand out final.pdf

Screen shot / Click to see bigger picture

I’ve designed a new poster to say when I’m coming, will be displayed in shop windows and notice board – A3 arivial poster newwebsite.pdf

Screen shot / Click to see bigger picture

I haven’t changed much between the new and the old posters, just added the points on the right hand side and changed the photos.

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Dates have been updated to reflect what’s going down for the rest of the year, nine weeks in total booked.

Nine weeks out of the twenty odd which is left, isn’t many, unfortunately this is all they had left in Waltham Cross. Due to me purchasing new equipment and changing the setup around I really want to be close to my fathers camera store just in case it goes tits up.

These nine weeks will be crucial to my future success, seeking the problems and fixing them will be the key.

Making a start to finish product that anyone can run and everyone will love.

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Phase 1.9.9 – Getting ready for the next booking, further tests

22nd of June to the 7th of July, had to be changed by the landlords for the reason of competition, another photography will be in the area.

Things to do:

Book shopping centre space
Research and find a way to offer a faster print service – Just need to check out the leases.
Look for a sales assistant
(note – I’ve robbed a bunch of CV’s of possible people from my dads store, need to give them a call!)
Look at Epos tech and make a paper receipt
Design new displays for the studio

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After a little bit of research and some web searching I’ve found an awesome printer and PC setup. The Mitsubishi Click Lite.

After reading around and falling in love, I gave Mitsubishi a call (Monday) and managed to get a meeting with a sales representative for yesterday (Wednesday) luckily their head office is less then twenty minutes away!

Mitsubishi Hatfield is a god-damn gorgeous building, black sheet style windows from top to bottom.

My father gave me a ride and decided to sit in and check out some of the Mitsubishi kit, he already owns two Kodak kiosks and a PhotoME web lab. We got booked in at reception and got our visitor stickers and shortly after a Mr Paul Jones comes and  greets up and takes up to a display room with the kit all setup and running.

After an hour of demonstration, I’m pretty much sold, the machine is fast (6×4 in under 14 seconds), easy to use and adaptable.

The machine is ‘expensive’. Expensive for me at the moment, but cheap in the grand scheme of things.

At 1.8k + VAT, you get what you see in the picture above, the main unit + software and a printer which can print up to 6×9, they do another printer which prints up 12×8 as an addition, so you have two printers, but I’ll need to add another 1.2k to the price!  (Note – I’ll need to change my products and packages around slightly! 5×7 not really suitable on this)

Unfortunately, Mitsubishi  don’t lease nor sell direct, unless you want lots and lots of them, they mainly deal with theme parks and the London Eye etc

However, I was given a contact of a company who can lease me one.

Next step; contact company and see how cheap I can get a two week lease and see if its viable for a test run.

IF it isn’t and the cost of a lease is close to the same price of the machine, I’ll have to have serious ponder on my plan of action. Do I get a loan? Do I try and find a cheaper alternative? Do I try and make the Inkjet setup work?

After seeing this kit in action, I can’t see myself without it or something slimier, currently the Click Lite seems to be the ‘most for your buck’ setup.

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Break down of cost – Just quickly, as this post is getting long.

I originally wanted to make a setup which paid for itself in about two weeks and starts turning profit very quickly.

So i sat down and done some basic ‘in my head’ numbers;

With a 100% setup, I should make an average £800-£1000 profit per week (my two weeks trial I made £1,120 and had about £200 in reprints with a website and offering more services this should go up quite a bit)

To setup one studio, I know it won’t cost more than £6k in theory once I get going and have a bit of ‘power’ behind me should cost me <£3k, even if it cost me £10k, thats still only 10-13 weeks to get my money back, OK that’s not two weeks, but still to get such a fast return is fantastic.

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Phase 1.9.9 – Getting ready for the next booking, further tests

OK, I’ve booked two weeks @ Waltham Cross again, i tried to get the 1st of June onwards, but it was taken, so i have 22nd of June to the 7th of July.

I’ll be working hard to get a few more glitches out of the way, then I’ll look at booking space for the rest of the year.

Things to do:

Book shopping centre space
Research and find a way to offer a faster print service – Just need to check out the leases.
Look for a sales assistant
(note – I’ve robbed a bunch of CV’s of possible people from my dads store, need to give them a call!)
Look at Epos tech and make a paper receipt
Design new displays for the studio