————————————————————————-

OK, after of hunting around for a bit i found the best deal for me, a two year lease with the kit you see below + the 12×8 printer, i’m awaiting a phonecall back to see if they will accept me for the lease. Obviously they need to do some checks, make sure i’m not going to screw them over etc.

I’m half expecting them to say no, if I was in there shoes I would be a bit wary renting to a 24 old punk ass noob, just starting his own business. Some crazy figure like 9/10 new business fail in the first year, if they don’t have a proven track record it’s quite a risky sale for the leasing company.

The company arranging the lease is Photolease.co.uk the offer on the actual lease is very good, however the (sales?)person on the phone I had to speak to was quite rude, as if someone may have just played a pratical joke on him and he didn’t find it funny. Maybe he was just having a bad day or he is fed up with ‘unsuitable’ people phoning him regarding leases.

I’ll update with the conclusion, either way I’ll be getting this kit. Be it a straight purchase, getting a loan or a lease.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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 – First week is sorted now, mixture of solo and a friend helping out.
Look at Epos tech and make a paper receipt system
Design new displays for the studio

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

————————————————————————-

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.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

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