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Good News – Target £200, took £250, smashing my target again.

Better News – I was asked by a lady to work at a fund-raiser, I’m awaiting for her to contact me with details, possible rent free, high turnover day.

Positive News – Worked on the work flow and process method, it went a lot smoother, but buckled under a huge rush.

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NOTE: Cash counter updated, this is now total investment, current rent paid, complete frame order and todays takings. I’ll post a complete break down at the end of my two weeks.

It eventually came, my first day of trading. Despite all my previous work and dealings, I was still quite nervous.

It wasn’t the actual work I was scared of but the chance of failure, though these nerves have subsided slightly due to a minor success, their is a lot of work to be done in a short period of time that will greatly effect my outcome.

This video shows the end of the first day, the overall setup looks O.K, but can look A LOT better, I need a big sign coming out of the top on one of the corners, posters on stands under the security tape thingamajigs, more pictures with more colour, maybe a cut out character from my marketing / brand style stuck around the place.

My first day target was £100, though it isn’t anywhere near my day average target, I was half expecting to take nothing, not many people knew I was there, it’s all about a build up of custom over the two weeks. The first day is really about advertising and telling everyone you’re here.

I sold £130.00 of photographs, one half price frame at £5.50 and got a £4.50 tip, total of £140.00.

Smashing my target was excellent, another thing, trying to keep it positive (though it made me a little uneasy) I found a problem with my setup, the current work flow process from shoot to print is taking FAR to long.

It will naturally get a little bit faster, as we get used to the equipment and the actual process of dealing with real customers. IF we went at the same speed tomorrow, the maximum amount of customers we could serve would be about 7-8, ideally, I need a work flow that could accept 15-20.

The positive is, I know I can reach that, alternatively, I can rise my prices just a touch to give more leeway.

These two weeks are to see the workings of the studio and to perfect and tweak what is necessary, to mould my idea into a profit power house – and I plan on doing just that.

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Phase 1.99 – First two weeks trading, finding the flaws and fixing them.

Things to be done:

1) Make a big sign
2) Make more posters for the other side
3) INCREASE WORK FLOW SPEED, PHOTO TO PRINT IN UNDER AN HOUR

(30min rotation on photography sittings 2 customers per hour, max of 18 customers per day, good enough for now! (7 customers a day at £35.00 = £465.00 net profit per week! (Ouch, I would need like 40 studios to make a million in five years, but hey it’s a start)))

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Other Stuff

Anyone fancy a trip to China? I want to visit a few toy factories and maybe get a few of these babies.

I think i could sell these longside my photography service quite well… (O.K I know it has nothing to do with photography, but man they are so awesome)

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Picked up two new lights yesterday, early birthday presents (Thank you mum and dad) I took the home and checked them out, set all my kit up, all pucker until we had a power cut. After getting power back on one of the lights would not switch back on, nothing, dead as a door nail.

After a little creative shouting, I tried a different plug, success! simply the fuse had blown, the light was now working again.

Or so I thought, less than five minutes later smoke and the smell of best described as burnt chicken marinated in dust came wafting out of the light. A brown sticky residue dripped from the light, onto the floor to match my new puddle of tears.

The light has gone back today to been replaced, should be here tomorrow.

Any who, I still I have two lights, one old, un-PAT-tested and one and a brand new shiny one.

So I had a  small test run with my little cousin, the pictures came out pretty nice, I still have to tweak the colour and sharpness. This shot is a little too pink and a little too sharp, on close inspection on the print you can really notice it.

This was a two light setup, one from behind inside the backdrop and a softbox from the top right, the results are good, but would be a lot better if I had another light.

This is the effect I’m going for:

Which isn’t out of my reach,  just a little bit more practice and colour tweaking.

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Phase 1.9 – Method Preparation

Need to be done before 6th
Setup lights + back drop, take photos
Print photos, frame them on studio walls
Finish off ‘Coming Soon!’ poster – put up in shopping centre
Print up hand out price lists
Contact local paper, try and get them to run a story on ‘PhotoNOW!’
Make up a reprint order sheet.

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