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Basic Ledger – 6th – 19th July <– Excell sheet for the last two weeks.

Man, what a slow week. Business was very poor, really messes up my confidence.

There will be bad weeks and good weeks, it’s very hard looking at it week by week, the overall picture is very good but this weeks picture was a horrible car crash.

The website will be a big help once  it’s up, looking at hosting plans now.

On a bright note, I’ve now cut up my credit card and working on getting it paid off for good.

Also a short video showing the current layout, still needs a lot of work.

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

Things to do:

Book space for next year.

Need to work on website – it’s nearly there! Needs product population, testing and some help with some of the graphics – the dude making it for me has been excellent and steamrolled most of it.

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Yesterday I had my equipment PAT (Portable Appliance Test) tested, a requirement when renting out space, make sure your equipment is healthy and isn’t suddenly going to explode and wipe out a bunch of kids.

Unfortunately, the electrician fried one of my lights, while looking for the ‘earth point’ he tested it off the pc sync socket and smoke started to come out of my poor little studio light.

The guy knew what he done exactly after it happened, he was very calm and just asked me to send it away for repair and send him the quote. Big props to him, I’ve been in slimier  situations in previous jobs, It’s the scariest and hardest thing to deal with.

I’ll be borrowing a set of lights from my fathers shop until it gets sorted, I’m a very lucky to have such access to equipment.

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Phase 1.9 – Method Preparation

A quick recap on what I’ve done and what I need to do, I’ll also go over how much I’ve spent so far.

Completed
Logo and Branding
Price Lists / Designed
Receipt Database / Customer Copy
Basic Ledger
Parental Wavier
Physical Studio – Walls, Feet and frames up
Back drop purchased
Tables purchased
Printer setup and sorted
Beanbag for baby shots purchased

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.

Money I’ve spent so far
Materials for walls (Cut wood, nails, everything) – £347.53
Lastolite Backdrop – £396.00
Frame Order (First part of order) – £400.00
Ikea pillows / Beanbag – £78.51
Total – £1222.04 INC VAT – I have receipts for everything, when I reg myself as a LTD company I’ll be able to claim it back about £180.00.

Money that has yet to come out
Rent for two weeks – £1035.00
Frame Order (Second part of order) – £325.66

If I hit my average target of £320.00 of photographs per day, I will have seen the return on my investment  in just two weeks and that includes paying myself and my editor £50.00 a day.

I’ve updated the ‘cash counter’ at the top of the page. Though I originally decided I wasn’t going to count my initial investment in my overall mission, with my personal bank account starting to bleed, I’m going to need to pay myself more to set myself straight.

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Gentlemen, it’s go time. I’ll be taking photographs between 6th of April to the 18th.

I got a good deal on the rent, considering it’s the Easter week + Half-Term on the second week.

They were asking £500 + VAT, I asked my father (Owner / MD of DigitalCameraExchange.co.uk – Currently renting inside WX Shopping Centre) to have word with the big kahuna and he got it dropped to £450 + VAT, not bad! Thanks Dad!

Approximate minimum turnover needed per week – £1300.00 = Rent paid for, wages @ £100 a day and printing costs covered.

£186.00 a day, six customers spending an average of £31.00 each on photographs.

I’m extremely confident that I won’t be losing any money, but if I’m going to hit my targets, I’m going to need to £320.00 worth of prints per day, my confidence falters slightly, however I have seen a setup without instant photos sell literary hundreds of prints on collection day and they were a lot more money.

It will all come down to the quality of my photographs and my salesmanship.

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Phase 1.9 – Method Preparation

With the deadline in place I need everything 100% ASAP

Things to do:
Need to get my equipment PAT tested.
Take photos of relatives for display, print them and finish displays on studio walls.

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