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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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Just a quick ’show-off’ post, I’ve completed my price list, this will be printed A1 and displayed in a frame leaning against the wall, hiding one set of feet pointing out.

I’ve been in emails with Concessions-Online hopefully, within the next two days or so I’ll have a date for my trial run in Waltham Cross shopping centre.

I’m really excited, I can’t wait to get out and take some photos, having something tangible to work with, to see the problems and fix them.

This is what’s all about.
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Phase 1.9 – Method Preparation

I’m so close to the end of my preparation, soon I can start, I’m a little behind on the scale of things, I’ll have to make the slack up soon, I personally see this as the hardest part of my adventure.

Things to do:
Take photos of relatives for display, print them and finish displays on studio walls.

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Extra notes: Used different camera so sound is a bit poor. For the feet that our sticking out, there will be an art easel cover them, so people can’t trip over them.

The back drop will have a train, which is a plastic sheet so the floor will be white.

My father said to me, “Ben you don’t do things by half measures do you!” I replied, “I do things with out any measuring it seems”

I worked out the wood size so it wouldn’t be too tall, which I got spot on, however when I ordered this backdrop, my brain must’ve forgotten all laws of physics, time and space.

But it has worked out for the best, as I said in the video it looks freaking awesome, when I have this baby setup in a shopping centre every person in a ten mile radius can see it and will swarm to it, like bugs to a soft light.
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Phase 1.9 – Method Preparation

Crunch time is here, I’m in the final phase of booking my first few weeks, I need to get my head down and put on the finishing touches.

Things to do:
Make decals / price lists for walls and display stand.
Get ready for a test run.
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