The marketing of your
photography business though a profitable direction.
____________________________________________________________________________________
So much emphasis is placed on "Cost of Sales".
What you pay out, for what you sell.
Photographers will figure and figure how to save $.50
on the cost of
a print
from a
lab, or
combined shipping
costs
on orders,
and then spend $10.00 per hour in lost overhead cost
because of poor
workflow practices in the studio.
The cost of the print from the lab is
the easy part of determining a
price
at which to sell.
What
most studios do not figure into the pricing of their product is the TIME
involved with that
one
client,
The handling of that clients order, and how efficient all of the orders
go thought the studio determines total cost.
If you are constantly looking for the "lost print", waiting on a
shortage remake, or any other delay
that occupies your time, like sitting at a computer, those things raise the
cost of production of that order.
If the print costs you
$2.00 and you spend an hour fiddling around in
workflow, that print actually costs you about
$20.00 or more. depending on the fixed cost of operations.
Most
small studios will have an overhead of at least $25.00 per hour. Larger
Studios will need $60-120 dollars per hour.
The higher your overhead the more your lost time costs you and must be added
to
the cost of production.
Draw a sketch of your workspace.
Then
draw a line
indicating the path of the typical order
as
it is handled
though
your operation.
Overtime,
the line crisscrosses, or doubles back into previous space.
There
it has cost
you money.
If you are dry mounting your prints for $
.
40 for example, and paying someone
$8.00 and hour to do so,
you
might be dollars ahead to have the lab do the mounting.
Bruce D. Roberts, M. Photog, Certified
Michigan Studio Specialist for
H&H Color Lab