What to look for in a studio location

[picasso]

I am planning for the future and wanted to see what people here thought about studio location cost etc.... My thoughts are that if I do this I want to do it right. To me, visibility and traffic would be part of a key marketing strategy with good window front views to hang portraits and other photography.

My thoughts are do I spend a premium and put the studio in a location with huge amount of foot traffic or do I save and put it in a location with some foot traffic but, not as much as if I spent the premium?

I guess my questions are:

1. What are recommendations from people who currently own or have owned a studio?

2. Does location make a difference and if so, is it worth the extra cost to put it in one of the new fancy shopping centers that are made to look like an old town shopping center to get the foot traffic and visability?

3. For those that have owned a studio, are you still in it or are you working out of your house? If so, what made you move back to the house?

Thanks for any info.

Paul

[bondarnes]

Over the last thirty plus years I have had either five or nine studios depending on how you count different configurations in the same building.To be totally honest, if I was starting out today photographing children, families, and/or weddings I would not have a studio. In my opinion It would be difficult to compete for the senior market without a studio. Also keep in mind that a photography studio is a destination, it is not a place you stop by to have portraits made on your way to the supermarket or whatever, so you need to be easy to find, but you don't need the prime location. Keep in mind that studio rent should not exceed 15% of your total income so if you did $ 100,000.00 in gross photography sales in 2006 you can justify a studio location in the $1,000.00 per month range. For that price you are not going to get a high traffic location.

I hope this helps. I would be glad to visit wih you personally if you still think you want to do this.

[HotHolly]

Don's been very helpful with this topic. We are opening a studio in about 6 weeks. We spent a lot of time looking, talking to landlords, check rent and other monthly fees, and attempting to hone in our target demographic. Ironically, the cheapest rent was also in the poshest boutique section of town. Million dollar homes are directly behind us.

I think a lot of what you asked depends on what type of studio you want to be. You have anything from the Sears model to the 5th Ave. model, to school or wedding photography models. I'm guessing you have ideas of what you want to do.

We asked many of the same questions as you while preparing to open our studio, and found that execution has a lot to do with preference, vision, and business skills. Ironic how little photography is involved in owning a photography studio.

The small biz assoc. has also been very free and very helpful. Hope that helped a little bit.

:o)

[picasso]

Thanks Don and Holly. Both of you are always helpful and willing to answer questions here and I for one appreciate it and I am sure others do as well. I am trying to come up with what I want to do. I know you both have more experience than me and I might PM you both later on to pick your brain. I am contiplating a career change and am gathering info for that purpose. Trying to balance whats in my dreamy little head with what I can really do and not go broke. Thanks again for your input.

Paul

[photobykim]

Paul, what a good question. One thing that I am considering doing in the next couple years is getting a small space that will work more as an office space than probably studio space, but then I think having a little of both might be what I want as well. But that is a couple years off when all the kids are in school. This is all really good information though, I'll have to keep it in my back pocket.

[ShaneKislack]

Not sure what kind of photography you want to do...but that makes a huge difference. If you are shooting commercially and need a large space...a design or warehouse district is where you'll find the most activity in the industry. But that's not marketing to the public.

If you are marketing to foot traffic, then location is everything. Remember is better to pay a fair price for a great location than a great price for a fair location ( I stole that).

[picasso]

Right now I think the type of photography I am bent towards is Portrait, Sr's, Children and possibly wedding. I would like to develop a style that would be more "Fine Art" what ever you take that to mean and thought that the foot traffic would surely be helpful. I am not sure how it is normally done. Obviosuly there are those here that can get enough business from word of mouth to run a studio out of there house but, I think that probably came with lots of time and exposure and then I often wonder if they had a visible studio with some of their work showing how much more business would they get and would it be off set by the cost of the studio? Of course then I pick up a copy of Range Finder and go off to dreamy land where photographers are doing 1.4 million a yr in child and Sr. photography and building a huge studio and have several people working for them etc.. etc.. and they just started out of their house. There's lots to think about.

Paul

[Clayton Wallace]

Good thread Paul. I'm in the same boat and starting to really eye locations as I travel. I'm currently close to full time out of my house and will continue there for some time as I transition from my 'day' job. However, I have expansion plans and ambitions in a couple of years that involve a studio. I'm in a very high growth and wealthy area and I think in my case the increase in visibility a brick and mortar studio will bring will be more than off set by the increase in credibility. Some people just equate visibility with qualitiy.