church directories & daycares

[mbjarvis]

I would like to know if anyone has done any church directories and/or day cares. My question is, how much do you charge the church adn how much do you charge the day care if anything? I am not sure if this questions has been asked before, but if it has please just give me the link to previous post. Thank you.

[bondarnes]

I worked for a church directory company for about a year in the mid 70's. After they went out of business, I did a few on my own. I made some money on about 1/3rd, broke even on 1/3rd, and lost money on the last 1/3rd. The churches don't pay you for this. You do it on spec and hope for good sales. It all comes down to picking the right church at the right time. I can help you if you want to go down this road.

The situation is a little different with day cares. To get the really good ones you will probably have to pay a "commission" to the owner. You can do these as pre-pay packages or do them on spec. There can be some good money in this, but it takes several years to develop your market.

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but you don't suddenly decide to photograph church directories and just start booking and shooting. If you really want to do this go to work for the best (Olan Mills) for a year and learn how to do this successfully.

[ndsimm]

I've never done, but my church has had it done three times (about once every five years as membership changes)
you sure you got this kinda time???
-most of your sessions will be in the evenings and weekends to accomodate the families
-Do you have the equipment to quick proof on site? Most of your sales will come from clients being able to "see" something right after the session
-everytime we had it done, each family was given a free 8x10 and they printed our Church Directory for free
-as Don stated, you'll be lucky to get 1/3 of the people to buy packages

[mbjarvis]

Thank you Don and yes if you could guide me in the right direction with both of these events, it will be greatly appreciated. ndsimm thank you as well and yes I will make time. I have set aside certain days of the week that I do photo's. I suppose that like everything I can try it once and if it does not work out then I will move onto something else. Again thank each of you for your comments. Don if you could PM me with details on how to contact you.

Originally Posted by bondarnes

I worked for a church directory company for about a year in the mid 70's. After they went out of business, I did a few on my own. I made some money on about 1/3rd, broke even on 1/3rd, and lost money on the last 1/3rd. The churches don't pay you for this. You do it on spec and hope for good sales. It all comes down to picking the right church at the right time. I can help you if you want to go down this road.

The situation is a little different with day cares. To get the really good ones you will probably have to pay a "commission" to the owner. You can do these as pre-pay packages or do them on spec. There can be some good money in this, but it takes several years to develop your market.

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but you don't suddenly decide to photograph church directories and just start booking and shooting. If you really want to do this go to work for the best (Olan Mills) for a year and learn how to do this successfully.

[dreemes]

I think another thing that is going to make this harder is with digital cameras everybody is a photographer. With this being said every church is going to have a "photographer." So all they have to do is take that cheap little P&S, snap a few photos and then get a cheap printing program like Printmaster and BEHOLD! A church directory is born. May look like junk but they are happy because they did it themselves and saved $$$.

[toverman]

My church used a major company to shoot families for our directory late last year (sadly not Olan Mills, which did our photos and directory about six or so years ago).

The photographer/salesman really pushed us to buy several photos, but they just weren't that good. We ended up upgrading our "free" 8x10 with some different effects, etc. The kicker is that this same company was also going to publish directories for the church. They were supposed to be completed by February or March, but nobody seems to know when they'll actually show up. Our church probably has about 600 members, so it's not really that big.

Not a good business practice to not follow through with a church. I know I'd drive out of my way to avoid the closest studio owned by this company (actually, I'll stay home and take my own family/self-portraits!).

[adirty1]

Originally Posted by bondarnes

I
The situation is a little different with day cares. To get the really good ones you will probably have to pay a "commission" to the owner.

Commission. That is such a better word then kick back.

[mbjarvis]

No Todd that is not good business practices, and I would never do that. My word is my bond and we trying to grow in the community not die before we get started good.

Originally Posted by toverman

My church used a major company to shoot families for our directory late last year (sadly not Olan Mills, which did our photos and directory about six or so years ago).

The photographer/salesman really pushed us to buy several photos, but they just weren't that good. We ended up upgrading our "free" 8x10 with some different effects, etc. The kicker is that this same company was also going to publish directories for the church. They were supposed to be completed by February or March, but nobody seems to know when they'll actually show up. Our church probably has about 600 members, so it's not really that big.

Not a good business practice to not follow through with a church. I know I'd drive out of my way to avoid the closest studio owned by this company (actually, I'll stay home and take my own family/self-portraits!).

[ndsimm]

If you choose to offer the Directory, make sure you communicate with the Church that you will need their membership list in the proper format otherwise there will be delays....
also, make sure that members that do not want their info public have the option to opt out of the directory....

[mbjarvis]

Thank you Nathan I will for sure do this. We have talked about that and if we do this we will ask for it in Word Document only and they will have two weeks to get the information to us.

Originally Posted by ndsimm

If you choose to offer the Directory, make sure you communicate with the Church that you will need their membership list in the proper format otherwise there will be delays....
also, make sure that members that do not want their info public have the option to opt out of the directory....

[nash]

I formerly worked as Director for Publications for a church and put out a church directory. We actually did our own, but most churches do not. They work with a company such as Olan Mills or Lifetouch. That is your competition, and, as Don says, the profit is in the sales to families. On one hand, these companies offer inexpensive packages to families, which makes it difficult to compete. On the other hand, their quality is lower, typically that of mall photographers, lit OK but formulaic. But would enough people care enough about the difference in quality to pay much more? And some people feel funny about being charged much in a church setting. I concur. If you want to consider this line of photography, start with one of the companies and see what it's like.

[nash]

This was mentioned in the DFW area: http://www.bluncks.com/content/view/86/1/.