Negotiating Mall Space
- Thread starter Rick M
- Start date
Today was another great day, from Wednesday afternoon thru the end of Friday we booked almost another thousand. Saturday and Sunday should be crazy. Been buying more frames every day, they have become 50% of my sales. Hard part is I've cleaned out most of the local stores of their best mid-priced frames which are on sale. Will post again Sunday night,
donaldjledet
Senior Member
Congrats Rick, Very well done.
Nice to see hard work pay off.
Nice to see hard work pay off.
The sizes I bring in are 5x7, 8x10, 8x12 (not happy about this size, but many shots require it!), 11x14, 12x18 and 16x20. I limit 12x18 and 16x20 to my most popular prints. I will carry the same image in 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14 if it is a good seller. I went into this show with almost 600 prints and had another 80 of my top sellers overnighted after the first weekend. Since I've been doing shows for the past 3 years, I've built up an extensive inventory. The funny thing is what you dont think is great, someone will stumble across and buy. Since I was running low on my popular prints and had room in the baskets, I added a bunch of "dead stock" and they gobbled it up! You never know! This where our perfectionism is irrelevant to the customer.
The main thing is loading up at sale prices during the year. I only buy non-color corrected lustre from nations. I pick up $1 8x10's and $2 11x14's during the off months when they are on sale, that's how I built a big inventory. After each show, the "leftovers" grow.
Landscape prints are impulse purchases, they must have it in front of them to buy. Expect to sell 20%-30% of your inventory at a good show, more inventory, more sales. This is where I see my friends fail at shows, 30 "fine art" prints in expensive matting and frames doesn't cut it in the middle class market. Move 100 prints at 20% cost, you have profit. This show, the last 2 weeks before Christmas, is going to eat up 50% of my inventory. Frames that rarely sell during the year, are flying because they are a finished gift. Now I'm using frames to hedge sales against my shrinking inventory which is too late to replace.
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I get all my prints from Nations, lustre non-color -corrected. They are printed on Kodak Endura Pro paper. I get an 8x10 on sale for $1. I would not bother with more expensive papers. Kodak endura is good quality and rated for 100 years. I'm so confident in this paper that I guarantee my prints for 100 years, especially since I'll be gone in 25
. I'd like to think my work is worthy of expensive paper, but my customer is the average working class family that thinks HDR is "cool" and only has $20 in thier pocket for "fine art".I get all my prints from Nations, lustre non-color -corrected. They are printed on Kodak Endura Pro paper. I get an 8x10 on sale for $1. I would not bother with more expensive papers. Kodak endura is good quality and rated for 100 years. I'm so confident in this paper that I guarantee my prints for 100 years, especially since I'll be gone in 25
Not a lot wrong with your strategy there,plus every customer you sell to stands a chance of getting you more customers,nothing attracts customers more to a stand like yours than them seeing others buying.
These are my 3 top sellers for this show so far, the trees being my favorite. I've sold at least 10-15 of each, all sizes and mostly framed.
The rusty Bulldozer, shot with my old D3100. This shot is like the energizer bunny, it just keeps paying off! Since it's capture, I've probably sold 200 copies from 5x7 to 16x20.
Oswego Light, EM-1 and 40-150 2.8 Pro
My favorite, EM5 Mk II with the 25mm 1.8
The rusty Bulldozer, shot with my old D3100. This shot is like the energizer bunny, it just keeps paying off! Since it's capture, I've probably sold 200 copies from 5x7 to 16x20.
Oswego Light, EM-1 and 40-150 2.8 Pro
My favorite, EM5 Mk II with the 25mm 1.8
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One last thought from tonight, People love to buy local art and subjects. The Mall I'm at is close to all three subjects above. The trail in the woods is at Beaver lake, all of the locals hike there. The dozer is from an abandoned factory where thier parents worked. the lighthouse is the closest in the area. They don't give a hoot about my technically great shot of Portland head in Maine, when they see Oswego (above) it's "hey that's my lighthouse!". I also label my prints using little return address labels, a shot of a pine cone from beaver lake is worth more than a pine cone from anywhere else
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Thanks for all the info from print sizes through how many total items you sold! That is fantastic!
Have you ever checked Walmart for frames? They have some unusual frames for decent prices although the prices may not be quite as good as what you get on sale from elsewhere. Next time I shop there, I will take some photos of their frames so you can see the choices.
Have you ever checked Walmart for frames? They have some unusual frames for decent prices although the prices may not be quite as good as what you get on sale from elsewhere. Next time I shop there, I will take some photos of their frames so you can see the choices.
So what was your bottom profit ? I know some of your costs .
Lease - 700
Frames- ?
Prints Costs - ?
Vacation - ? Paid or Unpaid. If paid, +, if Unpaid you have to figure in lost wages for 2 weeks.
Once all is said and done that will say if it was worthwhile. But then again if you enjoyed yourself than the experience was priceless.
It was very generous of you, Rick, to share business tips with us. Very few would do that. It speaks to your love of photography, and willingness to help someone else along.
I and many others, I am sure, are glad you made this venture a successful one. Thanks for sharing!
The real winners, in my opinion, are your customers, who have unique, professional, photographs that they and their families will cherish and enjoy for many years. You made that happen.
Your experience and talent was on display for all to see, and everyone won.
I and many others, I am sure, are glad you made this venture a successful one. Thanks for sharing!
The real winners, in my opinion, are your customers, who have unique, professional, photographs that they and their families will cherish and enjoy for many years. You made that happen.
Your experience and talent was on display for all to see, and everyone won.
My vacation is paid, so no loss there. I don't do this as work. Some of my time there was 1/2 days, so it was 10 full days converted. Without getting too technical (I'll do that by tax time) my net profit was about $2,700. My business trips to Maine and Cape Cod to shoot lighthouses will offset the profit at tax time. I don't look at the time as an issue, since this is something I do for fun. Frames reduce margin, but increase sales and increase separate print sales. The frames showcased the prints, many asked for just the print (higher margin). When they bought the print framed, I got at least twice the frame cost plus the markup on the print. Without frames my gross sales would have been much lower, they really paid off.