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  #21  
Old 24th January 2012, 11:41 PM
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dsallen dsallen is offline
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Of course you can not compare a city to a town but I was writing from the experience of running a business in a small provincial town and in a suburb of London - albeit many moons ago.

Large format printing requires a significant throughput (in the early days it was really a way to print money but now everyone has the techbology) but, now when so many have the equipment, it is a dog bites dog world.

I would suggest exclusivity (i.e. unique chemicals, lower than manufacture's prices through bulk buying, etc, hand developing etc is the way to go simply because it makes you unique).

I have always made all of my chemicals from scratch (except from Dokumol) and teach all of my friends/associates how to do this as, firstly they can save lots of money and, secondly, it helps to keep my chemicals supplier alive.

The comment about only trading in premium goods was from real world experience - friends who trade in high value equipment report that they have loyal customers because they can see the goods 'in the flesh". For example, my friend Thomas has recently sold three Silvestri cameras simply because he could demonstrate them himself to potential customers.

A couple of corrections: Per head is the interest in analogue photography the same as the UK. Germans do truly value quality but that does not mean that they buy per head, more Leicas, etc than any other country.
s
Secondly, as an advocate of analogue photography, I want to encourage everyone who wants to start a analogue photography business by suggesting how one can develop (no pun intended) a successful business formula.

Thirdly, as a poor person working with many friends who are also poor colleagues, this stereotype that all Germans are rich is a laughable stereotype.

What all analogue workers need is access to good quality materials and I highly commend the OPs idea of branching out to meet the potential needs of his local customer base.
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  #22  
Old 24th January 2012, 11:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dsallen View Post
Thirdly, as a poor person working with many friends who are also poor colleagues, this stereotype that all Germans are rich is a laughable stereotype.
It wasn't my intention to offend, just my observation from working in Germany for nearly two years. And yes not everyone has a lot of disposable income but that means selling lower cost items is viable. But having said that it really depends where you live. A highly prosperous town may have more sucess than an ailing small town which is seeing it's shops close up. This is happening in many parts of the UK at the moment including where I live which is a town of only 5000 people. But it does have a shop operating a 1 hour lab with developing and printing from film and digital. The owner shoots weddings and portraits and has two employed staff. When I quizzed him about having film to print he told me he prints more now than before digital. The reason is simple, people happily snap away on digital and produce hundreds of images. They can't be bothered to sort and print them at home. They just take the card to shop and say print all of them at 6x4 which makes a nice income.

Last edited by Argentum; 25th January 2012 at 12:02 AM.
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  #23  
Old 25th January 2012, 06:56 PM
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Hi everyone, just another thing I would suggest would be darkroom and studio workshops. I would be willing to travel from Belfast to learn new darkroom skills as I am new to darkroom use and it is very hard to get any hands on help and advice. This way customers that attend the workshops are very likely to buy chemicals, paper, etc from you as well.
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  #24  
Old 25th January 2012, 08:04 PM
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if its not gonna bankrupt you give it a go ,lifes to short. I think my dream job would be buying and selling second hand cameras (of the film type) good luck .
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  #25  
Old 25th January 2012, 10:41 PM
R Montgomer R Montgomer is offline
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Originally Posted by big paul View Post
if its not gonna bankrupt you give it a go ,lifes to short. I think my dream job would be buying and selling second hand cameras (of the film type) good luck .
Cheers, I'm going to give it a go. Everything's worth a try!
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  #26  
Old 26th January 2012, 06:47 AM
Leigh Y Leigh Y is offline
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I wouldn't think that you have to be open every day, especially in a smaller community. Properly advertised and using word of mouth, I'm sure you could establish a pattern of opening times and days for the "shop" as distinct from the studio, that would work for you and your customers. Half days, late closing - that sort of thing.
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  #27  
Old 26th January 2012, 02:12 PM
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popped into a 1 hour lab in a neighbouring town today and had a little chat with the owner.
He rekons business is not good and he develops and prints for 4 other shops in the town. Mind you, it is a pretty depressed area surviving on tourists. Take them out of the equation and there wouldn't be much left except agriculture, and farmers are as tight as they come.
Same town is losing shops and those still going have minimal stock. Not good.
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  #28  
Old 3rd February 2012, 03:10 PM
R Montgomer R Montgomer is offline
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Well, the work has started and it's looking good at least and I have had interest from locals. We have also put the shop online, we still have quite a few products to add but we have ordered stock so we'll just have to see how it goes!

www.thetinyphotoshop.co.uk
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  #29  
Old 4th February 2012, 07:49 AM
nikonfe nikonfe is offline
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Something I have discovered in the past when starting a business is how it can take over your life - just make sure you have the time to operate it without jeopardising your existing business or job. Once it starts you can't pick and choose your customers or sales, or just process a finite number of sales - it's all or nothing. I think this was the problem Retrophotographic had - he only wanted the business to remain small, but it wanted to grow - and in the end he ended up with no business at all.
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  #30  
Old 4th February 2012, 12:38 PM
R Montgomer R Montgomer is offline
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I can't see it growing that quickly, or getting out of hand. I'm going to stick with film and darkroom supplies and I just don't think the demand is there for it to become any more than a sideline / hobby business.
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