NEWSLETTER FOR JULY 1985   VOLUME 79

ALL IS NOT LOST
The editorial in the July issue of the magazine "MORE"  makes some rather interesting reading.

They say that whilst the sixties felt why bother with all the fuss and worry of a wedding, they thought let's just live together, it will be okay, but the eighties generation isn't going to be fobbed off with that sort of nonsense. They want the full bit in church, white gown, veil, 240 Dollars worth of bouquet, limos the lot.

This means the wedding business is not going to die.  She goes on to say that party dresses, formal wear etc.  are all back in the school balls.  Not only that, but they are being held in top hotel ballrooms with the guy hiring a glossy limousine to transport the date to the function.  If this the case, it could be worthwhile looking at your local schools and seeing if this is happening there, and if they are dressing up like this, surely its right in line for photography.

At this rate we will be back Deb balls and all the business they generated.

THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE ROYAL KIDS
You may remember in the last newsletter I mentioned what ghastly photographs uncle's take, particularly if it happens to be the uncle of the Prince of Wales.  I ask you to remind me to show you a photograph of it as I visited your studio.  

I no longer will have to show you the photo, the damn thing is coming out in a postage stamp.  Look for the 35c Health stamp and ask yourself whether you couldn't do better.  The posing, the expressions, the background, its all things that give photography a bad name.

NEWSLETTER FOR OCTOBER                        Volume 80

WHAT IS YOUR IMAGE? 
If you're trying to make your image of your business slightly up market, when next you have a look at your reception room, display window and all the other things you look at in a cold dispassionate basis once a week, look to see if you have any items on sale.

There is a great temptation if you have stock that is not moving in the way of frames or albums, to put a reduced price sales figure on it and pop it in the window or in your reception room.

It is my belief that if you do this, you are lowering the tone of your establishment, and I quite frankly think you'd be better to send those goods off an auction mart, preferably in a town close by, and let them be put up for auction.  You may in actual fact be surprised at the money you get from an auction, it may be in excess of what you were going to reduce it down to.  The other point is, of course, that irrespective of what you get for it, you get it immediately, it is not on display in your establishment for up to several weeks or months, and you are keeping your complete display clean, tidy and with high quality stock, without any suggestions that some of your stock is either old, sub-standard, or will not sell.

Keeping track of Sales
I would probably purchase a cash register, I would also make sure that I purchased one that allowed me to divide my business up into a minimum of 30 different departments.  Now 30 is probably more than you will need, but it is best to get sufficient rather than have just half a dozen, which you are struggling with.  This of course means you have plenty of departments, you can put onto a key any particular promotion that you do, you could itemize out the different weddings from different sources, different types of portraits you're doing, the different teams, many many opportunities of finding out where your money comes from.

These cash registers, of course, you don't have to pay cash for, and you can pick them up on hire purchase, or by leasing them.

HOW IMPORTANT IS COSTING
If I may quote from the October issue of Management, where they are interviewing the 1985 Operator of the Year, Ashok Bhasin, the owner of two McDonalds restaurants in Wellington, he states: "McDonalds insist that the entire business is tightly controlled.  We work on very low bottom lines, so that we have to be conscious of controls. To check wastage and eliminate over-ordering every item is counted daily. Weekly statistical reports verify that the right quantity of fries are obtained from every kilogram of potatoes, the right number of milk shakes are obtained from a litre of shake mix, the right number of serves of mustard from each bottle.

The company allows a margin for error of cost against income of only 50 cents in every $1,000.  That's the only amount we can afford not to be accounted for."

He goes on to say many many things which are relevant to any business, but the main essence in his interview is the awareness that they have of costs.

We are inclined to think in photography, that we are working with larger profit items than McDonalds will be, working with hamburgers, but you may be surprised at the bottom line on each of your units.

Just how much profit do you make from a 5x4 or 5x5?

Unless you know this, how can you decide whether to put up your prices or not. How can you decide whether to carry on with weddings or to concentrate on those to get more income.  Is your portrait business subsidizing your wedding business?

And so on and so on....

We must all become aware of just what our costs are, and what the profitability is.

COSTING VIA A CASH REGISTER
There are many cash registers out now with 30 or more keys.  This of course, under most circumstances is more than most photographers need, but at $1700 they are quite reasonable.

Okay, perhaps they are not quite reasonable, but you can spread it over 12 months with most shops and they will give you time to pay, because times are hurting and cash registers aren't going as well as they should be, but most people will talk turkey.