Backyard dream studio

When Steve Holmes started his full-time photography business in 2009, he began like many photographers, working from a spare room in his house. The space served its purpose and gave him the platform to launch his image-making career, but it was literally and figuratively constricting the business. Holmes wanted to move into a dedicated studio space, but he knew he needed to be smart about it.

SITUATION

Holmes started his business in a spare bedroom that had been set up as an apartment with its own entrance. It worked fine in the beginning, offering clients their own entrance as well as a dedicated space to meet with Holmes and have limited indoors portrait sessions.

© Steve Holmes

However, the space was small, and Holmes found his movements—and his style—cramped by the confines of the 250-square-foot room with 7-foot ceilings. He had to move equipment around constantly to make space for meetings or different types of sessions. The confines of the space limited him creatively in terms of lighting setups and shooting angles. Only small groups could be photographed there because Holmes couldn’t back up far enough to capture large groups. And the paint on the walls and ceiling took a regular beating from lights and other camera gear scraping it as Holmes tried to maximize every square inch.

“I needed a bigger space, something with higher ceilings to do more lighting setups and a wider area to work,” says Holmes. “But most of all, I wanted to offer my clients a better experience. I needed a separate entity from the house, something that was more professional looking where I could do projection sales sessions, have room to spread out, and help my clients feel more comfortable.”

© Steve Holmes

Holmes also wanted to create a better environment for his family. He felt it was important to keep business and family life separate, but he also saw the potential to improve his family’s overall quality of life through the increased revenue he forecast from doing more and different sessions in a dedicated studio.

Holmes was unsure about how to proceed. Because he’d been a teacher before he was a photographer, he didn’t have experience in small business management. He knew he’d need to make the move work financially but wasn’t sure where to start.

SOLUTIONS

When Holmes went into photography full time, one of the first things he did was join PPA and start taking business classes. At one of the first Imaging USA conventions he attended, he took a business seminar with Ann Monteith, M.Photog.Hon.M.Photog.Cr., CPP, ABI, API, A-ASP. After implementing the lessons from that class, he quadrupled his studio revenues. He took a PPA class with Allison Rodgers, Cr.Photog., CPP, the following year, and fine-tuned many of his processes and management techniques. Holmes then began to manage his business based on an understanding of his costs, on evidence-based revenue forecasts, and on detailed planning of session numbers.

© Steve Holmes

When considering a new studio, Holmes began by weighing the costs to build a studio versus projections of increased revenues from extending his shooting season into the winter months with more indoor portrait capabilities. In New England, the outdoor portrait season typically runs into mid-autumn, after which the weather turns unpredictable and many location-based photographers shutter their businesses until spring rouses them from hibernation. Holmes figured that if he could make his business a year-round enterprise, he could dramatically increase revenues. A larger shooting space would also allow him to do different kinds of work, such as large group portraits and more creative senior portraits, adding or expanding business lines for the studio.

Holmes decided to build a new structure on the same property as his home. He has about 5 acres, and he could build a separate building at the back of the lot, adding landscaping around it for outdoor portraits. Working with PPA mentors, Holmes forecast new session averages, new monthly and yearly session sales numbers, and reviewed financing options. Ultimately, he decided to fund the construction through personal savings and a home equity line of credit.

After about a year of Homes’ researching and planning, the builders broke ground in August 2013. Holmes worked with a local builder on an energy-efficient design. He had solar panels installed on the roof of the new building—enough to run all his camera equipment, lighting, and other power for the business. The crew was able to assemble the new studio in time for a grand opening in November of the same year. “I wanted the new studio to be open in November to give me the shooting space for the typical off-season months,” says Holmes.

© Steve Holmes

The new studio has rustic barn styling that fits with the local area. With about 1,200 square feet of space, it offers one big shooting space with high ceilings and north facing windows, a reception area where Holmes can meet with clients and do projection sales presentations, a bathroom and dressing room, and a workspace and storage area. Holmes had the building designed to be a simple space that would work for a small business but not too specific to photography. “Since we were building this on the same property as our primary residence, I wanted this to be an investment in our property as well as a functional studio,” he says. “That way, when we sell the house, it could work for something else, whether it’s another business or for personal use.”

RESULTS

Immediately after opening the new studio space, Holmes got a bump in his community presence. He hosted a big grand opening, which helped create some buzz around town. The new studio also helped him improve the perception of professionalism. No longer confined to a spare room on the side of his house, he could now offer clients a more sophisticated, full-featured experience. Clients expected more, and he was able to raise his prices and improve his per-session average sale.

Holmes had forecasted a 30 to 40 percent increase in revenues from his increased capabilities in the new studio. “That was part of the analysis that went into the decision to build a new space,” he explains. “If I put this money into it, is it going to make a difference, and if so, how much of a difference? Is it worth it?”

So far, it has been worth it. Holmes boosted revenues substantially the first year after building his studio, and at press time was on target to achieve a 40 percent increase in year two. He has more opportunities to work later into the year, can offer more options to clients, and can schedule a more reasonable workload because of the added flexibility of the space.

© Steve Holmes
Photographer Steve Holmes has been been able to improve his senior model program because of the new studio.
 

Another welcome benefit of his new solar-powered studio is that it has little overhead from utilities. Because it’s a commercial building, it uses a separate commercial electric meter, which earns renewable energy rebates from the state and federal government. Not only does the building generate enough energy to run the whole business, but it produces a surplus that Holmes sells back to the power company. Aside from paying off his home equity line of credit, Holmes has found that the studio costs little more each month than his old, in-home working environment. Holmes enjoys the added lighting options that the new space provides as well as the additional camera-subject-background depth. The wider camera room allows him to photograph bigger groups and to work with families with active kids.

The new space has been a boon to his senior portrait business, too. With the new studio space, Holmes can start sessions for his senior model program in the spring rather than waiting until the warmer summer months to shoot outside. He now does two sessions with his senior models—one in the spring and another in the summer when it’s warm enough to do a session outside. He’s also been able to provide more creative and innovative sessions. “Senior portraits are all about variety, and having the studio space allows me to offer more of that variety,” he says. Not to mention the presentation and perception factor. Perception is reality for high school kids and, as Holmes points out, “It’s so much cooler to go to a dedicated studio for your senior portraits than some guy’s basement.”

Holmes has also added more studio mini-sessions, which are limited-scope sessions that take about 30 minutes and typically revolve around a theme, like Valentine’s Day or the winter holidays. These sessions are attached to a specific product and allow him to generate income from small holes in the schedule, something that was difficult to do before because of the logistics of setting up and breaking down sets in his small studio space.

In addition, he now does more indoor-outdoor sessions that take advantage of both the studio and the newly landscaped area just outside it. “These sessions are a great option for clients who don’t want everything involved in an on-location shoot but want some outdoor images mixed in with their studio portraits,” says Holmes. “Having the flexibility to do both onsite is new for me and a great convenience that has also helped me offer more attractive sales options to clients.”

While many of the ideas for the studio were Holmes’, the know-how to make it happen came almost entirely from PPA and the resources provided by the association. “I got almost all my business training from PPA,” he says. “The resources and guidance they provide have allowed me to make these changes in my business and build a better environment for my business and my family. I go to local groups and meet with a lot of other photographers, and I always encourage them to take advantage of those resources. There is so much information on setting up your business, pricing your projects, forecasting sales—and it’s all there. If you want to control your future, I highly recommend taking advantage of what’s already available to you.”

Jeff Kent is the editor-at-large of Professional Photographer.