Thinking of opening a camera store - Am I crazy?

[Bill_1856]

Yes, you are.

[Michael Kadillak]

This is not the venue to call upon when one is even considering such a critical business decision. All you are going to get here are a plethora of opinions that carry a life's experience of bias one way or another because so far, nobody has provided you with direct personal experience in the venue you are considering. Bob Salomon is probably the closest to the pulse of what is happening and I would spend time with him if you were to continue.

Get the hard facts. Find the Small Business Resources Center in your area and have them help you through the process of charting your necessary cash and possible debt flow to get to your objective and it will solve or torpedo itself. There is a reason that 2/3rds of all small businesses fail in the first year. Last thing you need is a default loan hanging over your head for God knows how many years. Figure out what you are going to do to make sure that you are going to be the 1/3 that survive and modify your business plan until this condition is sequestered. If it goes, get ready to work your ass off.

Good Luck!

[artar]

You really have to ask yourself 'Am I a better retailer or am I a better photographer?'. If the answer is retailer, then you've got to ask yourself if 'photographic retailer' is the best business plan when the world is switching to digital and every big-box store, every drugstore etc, sells digital equipment.

[e]

Ask yourself these questions...
1. Is your camera store going to be better than whats out there right now?
2. Can you compete with them?
3. Can you compete with the internet or the chain stores?
4.Are you willing to lose a truckload of cash and/or declare bankruptupcy in case it doesn't work?

Things to remember about owning a business....
1. You are the business. The business owns you. You are it's slave and it's president.
2. You will have way less free time...esp if you are successful.
3. You better like the lifestyle...it's not for everyone.
4. You don't need an elaborate business plan, just common sense. Buy low... sell high...that is really all business is about. Look at Ebony...that has to be the perfect model for a LF camera maker. Talk about selling high! Competency in retail and customer relations is a given if you want to build a good reputation... but if you dont make rent...you will be finished fast. Remember that hundreds of business's go out of business every year even with the best marketing plans...usually because of the naivite or overall stupidity of the owners.

Go into business if you feel it in your heart. Do your research. Embrace the independent lifestyle with you at the healm of your ship. It really is better than working for someone else! I've been in business for 11 years.
Good luck!
Emile www.deleon-ulf.com

[tribby]

mike,

you'll be broke and closed inside of a year. there's just no way to feed the dinosaur you describe. now if you'd said you were opening a service bureau in a college town, i'd say 'go for it,' if fer instance that school enrolled over 20k.

good luck in whatever you decide,

trib

[Mike Tobias]

Thank you all for your very informative answers, they'll certainly weigh in on my decision. As many have suggested, I'm already getting info from the SBA. Also concur on the point that many have brought up about the web, and a site would certainly be in my plans. I am thinking in light of all the advice I've been given (both here and many other sources) that I'd be better off starting a darkroom/studio rental, rather than a full blown store. The start-up costs would be fairly nominal, considering the gear I already own, and it wouldn't involve nearly as many rigors as running a retail front. I suppose that also as an ulterior motive here, I'd like to start at least some local community of photographers, and a space to work and collaborate in. BTW, for those who asked, I am in Ft Collins Colorado.

Also, for those who mentioned being in stores where they were pushy and rude when you mentioned online research or pricing, I've worked at such a store before (I actually heard my manager tell a customer that she was "wasting his time" after learning that she had looked on-line). Thanks again for all your advice.

[jonathan smith]

I second the opinions of the others to start with e-commerce and build your business little by little, especially if you want to stay in the more esoteric niche of LF. Paying rent is a huge problem for a business with little foot traffic. If you do open a store, you will probably have to do 35mm machine processing and dye-sublimation prints to pay the rent. Most of your customers would be regular people getting prints of their kids and vacations. You'll spend lots of time showing people how to load their digital cameras.

If you want to do high quality LF processing and equipment, I think you would need to have a national or worldwide market. And eliminating rent as a business expense would help you a lot.

I do something similar with sheet music, I'm a hobbyist musican and thought it would be fun to make money and have the world's largest collection of sheet music. It certainly is; but it takes quite a bit of time for the money earned and this does cut into my time spent playing music (and doing photography, I might add!). Yet I can't just stop; I have orders to fill almost every day. Once you start, you're on a speeding train and it takes quite a lot to get off again, considering the investment in inventory and equipment. So you would be giving up a lot of your shooting time in exchange for dealing with the other areas of the business.

So go ahead, and good luck, but my input is your life will change, and you have to be ready for this phase.