I’m sure you’ve heard this before: “An image is worth a thousand words.” In the super fast paced world that we live in today, that phrase couldn’t be more true. Photography is more important than ever before in helping businesses tell their story, and connect with their customers.
Your photo is the first impression that your potential customers get of your brand. Think about it, the last time you heard of a new business, I bet you grabbed your phone, hopped onto Instagram or their website, and within a matter of a minute, you had an idea of what kind of brand they were. First impressions matter!
For example, see Fillico water, one bottle of water sells for $100, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Isn’t water supposed to be free? News Flash: It’s all about branding and packaging.
Source: Luxatic.com
Unfortunately, a lot of small businesses don’t have the resources to spend on premium photos and branding. We’ve seen good products such as African clothing with low quality pictures where friends and family members were used as models. Unfortunately this low quality branding approach undervalues the market price of the product. A lot of small business owners know they need better photos and branding, however most don’t know where to start to make this happen.
We need a cost efficient service where a business owner can mail their products to a professional photographer, who can take pictures of the products with models in a professional studio and then email the final pictures to the business owner at a reasonable price.
We came across a company, Southtown Creative, based in Austin, Texas that provides this service, we tried to work with them to help take pictures of T-shirts with models but we noticed two things:
- The price point was still too high; they quoted $864 for 6 total pictures of two models wearing the T-shirts.
- None of the models provided were of African descent
We believe a professional photographer in the US or back home in Africa can create a low cost business replicating this model and target black businesses. This is a low-cost operation because all you need is a home studio, which the photographer most likely has and a website to facilitate the business transaction.
How to start:
- A photographer can convert a room in their apartment into a photo studio
- Take sample pictures of food products, clothing with models etc. and upload the photos into a website
- Visit Pintrest for design inspiration
- Reach out to aspiring models; photographer can easily gain access to aspiring models on Instagram who need photographers to take their pictures to help build their modeling portfolio. It is a win-win proposition because the models get free professional photos and the photographer gets free modeling shots for the website.
- Use photos to run Facebook and Instagram ads targeting business owners using the “entrepreneurship” and “small business owners” Interests on the Facebook ad menu. This will increase the likelihood of your photos showing up in the feeds of business owners.
Running your Operations:
- Have customers fill out a form indicating the type of product photography they would like. Have customers provide sample online photos they would like their final product to emulate.
- Provide a quote/invoice so the customer can make an online payment. You can charge as low as $40 per photo for basic photos and as much as $120 for products with models. See pricing for Southtown Creative’s pricing model..
- Customer mails products to you and customer must provide a paid shipping return label if they want their product back
- Photographer receives the product and takes the pictures per directions of the customer
- Photographer emails the photos to the customer to review
- Once the customer approves the photos, the transaction is completed
Opportunity for business to increase revenue:
- Post final pictures on your website and social media page which will serve as advertising for the business owner. You can charge business owner for this service.
- Expand into video by creating short commercials for business owners
- Once the website receives high traffic volume, consider having third parties such as accounting services, legal services, marketing vendors advertise their business on your page because these are services business owners typically need
