The Deal that Destroyed the Kingdom

Disclaimer: I own the problem. I didn't go to business school and I trusted too much. I put myself in a position to be taken advantage of and because of my convictions and lack of provable evidence I never sued anyone.

At the peak of my game, I gambled on the local school system.

I knew when I began that I didn't want to be 70 years old still sitting on the sidelines of games and fences of horse shows for endless hours in the heat and rain and whatever shooting for hours HOPING people would buy.

I approached a local high school. I explained how I could improve everything. The principal & year book director at that time listened and took notes. Then they said, "That would be a great idea." And they called the guy who owns a camera store and asked him to do everything I talked to them about.

I was later told that he and the yearbook director were friends in school. I don't know.

So I went to the Junior Highs. One of them did the exact same thing. This time, I do know that that yearbook director went to school with and was friends of the camera store dude.

At the other Jr. High, I was told by the Assistant Principal and the Yearbook Director that IF I could produce a yearbook worth having, they would sign over the contract to do the school photos and recommend me to the other principals.

I gambled. My wife and I began this venture on a shoestring with 2 babies, a new house and a new truck and trailer to haul all the equipment around to the major events we were doing. We had to borrow money to buy the equipment to produce those yearbooks.

I knew we would eat the cost of the first year, but I also knew that I could do a better job than what was being done. No doubt. The assistant principal handed over the disc of school photos shot by Life Touch, and the yearbook director worked with me through the year to produce a first class yearbook. It was so good, the other school was jealous, but that yearbook director wouldn't switch from her friend to me.

As I entered the school to talk about the contract for school photos, the yearbook director told me that the camera store guy was bidding 30% kick back to the school to get the contract and wanted to know if I would match it.

That was not the agreement.

I was already providing 25% on a product that was not a money maker. It was just part of the package required to do the school photos.

I went to the principal to find out what was wrong with his yearbook director and assistant only to find out that he had NO idea I was even bidding on the school photos and he had just signed over the very profitable spring photo session to Life Touch.

He did agree to have me come as the fall photographer where I was required to give a large percentage of the sales to the school, provide posters, yearbook prints, stickers and ID photos.

Producing a yearbook for 2 years with only 1 school to pay for everything proved to be too much. The profit margin on printing wasn't enough to pay for anything off the books and the profit from the photos was eaten by the equipment lease to do the yearbooks. Only doing the fall session wasn't nearly enough. Only having 1 school wasn't nearly enough.

I had gambled and lost.

I lost our home. I lost all the equipment except for 1 camera, 1 computer and 1 printer. I lost almost everything we ever had.

The Assistant Principal got promoted.

The Yearbook Director got nothing.

I got a chain reaction that dropped my yearly income to about 1/2 of what it was.

The cost of failure with the school also cost me several other major jobs, one that was about $5,000 to $8,000 for a weekend.

Now I live in an income based apartment complex where my kids never go out to play because the other kids in the place are so mean and nasty to them that it never goes well. And due to my failure, we can't buy another home for at least 2 more years.

If you want to be a photographer, maybe you should get an MBA first.

What I Did

It's such a long history.

I've gone through the Army, college in 3 states, a photography apprenticeship in Ohio, and I've been a professional photographer in Chicago and Michigan.

Along the way I've done probably a couple dozen different jobs from truck driver to office temp to farming trying to put all the pieces together.

Finally in Nov 1999 I bought the first Nikon D1 in Northern Indiana to become Northern Indiana's first fully digital photographer. I chose to specialize in sports and action. It's fun.

I figured that people would see me at all the games and ask me to shoot their senior photos and weddings and stuff. I was wrong. Dads would come up to me at football games and say, "I wish you did senior pictures."

I'd say, "I wish you had called me."

They'd say, "Please tell my you're expensive. I just spent $1,000 on my kid."

I'd say, "I wish you had called. I would have saved you about $600"

I had gotten up to $90,000/year. I was shooting for the CCAC softball tournaments, Dutch Sport MX track in Michigan, 3 other race tracks in Indiana, countless horse shows and clubs, Indiana Percussion Association, National Barrel Horse of Indiana, South Bend's NSA national tournaments plus all the action at WCHS, Lakeview and Edgewood. Then I got the team photos for Lakeview, Edgewood and Whitko middle schools. Life was good. Busy beyond belief, but good.

Then the fall.

The Name

Let's start back a long time ago.

1985: Joined the Army. One of the 3 things I swore I'd NEVER do.

One of the other 2 "never do's" was work on a farm. I had quit the farm to join the Army. I was the chaplain assistant. I wasn't a chaplain. They are ordained ministers. I was an assistant. Get the coffee and cookies, type the forms and letters and be the body guard since chaplains do not carry weapons in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

1987: Lateral transfer from the Post Chapel on Fort Dix, NJ to the reception battalion where all the new recruits got shots, hair cuts, clothes and taught how to walk, talk and stand in line before they were shipped to their basic training company where they would learn to walk, talk and stand in line + fire weapons.

Chaplain Marquez was possibly the greatest man to work for ever, but he kept saying that I was the most unusual human he'd ever met.

I kept saying that I was just a regular Joe, just like all these other "Joes" around us. I was just "Your Average Joe."

His response: Right. And I'm the Pope. (He wasn't even Catholic!)

One day, during an inspection, Chaplain introduced me to the General as his assistant, "Specialist Kois - He's Your Average Joe, and I'm the Pope."

When I began to think about a business name, it wasn't hard to come up with one.

The work I can do.

It's amazing to me that after 10 years of working in this community, there are people that see me almost everyday, visit my website and STILL don't know I can do this kind of work.

They believe I can only do sports.

Well, I need to change that more now than ever before.

It's Me.

It's the dumbest time in history to be a photographer. Yet I am.

Although very few ever really READ, let alone read this kind of stuff, I'm going to explain the name, the dream, the beginning, the money, the lies, the on-going disaster, and whatever else seems to matter before I die.

NOTE: I am not dying tomorrow.