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.
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