David Ryall has always believed in the importance of surrounding himself with strong mentors and continuing to learn after your formal education is over. When he graduated in photography from Central TAFE in Perth, he did a few freelance jobs before he saw an opportunity to pursue further learning by working at Photo Hendriks, a successful photography company with a 60-year history.
David worked his way up in the company, developed his business skills, and in 2007 when the business separated into two companies, David became half owner and managing director of Photo Hendriks, which now exclusively does school and team photography.
“I think one of the biggest problems with photographers coming out of college is that they don’t have a clue about business. Without business knowledge, you could be the best photographer in the world and still eat breadcrumbs.
“We do our bit to help students by targeting them at their end of year graduate show and inviting them to be interviewed. We recently hired five out of 30 graduates from the local TAFE.”
Since its start in 1954, Photo Hendriks has implemented a lot of changes to stay successful in the shifting industry.
The biggest change we’ve made is using technology in our production systems to streamline our digital production processes. Using systems like Fotomerchant to sell photos has been a great benefit. It makes things much easier and clears the blockages we once had.
It’s important that our customers have a good experience when ordering prints online, and that they get a consistently good product. We have always used Nulab for printing, and so incorporating Fotomerchant, which also uses Nulab, has been seamless.
Image: Photo Hendriks
Using technology has allowed Photo Hendriks to build automation into their processes so that they can spend time on profitable tasks.
The difference Fotomerchant has made has been exceptional. It’s helped to automate a lot of processes we were doing manually before. For example, we no longer have to take orders from clients, process payments, or pack and dispatch prints. That’s all taken care of through Direct Fulfillment.
Automation means less time is taken up doing unprofitable tasks. Ultimately, it’s reduced our overheads and given us the time to focus on high priority tasks like sales, marketing, and growing the business.
Photo Hendriks is well established in the Perth market. The company photographs about 41,000 students, 7,000 sporting team players per year, plus other ancillary shoots for schools, and those numbers are increasing steadily.
“Relative to the size of the market, we’re still a medium-sized company and I see plenty of room for growth in Perth.”
See how David is using Fotomerchant to extend the school photography business: http://photohendriksgalleries.com