Inside the Photography Business: Photo Hendriks
PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.
David Ryall: Photo Hendricks was started in 1954 by John and Christine Hendriks who came from Holland in the 1950s. Photo Hendriks became one of the leading photography companies in Perth at the time and did portraits, weddings, commercial shoots, school and team photography and retailed cameras and did mini-lab printing for consumers.
After John passed away in 1985 his two sons took over the business and ran it together until 2000 when they decided to part ways. Wilfred Hendriks remains in the business today.
I joined the company at the end of 2002 after three years at Central TAFE in Perth. When I finished TAFE I wanted to work for someone because I could see more advantage to having a mentor and the security of having an existing business structure. I think one of the biggest problems with photographers coming out of TAFE is that they don’t know how to run a business.
In 2007, we decided to split the company into two with Photo Hendriks doing the school and team photography and another company focusing on portraits and weddings. At that time of the split, I became a half owner of Photo Hendriks.
We continue to support photography students. When they have their graduate show at the end of each year, we’ll get their contact details and offer them a chance to interview with us for a job for the following year. This year we took on five out of 30 graduates.
PM: How big is the company?
DR: We’ve got 18 staff, six of those are full time and 12 of those are casual. We’ve got 10 people who can shoot, some of whom also work in our production team. We currently shoot about 250-300 jobs a year.
PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?
DR: Managing the workflow and making it efficient so we can deliver a consistent product every time. We have training and production systems so that we control the process throughout and the customer always gets the best experience possible.
While we’re not a franchise and we’re not looking to become one, we’re still trying to act like a franchise. If you think of McDonald’s, they always serve up the same product every time. Whether you are a fan of their food or not, if you go there you are guaranteed to get the same product every time. We’re trying to apply the same philosophy to our photography.
PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?
DR: I think the experience they get from us comes through in the consistency and the level of service we provide. Because we work with schools with fixed calendars we always have to work according to their schedule. I think a lot of what our customers like is our flexibility and quality of service.
PM: Do the schools hire you for a fee and then you sell photos to the parents?
DR: No the schools don’t generally have to pay ì in fact they get a 10% commission of the sales to cover their time because they have to put a lot of work into organising the students. To make sales, we send a prepaid order envelope through the schools to the parents so they can choose the packages they want and have it handed in on photo day. We find this to be one of the best systems for this type of business.
PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business since you started?
DR: Just the use of technology in our photography and production systems. When I first started, there was the transition from film to digital. With the knowledge I had just coming out of college, I was able to expand our digital production processes to streamline that. Using technology like PhotoMerchant to sell the photos has been a great benefit. It makes things so much easier and clears the blockages that we once had.
Prior to 2000 we did all our printing internally, but after the split, we started outsourcing. We send all our work through Nulab in Melbourne, which has been an advantage for us since PhotoMerchant uses Nulab. The turnaround time with Nulab has been excellent. We haven’t found a local lab that’s been able to match the speed, the quality or the pricing.
In my experience, I find outsourcing better because then we can focus on the sales and the photography and do what we’re good at.
PM: How do you manage your workflows?
DR: We train our photographers in photography and production so they know our software and how to get the work done as efficiently as possible. They need to shoot in our style, meet the technical requirements to make sure the production is smooth each time and make sure they always work well with the clients.
Good training makes the flow of our work smooth and consistent.
PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?
DR: There are four companies in the Perth market whom we consider to be competition. We watch them all the time and even catch up for the occasional coffee. It’s a matter of being aware of what your competition is doing, seeing what offers they’ve got, and figuring out how to create a better deal ì though not necessarily by cutting our prices
If you can keep your clients happy, the questions of competitors and price disappear because you are constantly exceeding their expectations, and so they’ve got no reason to look elsewhere.
PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
DR: Value your time because a lot of photographers aren’t natural business people and they tend to undervalue their work. It’s invaluable to figure out how the numbers work. I think people get caught up in improving margins or offering discounts just to try and get business, but don’t realise they’re actually losing money along the way by devaluing what they offer. Look at what you charge and ensure that there is a good amount left at the end for you. This is your life and what you do makes a difference.
PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?
DR: Finding a mentor is incredibly valuable ì or even several. Connect with people who have been there and done that in photography and business, as they are usually willing to share their experience and help you along your journey.
Also stay connected with the industry. A lot of photographers will avoid joining the AIPP and going to seminars because they’re worried about the expense. But when they do stay connected, they’ll have far more opportunity to pick up tips business and increase their income in the future.
As soon as they finish photography school, they should start doing a business course. For anyone who’s doing any sort of trade and wants to run their own business, I think doing a business course is an absolute must. Without business knowledge, they could be the best photographer in the world and still eat breadcrumbs.
PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?
DR: I think the biggest challenge is to communicate to clients the value in what you have to offer, which is your expertise as a professional. Retail photography is definitely becoming a commodity. It’s all going to be service-based and it’s going to be those few exceptional companies who provide good service and tailor it to their market’s needs that will survive.
PM: What do you do in your spare time?
DR: I travel at least once a year to somewhere totally foreign ì I am going to Mexico in January and Caribbean next June, which I am really looking forward to . My partner is from the US so I also travel quite a bit between here and the US.
I’ve started a philanthropic company called Photographers without Borders, whose mission is to take photos around the world and put the profits from the sale of those photos back into the country of origin to support education and we’re currently trying to make it the philanthropic arm of Photo Hendriks.
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David Ryall is the Managing Director of Photo Hendriks and is based in Perth, Australia. |
