Inside the Photography Business: T8 Photography
PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.
Doug Hall: I’m one of four partners in T8 Photography in Canberra. Tate Needham, who I went to university with, started the business and the other partners and I joined later on.
Tate and I studied computer engineering together and went our separate ways after university. I went into the defence force and he went into the IT sector. Years later, I decided I was sick of waking up in the morning and going to a job that I dreaded. I’d been an amateur photographer for about 10 years and I loved it, so I took it up full time and started a business in Newcastle. Around the same time, I ran into Tate and funnily enough, he had started his own photography business too.
After a couple of years of staying in touch, Tate told me he wanted to grow the business and needed a partner. I joined T8 and I’ve been in transit between Canberra and Newcastle for the last two years, shooting weddings, portraits and events in both cities.
We have four partners in the business: Samantha Taylor, Michael Camplin, Tate and I and we’re all photographers. We built T8 Photography on a law firm business model where all the partners have an equal say and are paid on a profit share model.
Our model gives the partners a vested interest in the business, as shareholders and decision makers. One of the challenges with a photography business is retaining photographers, and we hope our model will help with that issue.
We’ve set up a brand new studio in Canberra. It’s great. We have a lovely interview room, foyer and gallery area. It’s a commercial space we can be proud of to display our work and talk to clients.
PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?
DH: If you don’t know what you’re doing, get someone who does. My skills are as a computer engineer and a professional photographer. All the professionals whom I’ve talked to say, “You can be the best photographer in the world and still go broke.” So after a few hits to the hip pocket, I learned that if you don’t want to put 100% commitment into learning something, get someone who knows what they’re doing.
Even when I started out and saving was especially important, I didn’t want to risk stuffing up the books, so I got an accountant.
PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?
DH: I’m personable, fun and give clients space when the need it. For weddings, I’m part of the machine that makes their day run well. Whatever my customers want, I say, “Let’s do it.” A good attitude and the skills to adapt on the day are what make a good photographer.
I’m getting a lot of repeat customers these days. For example, clients whose wedding I shot a few years ago will call me to do their baby photos. Repeat business is the highest compliment for a photographer.
PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business since you started?
DH: Absolutely. For example, we’ve done a lot of research into the events we shoot to see what customers want. The latest event we did was a music event for Canberra schools. It’s normal practice to provide a group photo of the bands or orchestra based on pre-order forms sent to parents through schools, but now we also offer digital files on the day, and we’ve also streamlined our process so we can print high quality photos on location.
PM: How do you manage your workflows and calculate the costs of running your business?
DH: We don’t want to stifle growth and development of our partners with too many rules. We have processes for the standard running of the business and we have minimum requirements for the photography but the partners are pretty autonomous. We each work in a way we’re comfortable with, and we each set our own prices.
The business is based on a profit share model. Each photographer negotiates their prices with clients. Once the costs are taken out of sales, we do a profit split. A percentage goes back into the business and the rest goes into our pockets.
With the partner model we get the benefit of economies of scale. We only need one website, one PhotoMerchant account, one accountant. We think we’re saving close to 40% of our overheads, just by joining forces. Also there’s buying power. If you go to an album company and say you’re going to quadruple your orders, they’ll give you great specials.
PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?
DH: Great photography and competitive pricing. We also don’t offer products that are available to the mass market. We do specialised metallic prints, acrylic prints and specialised albums. Everything is new and modern.
The partners complement each other very well. Samantha is good with finances, I’m an ideas man, Michael is great with clients and Tate is great at the big picture business management. A successful businessman surrounds himself with the right people. That’s very much the case in this model, and it definitely helps us stay competitive.
PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
DH: My outlook is to enjoy life. Don’t do things for the sake of doing them, do them because you want to. I carry that through to my business philosophy which is enjoy life through photography.
I would tell my younger self, “Prepare yourself for a hard slog, but don’t avoid it because it makes you who you are.”
PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?
DH: Don’t go to school. I’ve seen so many photographers go through a traditional schooling system to learn photography and it’s destroyed their passion. They should volunteer their time at a photography studio and live off the tuition money they would have spent on school. You’ll learn more from a good professional photographer than you will from a book.
Anyone who wants to become a professional photographer should also spend money by buying good gear.
PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?
DH: I’ve always been a digital photographer. I can see digital photography becoming even more powerful. I would love to see the next digital SLRs be fully integrated into the web and have full Wi-Fi capability. As soon as you take a photo, it’ll upload to your Facebook page.
PM: What do you do in your spare time?
DH: I love doing photography projects that have no objective apart from me trying to become a better photographer.
I also go out with my girl. I love movies and I LOVE coffee. The great thing about being a photographer is that you can take your iPad or your laptop to a caf√©, have an amazing cup of coffee and do work. That’s your office. It’s such a cool life!
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Doug Hall is a partner with T8 Photography and is based in Canberra, Australia. |
