Do You NEED a Photography Studio?

do you need a studio it's a good question and it's one that I'm having to answer once again at the end of this month I'm leaving the studio I'm not happy about it but it's what's happening and now I'm having to uh address the idea of am I looking for another space or am I going to float around again [Music] in this space what's great about it for me is a number of things is that it's only a few blocks away from where I live so it literally takes me two minutes to get here in my car it's walkable but I usually am carrying gear back and forth a little bit so this studio belongs to a friend of mine it's it's her Studio she has a couple of businesses one is as a photographer and the other one is as a personal trainer and she has courses and a fitness app as well but she is moving in here full time at the beginning of March and so I have to move out now I need to start looking for other options so I wanted to talk about whether or not you actually need a studio to run your photography business you don't but it may change the dynamic and the the type of work that you are able to do the flexibility that you have is definitely affected with whether or not you have a studio so what are the benefits of having your own studio for me the benefits that I see my work are stability and flexibility primarily stability is a big issue for me I want to have a space where I know that like I don't have to go back and forth with other Studios for rentals or availability to see if the studio is available to me or not I mentioned in a previous video that I'm no longer shooting in Toronto for a number of reasons the rates for studios are really expensive there the rent on a studio for four hours which I would need for a two hour session you know time to set up and I need time to break the set down load in load out and then you do the shoot the expense of the rental on its own is 70 of my Revenue that leaves me with a very tiny small amount and then that what's left over after that has to cover my travel expenses my time my editing my processing the shoot my gear my insurance all of those other expenses it's not financially feasible so stability is a key factor in for me having a studio knowing that I can I have a place that I can go to I can book my client in we have a shared calendar if time's available then it I can just slot them right in in fact another benefit for me in terms of like the flexibility is like not only having the shared calendar but having a studio management system I use Sprout studio and I can have a scheduler attached to a booking proposal and so I can send that off to my client and they can just select the date and time because the studio management system Taps into my schedule Sprout knows my calendar knows the studio calendar it checks both for availability and then gives my client available options and then they can select the time where both the studio and I are available for the shoot stability flexibility are key issues as for the cons primarily it's going to be cost rental rates at least where I am here in southern Ontario are ridiculous and that's not just commercial rates that's also apartment rent my rent on my apartment for a two bedroom is almost two thousand dollars a month I could not also afford a studio that cost me two thousand dollars a month there are no live workspaces in the city that I am aware of I've looked for uh years I also have a dog so shooting in my apartment uh is is difficult to do as well so can you afford it if you cannot afford to rent a studio you shouldn't that has a bit of a caveat though if you are losing money a small amount of money for your first few months your first maybe three to six months a small amount of money not a big amount then you should look into getting a studio because it may take time for you to get established in your studio to help bring your Revenue back up having the stability of knowing that like you have a studio available to you and you can shoot whenever you want or need to allows you to book more clients that's been my experience I have had to turn away clients because I could not find a studio just shooting and that sucks you don't want to be in that position the other thing as commercial landlords are not not good people in my experience I shut down my improv company 10 years ago because of commercial landlord I was dealing with I was just done I was done fighting with commercial landlords for them to actually do the things that the lease said that they were responsible for doing like maintaining the structural Integrity of the building interestingly the landlords here are actually fantastic and that's been uh revelatory every other commercial landlord I've experienced and I've worked with plenty has not been good there are a couple of books over my years of working with commercial landlords that I've found have been incredibly helpful I will link to them below I believe one is called negotiating uh commercial lease it's fantastic talks about how you can get free rent periods at the beginning of your lease and work that into these terms you can get multiple months of free rent and worked into your lease agreement which gives you time to build out the space to your satisfaction these books are fantastic if you are looking at getting your own studio and getting a commercial space now the alternatives are that you could rent space on a shoot shoot basis if you're renting a space on a shoot by shoot basis you have to make sure that the money that you're bringing in is significant enough that your rent is a small portion of your Revenue it doesn't make sense to a big chunk of your Revenue taken up by the rental expense studio rentals can be expensive especially where I am during the start of covid we had lockdowns in a lot of Ontario for almost a year and a half and that put a lot of places out of business a lot of photography studios went out of business where there was a lot of competition previously there is not much competition anymore those spaces aren't available uh to rent those inexpensive spaces they just don't exist anymore it might take another few years for them to come back the other alternative uh which is what I've done is I've spent years building a network of people who have become good friends with me other photographers people who have their own Studios I have three people who will let me use their studio for free because I helped them out with a lot of technology and other things that I'm good at that they're not good at that help improve efficiencies in their business I do that because they're friends and I love them and adore them but two of those spaces aren't very close to me the third one is right next door and it's my friend Marty you've seen me shoot in her Studio before you I've shot videos in her Studio let me know if this video was helpful for you if you're considering getting your own Studio let me know what some of your options are if you have your own Studio let me know what you feel are some pros and cons your experiences are going to be different than mine but I'm very interested to hear what they are thanks for watching take care