Our Target Market
By our estimate: Team and Individual Photography is a $250,000,000 market Nationally
We pursue contracts to take team and individual photos (not action photos) of youth sports participants playing in organized youth sports leagues. Generally we pursue high volume private youth leagues that are organized by volunteer organizations such as Little League, Pop Warner, United States Youth Soccer Association affiliates, AYSO or CYO programs. We also pursue high volume institutional programs such as Parks & Recreation Departments, Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCA programs. Generally, we do not pursue school teams. Photography companies in our market contract to do photos on a schedule that is usually established by the league. Most photography is done on weekends with an occasional weeknight shoot. If you are not available on weekends, this business is not for you.
Generally, youth leagues pick a date and contract with one company to do the photos for the entire league. Often times, the organization is not flexible on the date. Double bookings are common for companies pursing this business. The photography company usually gives the league some considerations such as a rebate, free plaques for sponsors and free team photos for coaches. The company also makes certain promises about delivery and may handle various types off special requests. Leagues generally appoint a central contact person the “Picture Coordinator” to work with the photographer to schedule picture day, handle delivery and pass out of photos, and handle other issues relating to the photos (plaques, engraving, etc.). This coordinator may also be a paid administrator or wear other hats within a volunteer organization.
League coordinators generally schedule their teams to come on a fixed interval on a given day. For example, a league with 24 teams (300 players) might be photographed over 6 hours with one team scheduled every 15 minutes. Photography companies provide order envelopes to league coordinators prior to picture day for parents to make selections. Children then bring their completed order envelopes with payment enclosed to picture day. Photography companies are expected to collect these orders, take individual, buddy and team photos, stay on schedule, work well with kids, deliver the photo orders back to the league coordinator within about 3 weeks, and conduct a make-up\retake day if necessary.
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The Competition
Competitors include local “Mom & Pop” studios that may only have a couple of accounts but are very entrenched in their local community, national players such as Lifetouch, franchise operators such as The Sports Section, and independent regional operators who may be very large in their home state or region and may use a large national lab or own their own lab operation.
Companies generally vie for accounts by placing bids. Sales points include the amount of rebate, quality, selection, pricing, freebies such as plaques, turn-around time, staffing or “localness.” Incumbents often have an advantage, but every year organizations switch companies for a number of reasons that include; they are unhappy with the prior year’s company (fairly or unfairly), they want a better deal, they forgot who they used and a new company got to them first, they like one companies product mix better, or they just wanted to try something new. Probably about 20%-30% of organizations switch companies every year. The market is always open to new comers.
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Resources
All photography is done on location at parks and school sports fields. Staffing ranges from a small shoot up to 15 teams that may only require one photographer to large shoots of several thousand kids in one day that might require up to 15 staff members between photographers and assistants. Most shoots can be accomplished with a staff of two to three photographers and one assistant. Virtually all companies that pursue this business on a large level hire independent freelance photographers. Freelance photographers are relatively easy to find and train and many companies train family and friends to do this work. A fully equipped company with all necessary cameras, flashes, backgrounds, canopies, tables and chairs will have invested about $2,000-$3,000 in equipment which will be more than adequate to handle two shoots per weekend and equip a staff of up to five photographers.
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Photography Skills
We can unequivocally say that this type of photography is very easy and is easily learned with a very minimal amount of training. No special technical skill is needed and almost all photography can be done with “point and shoot” 35mm film equipment on program settings. Modern equipment is very inexpensive and if used properly can be virtually fool-proof.
Note: Our apologies to any “highly-trained” professional photographers, who may read this, but we are speaking from 20 years of experience when we say that photography skill is much less important than demeanor and organizational skills in this field. We do not make this claim for our preschool program which is much more technical and sophisticated photographically.
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