Need some opinions on an idea! Good or Bad?

Jambo

Dazftw,

Sorry if im taking the wind out of your sails but legally i think you will require a casual trading licence to set up in any public space from the city council. Also some degree of insurance and public liability will be required. Also other councils usually require any electrical equipment / generators to have been tested and certified safe.

All said I hope it will be an easy process for you and I wish you the best of luck with the venture.

foxylad

contact Michael in Waterford Chamber of Commerce re- permit
or City Council, Honor Dunphy i think - she looks after the market

i know chamber have organised a 12 days of christmas market - might suit it well

best of luck

btw - why not print your own pics on site - the is electricity there
and will look better handing over pics striaght away - and instead of discs - upload pics to a web site that people can access

Mia belle

I think its a nice idea, but will be honest, having to collect at a later date would stop me using it. You would lose a lot of custom too from people only in Waterford shopping for the day.
If you could print them there and then and providing they were good quality I would avail of the service.

old gregg

good idea and best of luck with it, may it bring you a nice bonus for Christmas.

In terms of credibility with potential customers .... would there be any advantage to perhaps hiking the price up to €20 and hooking up with one of the local charities like the The South Eastern Cancer Foundation (picked at random from my addled brain) so that you can make a bit of a deal about donating €5 from each sale to your chosen charity. You get to use their logo on your display board and it gives you an air of acceptance with folks who may be thinking about scams and stuff.

It also means that you are charging a price that can be met with a single bank note which means less hassle for some folks and less change to carry for you.

Just thoughts, it's not my area of speciality so run any of this by someone more objective.

I'll be stopping by for a photo anyway so you've made a sale here.

Brilliant idea #2 - a 70% discount for Boards.ie members
I'll get me coat

dazftw

The chairty actually sounds like a great idea i'll mention that when asking about the permit! As for light source and power I have a battery pack which should last me 800 uses with my lighting setup. We did think about the annoyance of have people collect the next day so were thinking about using email and post to avoid that. I'm going into town now to find out what I can.

lee_

Could you get a printer off of someone and do the Laptop printer thing right there?
It then becomes a 2 person op though.
People want instant gratification these days.

Im sure you have considered this already but it could mean a big big difference in sales

chrism2007

without reading all the comments i will say this.

10 euro sounds like a nice price. at first impressions 15 seems a bit steep.

although you know you have an expensive, high quality setup your target audience probably wont

"stack them high, and sell them cheap"

theres always a queue at stands like this. seen a business like this in Dublin and there must have been 30 people in the queue

better to have a constant queue at 9 or 10 euro than no queue at 15 euro

nyquist

dazftw wrote: »

.... We did think about the annoyance of have people collect the next day so were thinking about using email and post to avoid that. I'm going into town now to find out what I can.

If it was me wanting a photo taken I would rather if you emailed me the picture to allow me to print it or post it on facebook etc.

You could possibly have 2 prices. 1 price for just the photo and the other for the original digital shoot. To be honest it really depends on customer, some are not into computers and would rather the photo then you have people like me who would rather the digital image.

If you have one of those mobile broadband thingys you could try send it there and then for the customer.

If insurance is a thing you need to get sorted you could have a chat to the traders who are there every saturday and ask them what they did. If it becomes a lot of paper work, you could possibly look at another way around this and try get someone to employ you (Boots, Sam McCauley, etc) on a temp 2 week basis.The customer would have to go into the chemist shop to collect photos (preferably same day). You then would be covered under the companies insurance as an employee, they get in customers to shop, you get a wage and everyones a winner.

dazftw

So I applied today at the garda station. I had to fill out a collection form and was told the head guy will take and look and ring me and let me know.

So if all goes well I think this is the final pricing im going to give it.

€10 total

This includes:

6 x 8 print we thought about it and the fact were giving the photo on a disc, a 6 x 8 is fine because they can print bigger if needs be with the full resolution copy they get. If they dont want a print final cost will be €9 prints are working out at 80 cent each.

€1 deposit for that to cover the cost of the print. If they wanted posted instead of collection it will be and extra €2 for envelope and posting(subject to change) email will be free.

Obviously a photo on disc which I will pay for out of my own money. (€15 for a spindle of 100)

and €2 or €1.80 (20%) will go to the WSPCA from each photo taken.

Thats leaves roughly 6 - 7 euro the split between my friend and I.

I think that sounds good!?

maquiladora

It's a good idea, I like it.

seanybiker

Nice one. How long will you have to wait before you find out if you are allowed do it or not.
Best of luck with it.

dazftw

I dunno hopefully soon because I want to start doing up some samples.. If anyone on here wants to help with that, that would be great id give ya copies of the photos.

I kinda wanna get a variety of different amounts of people and see whats the best way of doing.

Thanks for the feedback though its been great!

Mia belle

Ok, from a business point of view I am still not sold . Why do you think people will pay you €10 for a photo that they will either have to return to collect of have it e mailed to them, when they could just take their own pics.
I would imagine it would be mostly parents getting kids photos, or would adults go in for this sort of thing ?
Not trying to put a dampner on it or anything, I'm just wondering would people use it.
We had photos like this done in disney at restaurants etc. A photo was taken at the table then you got it 10 minutes later in a fancy folder with disney etc on it.

dazftw

Mia belle wrote: »

Ok, from a business point of view I am still not sold . Why do you think people will pay you €10 for a photo that they will either have to return to collect of have it e mailed to them, when they could just take their own pics.
I would imagine it would be mostly parents getting kids photos, or would adults go in for this sort of thing ?
Not trying to put a dampner on it or anything, I'm just wondering would people use it.
We had photos like this done in disney at restaurants etc. A photo was taken at the table then you got it 10 minutes later in a fancy folder with disney etc on it.

The difference between my photos and the photos they could take is they wouldn't have professional equipment with them. Im going to be using professional equipment. Ill post the samples up this weekend if I get the go ahead.

I would print it there myself if I had access to a good printer and a power source.

Plus its only a tenner.. and for charity. I actually asked a few folks around town today they all thought it was a good idea, whether or not they would go for it I dont know. All I can do is try right? Where would I be if I didn't try? No where.

abouttobebanned

I saw one of Daz's pics today of a relative of mine. It was absolutely fantastic to be honest. If I had a child i'd definitely pay for a pic like that.

MaxCharlie

good idea. in my opinion i would not be inclined to pay for next day collection. this kind of thing is a impulse purchase so a quick turnaround is important. with e-mail of picture afterwards. i would not give my postal address for hard copy prints to be posted for privacy reasons - even if you have a permit - best of luck. ill keep a look out for your stand

Fr. Jessip

yea its a good idea, nothing wrong with 15 euro either, id say that should be the min

chrism2007

MaxCharlie wrote: »

good idea. in my opinion i would not be inclined to pay for next day collection. this kind of thing is a impulse purchase so a quick turnaround is important. with e-mail of picture afterwards. i would not give my postal address for hard copy prints to be posted for privacy reasons - even if you have a permit - best of luck. ill keep a look out for your stand

good point but i dont see why its anything different to anything else being delivered.

this could be a huge money spinner and make it feel a bit more like christmas in waterford city

lets say he sets it up and everyone asks is it possible to have them printed on the spot, he says no and loses business.

he will just learn a lesson and know what to do next year.

at least hes trying. if i had a child id have it done, and probably half the people who read this would aswell

be positive.

dazftw

If I really wanted, I could setup a printing service there but the downside to that would be id have to charge a heap more. I would have to charge atleast €20 - €25 to pay for a printer, ink, paper and power.. Id also have to pay for those first which I don't have the money for.

Im charing €10 euro which is an absolute bargain tbh, even if you have to collect the next day.

Hey and if it works out great and alot of people use it ill organise printing next year.

chrism2007

id imagine most will go for the postage option

id hate to have to come back into town, pay for parking etc.. just to pick up photos. sounds like a lot of hassle

defo go for it though. ive seen it as a huge success in other cities. waterford is no different

just an idea that popped into my head. could you rent a printer?

dazftw

chrism2007 wrote: »

id imagine most will go for the postage option

id hate to have to come back into town, pay for parking etc.. just to pick up photos. sounds like a lot of hassle

defo go for it though. ive seen it as a huge success in other cities. waterford is no different

just an idea that popped into my head. could you rent a printer?

I could but id have to charge more.. Im really thinking the €10 is appealing! As another poster said id rather have a nice queue at €10 than a short one at €15. Ill price the postage tomorrow It should be under €2

EDIT: an post website is 95 cent for a 0.05 kg item and a nice strong envelope should be about a euro.

Gadgie

I think it's a great idea and I wish you the best of luck with it. And fair play to you for giving something to the WSPCA.

nkay1985

I really like that you've gone with €10 and I also really like that you've chosen to give some money to charity (especially as it's an animal charity).

The only thing that may put some people off is the whole collection issue. Is there no printing place that could turn them around for you quickly? Surely there must be somewhere that could turn them around for you in an hour? There are lots of printing places close to that spot.

If this isn't an option, then at least you've got the postage option.

Hope you get the go ahead.

ziedth

Just an idea but could you not work up a deal with barry In suir design or bookcentre or something and hire a kid to run up to him with the card/usb and get him to print it off straight away on the spot as an optional extra?

I have no idea how much it would cost but i'm sure some people would pay €20 to have it on the spot as agaisnt €10 collected?

dazftw

I can see one sort of way of getting the prints done straight away.

Work a deal with the guys in Sam McCauleys and get 10 sort of "1 print per token" job. So we pay for 10 prints and get 10 tokens. Get more when we need them.

Take a few photos pop them onto a laptop burn to cd, should take 3 - 4 mins. Give them the CD & token. They give us the €10. Go up to McCauleys and pick there favourite photo to print. Everyones happy.

Problems with that though is the laptop aint going to last all night and I dont want to have to organise power with anyone tbh.. unless it was easy and *cough* free *cough*

I really feel €10 is a selling point and don't want to charge anymore..

Im going to go down to the WSPCA tomorrow if I wake up early and see if they would like to be a part of the whole thing.. if they say yes ill go back down to the guards and let them know that. Might speed things up a bit.

dazftw

WSPCA think its a good idea anyway! There going to get in contact with me on monday about getting a letter of some sort I can show the guards to show there support. Hopefully that'll sort everything.

nkay1985

dazftw wrote: »

WSPCA think its a good idea anyway! There going to get in contact with me on monday about getting a letter of some sort I can show the guards to show there support. Hopefully that'll sort everything.

It'd be great if this helps you out. The tokens idea is a good one as far as I'm concerned. Anything that can have the people leaving town with their photos in their hands.

With regard to power, I can't see how someone like the lads in the Meteor store or any of the other shops wouldn't leave you plug it in for half an hour a couple of times. There are any amount of shops there so at least one of them will be sound.

dazftw

Guards called me today, told me I had to go to the council to apply there.

Went to the council and was talking to a woman by the name of Honor Dunphy, she seemed keen until I told her where I wanted to do it.. She said shes pretty sure it has to be up at the other side of the carousel where the market actually is..

She took my details and what I was planning and said she would find out if I could do it where I wanted to. She should ring me now tomorrow.

*fingers crossed* Its looking pretty doubtful :rolleyes:

seanybiker

ah ya never know. Hope ya get it anyways bud. Best of luck with it.

Psychedelic

dazftw wrote: »

Guards called me today, told me I had to go to the council to apply there.

Went to the council and was talking to a woman by the name of Honor Dunphy, she seemed keen until I told her where I wanted to do it.. She said shes pretty sure it has to be up at the other side of the carousel where the market actually is..

She took my details and what I was planning and said she would find out if I could do it where I wanted to. She should ring me now tomorrow.

*fingers crossed* Its looking pretty doubtful :rolleyes:

You may need to get a casual trading license as part of the Christmas market, which you would need to pay for:

http://www.waterfordcity.ie/documents/forms/XmasMarket-Application%20Form.doc