How to make money with your photographs!

     In my last post on how to make money with your photographs I went over some general topics like, finding your niche, testing the markets, and photo enhancement software.  In this post we are going to cover what I think is the most basic way of making money with your camera, and that is by taking photos of your own or someone else’s and preparing them for framing.  Virtually every home in America or the world for that matter has some sort of decoration on the walls, and in a great many cases these are photographs.  Although not all photographs are displayed in frames this is the exception and not the rule, which means that the photos must be printed, placed on some kind of backer and have a mat cut to surround the printed area.  In order for an individual to have his favorite photo made ready for display they will either have to print the photo themselves or take it to a copy printing
center to have it printed.  Next if they don’t possess the skills to prepare the photo for framing, they must take it to a craft store or framing specialty shop to have it fitted and prepared for framing, and this is where the process begins to get expensive.
     If you are a serious photographer you have at some point taken one of your photos to a matting and framing business to get a price on having it prepared for hanging.  If you have, then I am sure your have uttered the term “how much did you say?” as the store clerk was waving smelling salts under your nose after you fainted.  Rule of thumb in the matting, backing, and framing business is to mark up the cost of your product 800% to calculate the finished price, i.e. if the materials and labor run $50 then retail of the item should be $400.  This may seem to be a bit exorbitant and probably is, but it provides a great opportunity for the aspiring photographic entrepreneur to get started.
     The first thing you will need is a business license, the reason for this is that without this most wholesale distributors will not sell to you.  Now the laws for obtaining a business license varies greatly from state to state, but in most cases obtaining the license is not terribly difficult or involved and will save you a lot of trouble later on.  Note:  If you intend to go to customers homes, have customers to your place of business, or attend events such as weddings and birthday parties to take photos you should consult an insurance broker about obtaining liability insurance.
     At this point I can only tell you what has worked well for me, and leave the amount of involvement you want to take on to you.  I have always made it a point to stay away from custom framing, the reason being that the cost of the equipment and inventory of moldings can easily accelerate out of reason.  My approach has been to offer my matted and backed prints in popular frame sizes like 8X10, 11X14, and 16X20 which fit standard frames that can be purchased at reasonable prices from most big box department stores or craft outlets.  By doing this you place the obligation of choosing and buying the frame on the customer and there by simplifying your business.  Starting out you should purchase your mats and foam core backer from a craft or art supply store until you get going, then you can begin ordering from the major wholesale suppliers like CMI Mouldings, or BD Matboards.  Believe me the price difference is staggering but when buying  wholesale you have to order in bulk (usually a 25 sheet minimum of 32x40 inch matboard and backer) which can be a burden to a fledgling business.  The other materials that you might want I will go into later as they are important but you may consider optional.
     Now lets touch on equipment.  You will need to buy a mat cutter and mat holder.  A quick search on Amazon for mat cutters and blades will yield an assortment of cutters and mat holders at varying prices.  I use Logan products as they are economical and the blades
are sold in most craft stores.  Another item that I think produces a professional looking product and also helps keep your finished work spotlessly clean is a shrink wrap system.  These systems completely seal you product inside a plastic pouch and cost only pennies per print to use.  I myself use the heat gun to shrink the pouch to a wrinkle free finish which makes the print look as if it were under glass, but this requires a delicate touch to keep from burning through the thin plastic wrap.  As far as how to operate the mat cutter and the shrink wrap system Youtube is loaded with instructional videos so I will not go into that process any further.  One last piece of equipment is the choice of printer.  Practically everyone has a favorite printer brand, mine happens to be Epson, but most any will do.  I use a Epson Artisan 1430 wide format printer for several reasons, first it does a fantastic job of color rendering, second it will handle 13X19 paper and last, you can buy emulator ink cartridges for it which is a great money savings over the Epson cartridges.  By the way I advise using heavyweight matte paper if the print is to go under glass since using glossy paper will create reflection and glare problems.
     Well I think that about covers the basics, I will go into the finer details in a furture post but for now I think I have provided you with enough to think about.