Is the grass greener?

[ABERS]

Stumbled on this today. It puts things into perspective for all those would-be photographers that see a way to make a living from their art.

A startling statistic was that from a t/o of £100,000 he could not make it pay, and is now making money from calender and postcard shots, just shows that work can get in the way of pleasure.

http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2011/01/full-time-photographer-a-pipe-dream/

[Alfonso_Frisk]

Thanks for posting the link 
I visited his Gallery 2 yr ago in Oban. Cracking photographer. I thought at the time he must be really reeling the cash in. There were 2 people working on the gallery floor and another in a side room making frames and mounting pictures etc.
I spent a couple of hours there had a coffee and a browse through the shots, course intinaries  and table books etc. I came out truly inspired with loads of ideas for future shots.
But, I never bought anything (apart from the coffee). I guess that's part of the problem having a gallery.

RR
Alf

[Jonathan]

A startling statistic was that from a t/o of £100,000 he could not make it pay

Doesn't surprise me at all.

This country does nothing to encourage small businesses - in fact it goes out of its way to damage them.

At £100K turnover, the best part of 17 grand is going to vanish in VAT (that's for a service based profession - for framing etc it won't e quite so bad but for high material markup businesses it's pretty bad).  That leaves you with £6K more than if turnover was £77K BTW.  My goal in any year is to turnover £76,995

Minimum wage is £6.08 so hire a framer, tea monkey, shop minder for summer holidays and busy weekends and you can say goodbye to another £3 - 4K.  And that's absolute minimum.  If you want somebody who knows what they are doing and want to retain them budget at least 2 and possibly 3 - 4 X this.

Rent, rates, materials, expenses, advertising, insurance, kit and if you run a retail photographic business you'd be lucky to clear £30K pre tax from a £100K turnover.

You can put that in perspective here - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2067258/Best-paid-jobs-2011-Tables-official-figures-UK-salaries.html

That's presumably somebody who is close to the top of his profession in his "good years" (the ones where learning the craft is complete and it's not yet necessary to cut back where you'd expect to be putting down money for retirement).  And probably working all the hours he can and risking personal capital.

I wouldn't run retail premises with staff unless I could turn over £250,000 minimum.

[skellum]

A startling statistic was that from a t/o of £100,000 he could not make it pay

Doesn't surprise me at all.

This country does nothing to encourage small businesses - in fact it goes out of its way to damage them.

Never thought I would say this but I have to disagree.  We are now just into our second year of trading and with the help of zero rates on our shop ( For rateable values below £6700.00  extended for a second year ) and a reasonable rent we have been able to make a go of it.

[Jonathan]

Never thought I would say this but I have to disagree.  We are now just into our second year of trading and with the help of zero rates on our shop ( For rateable values below £6700.00  extended for a second year ) and a reasonable rent we have been able to make a go of it.

Interesting.  These tend to be local or county council initiatives rather than central government though.

The vat thing is just brutal to growing businesses.  Did you have to register yet?

[skellum]

Never thought I would say this but I have to disagree.  We are now just into our second year of trading and with the help of zero rates on our shop ( For rateable values below £6700.00  extended for a second year ) and a reasonable rent we have been able to make a go of it.

Interesting.  These tend to be local or county council initiatives rather than central government though.

The vat thing is just brutal to growing businesses.  Did you have to register yet?

I was told it was a Central Government initiative but not bothered were it comes from, a good idea is a good idea in my book but I am sure the revenue will be taken from somewhere else.

I was registered for VAT in my electrical business but not here yet. What a pain that was being a unpaid tax collector    20% on what I am charging for my services now really would be a killer. Nowhere near £ 77,000 turnover threshold yet and happy to stay below it.

There are so many part time togs out there doing Weddings with no overheads at all to worry about so me adding VAT would kill that part of the business off completely.

[Oldboy]

20% on what I am charging for my services really would be a killer.

Do you charge that much!