equipment you may want to invest in would be a tripod for

mounting the camera in certain situations.

One of the easiest ideas is to visit a children's clothing store

in one of the busy shopping centers, or the children's department

in one of the large department stores. Sell the manager or store

owner on the idea of your setting up in a corner of the store or

department, and taking pictures of the shoppers' children. He can

promote the fact that you'll be in the store taking pictures for

a special prices during certain hours---perhaps on Friday

evenings and all day Saturdays---in his advertising, thus drawing

more patrons into his store because of you.

You'll need a sheet or plain piece of material, or some sort of

imaginative set for a background. But this can be easily make or

build yourself. You should also have an eye-catching poster that

calls attention to what you're doing and the prices you're

charging. Unless you're a commercial artist, spend the money to

have this sign made for you by a professional. The next and last

thing you'll need will be a two-part receipt or coupon.

This can be a simple piece of paper about 2 inches wide by 5

inches long. On the left side draw lines for your customers to

fill in their name, telephone number and address. You might also

want to include space for additional information such as the

child's name and age and number of children in the family, for

future efforts, but keep it brief and simple.

On the right side of this coupon, have your business name,

address and telephone number, plus a quick outline of the

different kinds of photography work you handle, and perhaps a

business slogan such as "Satisfaction Guaranteed or You Don't

Pay."

To add a little bit of class to this coupon, take the basic

outline of this idea over to a instant print shop. Tell them what

you want; show them your outline; and have them typeset

everything. Then put a fancy border around the whole coupon and

have it printed on colored paper. The best color is a "dollar

bill" shade of green. If you want to give it even more class, you

could have it printed on green, lightweight card stock. You'll

want to divide the "information" side of this coupon from the

"business card" side with a dotted line and perforations.

If you layout this coupon properly, you should be able to get six

of them on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper or card stock. This

means the printer can print and cut 6,000 of them for about the

same cost as printing circulars or flyers.

On your printing, shop around for the best deal, but in the end,

it shouldn't cost more than $60 for all 6,000 coupons which will

come those 1,000 sheets of paper or card stock.

Now, when you take a person's picture, regardless of whether it's

an "in-store" set-up out on the golf course, or along the street,

you give your customer one of your coupon-receipts and tell them

their prints will be ready in a couple of days. They fill in the

information part of the coupon and give it back to you, retaining

your "business card" portion of it.

When the prints are ready, you can phone the customer and remind

him--volunteer to deliver and collect; send them through the mail

with a bill; or make arrangements with a store to take care of

them until the people call for them and pay at that time.

Most stores, golf courses, bowling centers, and other retail

merchants will be glad to handle this part of it for you, because

it brings the customers back into the places of business, and

provides another sales opportunity for them.

By all means, be sure to include an advertising circular with

each set of pictures you deliver. This circular should explain

how the customer can get more prints, how he can get enlargements

of his favorites, and details relating to all the other

photography services you offer

Back to the original "in-store" picture taking set-up during

evening shopping hours and on weekends for extra income. You can

call attention to your "in-store" set-up, and bring in more

business with a few merchandising promotional ideas. In the

following paragraphs we give the highlights of a few ideas that

have worked well. However, you should keep your eyes open to

observe additional promotional ideas that could be adapted to fit

your new business.

Dress a helper in a clown suit, and take pictures of the kids in

his lap or with his arm around the kids. Put a sandwich

advertising board on a helper and let him stroll through the

shopping center advertising the fact that you're in a Kiddies

Clothing store taking pictures.

Promote a "Baby of The Year" contest where you can take pictures

of the babies, display the pictures on a "show board" and offer

$100 cash plus a merchandise prize in a big drawing at the end of

the year.

Set up a booth in the mall and promote "Instant Snapshots." Be a

Roving Photographer and take candid shots of shoppers and promote

a "Shopper Of The Year" contest. Work with a clown and have him

"attach himself" to the kids, and ask if they'd like to have

their pictures taken with him. Build and inexpensive and portable

set, such as an airplane, a race car, bucking bronco,

hand-shaking scene with a famous person or "balloon figures" and

take pictures of the people standing in or on these sets.

Get out to the golf course and take pictures of the golfers

teeing off. Get over to the bowling centers and take candid shots

of the bowlers in action. Do the same thing wherever there's a

sports event taking place. Be on the spot and ready whenever

there's an opportunity to take team pictures.

You might follow, or hire someone else to follow a Little League

team through its season, taking candid and action shots. You then

arrange the best pictures in a photo album with the team's name

and year on front. You should be able to sell one of these albums

to each member of the team.

There's also the idea of "just" strolling through the park" on a

Sunday afternoon. You can take candid and interesting pictures of

couples, children and people in general spending time with their

relatives.

Keep tabs on the announcements of new births. Send advertising

literature to the new mothers, and follow up with a phone call

efforts to set up photography sessions.

Keep tabs on the engagement notices in the weekend papers. Send

your sales literature to the brides-to-be, and follow up with

phone call efforts to take the wedding pictures.

Set up a household and business photo inventory service. With

this idea, you contact the insurance companies and determine if

they will approve and endorse photographs you take of their

policy holders' household, personal, and business property in

loss claims.

Most will, and from there--working either with the help of an

insurance agent, the agency itself, or on your own--contact

owners of property and sell them on the idea of you taking

pictures of the household goods they have insured. You take the

pictures--a pictorial inventory of everything they're claiming or

would like to claim on an insurance policy--and then identify the

pictures, giving one set to the property owner and the other set

to his insurance agent or company.

Picture inventories of household and personal property is still a

new thing, but everywhere it's been introduced, it's definitely

proven to be a super money- maker for the people willing to get

out and hustle.

If this idea arouses your interest, you might want to check into

a going franchise operation that gives you a complete business

manual, operations guidebook, and ongoing consultant services:

Photographic Inventory, PO Box 4046, Morgantown, WV 26505.

Once you decide that using your camera to generate extra income

is what you're going to do, get out and use your camera, start

taking pictures, and allow yourself the opportunity to build.

Give yourself the chance, and you'll quickly begin to think of

hundreds of ideas for taking pictures, merchandising ideas for

promoting your services, and sales angles for increasing your

profits.

The important thing is to get started, regardless of how small

your start, and begin cashing in on an idea that's still in its

infancy. This is an idea that can produce new concepts for profit

every day of the week. An idea that can be fun, as well as

financially rewarding for you!

You've got the idea and the plan--the rest is up to you. You've

got the ball; now run with it!