Portrait Studio Residence and Commercial Property FL Live & Work in Paradise! Cut your commute time to Zero Start Price - Current Price - Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, May 28, 2008 End Time Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Location Venice, Florida See more about 'Portrait Studio Residence and Commercial Property FL' Description   Business Over view and Property Description Established in 1988 in Venice Florida and relocated to its current location in 1998.  There have been two owners.   Currently located at 1661 Bal Harbour Drive Venice Florida  34293 Property is two story with two separate entrances and separate electric for downstairs (business and studio) and upstairs residence.  Downstairs garage has been converted to living quarters under air and can be used for additional office space.   Studio is 13 x 29, two bathrooms, production/office area, viewing room, front lobby.   Upstairs, Kitchen,  Laundry room Dining area Living room two full bathrooms and two bedrooms and a small Lanai.  Downstairs is approx 1350 sq feet and upstairs is 1150   Will sell property alone, business alone or property and business combined.  Building was previously used as a real estate office, but could be used for almost any professional service oriented business from dog grooming, chiropractor, hair salon, etc.   Price is for building, photographic assets.  Simple asset purchase agreement for business, which includes phone numbers and advertising and business reputation.  I would prefer to sell everything except my personal stuff as this would be the best value.  Building alone $299,000  Portrait business assets alone $59,000 Buy both together  for $349,000  Included will be a non compete agreement.     I am negotiable, flexible and motivated.  Last year gross sales  $184,000   There is a mortgage on the poperty, but all the equipment is paid for, very low expenses, normal household stuff, electric, water, trash, insurance, cable and internet. I have the property listed with a commercial real estate broker who will complete the sale if you contact me for a reduced commission fee. He is pretty aggressive and will be marketing the property as well.  He will handle all the paperwork, which should be pretty simple.  Just the basic closing documents  in a real estate transaction and an asset purchase agreement for the equipment.  If you finance the purchase your payment could possibly be no more than what a normal residence would cost here in Florida.  My broker can even help with financing, contact me and I will put you in touch with him.   Located off the island in Venice Gardens, Sarasota County.  A short drive or bicycle ride to the beach.  Walking trails, quiet neighborhoods,  golf courses, beautiful beaches, near Venice Airpark. Easy access to boating and fishing.  Gulf access through the jetties from the intercoastal waterway.   Less than a half mile from the YMCA.  Close to highway 41 and I-75. Year round beautiful weather.  Lush landscaping is the norm. Elementary school within walking distance, well respected middle and high school and community college.   Just South of Nokomis, Osprey and Sarasota/Bradenton.  Just North of North Port, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda.  About an hours drive to St. Petersburg or Tampa and about an hour to Fort Meyers and Naples.  Inter coastal waterway runs directly through Venice.        Property designated Commercial Neighborhood.  Two story freestanding building with two separate entrances, one for the business and studio downstairs  which consists of a front foyer , receptionist work area, viewing room, two production areas , two restroom/dressing areas and the portrait studio.  Garage can be used for an additional bedroom or multi use.  New Carpet and Tile    Upstairs two bedrooms, living area, dining and kitchen.  Two bathrooms, enclosed lanai, which can be used as an additional bedroom.  Hardwood floors throughout upstairs, appliances and ceiling fans throughout.  Hurricane window film on all windows.    Outside area for portraits and patio, storage building and storage in rear of building.  Gated fence in rear for access of trailer or boat.    All necessary fixtures, counters, lighting, display portraits necessary for the operation of an upscale portrait studio are included.  All necessary equipment, lighting, backgrounds, props, packaging, software, computers, cameras, and  business equipment included.  See inventory list for complete details.   This is a turnkey portrait studio, with signage, name recognition, website .  Telephones, advertising, marketing materials, packaging and merchandising materials, price lists, and systems in place to generate leads, photograph clients and deliver the finished product.    Our operation is very efficient.  Available by appointment, we have the necessary equipment to shoot on location or in the studio.  Generally our cost of goods including all processing, retouching, printing and packaging costs are less than 20 percent.  Sometimes less than 10% when no printing is required.  Do the math, a high school senior averages about $500, the cost of materials is about $50 it takes about an hour to shoot it, an hour to edit the files, an hour to take the order and submit the order.  About three to four hours total time and two of those hours are completely flexible.  This is just an average, you can usually work with two or three orders during the same time.   We have one  phone line for residential use, credit cards and faxes and one wireless business line for great flexibility.  An established digital workflow that is very fast and efficient.  No employees are required.  All printing and retouching is part of the digital workflow and completed prints and albums are delivered to our specifications.  The only production is managing the digital files and final packaging of the products for the client.    You could easily expand the business to include other photographers and a person to package completed orders, or sales.  We are a husband and wife team and we prefer to keep it simple and do all the work ourselves.    Using this business model, we are able to concentrate on marketing, photography and client satisfaction, while having a great deal of leisure time.  Having a residence upstairs, enables us to operate with significant advantages over having a separate studio location.  I have owned separate studios and homes before and I can tell you that I easily have an extra 25 hours a week in time savings that I can either devote to the business or leisure activities.  Saves gas, no daily commute.   In addition having a residence and photography business combined represents huge cost savings over having a separate business location. Savings in almost every business related expense, insurance, utilities, taxes.    This represents a huge advantage over competitors who have a traditional studio location in a shopping center.  The money we save can go toward marketing and equipment, which are the same for both types of studios.    The greatest benefits of a residential business are cost savings, time savings and flexibility.  The result is more time freedom.  Located in a beautiful place to spend your free time.   Our clients are families, business professionals, high school seniors and couples getting married.    While the wedding market is huge, we primarily market to brides with a  wedding photography budget of over $2500, with the average spending about $4000.  Family beach portraits are very lucrative and are rarely less than $1000 and as high as $3000.  High School Seniors average about $500, with some as high as $1000.   Business portraits, children and pets are never less than a $100 and many average $300.  Commercial, product or advertising jobs almost never require prints, only the digital files.  These jobs can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.   What you get with our company is experience.  Experience and training.  The kind of experience that it takes years of trial and error to obtain.   We have developed price structures for every contingency.  We have developed policies that prevent loss and maximize our return.  Pre selling techniques, systems that do the work for us.  We know how to recognize the jobs that are profitable and the ones that aren’t.  We know how to prequalify our clients and our experience has taught us how to avoid profit wasting pitfalls.   You will get the benefit of 30 plus years of experience in photography and related fields.   Specific experience operating a profitable portrait studio and the related photography services.   Included is two  weeks  of in depth training.  Locations, equipment, procedures and policies.  Ongoing technical and business support as required.  I have trained hundreds of employees and photographers.  I am up to the task.   If you follow my advice you can have total control over your business, even your clients.  You work Saturday evening at sunset to take a family portrait because you choose to.   Because you have prequalified the family you will not be wasting your time.  You work a full day covering a wedding because you choose to.  Because you have prequalified the bride she has paid you in advance over $4000.   You want to close Mondays?  Go ahead, in fact close anytime you want, with a business cell phone, you can schedule appointments, most at your convenience.  I like to stack my shoot assignments on one or two days and take the rest of the time to do what I want.  You can do whatever you want, you will have almost total control and not sacrifice what you want.  If you want more money, it’s there, if you want more free time, it’s there.  If you love taking photographs, the smell of new electronic equipment and making plenty of money while having the time to enjoy it, consider our business Turner Photography.            We are relocating to care for my parents and I have some eye surgery I have been putting off.  I am willing to consider any reasonable offer.  By the way, hurricane season is overated.  I relocated here in 2004 after living for 30 years in Oklahoma where the weather is much, much worse.  Here you get several days advance notice to prepare.  The storm damage that you see on TV is usually right on the coast.  Since we live a few miles inland in a solid structure, our hurricane evacuation plan is to stay put.      Inventory List 04/15/08 Photographic Equipment Cameras and lenses Fuji S3 camera body (1) Tamron  28-75mm DRII 2.8 lens Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300 mm f4.5 5.6 Sigma 17-35 mm 2.8 lens Tamron 28-300mm lens    Portable Flash and accessories Custom Camera brackets (1) Nikon SB-800 Flash Sunpak 522 Flash, a/c adapter Sunpak Monolight Misc diffusers and umbrellas and stands   Batteries   Quantum Compact batteries qb1 (2) Quantum battery 1+ 50 rechargeable AA and AAA batteries Rapid charger, 4 standard chargers Battery recharger and refresher ZTS pulse load battery tester Battery cases  and extra battery trays for Fuji S3’s Bogen Tripod with bogen quick release trigger head Diffusers, light modifiers, Reflectors, exposure target 5-  1gb compact flash cards 4 512mb cards Studio Equipment Studio Pro Regal Camera Stand w/ accessory tray Quick release tripod head integrated with Custom Brackets Novatron 440 power pack and 3flash heads Speedotron power pack and 2 flash heads Novatron 52” umbrella Westcott 45” umbrella Photoflex stripdome small Photoflex stripdome large Photoflex multidome medium Photogenic air cushioned caster based stand Misc Gel holders, Gels Misc light stands and portable background stands and top rails Bogen light stand and Boom Various Snoots and Barn doors Large reflector and stand two sided Overhead rail system for 4 flash heads F-16 Turbo spot and 9 patterns Fog machine All necessary cables and connectors   James Bright Background Roller system w/ 1 steel and 3 aluminum rollers.  Electric 4 hand painted old masters type canvas backrounds LaMar Wilson, Les Brandt and Tallyn Manual roller system for paper backgrounds Twelve muslin backgrounds various colors on a sliding oval track 5 paper backgrounds 5 painted canvas backgrounds Two portable Flex backgrounds Posing Table 4 posing stools Childrens white wicker chair & bench Antique wooden chair Antique looking children’s chair 3 wooden chairs Set of stackable posing blocks 3 step poser Wooden box on wheels White trunk Large white wooden box Styrofoam Pedestal Large white wicker chair Two wood curved adult chairs Bar stool tall Bar stool short Wooden executive office background Wood desk on wheels 6 foot wood ladder White wicker 6 foot screen Set of stairs with railing white Childrens white wicker set 2 chairs 1 settee and 1 table White rocker, Black rocker, Brown rocker Large wooden horse Small wooden horse Small wood barrel Two large plastic Crayons Mombasa Bed Canopy 2 9ft x 30ft white soft drape background Various childrens chairs Seasonal props and toys Flexible Mirror   Office furniture Table and 4 chairs in sales room Desk, bookcase. Brass & glass étagère   Queen Anne sofa table Framed Prints on display  15 16x20 6 11x14 4 20x24 2 30x40 Counters cabinets desks File cabinets   Computer equipment/ software HP Media Center Dual core PC 3 seagate 200gb drives external 2 300 gb drives internal 3 Canon inkjet printers Express Digital Darkroom  Pro Digi Photo Album Creation Software Flip Album Pro Pro Show Gold Windows xp with related software Spyder monitor calibration Photoshop CS Several photoshop plug ins for retouch   Gateway Media Center with LCD for viewing room HP for office administration LAN for all computers Comcast Internet Canon Printer/Fax machine   Other Oak display contains 9 16x20’s Currently at AAA travel office 6 business card displays at local businesses Trade show display  backdrop And related display prints Sign on building Outside storage building Fire alarm system Security system Small refrigerator Carpet Cleaner Ceiling fans throughout Washer/Dryer Kitchen appliances Wireless phone system       Supplies Everything needed for day to day order fulfillment and operation of studio. Office supplies, paper, ink for printers Sacks, presentation  boxes, folios, display folders for prints. Frame inventory, various sizes Lots of miscellaneous things like job pocket folders, labels, etc. Everything needed to start day one and continue for awhile. As an example I burn about 100 cd’s a month and I always keep an extra spindle or two on hand.  The inventory varies according to demand.      Contact  me and I can direct you to our website.    Think about it, but don't think too long, after I get back from vacation this month I am going to market this little jewel heavily.  When some cat from the NE reads his Wall Street Journal and realizes that he could live in paradise, no daily commute, no crowds, and he doesn't even have to know how to take a picture.  He can hire one of the many starving freelancers who I can train along with the owner and let the employees do the work while the owner goes fishing or lays on the beach.  Or he has no need of the photography business and needs a cozy place to live and work.  No problem, I will sell the building and relocate the photography business.  I am looking for a win/win deal for everybody... Place a Bid!