Renting out my studio (Co-Op)

[Brouin]

I am trying to put together a studio large enough to shoot cars but might not have enough business to keep it going. I see a lot of studios rent their space by the hour or day. I am looking for something more concrete then daily rental. Here is my question. As fellow photographers, would you be interested in renting equally shared 3000sqf studio with everything provided including own key and office, for a monthly rate? What would be your idle price? Let me just though a round number out there $1000 a month. a bit low I think but lets start there.

It will be owned and maintained by myself, but almost a Co-Op type thing. Any opinions would be awesome!!!

[christos]

I have never been a fan of co-op studios, but with the rents what they are in New York. I would certainly jump on this with the right partners. Even if it ran me 1.2K plus utilities for access to a 3k sqf studio, hell yeah. But the key is making it work with the right partners which seems to be the challenge.

[Brouin]

I have never been apart of a "co-op" studio. What are some of the challenges you are speaking of?

[christos]

I've never been part of one earthier, but for definition of co-op I'm referring to the collaboration of 4-5 partners in agreement. Now of the top of my head this is something I would want to talk to an accountant about as should the partners this setup may or may not have an impact on ones reporting.

Scheduling, you have to make an assumption that everyone will want to work on prime dates as the weekends since that is when most clients may want to schedule the sessions "for portraits and such". Will the studio be too crowded then if you are shooting a car and the three others are shooting other "stuff".

Trust, heck you have to trust the people you partner with.

Is the studio going to be used as a meeting space with clients? How are you going to deal with non-competes? You know a clients walks in and likes your partners images on the walls better.

These are just some stuff off the top of my head if you go in as a co-op. Now non of this applies if you rent the studio by the hour.

Long Island Wedding Photographer

[jetrim]

This system can work. I'm involved in a shared studio now, but it is all about the chemistry between the members. Other ways we use to bring income into the studio are teaching workshops advertised through meet up.com, facebook, and craigslist as well as rentals to prescreened photographers and other photo clubs and meetup groups. We split the bills 6 ways, with 3 senior partners and 3 junior partners. Profits are used to upgrade equipment and maintain the facility.