Pebbles Franchise

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StevieF8

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Is anyone on here have a Pebbles franchise or has anyone considered taking one up with them

It costs £7,500 are you get the following

"The Franchise Package
Our exciting franchise package includes:

Preparation and supply of a fully equipped ‘business in a box' with all the materials, (including a digital SLR camera),
Training and assistance in the setting up and launch of a Pebbles franchise in your community.
Design, process and printing of your images, leaving you free to concentrate on increasing your business and taking photographs.
Portfolio with sample images to show your clients, ready-to-print stationary and sample advertisements to help you get started.
The rights to expand the business further"


http://www.pebbles.co.uk/
 
i have never looked into anything like this but i am in the prosess of setting up a little venture in liverpool at the min if you are interested :D pm me
 
You don't have to be a photographer, or have any photographic or business experience to join our team – we'll provide all the training necessary. In fact, we'd prefer if you were not a professional photographer, as they often do not have the more important skills for which we are looking.
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I'm not impressed with the web site or the info there. I dont see what they are giving you that you couldnt do yourself.

Id want to see lots of numbers. they do the fulfilment, what do you earn? how do they take a cut? without extensive marketing on their part I dont see why anyone should work for them rather than be independent.
 
mattyh said:
:agree:

I can't even get on their website on FF3, some damn competition popup keeps appearing with no option to close it!!

Gave up in the end
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Close is in the top right corner in FF2
 
option to close pop up is at top right of box.
 
There not giving you much at all, alot better to put in the work yourself and get the rewards from it :D ;)
 
PsiFox said:
option to close pop up is at top right of box.
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on ff3 for me the pop up is behind the sample photos - you cant access the close button. you have to submit a comp entry - and it has rubbish validation of phone number and email address.
 
Yep, I can't get past that damn pop-up either. Not a good start for a business. From the quotes here though it sounds like a similar operation to santa photos at the shopping centre. They tell you the formula and you press the button. More like a job for a child care worker than a photographer.

They provide you with your own portfolio of someone else's shots, so, erm.. yeah.
 
Not sure about the kit they provide but if it's anything more than a D40 I'll be amazed but I've got me own kit anyway so I'd rather have the money back towards a better lens

One of the things they do it put you on their register for customers to find
There are none in the NW at the moment but it depends on how heavily they invest into advertising
no point me spending loads on advertising Pebbles for someone to go on their site - link below- and select a different photographer in the area and use them instead

http://www.pebbles.co.uk/html/photographers.php


DeadlySmurf - PM Sent :thumbs:
 
£7,500 is a lot of money without actual marketing support (I got onto their site btw)

It sounds to me like you get a portable lighting set-up, a camera/lens combo, and some 'training' and that's about it. I'd be happy to do that for anyone here for just £7,000 (the gear needed is about £2,000 I'm guessing) - so rather than 'Pebbles' I'll call my set-up 'Bam Bam' (just bought the website ...thatsalotofmoneyforseeminglynotmuch.co.uk for it too)

There are currently about 10 Pebble's togs, mostly in the south-east but one's in Lincoln too - if I were looking into it, I'd be calling them all up firstly as a potential customer to see what they say and how available they are for a sitting; doing my maths homework and internet searches for pricing/suppliers; then calling them back later to ask about the Franchise opportunity too

But you could put together a good set-up for this for £2,000 - and having £5,500 to invest in marketing would mean it's stand a good chance of working (all things being equal otherwise [i.e. you can take a decent pic!])

HTH

DD

DD
 
Plus i have never seen pebbles on any of the searches ive done for portrait photography.

But unless you speak to them you wont know what they have to offer.
 
There are two reasons for going down the franchise route. The first is buying into a brand, the second is buying into a technology. We can discount the second one straight away so that leaves the brand.

The question you have to ask is will the Pebbles brand grow sufficiently to justify the high initial outlay and if so what's your time to cash, i.e. how long will it take before you've made more than the initial outlay out of the Pebble brand than you would have got had you set up as a sole trader.

I think that good research, a fair bit of hard work and spending some on the right type of advertising/marketing will reap far higher rewards. For that kind of money you could look at one of the Annabel Williams bespoke courses which would probably give you better support than Pebbles would.
 
so, without mentioning a specific camera, (prob cheapest they can get), lens, i would assume 2 head light kit, a folding whit bg, a few posters and 2 week training course(guess it is two weeks). you also have to buy the prints from them, are your prices controlled by them as well?
 
fletch5 said:
so, without mentioning a specific camera, (prob cheapest they can get), lens, i would assume 2 head light kit, a folding whit bg, a few posters and 2 week training course(guess it is two weeks). you also have to buy the prints from them, are your prices controlled by them as well?
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2 weeks !!!

You're buying into a system - no way on Earth could/should it take 2 weeks training even if you've never held a camera before

My guess is 2-3 days, and a reasonable manual for their recommended set-ups as a grounding in making a saleable image in 2-4 differing lighting conditions; their example images for 'lifestyle' shooting suggest auto exp and snap away, which takes about 10 secs training

I believe Annabel does a start-end Wedding training session in 3 days, though that assumes you can use a camera

DD
 
They dont mention a CRB check do they? just ask if you enjoy playing with children.
Think I will give them a miss.........
Allan
 
been told by the people who do the crb, that you have to be a school or registered place to get one of them, but you can get a report from your local police station with the same info on for a tenner
 
DiddyDave said:
2 weeks !!!

You're buying into a system - no way on Earth could/should it take 2 weeks training even if you've never held a camera before

My guess is 2-3 days, and a reasonable manual for their recommended set-ups as a grounding in making a saleable image in 2-4 differing lighting conditions; their example images for 'lifestyle' shooting suggest auto exp and snap away, which takes about 10 secs training

I believe Annabel does a start-end Wedding training session in 3 days, though that assumes you can use a camera

DD
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but it also includes business and market training as well dont it?
 
allanm said:
They dont mention a CRB check do they? just ask if you enjoy playing with children.
Think I will give them a miss.........
Allan
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See here about CRB it is getting harder for certain trades to get but other trades are now not needing them.

http://www.dppro.co.uk/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=4&thread_id=184

I already have one, through other work I do.

TBH though it's all a load of ********.

A clean CRB just shows you have not been caught being naughty.
 
also not required if the parents are present anyway:thumbs:
 
allanm said:
They dont mention a CRB check do they? just ask if you enjoy playing with children.
Think I will give them a miss.........
Allan
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They say that all their photographers are CRB checked, but they don't mention that when discussing becoming part of the franchise.

Nice idea, I just don't think it's worth £7.5k, plus they do all the printing, so you'll not make much money there either.

Steve
 
i assume there is a time limit you are signed in for as well, so if the printing editing is rubbish, your gonna be stuck with it for the rest of the contract, if you last that long
 
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