New Websites

We currently have five different websites. www.barrettandcoe.co.uk for Wedding and Portrait Courses, for the Barrett and Coe franchise www.barrettandcoefranchise.co.uk www.barrettandcoeweddings.co.uk for weddings, www.barrettandcoeportraits.co.uk for portraits, and www.portraitleads.co.uk for independent photographers wishing to use our portrait booking and leads service.

We are busy completely revamping the wedding and the portrait sites. The portrait site should go live at the end of next week. Over the next couple of months we will be using this site to advertise national coverage of the UK through our franchisees and elite Barrett and Coe recommended and approved studios. These studios will fill the areas where we do not have a franchisee. Only those independent studios attaining our exacting requirements for quality and service will become 'recommended and approved'.

A small number of select studios will be invited to join next week prior to the official launch at the SWPP Conventions 2012 in January where David MacDonald will be giving a presentation/seminar on each of the three days. It is possible to call now on 01603 629 739 to book your place on any of the three days.

Places are limited to 40 each day so it would be wise to reserve your place for the most exciting photographic event in 2012. At the show Elaine Shephard (marketing), Glenn Hoy (telemarketing) and myself (career and business consultation) will be available to book for 30 minute free sessions. These sessions can also be booked in advance by calling 01603 629 739.

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Ex-student success

Posted this morning on the Barrett & Coe Facebook group by one of our ex students:

"Two family viewings this evening, first one mum, dad and livewire 4 year old - at the start of the shoot the mum was adamant she wanted to be in as few pictures as possible. £870 spent :) Second one, 3 generations, only 3 of the family came back for the viewing but couldn't stop spending... £2910 spent :) :) Just blown my highest order value and highest monthly totals completely out of the water!!"

For more information on our Photography courses please call 01603 629 739 or visit our website

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Winners

At our last course weekend students were shown how to select images for qualifications and awards by reference to the CLEPS scoring system. Images are assessed seperately in the five categories:

Composition
Lighting
Expression
Posing
Space

During this session a number of images are judged after animated discussion and exchange of opinions. Students scoring closest to our tutors win Loxleys vouchers! This makes for a competitive enjoyable couple of hours.

Joint 1st - Maggie Clothier - Winner of £50 voucher

Joint 1st - Bernie Ramsay - Winner of £50 of voucher

3rd - Mark Adams - Winner of £30 voucher

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Next courses

Our next courses begin in January and places are filling up fast. We are getting as many as four/five enquiries a day and in many instances I speak to the people enquiring on the phone, or some come and visit and look around our extensive facilities. It is always interesting listening to the many different reasons that people give to begin professional portrait/wedding photography. Today I had a call from a lady who owns a dog grooming parlour and is often asked for portraits of the dogs! She has the space to take pictures on her premises and to add family portraits as well. What a good combination!Last week was another record sales week for those of our ex-students with studios. One achieved sales in excess of £7000 in just one week! There seems to be no shortage of customers with many continuing to make large orders.

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Super Group

Last Friday and Saturday were our Seminars 3 and 4 for the Portrait and Wedding course 2 and on Sunday Seminar 5 for our Course 1.

Before the Saturday seminar began the Portrait course were given a tour round David Macdonald's studio by David before he started a very busy schedule of family sittings.  Course members found this hour inspirational.

Below is a picture of some of the students from this group which is proving to be one of the best and most receptive we have ever had! I am sure many of this group will be running their own succesful wedding and portrait studios by this time next year.

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Quadruple sales

This email was received from one of our part time studios yesterday:
"Dear Elaine & David

I just wanted to write and say a massive thankyou to you both for all the help and advice you have given me over the last couple of months, especially when I was struggling with sales and viewings in October. I have changed a few things around in the studio and adjusted my viewing process and things really feel like they are working well at the moment (I'm waiting for the bubble to burst but hoping that it won't). This has resulted in a couple of really great weeks in the studio and in the fact this week alone I have had sales over £4k (which is more than I took in some entire months in 2010!)."

David and Elaine meet with all photographers once every two months in small groups at Ware covering everything from photography, to sales and increasing profits.  Probably the best team in the UK giving support and assistance to photographers.

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Kodak

Once Kodak was one of the biggest companies in the world. They are now reported to be close to going into the American version of administration Their success was built on global sales of film, but in the early nineties they did not put their resources behind research and development of digital technology, preferring instead to please their shareholders with increasing short term profits.

Typical of our western culture.

In the mid eighties they paid us £450,000 for less than 40% of our company which had 35 wedding and portrait studios, all with one hour mini labs attached. We were in some prime high street locations including Nottingham, Cambridge, Leeds etc. When we sold the remaining shares a few years later most locations became the first Kodak Express or Snappy Snaps shops.

Unwisely all the studios were dropped as one hour processing became the fashion. Moral of the story: Build slowly and surely and beware of short term strategies. The Chinese plan ahead for thirty years whilst Europe can't see further than the next month!

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Busy studios

Most of our studios are fully booked through to Christmas which has been the case for a couple of weeks. As we appear to be in the midst of a recession this is very encouraging.Our new partnerships with The National Childbirth Trust and Parent Teacher Associations UK are proving very succesful and marvelous organisations. A proportion of any monies spent with a studio goes back to them.

They have not appointed National Partners before so this is a very exciting new initiative for the photography Market.

We began working with NCT in July and have received some amazing feedback from their members.'Very impressed with the quality of experience, professionalism, and Ian took time and effort to make sure we were totally happy with our photos. We were delighted with the final selections.

We have no hesitation in recommending to any of our friends or contacts.'this is the true Barret and Coe experience:'Fantastic photography... By Very Nice People'

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September Baby of the Month

September Baby of the Month has been chosen. A selection of images and winning photo, taken by ex student Jenny Baxter (who runs a Barrett & Coe studio in Oxford) are shown below:

Baby of the Month - Winner

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Kim Kardashian will be a Wedding Organizer Soo

The wedding ceremony of the American actress, model and socialite Kim Kardashian with a basketball player from New Jersey Nets Chris Humphreys was one of the key secular events this year.

In his triumph, Kim literally put his heart and soul daily for a few months she went to the salon Vera Wang fitting to wedding dresses , met with florists, stylists, agree on a wedding photo and video.

Despite the many troubles, pre-wedding stress is not touched by Kim Kardashian  , on the contrary, she got the unspoken pleasure from the process of training and decided to continue to help other brides to organize important day in their lives.

"In my head a lot of great ideas, Kim, so she plans to create a company that will deal with weddings famous people" - shared plans for an ambitious Kardashian one of her friends.

 Well, entrepreneurial abilities, Kim can not be doubted: for example, on your wedding Kim Kardashian earned a total of about $ 18 million, and now she successfully negotiates participation in promotions of clothing and products for pregnant women in an amount not less than $ 10 million.

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