As we sail gently past our first year in business, it seems timely to pen a few words of appreciation and share some thoughts about our ideas for the future. Although we have only been in business a very short time, we are constantly examining our business model and looking for ways to fine tune it for the benefit of as many people as possible. We juggle continuously with myriad issues and prudent revisions to the way we work.
We are committed to keeping our group sizes at ten (although there have been a couple of exceptions - classroom-based workshops for example), so for that reason alone, our prices are always going to be significantly higher than if we were taking 15 people
Many of you will know, through frustrating first-hand experience, that we are currently in the extraordinarily fortunate position of having our tours sell out in hours. Sometimes minutes - Giverny was a record three-quarters of an hour. As I type, our recently launched Creative Growth tour to Tuscany has filled up in a couple of hours, despite the high price point. However, we also wish to provide tours that are affordable to as many people as possible.
We both think it is important to offer clients as much choice as possible - not everybody has the means nor, indeed, the desire to stay in a Michelangelo-designed villa just outside of Florence and so for that reason we offer a tour with a similar structure to Tuscany in the Cairngorms, which is almost 50% cheaper. The content is virtually identical however there are (unfortunately) considerably fewer vineyards.
Managing costs, locations, accommodation (not to mention our carbon footprint – more of that below) is but one part of the equation. Obviously, all this counts for naught if the content isn’t there. The most rewarding change we have put in place in recent months is the introduction of our Creative Growth program. It has become apparent that people desperately need to develop as artists and simply setting forth with a fistful of techniques is only (a very small) part of the equation. Classroom-based photography workshops are not the norm in the UK, but we believe that discussion and interaction is crucial to the development of ideas and direction and it is this that we hope to facilitate with these tours.
Comments
Leave a Comment
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.