Thinking big
For
my second year in Bedford I found a big local company that would
pay to use it as their own calendar worldwide. That was a really
good move and it completely covered my production costs in Bedford.
Charles Wells, who had brewed in the town for over a century, were
a family-run firm sponsoring a number of local activities and they
bought into the Bedford calendar for a year. They also got one of
their pubs featured in return as we photographed a group of Morris
Men dancing outside The Fox public house in Carlton (see foot of
page). This meant that if I only sold one copy of the Bedford
calendar in 1995 then I would make a profit. Simple!
I also set up a calendar in Milton Keynes. The city has a wonderful camera club with keen and inventive picture takers and so I would never want for attractive images from there. And contrary to impressions at the time (and perhaps even today) there's much more to the area than concrete cows and endless cement tower blocks. Thanks to John Credland, a helpful local cameraman and printer we got Buckingham Colour Press to use the calendar as their own to send to clients. It also meant that I was able to print at a reduced rate and if I could sell 1,200, then I could start making money there.
Finally, I set a calendar up in Luton - and that
was a mistake. It was a mistake for many reasons. I found the
pictures needed easily enough and some of them were really great, I
especially like the cherry blossom scene taken in Stockwood Park
(see below). I also found a good local printer who wanted to use it
as its own, which Filmergraphic Press committed to. However, I
couldn't find a local company keen enough on Luton to use it as
their company calendar. This meant that the amount that I need to
sell to break even was even higher in Luton at 1,500.
I realised as I got to October that
I had probably bitten off more than I could chew. I would need to
sell a huge amount to break even. I was only one person and I
needed to drum up some publicity quickly. I managed to get a
two-minute slot on the local Anglia TV news programme broadcast
after the main news at 6.30pm. Check out this clip..
The publicity worked well for Bedford and enabled me to get WH Smith to stock the calendar in their respective branches in Luton, Milton Keynes and Bedford. This boosted sales but not really profits as the mark down the supplier gets with Smith's is really quite small. In all, Bedford made a profit, Milton Keynes nearly broke even and the Luton & Dunstable one made a massive loss. Well, massive to me anyway. After paying the photographers it amounted to thousands of pounds lost which meant that I couldn't immediately pay the Luton printers and repay a bank loan. I seriously considered going bankrupt but the implications for future borrowing and house ownership were forbidding. So I took the hit and arranged with the printers and bank to pay them back in instalments every month for three years.
I had learnt a few lessons along the
way including don't assume that because an idea works in one area
that the same format will work in another. I was though, hooked on
making the calendars and decided to persevere with Bedford and
Milton Keynes.
For Milton Keynes I stuck with the colour photographs because the quality that came from the photo club members was just superb. You'll see from the images around this text that there are some very gifted people there who can capture both landscapes and seasons. I'm especially indebted to Ian and Anne-Louise Mellor who not only supplied images, they also encouraged me, and sold hundreds of calendars through their clubs, church and schools. And similarly big thanks to Robert and Ruth Meardon who were another husband-and-wife team that had both taste and connections.
The MK Tourist Information staff
were helpful too, and actively talked up the calendar and sold
hundreds each year. And although it is a totally new city, most of
the inhabitants appreciate that its modern purpose-built centre and
oldish haphazard outskirts make for an attractive visual mix. In
1995 I won a six month contract at the BBC Open University (after
several tests and interviews and competition from more than a
hundred applicants) to help write the links that were spoken in
between OU programmes on BBC2 and Radio 4. I sold quite a few more
through contacts there and found love at the BBC too! I met the TV
producer Jenny Bardwell at the Open University and after several
tentative chats at work we had a first date at the Groucho Club in
Soho. I was seduced both by London and Jenny. At the first
opportunity I moved to join her in North London while managing to
keep the MK calendars going till 1999.
For Bedford, I decided that there just weren't sufficient photos of quality to continue with a large colour calendar. However, I had an idea....
