Hey Pixel,

Good job on your tour mate the images look great.

Not a fan of the mirror ball myself and people (stupid people) ask why they are there and what are they for! I also feel some subtle viewer hotspots would help people with orientation when navigating your tour. (not gordy big bright colorful shockers. Small opaque stylish hotspots would help.)

Good luck with your venture, I say crack that whip and get her on the job. If she's anything like mine your on a winner.

Regards, Smooth

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Quote: Originally posted by 360texas on August-11-2008

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Hi Pixelator, do you still have your day job in the aircraft industry ?

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Still at the day job with the airplanes
It is a pretty good gig as it gives me time to go shoot in the mornings then when arriving home in the evening off load, stitch and upload.

Quote: Originally posted by 360texas on August-11-2008

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Hi, Pixelator,

Just was looking at your pricing page and milage rates

"360 Virtuals requires a deposit that is based on the location of the tour to be shot and is due at the time of the shoot."   Is this to pay for transport expenses?

If you are a business and report business income as 'Self Employment' then you probably already know that the IRS allows business milage at about 48 +/- cents per mile that can be written off as expense. Just keep a project odometer reading out/ back.

Of course you have to have income before you can write it off as expense.

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Dave, I will changing this within the next couple of days. My wife is preparing an excel spread sheet for mileage in and out. The reasoning behind the deposit is that once upon a time I drove 30-40 miles to do a shoot. I started the process of offloading and preparing the images that evening when I received a phone call from the realtor saying the home was under contract and no need for the tour. I am thinking that my deposit will be a straight forward $100.00 or so no matter the distance. Of course any ideas and help are appreciated.

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Quote: Originally posted by prb16 on August-11-2008

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Hello Pixel,

On your opening page the text block to the right, you are using bullet marks. These are not displaying correctly in Fire Fox 3 which I am using. The bullet marks are appearing down the middle instead of to the left.

Just thought I would mention it.

Paul.

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I am removing all the bullets on all pages. Will be adding something about sales dept. and contact for sales.

Got to love all the browsers. I use firefox but have not updated to 3 just yet. Looks fine in firefox's 2.x version.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Quote: Originally posted by smooth on August-11-2008

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Hey Pixel,

Good job on your tour mate the images look great.

Not a fan of the mirror ball myself and people (stupid people) ask why they are there and what are they for! I also feel some subtle viewer hotspots would help people with orientation when navigating your tour. (not gordy big bright colorful shockers. Small opaque stylish hotspots would help.)

Good luck with your venture, I say crack that whip and get her on the job. If she's anything like mine your on a winner.

Regards, Smooth

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Thanks for the comments Smooth! Used the mirror ball technique instead of my 360 logo hoping it gave it a fancy look, if that makes any sense???

Will add hotspot (my 0 from the 360 of my logo) drop the transparency a bit. I am waiting for my home builder to send a floor plan to add as well to use as a map with radar.

If any one is cracking it's her. Today I have to put things together for business cards, flyers and update website. Pretty lucky guys we are

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Ah  ok it is not for milage is a deposit.

We shoot 5 minimum for $1,000.   Required 30% deposit NO REFUND and balance due upon clients review and final approval.

To keep folks from 'fishing for a price' might up that percentage to 50% NO refund.

Keep it simple.  Keeps the folks from last minute cancellation, knowing they will loose 50% IF THEY CANCEL  a signed purchase order.  I usually send the MS word Purchase order to them,  then they sign and fax back.

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/s/
Dave
Forum Moderator for
EasyPano - Panoweaver
Pano2VR


Visit 360texas.com

Ah the pleasures of starting a real business, need to send the wife out to purchase a fax machine

I've actually thought about creating a .pdf file that they fill out with their selections. Example would be;

check those that apply:
full 360
limited view (no ceiling or floor)

capping the tri-pod:
personalized
mirror ball
match flooring

etc.

Then once they fill out the file, print and bring to shoot with say %30 non refundable deposit.

Any ideas or suggestions to this greatly appreciated. Also Dave if you do not mind me asking, are you staying busy with prices set at $200.00 per pano?

Thanks again guys, this info is really helping us out. We have the paper work ready to go for an LLC as duel partnership as well. This has merely been a side gig for me and have not really pursued the potential. If I received a request to do a pano once every couple of weeks that was fine, if not fine too. Now that we really need the income I am getting more serious about how to do things as well as speed up the process while putting forth quality work.

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On the subject of running a business, mileage is actually a 50.5cent per mile deduction this year in the states - I heard they maybe adjusting that to 58.5 to account for the high gas prices as well. If you will be making over 50,000 a year you really should consider S-corp (if not done already) to shield yourself from fica taxes on 50% of your income... That is going to amount to about a $3000 savings for me this year. If you do incorporate, save yourself the stress and headache and hire an accountant for bookkeeping and advice and to make sure everything is filed properly - Starting out that should cost less than $100/month... Don't let all the little stuff pile up on you and surprise you at the end of the year.

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Will Best
Virtual Impressions Inc.
Real Estate Virtual Tours and Floor Plans

I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone. I will need a lot of tips and advice. This is a whole new world for me. As most of you know from Pixel's post I have been in the banking industry for over 13 years now and am looking forward to a fresh new start in the pano world. Pixel is the creative one in the family and I am the numbers person. I am very excited to see what we can do as a team. If anyone has any sales techniques or business advice please pass it along. I will need all the help I can get! I am looking forward to hearing from you. This is my first time on the forum, actually on any forum. Scary!

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360virtuals.com

Welcome to the forum Mrs. Pixel. Having seen some of Mr. Pixel's work I believe he works with Realtors a lot. One way to market your product is to go on Realtor.com pull-up the area you want to work in and look at the homes that don't have a tour and you think will benefit from a tour. Call these Realtor's and try to get in with the high dollar group. You can also talk with the builders and show your product and have them require their Realtor provide a tour. You can also work that angle for new subdivisions. If one agent or agency has the whole subdivision listed then you can work a deal with them.

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Nikon D300, D3s, Nikon 10.5 lens, RingT105N+Footplate+MrotatorTCPs, Giottos MT9261 Tripod, Manfrotto 410 Jr geared head.

If you know the "secret" then everyday is a good day!

Mrs. Pixel, welcome.
Ive just send you a mail thru the contact form from your homepage.

Regards, Martin

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