Thanks for the info. I really need to know how this woman's business
works and aside from just discussing it with her, don't know where else
to go. I don't need any info on design or construction. I guess I
just need to know if it looks like this can be a profitable business
and I dont know where to find that out. Do you think the book you
mentioned would help? I know this business doesnt rent to film
companies. It sounds like she does some small theatre productions,
lots of Halloween, Renaissance, weddings--the full gamut. The one
thing that is making it intriguing is that it is in a beautifully
scenic location, but that could be a drawback too because of the small
town nature of the place. Apparently she has done very well in the
business over the years. Is there any way to find out what her profits
have been? Can I see her tax records? You can see I'm very green
about business matters.
On Jul 2, 2006, at 2:32 PM, Lavolta Press wrote:
Someone asked me the title of the book I read on film costuming. It's
_Costume Design 101_, by Richard LaMotte, a guy with about 30 years of
experience in the Hollywood costume business. There is, as I said
before, a great deal of information in this book about how the film
costuming profession works, and very little about how to design or
build costumes. Then again, there are many other books on the latter.
This book might help you/Sylvia to see the rental business from the
other end--how film companies use costumes and what they want out of a
rental business.
We've sold a lot of books to costume rental businesses. As far as I
can tell, aside from any filming that may be done locally--and in many
localities this is probably not very much or very often--they rent to
theater companies, professional, semi-professional, and school; and
also to individuals for theme weddings, murder mystery parties,
Halloween, and any other event anyone might want a costume for. Some
of them even stock costumes for people who want them for their sex
lives--French maid costumes and so on.
Whoever is rented to, I gather there is a lot of loss and damage.
I've been told that for every rental you need a standard contract that
makes the renter pay in full for all loss and damage, including total
replacement if necessary; and you need to be the one who legally
evaluates what has gone wrong and how much to charge for it.
Frankly I would not advise getting into any business at all until you
know a great deal about how that kind of business works.
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
Sylvia Rognstad wrote:
I just heard about an opportunity to buy a costume business and
recalled that someone of one of these lists was discussing such a
prospect that came up in Denver, CO.
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