How To Run A Modelling Agency

Have you ever wondered how the advertising agencies, newspaper houses and magazine publishers get those beautiful and elegant-looking ‘girls’ (ladies) and handsome boys (gentlemen) with which the covers and inside pages of their publications are adorned? Are you one of those who write them off as useless or prostitutes? No, many of them are practising their vocations. 

The aim of using them is to attract and arrest the attention of the readers and watchers with a view to helping to extol the virtues of the products being advertised, and so help them to sell. You can and always do see these smiling beautiful faces in calendars, billboards, television commercials, etc, all extolling the beauty, efficacy and usefulness of the products they are advertising by adding beauty, colour, excitement and invitation to use or buy the idea of using the products they advertise.

What a lot of people do not know about each of these people (they are called models) is that they are earning money for each pose for a picture or participation in a commercial, and that many of them may be doing it part-time. This means then that they are earning extra income to augment their regular pay from their employment. For each selected shot snapped of them, for each short commercial drama participated in, for each catwalk or glide across the tennis court with a tennis racquet and charming smiles unleashed for a few seconds, for each... a handsome amount of money will change hands from those who are organising the advertisement programme to the pockets of those models themselves or to the entrepreneurs who provide the services of these models. So, you can make a lot of money spare-time or full-time modelling or providing the models for those who need their services.

Who needs models?

The main people who need the services of models are:

•television stations,

•the in-house advertising departments of some big companies,

•advertising agencies that design and place advertisements on behalf of their clients,

•fashion houses who want to promote their wares, professional artists, etc.

Getting started 

To start an agency to provide models for the market in the last paragraph, you need to do the following:

•procure an office space in a good environment in an urban area where there are many   advertising agencies to patronise your services.

•install functional telephone line(s)

•carry out some advertisements for people to know of your services

•leverage your contacts, old or new, in the above-mentioned industrial sub-sectors, etc.

•scout around for discovered and undiscovered beauties with curvaceous figure eight and captivating elegant poise.

It will also pay you to notify your potential clients (the advertising agencies, TV stations, fashion houses, fine artists, etc) of your intention to go into the business with a view to determining their actual and potential needs, when the needs will arise, other useful bits of information and advice, etc.

Scouting for the models

Having done the above, you must ensure that you provide good quality service to your clients. Ensure that you provide also well groomed, tested and experienced models to service your needs and satisfy your customers’ demand. This you can do by putting up a few well-crafted classified advertisements in the newspapers and you will be inundated with a lot of the potential and current models especially those in tertiary institutions who would like to flaunt their vital statistics and show off their beauty. Many of them, in order to impress it upon you that they have got what it takes and to curry favour will even, without being asked, be glad to send in their recent photographs. The choice will then be yours.

Shortlist and select the models

After you have received the applications or responses from interested models, shortlist those you would want to deal further with and invite them for a chat and demonstrations. Select those you feel meet your requirements and target market. For those who do not currently meet your demands perhaps due to lack of experience or exposure, but who have great potentials, you can pick and brush them up to meet your standards. They will be glad and appreciative of the help. Nobody becomes a star or acquires good experience overnight; each usually takes years of continuous training and hard work.

Train the models

The selected models will now be trained by you to fit your corporate thrust, vision, goal or standards. If you do not have experience in this area, seek out and employ a professional who will do it either on permanent or part-time basis. Whatever you pay him or her is a legitimate cost incurred in doing business and so should not be regretted. Never ever try to compromise on quality. Go for it, pay for it and you will reap the rewards of it.

Where to get trainers

Sources of modelling trainers are those who have worked and/or are still working and have acquired considerable experience in advertising agencies. Others are those who have run or are still running modelling agencies, those naturally talented in modelling, models themselves, etc. Each will be glad to assist you for a reasonable fee.

Types of model

There are several types of models and various forms of modelling. Each type has a variety of “looks,” so there is a demand for a multitude of different looks and types of models. However there are certain basic requirements.

A high fashion photographer’s model must be at least 5’ 8’’ or more tall. She must be picturesque – this does not really mean, “born beautiful,” rather, very photogenic and possessing the ability to “play” up to the camera, to give the feeling or expression of what the client or product needs. Many high fashion models are known not so much for “their beauty”, but for the image they create in front of the camera. While there are the requirements of height, weight and body proportions, successful models develop a special chic that model agencies like. Sometimes, a good model agency will help you in developing your “look.” Get a camera out, study the magazines and see what “look” you have or can create. Keep the pictures simple.

 

A “commercial” model (usually, but not always, from a different kind of agency) who can “run up and down on a beach in a TV commercial clutching a Coca-Cola bottle, does not have to be very tall necessarily, but must have a good personality and be able to project it in order to sell the product. Such a model might also be used in the product’s print advertisements as well. There are some “fashion” agencies that also have a “commercial” division and some models can overlap in both areas.

A “runway model” can be quite famous, but most often not, and they are handled by still another type of agency. A “high-fashion” agency sometimes has models that can do runway work for special events, usually to tie the fashion show model in with the print advertisements for the same client. These “fashion-runway” models have many different looks. They are successful because of their ability to “do the walk” with flair, grace and confidence, as well as, of course, to fit the clothes of the designer they are working for. Some runway models work exclusively for a runway model agency or for only one designer.

There is big business for the “average-every-day person model.” There are agencies that handle only “every-day people” types for print advertisements and TV commercials for clients who want to reach a specific market. They don’t want the high fashion model look at all. This type of model can be any age, any size and any look. But there must be a “fit,” with the product if you know what that means! You have seen the magazines and TV commercials filled with the “real person” look.

Don’t underestimate the money this type model can make either!

There are a few specialty type models, too, such as, hand models, feet and legs. There are very few specialty models, though, as most of the time a model within the agency can fill the bill for the client. But there is hardly ever a fashion model that has small hands for hand modelling. So this agency will have one great hand model who takes very good care of her hands or she is out! And, the good news is that all types of modelling can make good money. One type may be more glamorous than another, but that does not mean it makes more money at it than some of the more obscure ones.

Your earnings

 The aim of training the models is to turn them into very good models that will be in hot demand in the market. The higher the demand for them, the more they earn and the more money you will make in the business. Nobody displaying a beautiful but non-functioning or malfunctioning product expects to sell and make profit. The models must be appealing, ravishing in beauty, know their onions and be able to command high commercial value.

What each earns depends on the prevailing rate in the advertising industry, the calibre of the model, your ability to negotiate profitably, etc. Those who are young e.g. juveniles earn less than the much more mature, experienced and highly sought-after ones. e.g. personalities. You as an entrepreneur (i.e. your agency) will earn a percentage of the fees paid to the models. This is usually in the neighbourhood of 20 percent. The harder you work, the more high-income models you will place in the market and the more money you will earn.

How viable is this modelling agency venture?

There is quite a lot of money to be made by establishing and running a model agency. You will be glad to go into it as there is always enough room for hardworking and innovative new entrants in the modelling agency business. You will certainly make decent living from it. In addition, you will be able to knock up a network of friends and future business partners.