Andy Costes is the founder of
Iris Photographie, an independent Iris Photography shop in Bayonne, Bask Country that has served more than 1,000 customers and pictured 5,000+ iris.
"I lost more than $15,000 from unmet promises with the biggest Iris Photography Franchise.
How? We agreed that I would open my shop under their franchise, but then for months nothing was happening. They let me burn my savings in my shop rent without telling me the truth.
Instead of working with multiple passionated people, they signed a huge business deal and granted the exclusivity over the entire french territory to a couple. It is this couple that told me that I was never going to open my Iris Photography shop. They said that my city and its 50,000 inhabitants was too small to run this business anyway.
The reality was that they wanted to have the monopoly, and all the money.
Did I gave up?
Hell no! I loved way too much the concept. After the call with the franchised couple, I dedicated my days and nights. Worked like crazy, travelled across Europe to meet independent Iris Photographers. I finally tested myself many photography and lighting systems. I learnt how to use Photoshop and Lightroom and spent countless hours bettering myself to create the results we have today.
On December 11th 2021, after 8 months of ups and downs, I finally launched my own independent shop:
Iris Photographie.
In the first 3 weeks, I made 10,000€ in sales and got incredibly good feedbacks from my customers. From that point, I improved everything on my system and in my shop. I hired a full time employee to run the shop while I now dedicate my time to my new mission: make Iris Photography an accessible business to everyone who loves the concept, and empower photographers to stand against franchises.
No need to pay them $50K+, I teach you everything they know for a fraction of what they ask."