Recent advances in microscopy imaging and image analysis motivate more and more institutes worldwide to establish dedicated core-facilities for bioimage analysis. To maximise the benefits research groups at these institutes gain from their core-facilities, they should be established to fit well into their respective environment. In this article, we introduce common collaborator requests and corresponding potential services core-facilities can offer. We also discuss potential competing interests between the targeted missions and implementations of services to guide decision makers and core-facility founders to circumvent common pitfalls.