Idea #1 - "There is no listing for that company"

Michael St Germain, Concord Camera, Concord, NH (www.concordcamera.com)

   If you have recently changed telephone carriers, it is wise to check and make sure your new service provider has carried over your phone number to directory assistance.
   It seems that not all service providers complete the paper work to make sure your telephone number is in the directory assistance system. The directory system provider does not have to carry over your number unless the new provider requests the service.
   We were lucky enough to have a customer inform us that our number was not available through the directory assistance provider, Verizon, in our area. A simple phone call to our new provider corrected the problem in 48 hours.
   The fact that you advertise in their yellow pages doesn't count and has no meaning to the people who provide directory assistance "service". I use that word loosely.

Idea #2 - Driving Digital Images

Chris Lydle, Chris' Camera Center, Aiken, SC (www.chriscamera.com)

   I'm putting the finishing touches on a handout entitled "Making Great Prints from your Digital Camera," which is intended to help consumers do what the title says - and to convince them that we can do it better and cheaper.
   The objectives are twofold: I want my camera customers to get good prints from their home computers. After they've had their fun and wasted a few months trying to get one really good print, I want them to really read the last paragraph, which is quoted here in its entirety:
   "When you want the best prints possible - save time & money!
   "You can get true photographic prints from those same digital pictures. Just bring your photos to us, on your camera's memory card, a floppy disk or a CD. We'll make beautiful prints made on photographic paper. They'll last longer, look better, and probably cost less than the total cost of doing it yourself. And you'll save a lot of time."

   Editor's note: you can see Chris' new handout here

Idea #3 - Pricing Observations from Bill McCurry Associates

   The quickest way to increase short term margin is to raise your prices. The quickest way to go out of business is to irrationally lower your prices. Pricing is mostly an art, not a science. The only part of pricing that is science is the impact of pricing below your costs . . . that result is disaster - no art there.
   There are many who are lamenting the wide variety of formats now available - our customers bring in 35mm along with the occasional 126, 110 or 120 for printing. And we hope they bring in smart media card, floppy disk, memory stick, compact flash, microdrive, zip disk, etc. There is confusion in the marketplace - and confusion leads to a pricing opportunity.
   Always set your price based on the value to the customer. Never, never, never ever base pricing solely on your cost. What it costs you is irrelevant to the value the customer receives. Price based on customer perceived value. If you're the only lab in 50 miles that will make digital prints in an hour from microdrives that has greater value to a microdrive owner than if there are 50 labs within one mile who can handle that format.
   Last fall George Champagne (now PMA President) said today's labs have to set aside 15% of every retail finishing dollar for equipment replacement. Does your pricing allow you to do that? Is your digital equipment warranty getting ready to expire and the new warranty payment larger than your house payment?
   Today! Evaluate your pricing to see where you can generate the additional margin dollars needed to sustain your operation profitably. Your financial health depends on it.