Sandrians triumphs over Hurricane Irene

PRO Convention words of wisdom

September 1, 2011

Hello -

You can buzz your profits to a higher level harvesting ideas from this week's DIMAcast. We return to the PRO Convention listening to PRO members' Brain Buzzes, short quick ideas to get your mind in high gear to add dollars to your bottom line.

Leo Calagaz (Calagaz Photo and Digital Imaging, Mobile, AL) reveals new direct mail money saving idea and a new revenue stream with poster printing.

Peter Sandrian (Sandrian Camera Shops, Morristown, NJ) has found services that get superb advertising results in weekly suburban newspapers. Gary Pageau (PMA, Jackson, MI) and Mark Comon (Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) tell the success story how CliQ grew traffic of new customers for Paul's Photo.

Ethan Allen (Allen's Camera, Orem, UT) talks about pricing strategies.

Jessica Sarber (Sarber's Camera, Montclair, CA) challenges us with her ideas to be more effective with email marketing.

Bob Dolajak (Bob's Photo, Bismarck, ND) and team have made spring services sales better in the digital age than they were with all the rolls of vacation pictures they used to process.

Mike Mitchell (WB Hunt, Melrose, MA) adds excitement to in store conversations while boosting sales of unique products and building superb gross margins.

All in this week's episode where you can hear it or read the transcript (with illustrations) at www.DIMAcast.com

Idea #1 - Beating the hurricane blues

Last Friday afternoon most of the US East Coast was worried about Irene coming to visit. Peter Sandrian (Sandrian Camera Shop - Morristown and Clinton, NJ) saw a silver lining in the very black cloud. At 5:15pm Friday night he sent out a "Hurricane Sale" to everyone on his email list . . .

Subject: Hurricane Sale - Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Fuji, Promaster,Tamron - SATURDAY ONLY

By Saturday afternoon he had done more total sales dollars by 37% than the average of the prior Saturdays in August. His gross margin dollars were up 6%. His comment, "It was fun to see the hardware going out and people coming in regardless of the rain. Without the sale we would have had virtually zero business that day. It helped moved some merchandise, generated some cash, built some customer relationships and helped us get a little ahead before being closed for 2-4 days due to power, water, etc. from Irene."

While it's not a scientific study - it would appear about half the small businesses in New Jersey and surrounding states were still closed or in only partial operation by Wednesday morning - there are "boil water" orders in many areas. Many bridges are still impassable and numerous rivers are receding but still not enough to open all roads. Our hearts go out to those who are trying to build their business despite no internet, no phones and no power. The passion of small businesses to survive regardless of the circumstances is remarkable. We salute you!

Idea # 2 - It doesn't cost much to start making video transfer dollars

Paige Lewis - Chris' Camera Center - Aiken, SC - web site

We've been doing lots of video tape to DVD copies - enough that there are times when all the equipment is running at once. Chris bought us a Sony VRD-MR6 DVD recorder, refurbished, from Tiger Direct for a whopping $99. Used with almost any type of camera it makes a nice little system by itself. There's a built-in LCD monitor so all you need is some cables and a source player.

I was amazed to find out how much it could do and what a nice product it turned out. It gives the customer a nicer menu than our other system. It can record in either high-quality standard play mode, with a maximum record time of 90 minutes, or "standard play" at 120 minutes.

If a customer brings in a hard-drive video camera, we just plug in the appropriate cable. Put a blank DVD in the Sony. The Sony first checks the disk then brings you to a menu selection screen. If you're doing a dupe select "video>DVD". You are asked to select the media source.

There are lots of input options: USB, Memory Stick, SD or xD cards, DV, but mostly we use the video in cables. We'll attach a customer's hard drive camera using either line input cords or firewire, depending on what the camera uses. We have an old Sony Hi-8mm video camcorder. Lots of consumers have 8mm tapes that they haven't seen in years because their camera died.

Once the VRD-MR6 is ready to record it will display a blue screen. Then just hit "play" on the camcorder and "record" on the VRD-MR6.

When the recording is complete push "return" to take you to the menu. Go to set up and finalize.

Put it into a 14 cent DVD case, add a nice markup and you're good to go.

Note - the Sony does not stop automatically when the DVD is full - you'll want a good timer with a buzzer to complete your "video transfer department." Maybe a Gralab 300 from your old darkroom!

Calendar of Industry Events

September 1, 2011 - Prices for convention registration go up -

The rest of the calendar is now in one fixed location at our master calendar where we'll add new events as soon as we have the info, with tested links to new and old announcements.

Your colleagues may also get the newsletter free in exchange for submitting ideas. Give them this link to sign up but remind them they have to share: http://photoimagenews.com/mccurry.htm

Please Enjoy, Consider and Profit from these ideas.

All the Best,

Bill

William J. McCurry, Chairman

McCurry Associates

email: editor@mccurryassoc.com

web: http://www.mccurryassoc.com

Issue 409 - September 1, 2011