The Photofinishing Industry Faces Significant

Today, the photofinishing industry faces significant, but not insurmountable hurdles. Not only are we in the midst of a major industry transition to personal publishing, or as I like to call it, ‘social picturing,’ but at the same time we are in the midst of a challenging international economic environment. While the headlines paint a grim picture for businesses large and small alike, the New Year also brings new possibilities and new resolve. Like most of you, in college I was forced to study all kinds of useless stuff. Something from those studies has been running through my mind lately. It is a quote from the British poet Anne Bradstreet. She said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Together, let’s welcome that prosperity. I for one am sick of the adversity. Here are my ideas for 2009. 1. Increase creative sales. Did you realize that in 2008, ninety percent of orders were non-creative and 10 percent were creative? And the average non-creative sale was $17 while the average creative order was $37? Clearly, creative is how we will get back to prosperity. In 2009, the industry should strive to move creative orders from 10 percent to 15 percent. Creative is not only more profitable, it’s what consumers want. With the digital revolution, consumers have gained greater control over their personal content, including pictures. The photo book has gained traction, but consumers are quick learners and soon they’ll be looking beyond the photo book for new creative products to use to express themselves and share their memories. If you’re not already on board the creative train, it’s time to get an express ticket. Give me a call. 2. Push the personal publishing revolution forward. In the 80’s, the industry experienced the minilab revolution as retailers shifted to 1-hour photo. Today, we’re in the middle of a revolution to the brave new world of social picturing. Consumers no longer walk in and out of your store simply dropping off rolls of film. They are exploring the plethora of new in-store and online possibilities and many of them are looking to you for guidance. Be prepared to walk them through the Long Tail of personal publishing. Need help? Give me a call or visit www.Lucidiom.com. 3. Focus on the consumer, not the technology. Photo finishing at retail has been going through a shift for some time. The consumer used to spend about 5 minutes in your store for every roll of film. With digital they started spending more time; the kiosk became a vital tool for your success. The trend has been to find the best technology in all sectors, massage it to meet your needs, and then find more technology. This is the year that needs to shift. The focus needs to be on the customer not the technology. How can you help her find what she is looking for? How can you help him express how he feels? How can you help your customer explore the possibilities of social picturing? It’s also more important now to find a technology partner you can trust so you can forget about technology. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” as they say in the Wizard of Oz. Focus instead on your customers, marketing and the amount of your average sale (reminder – creative orders have a higher average sale!). 4. Focus on the up-sell. The most difficult thing to do in running your business is to attract new customers. Customer retention and up selling are much more lucrative in the short run. Since attracting customers will be tougher this year, bundling and up-selling will play important roles in maximizing the sale. Don’t just promote folded cards; show your customers how they can create a complete set of event stationery from that favorite photo or set of photos. If they’ve come in to create a personalized birthday party invitation, encourage them to add custom photo wrapping paper, a poster to hang at the party, customized party favors and thank you notes to send out afterwards. 5. Invest smart. The fight or flight instinct certainly comes out during tough economic times and while it might be tempting to flee or hibernate, now is not the time to stop moving forward. I am not saying you need to invest like you did in the past. If you used to spend $150,000 on new technology every year, just don’t take the budget to zero. Find out what is really important to your customers, then figure out if there are smart investments that can pay off this year. If you don’t invest in the future at all, you’ll come out weaker than you started. Invest wisely and you’ll come out stronger. Drive through it and most of all market into it. Your brand is vital to your success. Let your customers know that you are still moving forward and are bringing their stories to life at your store.

Noritsu America Corporation and Lucidiom Inc.

Noritsu America Corporation and Lucidiom Inc. recently announced a letter of intent signaling the first step in Noritsu's official acquisition of Lucidiom. The announcement came the day before PMA 2009 opened, so throughout the show the Noritsu and Lucidiom booths were buzzing with questions from attendees, press and customers. In case I missed you at the show, here's what the pending deal means for you. Most simply put, Lucidiom will stay Lucidiom. This means we will stay the course as the industry's most open, flexible and brand agnostic imaging solutions provider. Although we'll be part of Noritsu once the deal is finalized later this spring, Lucidiom will continue to develop our full product line and will continue to support third party printers and other equipment. More than 55,000 Lucidiom APM licenses are deployed worldwide and we realize we've achieved this level of success in 8 years largely because of our willingness to work with each and every customer to find just the right solution for their particular business. We remain committed to these company ideals. The Lucidiom team will remain intact as well, so the only noticeable change for our customers will be the expanded offerings, service and support made possible by our new affiliation with respected global leader Noritsu. Becoming part of Noritsu will allow us to deliver our company's award-winning technology beyond where we could have taken it solo. We're bullish about the possibilities now before us. We at Lucidiom have always prided ourselves on pushing the industry forward - first with offering enlargements alongside standard print sizes, then with the “Beyond 4x6” Long Tail revolution and now with social picturing. Consumers have turned the imaging experience into a social phenomenon via the Internet and Lucidiom is busy building money-making technologies to help photofinishers capitalize on the experience. Our latest photo kiosk software, APM version 7.0, is one such technology. This latest award-winning software version, which we demonstrated at PMA 2009, features connectivity between the kiosk and the customer's Photo Finale Web account. From the kiosk, consumers now can upload photos to or download photos from, a Photo Finale account. As well, we have added an enhanced product finder and a helping hand for retailers in tough economic times - a unique up-sell engine at the end of each kiosk order that suggests complementary products. But my favorite new feature is our new RSS feed. This means the customer updates his photos on Photo Finale Web, and any RSS device, like an iPhone, Facebook or even a digital picture frame, picks up that live link and shows the new photos. The best part about this for the retailer is a little Order button under each photo, that will link back to your PF site for easy ordering. This type of full circle access for customer and retailer alike is the key to the industry's success going forward and we're proud to be at the forefront of it all. We're the same smart technology company with the same people, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for the business of printing emotions. Lucidiom's EQ (emotional quotient) remains our customers. We will continue to deliver the industry's best in-store and online imaging solutions so that you don't have to think twice about the technology driving your business. We understand your EQ is your own customers. So go get 'em - we've got your technology covered.

Publish Photos Instantly

Move over sliced bread - there's a new best thing in town. Sharing pictures without having to do any work! Picture this: A grandfather is receiving an email on his mobile phone right now that includes the latest photos of his grandson. A grandmother is sitting in her living room and notices that her WiFi picture frame just refreshed with new photos of her daughter and grandkids. A mom just uploaded photos and the dad sees them instantly in his Outlook inbox. Sound interesting? It's reality with Lucidiom's new RSS photo feeds on Photo Finale Web. When customers visit a retailer's Photo Finale site today, they'll notice little orange RSS feed icons in the top right-hand corner of each page. These allow the retailer's Photo Finale site members to publish photos instantly via RSS feeds that can be subscribed to by friends and family around the world. Of course, users can still share images via email, but the RSS feed satisfies the instant gratification we can feel when we're dying to share that great shot with the world. There are no web links to cut and paste or remember, no emails to proactively send - with Photo Finale's RSS feeds, it's all automatic the minute photos are uploaded. And, the best news of all for the retailer is that all of this is possible on YOUR website. As with all Lucidiom products, Photo Finale is branded with your name, not ours. Your customers will be raving about your RSS feeds and their friends and family will be coming to you for orders. Extend your brand, extend your customer reach, extend your business. That beats a slice of bread any day.

Eastman Kodak Company

Eastman Kodak Company has introduced the Kodak Pic Flick App, a new, free Apple iPhone and iPod touch device that enables consumers to upload pictures to a Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame or print them wirelessly on the Kodak ESP 5250 All-in-One (AiO) WiFi-enabled printer, which, Kodak explains, saves consumers an average of $110 a year on ink and offers the lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry.“Pictures are a way of sharing the unique moments in our lives,” said Randy Brody, Vice-President of Marketing Inkjet Systems, Eastman Kodak Company. “The Kodak Pic Flick App provides a fast, easy and fun way to print, display and share within seconds of capturing a moment at home or away from home. Consumers can simply upload pictures to a nearby Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame or send them to the Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer using their Apple iPhone or iPod touch.”The Kodak Pic Flick App features include: Dual purpose for printing and sharing: Consumers can print pictures on a Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer or share them on the wireless Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame directly from their Apple iPhone or iPod touch Device; Wirelessly print and share images within the users’ WiFi network range; Print photos from 2x3 to 8.5x11 inches on the Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer.

Planning A Catering Career

When I moved to New York City from Calcutta, I wasn't planning a catering career. I had come to earn a master's degree in lighting design from Parsons the New School for Design. But as a foodie, I was dismayed by the city's Indian eateries: The good ones were pricey, while the more affordable restaurants served two-day-old curries.
It didn't take a genius to spot a market opportunity for good, low-priced Indian food. I focused on Indian-style sandwiches, which few restaurants were offering. After graduating, I took night classes in restaurant management. In late 2003 I partnered with a former classmate, Rupila Sethi, to open the Indian Bread Co., a cafe in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. We sold flat breads stuffed with fillings or rolled like wraps -- an adaptation of traditional Indian street food.
Business was good from day one, and we soon began to provide catering services. In fact, we catered the Republican National Convention in 2004. But by the end of that year, Rupila wanted to move on to other projects, so I bought her out. Sales rose for the next several years, and I even started negotiations to franchise the cafe concept.
Then the recession hit. Business slowed, and the franchising deal fell through. In February 2009 cafe sales fell 25% to $9,689, from $12,873 a year before. But even though I was losing money, I refused to give up on a proven concept.
Seeking investors, I pitched my cafe to contacts in the restaurant industry. I took on two equal partners: Surbhi Sahni, a pastry chef at Devi, a top Indian eatery in New York City; and Rajiv Tanwar, a lawyer and restaurateur. Surbhi contributed sweat equity, helping me revamp the kitchen and change the menus. Rajiv invested $75,000, which we used to fund improvements.
First we relaunched and rebranded the cafe. To make it stand out, we focused on Mumbai street food. The new name became Aamchi Pao -- "my bread" in Marathi, a language spoken in Mumbai. And we simplified the menu by replacing naaninis, grilled items that take up to five minutes to prepare, with eight kinds of wraps and sandwiches.
We also gutted the kitchen, replacing the grill and the panini press with a simple griddle. The overhaul took two weeks and cost less than $20,000. I handled a lot of the Mumbai-themed interior design myself. I also cut costs by bartering my catering services for logo design work from a local graphic design studio. (I still run the Indian Bread Co. as a catering firm -- we catered the Slumdog Millionaire film premiere in 2008.)
Until the relaunch I had been running the restaurant, handling everything from inventory control to menu planning. But management wasn't my strong suit, and it distracted me from growing the business. So we hired a full-time manager. That freed me up to pursue my strengths: marketing, networking and strategizing.
Our May reopening received good local press coverage, which helped bring back our old customers and attract many new ones. The changes have been effective: Customers spend less time waiting in line, and the kitchen runs more smoothly, which reduces wasted inventory. Although some guests throw tantrums when they hear we no longer serve naaninis, we can usually persuade them to try something else.
And revenues are back up. We project 2009 sales of $315,000, about double last year's revenues.
I've always believed in this company, but it took a recession to make me see that I could turn it into a better business.

DNA Software Won A $1.5 Million

In 2001, DNA Software won a $1.5 million, three-year grant from the state of Michigan to develop computer programs for genomics researchers. Four years later, the eight-employee Ann Arbor company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
What happened? On paper DNA Software had been living every startup's dream. The government was "very supportive of what we were trying to do," recalls CEO Don Hicks. The grant paid the company in annual installments in exchange for preferred shares with no controlling interest.
But as three years' worth of steady money rolled in, looming problems at DNA went undetected. The cash cushion allowed executives to focus almost entirely on product development, without giving much thought to sales or marketing. Until the grant money dried up, they failed to realize that they had grossly overestimated the potential market for DNA's highly specialized services.
In 2005, with his company on the verge of collapse, Hicks took a 50% pay cut and started targeting potential customers with courtesy calls and demonstrations. DNA was forced to run on cash from its own operations. That required executives to "hunt only what we could kill," says Hicks.
During the next three years he brought DNA Software back to profitability. Since 2005 the company has doubled its staff, and it is on track to bring in $1.5 million in revenue this year.
Despite the current clamor for loans, business owners would do well to remember that money is not the mother of invention. On the contrary, capital constraints often spur innovation. Historically, scarce capital has forced many businesses that were founded during downturns -- such as HP (HPQ, Fortune 500), which debuted in 1939 during the Great Depression, and FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500), launched in the oil crisis of 1973 -- to eschew debt and remain agile.
Small business owners should do as much as they can without relying on other people's money, recommends Jim Anderson, an Orange County, Calif. counselor for SCORE, a national nonprofit organization that teams successful small business owners with entrepreneurs who are seeking advice.
"People who self-finance generally don't become sloppy," he says. "There is a tendency for people who have borrowed a big chunk of money to relax."
Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Obsidian Launch, a Boonton, N.J., consulting firm that invests in small startups, admits that external funding gave him the flexibility to ignore sound business practices -- and reality -- when he founded his first business, Olmec Systems, in 1996. The company, which set up computer networks for financial firms, swung from profitability to losses of as much as $50,000 in a single month after securing a $250,000 SBA-backed loan. Michalowicz blew the dough on office furniture and unnecessary administrative and sales-support staff, not to mention a new BMW Series 7 sedan.
"My explanation to myself was that if I had a lot of employees and a beautiful car, people would know I was successful and want to do business with me," he says. "Once I was out of cash, I had to get back to doing business the right way: servicing clients well and working hard."
Michalowicz ditched the expensive furniture and renegotiated his rent. In three years he had paid back his loan and sold the company for six figures.
Some entrepreneurs can take on loans without losing their innovative edge, particularly if they're armed with specific plans for spending the cash and generating enough revenue to pay it back. For everyone else, the era of lazy borrowing is over.
"In most cases we're telling people, 'You'd better have the capital,'" says Anderson. "It's tough times ahead."
In the end, a loan is a debt, not an excuse to let your hair down and party. Note to Wall Street: That advice isn't just for entrepreneurs.

Companies And Industries

All companies have a corporate culture. Some cultures are good; others are bad. Some are productive, some destructive.
My business grew from one employee (me) in the beginning to more than 100 today. I didn't give the culture question much thought until I started hiring people from different companies and industries. Pretty soon I noticed that employees sometimes brought with them old habits that didn't work in my environment.
After one management meeting, my new marketing director mentioned to me that she wasn't sure she agreed with a point that I had made in the meeting. I asked her why she hadn't brought it up at the meeting so we could all discuss it. She replied that she had wanted to be respectful. Then it dawned on me: In the big business environment that she had come from, questioning the boss in a meeting could mean career suicide.
Respect the Mission. I told her that if she really wanted to be respectful, she should never concern herself about being respectful to a position. Instead, be respectful to the mission. Throw it out there. We'll discuss it, we might argue, and we might laugh at each other. No one will cry, no one will have hurt feelings, and we'll come up with a solution that works for us.
I frequently get my mind changed in these discussions. But we always find the best decision for the company, so I always win.
Go the Extra Mile. So what is corporate culture? There are several aspects to consider.
How far will you go for a customer? Most companies claim that they will do whatever is necessary to make a customer happy. But going beyond lip service means you have to train employees rigorously and empower them to solve problems. In a mail-order business, you might have to spend extra money on airfreight to make sure that a shipment reaches the customer on time. In a restaurant it could mean showing up at a customer's house with part of a takeout order that wasn't put in the bag.
Treat One Another Well. How much do you expect from employees? Do salaried staffers regularly work 40 hours a week? 50? 60? 70? What happens when the need to take care of a customer conflicts with an employee's needs?
How do your people treat one another? I came to a conclusion that I will not employ anyone who is disrespectful to others. That might sound simple, but it isn't.
Rock from the Top. What kind of performance is accepted at the company? Is a 5% error rate okay? Is 3% sales growth accepted as a fact of life?
Changing your corporate culture requires more than holding workshops or sending memos. It means taking inventory of your values, both personally and as a company.
When I first started in business, I thought I should like everyone who worked for me. Then I went through a period when I figured that I didn't need to like everyone as long as they were doing their jobs.
Now I'm back to requiring 100% likability. Why? If I don't like them, other staffers probably don't like them either, and we can't all be wrong. Today my employees are all nice, responsible and dedicated. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Building a strong culture requires hiring the right people, firing the wrong people and managing the work environment. There's an old saying: "A fish rots from the head down." Corollary: It also rocks from the top.
Jay Goltz employs 104 people at Artists Frame Service, Chicago Art Source and Jayson Home & Garden, all based in Chicago. He is the author of The Street-Smart Entrepreneur (Addicus Books).