A few quick photos from CHA

Congratulations to Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs for their first time at the show. They were GREAT! It was fun to see this ScrapBiz member business break out like this!!

And, of course, our ScrapBiz member dinner totally ROCKED! We had a blast and probably would have stayed half the night if the place hadn't closed up at 9pm!

Goin' to CHA!

I can't wait! I haven't been since CHA was in Vegas! I'm only there part of Monday and part of Tuesday, but I'll have my running shoes on, AND, I'll get to spend Monday night with some of my favorite people - ScrapBiz Business Members!

Imported Celebrities: Part 2

Three and a half years ago, I blogged about "celebrities" infiltrating our industry and trying to slap their names on products so that manufacturers could use their "star power" to sell those lines. Every time it's been tried, it fails. We have our own "celebrities", thank you very much.

Now I see that Paris Hilton - who probably doesn't know how to get her photos off her "phone camera-thingy" is being paraded out as the next celebrity to pitch scrapbook paper.

She's hot...but that's not...

Let's pit Heidi Swapp against Paris Hilton in a scrap-off. Blonde on Blonde - 30 minutes, 10 products, 5 photos. GO!

ScrapBiz: Providing Business Support for Nearly 7 Years

Today, I sent out an email to my ezine list (you can sign up at the left if you want to receive our free business oriented ezine). I wanted to address something that came up this week - the implication that the scrapbook industry didn't already have good, sound business support groups.

CLICK HERE if you'd like to read the email. ScrapBiz is in the business of supporting businesses and has successfully done just that for nearly 7 years now. Why re-invent the wheel?

Will Digital Scrapbooking Follow the Same Unfortunate Path?

We're having a discussion at ScrapBiz right now about how to bring new scrapbookers into the industry. It's been the greatest challenge of our industry mostly because not too many people wanted to do the "dirty work" of marketing. So, we lived under the delusion that EVERYONE discovered our wonderful hobby by 2000 and then we just all moved forward into more complex techniques and a greater variety of albums, themes and sizes. Yet, as I wrote over a year ago, beginners are the heart beat of our industry.

Now, here we sit, 9 years later wondering where everyone is. I guess you could say we're suffering from heart failure. The average interest in a craft or hobby lasts about 7 years. Two years ago, we started bleeding customers who stopped scrapping or moved on to digital scrapping. We've picked up a few here and there but few businesses have had the courage to spend their marketing time and money on gathering in new scrappers.

Is digital scrapbooking walking that same path? In some ways, I think it is and in some ways, I think it might not be.

I see several places where you can take online classes or watch tutorials on how to digi scrap. That's a good thing. I liken that to the many basic classes stores offered in the early days. Nearly every store had a "scrapbooking 101" class that taught the basics of layout, color, photo cropping, tools, etc.

But, on the other hand, when I go to consumer message boards dedicated to digital scrapbooking and see someone wander in and ask about getting started, I see other digital scrappers tell them to go get Photoshop Elements to get started. That's not a beginner's program. When I suggest something REALLY simple like Scrapbook Max!, I will often get razzed for suggesting it and the original poster gets told again to go get a program that will probably just frustrate them in the end.

YOU might be able to do fantastic and magical things with PSE, but not everyone CAN (or even wants to). Much of the scrapbook universe does NOT alter their photos in PhotoShop. Most of us just slap them on the page. So, simplicity in putting them on the digital page is really what most of us want.

I went to a friend's house the other day to show her how to digi scrap. She has 4 kids and is ready to do at least SOME of her photos digitally. I showed her Scrapbook Max! and I showed her the program at PhotoBooks{etc}. Even those two options intimidated her. Just because she can use Facebook doesn't mean she's comfortable with all aspects of her computer. Is she being left in the dust by the digital industry? Perhaps. If she had asked about it at a consumer board instead of asking me, she would probably have gotten the PSE suggestion and would have never tried it.

So, if the digital scrapbook industry is smart, they will figure out how to continually invite new people to try digital scrapping without intimidation or the assumption that everyone's already doing it. Learn from our mistakes. I don't think we (the traditional industry) have.

Dealing with Unpleasant Customers

Every business has at LEAST one - that customer that when you see her coming, you know she's going to ruin your day. Your selection isn't good enough, your prices are too high, she wasn't smiled at properly last time she came in, etc. She keeps coming in but you fail to understand why if nothing makes her happy.

So, my brother suggested a new Customer Relations Management Technique. Put one of THESE babies by your front door (perhaps out of sight on the roof) and when Debbie Downer or Wanda Whiner gets out of her car and starts for your door, you "discourage" her from entering the store. Okay, now we all understand why my brother doesn't own a business. In his own words, "Gives new meaning to the term 'heated customer exchange', doesn't it".

Tuesday is TOOTSday!

I love Tuesdays at ScrapBiz! It's TOOTsday! It's the day that you officially tell us something good about your business! You can Toot (your own horn) any day of the week but on Tootsday, we see a lot of good news! As as I said today at ScrapBiz, "Tell me something good!"

I'm going to PMA 2009

Wanna see me in "action"? You can see me at PMA 2009 but you can also see me HERE. In the little video box, hit NEXT like 14 times and you'll get to my bit.

Seriously, though, scrapbook retailers would learn a lot by coming to PMA 2009. One business owner who is going said she was going blind trying to read all the class descriptions and decide what she had time to attend. There are SO MANY good choices!

See you at the show!

Photo Book Fundraiser info

PhotoBook Fundraiser Press Release

Picturing a New Kind of Fundraiser

Non-profits tap into custom photo gift trend with new fund raising option

(EVERETT, WA. January 7, 2009) If you’ve ever bought measuring cups you didn’t need, magazines you don’t read, chocolate that was over-priced or saved labels from soup cans, then you can appreciate the fund raising efforts of non-profit organizations.

As it becomes less socially acceptable to send children out knocking on doors to sell wrapping paper and cookie dough, it becomes more difficult for non-profit groups such as PTA’s and Booster Clubs to raise money. Many have turned to online resources such as shopping sites that give a small percentage of sales back or grocery store affinity cards that pay back every time they’re used. But, they often pay very little so a lot of supporters need to participate to make an impact.

PhotoBooksEtc.com, an online photo book and custom photo product site, announces an easy fund raiser that offers groups 10% back on sales through their club site.

“Many schools and booster clubs I have talked with this year are trying to find low-impact ways to raise money by selling products or making partnerships with companies that families are using anyway,” says Kim Guymon, owner of PhotoBooksEtc.com, “almost everyone has photos that they want to display. Our products are something that nearly everyone will enjoy making and receiving.”

Non-profit groups can request a free account from PhotoBooksEtc.com merely by verifying their 501 c 3 status and providing a contact for the group. A link will be placed on the fundraiser page of the PhotoBooksEtc.com where supporters can go make products. PhotoBooksEtc.com ships the product directly to the customer and then gives 10% profit back to each group for sales made through their link. “All the group has to do is promote their link,” says Guymon, “it’s a no-brainer fundraiser. Everything is done for them; we just need to know where to send the check.”

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If you’d like more information on Photobooks{etc} and it’s new fundraising program please email Kim Guymon at Kim@Photobooksetc.com.

Hi, I'm a customer...

I should wear a label when I shop - a full disclosure kind of thing. It should read, "I will critically evaluate your customer service because that's part of my job so be nice to me." Actually, I don't want extra special treatment, I just want, like all customers, to be treated like I matter.

That didn't happen in one shop I went into just before Christmas. And, honestly, this little shop-keeper is probably not in the position to pretend like customers are invisible.

This is one of those shops full of the cute but useless stuff. The shopkeeper has a really good eye for products so I like to go in and see what's new. I went in that day to see what she had in for Christmas. It matters that it was sunny that day and they were exposed to the sun through their front glass windows and door.

LITERALLY, as I went to grab the bar of the clear glass door and push it in, she was rushing the CLEAR GLASS door from the other side to push it out. She got there first and pushed it open, headed out with it and proceeded to prop it open to let air in the store. At some point during that maneuver, I managed to actually get through the door myself and into the store. It was so strange, it was as if I was COMPLETELY invisible. There was no, "Oh, excuse me" or "Hi" or any other acknowledgement that I was in the same county at all. She just rushed out while I was trying to enter. Even when I got IN the store, her husband - standing behind the counter - never said a word. But the very next person who walked in about 15 seconds later got a "Hello! How are you?!" My thought was, "They must matter and I must not today".

Honestly, I was so distracted by the little experience that I sort of lost my desire to shop and left after doing a quick sweep of the store.

What if you treated every customer like they were going to be hyper-critical of their experience with you? What if every customer who walked in the door could potentially be a "secret shopper" who would be evaluating your business. Think of it sort of like the restaurant owner who should assume that everyone who comes to dine is a food-critic who will be writing a review for a local paper. Customer service is what could set this little store in the expensive place apart from, say, the Pier One half a block away.

If you want to survive, you've got to treat every customer like they matter - because they do!