Too Bad Everyone Doesn't Have to Own a Business at Some Point

A local plant nursery near me just announced they are closing.  It's too bad because they were the place you could get the really COOL plants for your yard - not just the standard stuff you can get at any big box store.  They will be missed.

But, the article in the paper had a comment from the owner that made me have flashbacks to the scrapbook industry. The owner said that they were losing money because consumers were buying their plants at the big box stores and then coming to this nursery for advice on planting and caring for them.  The consumers knew the big box store employees didn't know what kind of fertilizer worked best for a Japanese Maple, but they knew that this independent nursery did.  They dragged all their plant issues and dying plants into the nursery for advice but left without spending a dime.  

Shame on consumers.  I really wish that people would but themselves in the shoes of business owners.  If you don't want to shop there and pay a little more for the local retailer's fine products and experience, that's your choice.  But, shame on you for buying "cheap" and then using the expertise of the independent for free.  I have yet to run across a business who can exist by giving out free advice.  

I can't tell you how many times this was an issue in the scrapbook industry - and probably still is.  Consumers would come into their LSS and demo every tool they could get their hands on and then run to the big box store with the 40% off coupon and buy the one they wanted.  Those same people then act shocked when their LSS's started closing all over the country. 

I have often said that a retail business is not a charity.  They can't afford to give you free crop space, free advice, free demonstrations, etc. so you can go spend your money at the store that doesn't really offer any of of that.  

I know everyone is looking to save a buck these days, however, it's unfair to use a small retailer for information you know you can't get where you purchased your products.  Coming in to ask advice for a $200 cutter you bought somewhere else and then feeling "justified" because you walked out with $7 in paper (and therefore bought something, after all) just isn't nice.  

Put yourself in the shoes of that owner who has invested about everything they can give into their LSS before you spend half an hour playing with their tools with a 40% off coupon in your purse.  

Same Tricks, Different Industry....

I was watching Restaurant: Impossible last night.  If you haven't seen it, it's like Kitchen Nightmares that Gordon Ramsey does on BBC.  I love that show, too, and have used it in this blog.  Chef Robert Irvine goes into a failing restaurant and tries to turn it around.  The restaurant last night was a diner in San Diego called TRAILS.  It could have as well been a scrapbook store because I heard pretty much what I listened to for nearly a decade in the scrapbook industry.

Trails had an owner who had worked in a corporate restaurant and therefore decided she was qualified to run her own.  Lacking funds, she got her dad to finance it.  Lacking profit, they later decided expanding it out be the way to increase the cash flow so her dad took out a second mortgage and now he is $600,000 in debt.  

Reminds me of those who think that liking to scrapbook qualified them to run a scrapbook store.  So, they take out a second mortgage on their home to open one without any idea how to.  They think their "passion" will be enough to carry them.  

The decor was cute and the food wasn't bad - something Chef Irvine rarely encounters in these failing restaurants.  But, they will still losing money hand-over-fist so he set about the find out why.  

First, they bought the restaurant from the previous owner at the "Emotional Price".  Dave Ramsey would call that a "Stupid Tax".  Saw it all the time in the scrapbook industry.  An owner, having put all their blood, sweat and tears into their business, believes it is worth MUCH MORE than the sum total of the inventory and  fixtures.  They believe they have a loyal customer base and that their own sweat equity is valuable.  Financials don't matter or aren't offered up or requested.  A buyer, not getting proper advice about how a business is priced, buys into the "this is my baby, take care of it" line and just wants what they want so bad they agree to the ethereal and baseless price.  The owner of Trails paid $240,000 for about $20,000 worth of restaurant equipment in a leased building.  She claimed to have gotten a "customer base" for that price, but how many of us eat at the same restaurant all the time?  As Robert Irvine pointed out, Doctors and Lawyers have valuable customer bases, restaurants don't.  

I consulted with quite a few people who would come to me wanting to buy a scrapbook business.  They most always had the "emotional price".  And, most of the time, the current owner didn't want to release financials to them. I usually said either they didn't have a clue if their business was making money or they were lying to them that it was.  If they based even part of the price on ANYTHING, they usually started with the cost of inventory and fixtures.  How much of that inventory was outdated, though?  You can't expect to recoup 100% of your investment of inventory that no one wants anymore.  I was always surprised at what people thought their little scrapbook business was worth.  I usually told people it would be cheaper just to start their own and build their own reputation.  Sometimes, you're buying a business no one wants to come to anyway.  I cringe when I see "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT" signs.  To me, that is announcing to the public that, yes, we were awful but come try us now!  It's hard to undo customer attitudes toward a business.   So, unless the business is making the big bucks with a loyal customer base, it's probably better to build your own than buy someone else's albatross that they are eager to get rid of at your expense.  Most of these owners rarely took home a penny while they owned the place, but now will attempt to extract their profit in the sale of it.  I usually told people to walk away.  

Their second mistake for the restaurant was pricing.  They wanted good food at a great price so they priced food based on the cost of the food and nothing else.  The owner had no idea what her daily operating costs were.  She had never calculated them.  She just said, "Let's set our prices at 3 times the cost of food" or some other "sounds like a good idea" strategy.  "Hope" is not a good strategy for a business.  She was shocked to learn that her daily expenses above the cost of the food were $900 - before she even took home a penny for herself or started paying her Dad back.   Her cheap breakfasts meant her core customers were geriatric and on "fixed incomes" so she kept her prices low for them and they sang her praises - right into the poor house.  

I saw poor pricing strategies way too often.  The challenge of the scrapbook industry is that everyone is selling pretty much the same stuff.  So, some would try to be the cheapest by shaving a few cents off the price.  Then, they might heavily discount their shipping if they were online.  Or, they would succumb to customer complaints about the cost of scrapbook products and try to lighten the financial burden in hopes they would sell more.  Rarely did anyone run the math or do any research about the demographics.  

Her third problem was that as a mom, she didn't want to do dinner service - she wanted to be home with her kids.  They had tried dinner service for a while but were losing about $500 a day on it because no one was coming.  Her Chef had the same attitude - she wanted to be home with her kids, too.  So, they were trying to run a restaurant on the two cheapest meals of the day.  

If I had a dollar for every scrapbook store owner who didn't want to work too many hours because they needed/wanted to be home with children, I'd be rich.  A business is the most demanding, needy and naughty child you'll ever have.  It will over-shadow and eclipse all other children until you can afford to pay someone to manage it for you.  Even then, when there is a problem, it's YOU that has to take care of it most of the time.  As one owner who closed her store told me, "When my alarm goes off at 3 am for the third time in a week and I have to get dressed and go down to the store to take care of it, I wonder how much longer I want to work for free."  

A few years ago, Dr. Phil gave some business dreaming moms a reality check on his SHOW.  Basically, if you have kids at home, don't start a business that needs a lot of your time.  Think smaller or go get a job with regular hours.  But, the idea that you can be successful only being open when the kids are at school is unrealistic.  Your customers are probably not available during those hours.  They want to come after work and on weekends - the exact times YOU want to be home with your kids.  

We love Social Media!

Do you follow PhotoBooks{etc} on Twitter or are you a fan on Facebook?   We love social media!  It's so fun to get to talk to our customers more often than our monthly newsletter.  We love the feedback we get from the new age of instant communication!

Check out THIS ARTICLE about how our new businesses use Social Media to grow and keep in touch. 

A Special Announcement from ScrapBiz

When I started ScrapBiz in September 2002, the scrapbook industry pretty much offered only two ways to start a business.

You could either become a consultant with one of the numerous direct sales companies or open a brick and mortar store. There was no "middle ground" for people wanting something less investment-intensive than a store and something more independent and flexible than becoming a direct sales consultant. After leaving I Remember When, one of the early consultant groups, I discovered by accident that I wasn't the only unhappy consultant and there were others who wanted to know how I was able to strike out on my own and sell the same products and out of this happy accident emerged the concept that became ScrapBiz.

Now fast-forward 7 years. Though there have been many changes because of the economic recession, the decrease in consumer demand for scrapbooking products and the resulting impacts on stores, manufacturers and industry trade publications, not all of the news has been bad. As long as there are photos, there will be scrappers and many scrapbooking businesses continue to thrive. However, fewer people desire to start a traditional scrapbook business and most wholesalers are now happy to sell to and support any retailer who has a business license, regardless as to whether their store is brick and mortar, online or home-based.

When I started ScrapBiz my focus was on creating tools and resources to help independent, home-based scrapbook businesses to be successful. After seven years and having nearly 1,000 people participate in ScrapBiz, I have been amazed at the success of many of our members. They are smart, savvy and are some of the best business owners and leaders in the entire industry. I credit them as being the BEST PART of the past 7 years and the people who have really made ScrapBiz the strong community that it is.

I opened ScrapBiz for business in September 2002 and, therefore, it seems fitting that I announce the closing of ScrapBiz in September. As of December 1, 2009, the ScrapBiz member support program will be discontinued.

So, what's next? There are bright spots in the industry and one of the most dynamic parts is the emergence of digital scrapbooking. I will continue to build the PhotoBookBiz brand and support the resellers. I will also keep my PhotoBooks{etc}. Additionally, I will be considering consulting and special project opportunities with both traditional and digital scrapbooking companies. So, I am not leaving the scrapbook industry entirely, but I am refocusing my efforts and scaling down the amount of time that I spend each week.

The focus of this blog will change slightly to reflect my own personal business shift, but the blog will continue to be updated with information about the changing scrapbook industry.

Thank to all those who have been kind to ScrapBiz over the last seven years. I have always appreciated your kind comments and thoughts about our business and the scrapbook industry.

Now for a little fun:

Check out the history of our site courtesy of the internet WayBack Machine:

• August 2002
• September 2002
• October 2002
• Noveber 2002 - Our first REAL website
• May 2003 - Another major website change
• May 2006 - Yet another major overhaul of our website
• ScrapBiz now

Are You Using Socialnomics?

You can't deny these stats. If you aren't using social media to communicate your business message, you are missing the boat! Scrapbookers are using social media - are you there to join in the conversation?

Everything Old Can Be New Again

It seems like 10 years ago, we couldn't find the new techniques and fun products to put on our layouts fast enough. We were using slide mounts, bottle caps, magic mesh, fiber, eyelets, brads, staples, rings, buttons, etc. Have you noticed, though, that the "new" techniques and embellishment announcements have slowed to a snail's pace? It's like we have come up with every small, lightweight thing we could to stick on our pages and we're out of ideas. I think we all "jumped the shark" when one company tried to put out a line of colored bobby pins to use on our pages. I actually never saw those in my LSS. It was odd.

I remember ScrapBiz members buying bottle caps from a home-brewer place in massive quantities and dividing them up among members. Bottle caps were THE thing for a while. I still have a bunch of stickers in my stash made to fit in the middle of the flattened bottle caps. Every time you went to a crop, you could hear the pounding of mallets flattening the edges of those little gems.

Is it time to re-introduce some of those embellishments again? One kit company I know of is including slide mounts, bread tabs, bottle caps, etc. in their kits and scrappers (many of whom were NOT scrapping when these crazes were going on) think she's a genius! Maybe it's time to recycle and re-introduce fun projects using these simple embellishments! Another retailer is ruling the paper piecing universe. Scrappers are discovering techniques and embellishments that old-timers have forgotten.

I went through my files recently and found an article I had pulled from a scrapbook magazine all about making your own cute 3-D embellishments using bottle caps, tags, mesh, beads, etc. There were some very cute ideas! Maybe it's time to resurrect them. If you've been around a long time in the scrapbook industry, you should have no problem pulling out your old ideas.

I think we have forgotten at times that everyone in the scrapbook industry didn't arrive on the scene in 1997. Many only started scrapping in this decade and they missed a lot of these things. Can we update and reintroduce them and start the craze all over again? I bet we could!

Basic Customer Service: LISTEN!

I'll admit right now that I'm not a chiropractor person. After a couple of run-ins early in my adulthood with Chiropractors who made some unsolicited claims that they could fix some very odd issues I had internally as well as a couple who told me I was evil to get my children immunized, I pretty much decided they were not for me.

Well, I have been experiencing severe pain in a tendon in my lower back for nearly a year now coupled with clicking in my tailbone. So, after consulting with my podiatrist (I have on leg shorter than the other and this is my short-leg side), I decided to try a chiropractor to see if they could get rid of the clicking and pain. It felt like something was out of whack.

So, I found one that claimed to do "Sports Medicine" and "Physical therapy", too. After talking to a cousin-in-law who's a Chiropractor in CT, he suggested I find someone who did a mix of stuff like that so there was a more mainstream approach to my pain.

Well, that was a mistake...

Okay, I'll admit that my neck feels pretty darn good. I can turn it better than I could before and my left knee - which had been clicking, catching and feeling like it was going to collapse feels really great! So, I give them an A+ on that. But, the original problem I went in for is a big fat F. I'm still not sleeping at night and the pain hasn't gone away. It seems at times like they work on every area BUT that one I came in for. I get the feeling they aren't working on it so I will keep coming back. They want me to come in 5 days a week at $45 per visit. Do the math - that's $1000 a month. Not gonna happen due to money and the fact that by the time I visit all their stations (physical therapy, massage, adjustments) and drive over there, I am looking at nearly 2 hours per day. I pointed all that out and got the response I totally expected, "What's the price of your health?" Came straight out of a chiro marketing book somewhere, I'm sure.

What if I took my car into the repair shop and said, "The engine dies when I stop at lights" and they sent it back and said, "Hey, we noticed the tires were low so we filled them. Then we washed and vacuumed it. Then we noticed your headlight was out so we changed it. Oh, and there was a couple of old hoses that we swapped out and we also changed the oil." Thank you, that's great that you took care of all those other things but the car is still dying when I stop at a stop light. "Oh, we'll work on that over time and fix it eventually."

Would I as a customer be satisfied with that answer? Nope.

I feel like they aren't listening to me and that frustrates me. They plop me on a line of tables and poke at my chart and then ping, pop and plop me for a few minutes and then send me out the door while they slap another face sheet on the table and another patient lays down. No one has asked me specifically about the pain in my back and no one really addresses it. They just fix what they can feel is wrong - but while those things might be wrong - they aren't the reason I came to them in the first place.

So, as of today - I'm done. I tried, I really did. But, when I get back from my trip later this week, I'm going into my regular doctor because I know she'll do something about the pain in my back and send me off to physical therapy.

Listening to customers is SO important in any business. I appreciate the way my knee feels, but I really need my back to feel good. It's been a month of 2-3 times a week visits - you'd think there would be at least some progress. There is, but in the wrong place - there's been absolutely no change in the thing I came in for in the first place. That's not good customer service.

Learning From Donut Wars!

Recently, a new shop was opening near me. They had painted a website on the paper-covered windows intended to create an air of mystery. They had a big contest at their site about "what are we?" To me, the website totally sounded like a cupcake shop. They had a Facebook page with the same contest and to many others, it sounded like a cupcake shop. In fact, the hints they were giving made it sound like it was a cupcake shop where you could go in, choose your cupcake flavor and have it custom-frosted for you. It would have been a FABULOUS idea for two reasons:

1. There are no cupcake shops in this whole area. Cupcakes are HOT right now, but few places are selling them here beyond what you can get in a plastic clamshell with nasty Crisco frosting.
   
2. This is an upscale upper-middle class shopping area and people would have totally bought into the upscale idea of serving cupcakes at Birthday parties, showers, etc.
   

But, alas, the place turned out to be a DONUT shop. Which, did not fit the website name in my opinion. The URL sounded like more cake than donut.

So, my kids and I decided to check it out and see if the donuts lived up to the hype so we wandered over there the first day of their Grand Opening. We showed up in the afternoon - wondering if there would be any donuts left. But, given the fact that they stay open until 10pm, I assumed they would be making donuts all day long. There was not much of a line if you don't count the busload of elderly people who arrived just 30 second before us and took most of the afternoon to order.

I bought 4 donuts - two chocolate frosted custard filled, one german chocolate with coconut-pecan frosting and one Maple Bar. My total for 4 very average donuts was over $8. They put them in a brown box with a cutesty label on it that was sort of meant to be "signature" packaging since pink and brown are their signature colors. I think I paid $4 just for the packaging alone because what we got was 4 donuts I could have bought across the street at the grocery store for less than $4. And, to top it all off, my kids didn't get any custard in their donuts until the last 2 bites. They had skimped on the filling.

The next day was the annual 5K Race and festival in this area. We happened to park near this donut shop when we arrived about 7:45 am for the race. This was the second day of this shop being open and I kept an eye on the foot traffic as I sat in the car waiting about 90 minutes for the race to start. I didn't notice a lot of people going in and out. It was surprising given all the hype.

My husband went to warm up for the race and came back with a postcard he handed to me. Apparently, the book store at the other end of the parking lot just opened a branch of a very famous donut shop from Seattle where they had previously had a coffee shop. They were handing out postcards for free donuts. So, after the race, we went and got 4 donuts. We didn't use our postcard and paid $6 for 4 donuts. Still too high in my opinion, but they were much better than the other place and they had the "brand name" behind them as well as features on the Travel Channel and the Food Network. I immediately thought, DONUT WAR!!! You can't tell me that the legendary donut shop isn't going to throw their name and reputation around against this upstart across the parking lot. It will be interesting to watch.

So, what's the lesson here? First, if I was doing a big "what are we?" promotion and everyone kept guessing I was a cupcake shop and they were EXCITED about the fact that a cupcake shop MIGHT be opening in our area - I honestly might have taken a step back and thought about changing my plans. Listen to your customers! People were THRILLED with the idea that it might be a cupcake shop. How many, including myself, were disappointed to find out it wasn't?

Second, I can get donuts at 5 grocery stores and this other new "legendary" Seattle-based donut place all within about a 10-15 minute walk from this donut shop. And, none of them are going to charge me $2 for a custard filled donut. Actually, this new shop sits in the middle of a parking lot between the high-end (similar to Whole Foods) market with lots of donut and pastry choices and the legendary donut place in the bookstore. So, it's literally one of three choices from one parking lot.

How many places can I get cupcakes? ZERO. Okay, I can get them at the grocery store, but they are prepackaged - nothing custom. How many times will I pay over $2 for a donut? Never again. I can't believe that I'm alone in that thought, either. The donuts weren't bad, but they weren't the best I've ever had, either. Perhaps they will develop their donut menu over time to include outrageous things like a bacon-maple bar you can get at VooDoo Donuts in Portland. But for now, they are just a cute donut place selling donuts and I hope they can stand out in the crowd enough to make people want to pay the high price of their donuts.

The scrapbook industry lesson is similar. You need to really evaluate how many other places around you are selling what you sell and try to figure out something of value to the customer that sets you apart from the others. Cute packaging isn't enough anymore. People want VALUE and UNIQUENESS. If you find yourself among lots of others doing the same as you, find that thing that makes you unique! Do you provide better customer service? Have unusually themed crops? Have custom papers for the local area? Stay open later? Can provide lots of "fan comments" about your store that will make others want to come check it out? What's your "hook" that will make people choose you over someone else? It's got to be more than cute colors and decent donuts - especially decent donuts that are higher priced than other decent donuts in the area.

"I'll Be There For You..."

Remember the theme song to the show FRIENDS by The Rembrandts? What's funny about starting your own business is that usually, as you start talking about it, your friends are SO SUPPORTIVE of the idea. They'll say, "Go for it!" or "I'll support you 100%!". They will cheer you along and tell you that you've got the talent to do whatever you're thinking of doing.

But, you know what happens when you finally open that business? Your friends are often nowhere to be found. There is an old saying that comes from the bible that roughly says, "No man is a prophet in his own country". That is true at times. I often find that those who were your biggest supporter during the planning stages of your business, don't take you seriously when you actually launch the business. They will often treat your business lightly and sometimes even expect a "friend discount" (translation - WHOLESALE PRICE).

It's sad, really, because you would hope that those closest to you would be your best customers if they are interested in whatever you're selling or doing. You would also hope that they would be your best customer advocates and tell others about your new business.

So, the lesson for today is that if you have a friend who owns a business - be it a scrapbook business or a plumbing business - use them. Put your money where you mouth is and show them that you really DO support them 100% by becoming one of their customers.

One Day Retailer Event

The Creative Leisure News had a bit yesterday about a great opportunity for retailers who are in the area of GASC. I knew this was being planned and I'm glad it came together.

If you are a retailer in the Arlington area and plan on attendting GASC, you can't go wrong by attending this one day special event just for you! Tamara and Beth will surely have some fabulous classes to share with you!

SEMINARS. F+W Publications is sponsoring the Great American Retail Conference in Arlington, TX on June 3, the day before the Great American Scrapbook Convention. The one-day seminar will be presented by Beth Mauro, former editor of Scrapbook Retailer and CNA, and author/retail consultant Tamara Lipori. Sessions will address trends and strategies for generating store traffic during a tough economy. For info, email Beth at beth.mauro@fwmedia.com. For info on the Convention, visit www.greatamericanscrapbook.com.

Marketing Moments

It's a sad fact that many stores in the scrapbook industry have closed this year. I keep hearing about more and more. Many of them were operating at the edge of their income even in the best of times and had no room in their bottom line for any sort of bump in the road.

There are probably many factors beyond just finances that have contributed to this. Marketing your business in the best of times is so important, but marketing it at times like this is vital. Actually, marketing your business ALL THE TIME is what helps you through thick and thin.

A smaller store near my house just quietly closed up. Aside from a plain quarterly email (which really isn't enough contact), I never heard anything FROM them or ABOUT them - yet, they were just 2 miles from my house. I suspect that being tucked back off the road in a strip mall blocked from view by other stores and next to a barber shop was part of their problem. No one knew they were there and they didn't go out of their way to tell people they were.

Marketing is tricky for most people because it takes more time than money. Time and money are two things that many small business owners lack. So, advertising, which takes more money than time is just as unlikely to happen as marketing is.

Small businesses need marketing ideas that are uncomplicated and easy to find. One good new source for these is the new PMA Marketing Moments website. This idea was actually my brainchild and PMA has taken it on and created a site for the entire photo and memory industry. These little sound bites take less than 90 seconds to listen to and they will hopefully spark some ideas in you to help you market your business. Many times, marketing is merely an off-shoot of something you're already doing in your business. You just need to aim at a different crowd (potential customers) instead of aiming your effort at current customers.

Another good place to gather marketing ideas is ScrapBiz. We talk about marketing a lot because it's the life-blood of our business members. For instance, National Scrapbook Day is coming up May 2. At ScrapBiz, the theme we suggest for our members for that day is "Sweet Memories" - a day of chocolate and scrapping. Along with that comes ideas for games, treats and activities. Most business owners want that - a plan that is ready-made that they can draw on so they don't have to invent the wheel themselves.

Find other businesses that you can network with to create marketing ideas and plans. There aren't very many resources left directly targeted at our industry. Interestingly, many retailers I have spoken to say that the biggest loss for our industry when Scrapbook Retailer magazine ceased publication was the 2 month marketing idea calendar they had in every issue.

Marketing - it's something we all know we must do but that time and money thing gets in the way. Yet, it can be our very downfall in the end.

Business is business until it gets personal

I have an RSS feed coming into the ScrapBiz members-only site from Seth Godin's blog. He's one of my favorite business guru's. His post the other day really made a good point (although I missed it the first read-through) LINK. We have a very personal business as scrapbook retailers. Most of us are also friends or at least very friendly with our customers if we have face to face contact with them. It IS true that those who know you best will protect you and do much for you vs. the casual, anonymous person who doesn't know you. It's much easier to rant against Micheal's than it is your local scrapbook store if you frequently shop there and know the owner. We tend to give people we know personally a "pass" at times when it comes to their foibles (to a point).

But, I also maintain that you can take the personal relationship a bit to far and it can come back and bite you as many "scrap celebrities" in our industry have found out. There are people and groups willing to use any bit of information against you if they get something in their craw about you.

Therefore, here is my cardinal rule of getting personal in business. Never say anything that would emotionally wound you if it got thrown back in your face in a mocking or "mean girl" kind of way. That means, it's okay to talk about how lame your computer or gardening skills are. Or, how you don't like cats or can't stand pizza. If someone mocked you for those "qualities", who cares? But, what if you dump your soul about your fertility problems or weight issues? If people turned on you about those topics, it would cut like a knife and hurt very bad. There are plenty of people ready and willing to do that - especially on the internet where anonymity is acceptable.

Therefore, be careful about what you tell people - especially in blog posts or on message boards. "Copy and paste" can spread your information and the attending "mean girl" comments far and wide. A friend of mine has a 6th grade daughter who learned this the hard way - she dumped about a friend in a text message and guess where it ended up? And guess what happened to her? She ended up crying in her room for days over what happened. It was a very hard lesson.

Be friends with your customers and share with them, but also, be careful about WHAT you share. Some will care and want to help, some won't care and be turned off by your personal information and a small percentage will "file" it away and use it against you in the future.

My second rule is to grow a tough skin because no matter what you do, there will always be people who disagree - and that's okay.

Would you like some Cheese with that Whine?

Once again, I am forwarded a "poor me" email from a scrapbook industry retailer. This retailer/wholesaler needs to generate a lot of quick cash in order to survive the next three weeks. They are calling on their "friends"to save their business because they aren't ready to "throw in the towel, yet". Huh? Why is poor planning on your part the responsibility of your customers?

It was about 700 words of whining and crying about how terrible this is for them and several reminders that it's "tough for everyone" right now... but, you've got to save us. What about your customers who have lost their jobs or their homes? They could use some "saving" right now, too.

I WILL give them that they offer the customer something in return, a discount on their purchases. BUT, then they remind their customers that it's the "total AFTER the discount, not the total BEFORE the discount that matters" and "don't count shipping because we lose money on that anyway". In other words, "here's a discount for you, but ignore it and buy more".

Here's the kicker - they are offering a discount on FUTURE merchandise if you buy now. That seems a bit like cashing your paycheck at the Money Tree and wondering why you can never get ahead. So, if they are bleeding cash NOW, and essentially selling future merchandise at half price, will they ever catch up? When the new inventory arrives, will they have to beg again and offer a further discount for the NEXT load of new stuff? It seems to me that they are just digging themselves a great big hole to fall into.

Today, they sent a further email saying they are at "80% of their goal". Do they have a big red chart they are coloring in like a charity drive or something? They reminded customers how important this is to THEM to survive.

My point here is; DON'T DUMP YOUR SORROWS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS! THEY. DON'T. CARE! They might care a little, but, honestly, the relationship between a retailer and their customer is pretty one-sided. Customers will stay only as long as they feel they are getting something from you. Once they decide you aren't worth the trouble or you annoy them or someone else offers something better, even your best friend will take her purse and go. It's not personal, it's business. Too many retailers in our industry think it's personal, but it's not, it's business.

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.

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!"

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!

Wars are not won by evacuations

I love this - Winston Churchill said it. He also said, "Never, never, never give up!".

I see lots of evacuations going on in the scrapbook industry right now. Some are necessary because, I assume, the war is un-winnable for that business. But, I fear many are just taking their scissors and going home because they think it will never get better.

Earlier this week at ScrapBiz, one of our members posted a great article from her local paper about busting the recession. One of the great points was that while everyone else is pulling back, it's a good time to surge forward with your marketing activities. That doesn't mean you have to go crazy, but it means you need to step it up.

BECAUSE, if you can even hold steady and, with luck, increase your market share even slightly during the tough times, everyone else will have to play "catch up" to you when things get better. You'll have some momentum (and new customers) to work with while others are trying to re-start their engines.

If you've felt like a little fish in a big pond, now can be your time to be the big fish. For instance, many magazines are slashing their ad rates because there are fewer subscribers and fewer advertisers. Now might be a good time to invest in an ad. The subscribers still hanging around are going to be the ones who have money to spend AND are hard-core scrappers. You're going to get greater bang for your buck.

Now is also a great time to slash your expenses to the bare minimum. Focus your funds on activities that create revenue and slash the ones that don't. For instance, going to a trade show may be a good thing, but taking another employee with you may not. Don't skip it just because you don't want to go alone. It may be necessary for your business to be there. It's okay to go by yourself - I often do. If you don't want to be lonely, then join ScrapBiz before you go and you can come to our dinner, meet other members and not feel alone at the show.

Look at attending PSRO - there are going to be some FANTASTIC classes there that will help you be a better, more savvy business owner. One of the challenges of our industry is that it's changed over the last few years and we didn't pay a lot of attention to the shift. We were experiencing some issues before the economy did. Learn about the changes and how to tackle them at PSRO and discover new products and services at PMA to reflect the recent photo-centric shift of the scrapbook industry. Due to the economy, hotels in Las Vegas have slashed their prices for PMA - I've never seen that done. Usually prices shoot way up during a large trade show. Expect air fare to drop also. That makes the show an even greater value!

Another way to add to your revenue stream without a lot of cash is to sign up for PhotoBookBiz. It's just $49 to sign up! All you need to do is add the unique Rocket Life platform link to your current website and you've just increased your potential revenues without having to buy or stock any additional inventory! When customers make photo books or photo products at your site, you make money! It's simple and easy for you.

So, don't evacuate, keep fighting! You might have to change strategies or attack from a different front, but fight on if you can! Scrapbooking and memory preservation are not just frivolous hobbies. They are meaningful hobbies that most people will continue on with despite the economy. Be there for them!

What kind of shoppers are your customers?

I think Amazon has a wing in their warehouse where my orders are stored this year. I have dropped a lot of money into their laps. We are Amazombies at our house and usually hit Amazon first when we start shopping.

I don't like shopping at real stores very much. I needed a black skirt a while ago and did NOT enjoy "the hunt" for one. I had to drive to so many stores until I found one I liked. That's why I like Amazon. I'm don't like the hunt - I just want to get in there and get the job done and be gone. I'm a TERRIBLE shopping buddy and a total shopping loner. Maybe that's why I have boys - I have no patience to shop. I had to go shopping with a teenage niece once and wanted to poke my eyes out before the ordeal was over. She tried on EVERYTHING and then had to come out and twirl for me so I could "oohhhh" and "aahhhhh" and tell her it looked good.

So, is your online scrapbook store set up for different types of shoppers? I thought THIS was a great analysis of the different types of shoppers and what they want from you. The way YOU shop isn't the same way your customers will. If they get frustrated by your site, they will move on.

Video Business Tip: Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Okay, I have a web cam and I know how to use it! I'm going to try to give you at least one quick business video tip a month.

Downturn or Shift in the Scrapbook Industry?

About 18 months ago, I had a conversation with my friend, Dennis Conforto, about the scrapbook industry. We were both sort of being demonized for saying that photos, not pretty paper and embellishments, should be the focus of scrapbooking or memory preservation. Some retailers and "artists" were calling us heretics for daring to say that because they felt like it devalued what they were doing/selling. Dennis said something like, "Just wait, in a couple of years, they'll all be saying the same thing we are."

He was right. I'm hearing and seeing more and more scrapbook retailers say, "What can we do to adapt?"

You'd have to be in a cave to not notice that the scrapbook industry has suffered some bumps. I don't believe the industry is shrinking. We've got members at ScrapBiz who are wondering if their customers know the economy is in bad shape. Their customers are still buying stuff like crazy. As long as there are stores selling scrapbook products, there will be women (and men) buying it.

But, there has also been a shift in memory preservation. "Scrapbooking" is just one aspect of preserving your photos and stories in a usable format. Digital scrapbooking, photo books, photo collages, photo gifts, altered art, online blogs, etc. are all now part of our industry. Many of our customers practice a mix of many different forms of memory preservation. Yet, the traditional scrapbook store still looks like it did in 1999 - it sells paper and embellishments.

The latest edition of the Creative Leisure News had a great comment in it.

"A number of independent retailers are having trouble, too, possibly for the same reason. Their closing their doors give the impression that scrapbooking is declining. Cindy Wyckoff. Owner/Editor-in-Chief of Scrapbook Dimensions magazine (www.scrapbookdimensions.com), has a different opinion:

"I believe that scrapbooking is not slipping, but evolving. Many people find themselves wanting to keep their memories and do something with their photographs, but don't have the time to do the traditional scrapbooking or have the creative desire to do it. There are other exciting options out there for them. The scrapbooking stores could jump on these ideas, but they don't seem to be open to doing something different."

The December issue of Real Simple published an article, "Memory Keepers," which described various ways to preserve photos and letters - and none of them were scrapbooks. Instead, the article profiled women who made a coffee table photo book, a wall display box, a written book of stories, a cookbook, and a quilt."

The December issue of PMA magazine had a GREAT article about a store in British Columbia. Go to page 38 and start reading. This store is described as "PMA IN A STORE". What a great description. This store owner covers the gamut when it comes to photos and memory preservation - from cameras to photo processing to photo books and gifts to traditional scrapbooking - they carry it all. And, I bet if you could look at their bottom line, they are probably doing better than the traditional scrapbook store BECAUSE of their diversity. They can serve nearly everyone with photos. People generally take photos because they want to remember something special. So, when they come into this store, they can choose the path they want to take to display and preserve those photos. This store aims to serve whatever path their customers choose to take rather than saying, “Oh, you don’t use card stock anymore? Thanks for being our customer. Good luck to you in the future.” Instead, they say, “Oh, we have photo books!” And, conversely, to the photo book customer who would like to make a special traditional album, they can say, “We have those products!”. No one gets shown the door just because their scrapbooking or memory preservation went in another direction.

I am very much looking forward to PMA 2009 and most especially PSRO 2009. I think that scrapbook retailers would be well-served to attend and learn about the various opportunities to tune up their stores and bring them into the 21^st century. Because, as Mike at the Creative Leisure News also pointed out, when plastic canvas creations became all the rage, cross-stitch only stores were encouraged to add those supplies to their inventory. Many “pooh-poohed” such things. And, the moral of the story was, “are there any cross-stitch only stores left?” Not many.