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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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WPPI Announces Speaker Lineup for WPPI U

Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) announced today its speaker and instructor line-up for WPPI U, taking place Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 at WPPI 2013 in Las Vegas. This university-style, two-day workshop provides the fundamentals of photography to help today’s up-and-coming photographers strengthen their shooting skills and learn how to be successful in their business and marketing practices, according to WPPI.

Educational seminars for professional photographersScheduled to teach at WPPI U are renowned professional photographers Jerry Ghionis, Kevin Kubota,  Henk Van Kooten, Doug Gordon, Moshe Zusman, Lindsey Adler, JP Elario, Jared Platt, Tim Meyer and many more.

All WPPI 2013 classes, events and trade show will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from March 7-14.

WPPI U classes will include topics such as:

  • Lighting and Posing
  • Business and Branding
  • Marketing
  • Postproduction (Lightroom and Photoshop)
  • Social Media
  • Weddings, Portraits, and Seniors

Each class is two hours and a Portfolio Review and Reception for participants will be hosted at the conclusion of the first day. Attendees will receive a certificate of completion from WPPI and a WPPI U T-shirt. The advance-purchase price for WPPI U is $125 for the two-day program if purchased online by March 6. The onsite price is $150. WPPI U sponsors include: Graphistudio, Bay Photo, Sigma, Millers, Adobe and more.

Registration (Http://registration3.experientevent.com/ShowWPP131/?flowcode=ATT) for WPPI 2013 and is open now. Registration rates are $275 for WPPI members and $399 for non-members. These rates include one free guest, all Platform classes, special events and a three-day pass to WPPI.

For more information about WPPI 2013 and all of its workshops and events, go to: www.wppionline.com/wppi-show.shtml

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales, Tips & Tricks
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The Photo Booth Option to Generate Additional Cash Flow

Photobooth for a photography business

Dan Johnson, owner of Dan Johnson Photography in Grand Rapids, Mich., is a regular fixture here at the LexJet Blog. Johnson is always chock full of great ideas (make sure to click here to read about his spray booth, for instance) that build business and generate cash flow.

His latest venture is a portable photo booth that he can take to special events and weddings. Johnson says he created a makeshift photo booth to fulfill requests for a photo booth and decided it was time to buy a pre-built booth to better satisfy demand and create an additional profit center.

Taking pictures in a photo booth“We’re always looking for other ways to generate income with minimal infrastructure and without totally changing what we’re doing. One of our big commercial clients called last year who was putting on a Christmas party and wanted to know if we had a photo booth. I didn’t want to say no, so I figured out how to do it on my own with a camera, tripod, computer and a dye-sub printer. I literally took pieces and parts out of my studio and built this makeshift photo booth. It went pretty well, and then we got a couple of more calls for a photo booth,” explains Johnson. “For the makeshift photo booth I hang curtains in a square and inside the curtain there’s a camera on a tripod and a laptop computer with a program on it where the people inside the booth can click on the mouse and it counts down. It takes a series of three pictures and sends it to a dye-sub printer.”

Johnson recently purchased a professional photo booth, which he says can range from about $6,000 to $10,000. The professional booth is housed in pre-fabricated travel boxes. The bottom box has a printer and a cabinet for supplies, and the top box has the computer and the camera.

“Everything is mounted and secured. You take them out of the car and roll them out like a suitcase to the event, stack one box on top of the other, they lock together, set up a curtain system, plug it in and you’re up and running,” says Johnson. “There’s lighting and it’s all self-contained. It looks finished and professional. If I can use it 20 or 30 times next year it fits into the no-brainer category.”

Johnson adds that he charges a flat fee and offers unlimited prints. That sounds somewhat risky on the surface, but Johnson did the math and found it really wasn’t that risky.

“Realistically, everyone isn’t going to go through the booth four times and you’re printing 2-inch strips on dye-sub paper. So, let’s say we have 250 people at a wedding, which would be a large wedding in our area, and if everyone went through with their significant other it would generate 125 4x6s. A roll of this paper can print 300 4x6s,” says Johnson. “If I go through a roll of paper at every event, that’s about $150 in cost plus what I pay an employee to man it, and that’s it.”

So far, Johnson has booked several events for the rest of the year and into 2013, and he’s running special promotions on the photo booth service. “That should help generate cash up front to pay for the system and some profit on top of that. Basically, we’re not going into debt to expand our services,” he says.

Johnson is also hoping to generate some ancillary printing business in the process by offering larger prints, printed on LexJet media with his Epson printers, that people could order at the booth. He’ll start with a paper ordering system first as he figures out how to integrate more automated print orders with an iPad.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Louisville Slugger: How Spectra Imaging Built a Thriving and Growing Business

Window graphics for a grocery store chain

Brian and Leslie Rogers started Spectra Imaging in their 500-square-foot garage about seven years ago with a Mac mini and a Canon iPF8000. Since that time, Spectra Imaging has grown exponentially, eventually occupying 6,000 square feet of space in a Louisville, Ky., office building, adding additional employees and ramping up its production capabilities.

Main identification sign for a companyWhile Spectra Imaging’s success is based on the usual ingredients – high-quality output, customer service and finding the right products for production – it’s the intangibles that have helped set the company apart.

First, Spectra Imaging is debt-free. All of its equipment purchases are paid for, alleviating the additional burden that debt payments can have on a company. Second, Spectra Imaging emphasizes a show-and-tell approach to sales.

“The growth of our company is attributed to our drive and determination and just getting out in front of people,” explains Brian Rogers. “You can’t just walk in there, hand them a brochure and tell them that this is what you can do. When our salespeople meet with customers they have a sample case and an iPad. There’s an image on our site of a very large sign on the front of a building for a hardware company, for example, and our salespeople have a smaller version of that exact sign, printed on the same material and applied to the same substrate. That way, they can see how the material works and what it looks like when it’s done. A brochure is not good enough.”

Wall decor graphicsRogers says this is especially effective with Photo Tex PSA Repositionable Fabric from LexJet. Customers can see first-hand how easy it is to work with and how versatile it is in a variety of applications.

Whatever the material used, Spectra Imaging is armed with physical samples and various options for a collaborative, consultative and ultimately productive meeting.

“Customers are looking for something different and unique; they don’t want the same stuff they’ve been getting. LexJet has been instrumental in keeping us updated about new products we can add to our sample case so we can show customers what’s available and what they can do with them,” adds Rogers.

Spectra Imaging can provide just about any imaging product and service to its customers, including graphic design, scanning original artwork, printing and stretching canvas, custom framing and practically any large-format application.

Photo reproduction for interior decorNow armed with two HP 9000 solvent printers, two HP Designjet 5000 aqueous inkjet printers and two Canon iPF8000s, as well as fabrication and finishing capabilities with a CNC router and a laminator, Spectra Imaging is well positioned to make its next move: hiring an additional salesperson and production specialist as well as adding more printer fire power.

Rogers says his favorite materials are the aforementioned Photo Tex PSA Fabric (both Aqueous and Solvent), LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl (Semi-Matte and Gloss), LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film, LexJet Production Satin Photo Paper PSA and LexJet Sunset Fine Art, Photo and Canvas media.

“The great thing about Sammi [Spectra Imaging’s LexJet customer specialist Samantha Calabrese] is that she’s familiar with the products we’ve used and is quite helpful about making recommendations and letting us know about new products,” says Rogers. “Even if we’re not buying a product from LexJet, like our HP 9000, Sammi did some research and helped us find other LexJet customers who had one so we could get some feedback from them about the printer before we bought it.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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WPPI University Continues in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland

WPPI University, the traveling two-day workshop from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), just concluded its first summer stop in New Jersey and moves on to Atlanta (July 24-25), Las Vegas (Aug. 13-14) and Portland, Ore. (Sept. 5-6).

Photography seminars and workshopsThe workshops are $149 per person and include a mini trade show, a portfolio review, seminars on a variety of topics, lunch and refreshments, a certificate of completion, and a free expo pass to WPPI 2013 in Las Vegas, March 7-14.

Educational tracks include Lighting, Portrait, Business, Business/Marketing, Social Media, Workflow, Seniors and Portrait, all taught by industry experts.

The portfolio review is a one-on-one or group review with one of WPPI’s judges, who will critique portfolios by identifying strengths and weaknesses and then will give advice on how to best showcase your portfolio.

For more information and to register, go to www.wppionline.com/on-the-road.shtml.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Marketing & Sales
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Free Book on Winning the Company Culture War

Book about corporate cultureAlmost every business owner I’ve talked to over the years mentions customer service as one of the most important attributes, if not the most important attribute, of a successful company. After digging around a bit to find out what that really means in practical terms, it usually boils down to company culture.

If you receive poor customer service, it most always reveals something deeper: a flaw in that company’s culture that hinders employees from going the extra mile for the customer. There’s a lot of it about these days, but each business has the ability to mold its culture so that everybody wins.

Everybody Wins happens to be the title of the free book you can have delivered to you when you click here and fill out a simple form. It’s a compilation of thoughts from LexJet employees, customers and business partners about the elements that contribute to a culture in which Everybody Wins. Its goal is to find those winning elements and spark ideas about how to build a strong cultural foundation that starts inside and is reflected outside to everyone with whom we come in contact.

For instance, a common refrain in the personal stories found in Everybody Wins is empowerment, where each employee is allowed to go beyond simply doing a “job” and function as an entrepreneur. Solid training and then unparalleled mutual support, in which each team member treats the other as a customer, are key contributors to individual entrepreneurial empowerment.

This is but one of many nuggets you’re sure to come away with after reading through Everybody Wins. As always, we want to hear from you about steps you’ve taken to improve your company’s culture, and ultimately your company’s overall success.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales
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Inkjet Printed Trading Card Sports Posters and How Shipping Makes a Difference

Printing sports postersJack Deere, owner of Three Oaks Photography in Wake Forest, N.C., is always on the lookout for new and unique products for his photography studio. One source of inspiration is the LexJet Blog, where others share their experiences and ideas.

“In addition to the great service I’m getting from LexJet, I appreciate the other things LexJet does with tools like the blog. It helps a lot, because I get great ideas from it, like the growth chart printed on Photo Tex,” says Deere. “In fact, we’re testing Photo Tex for different things, like appliqués on windows, wall murals and anything else we can find to do with it; it’s a great material to work with.”

Deere says the studio has been printing its own work for years, and one of the keys to doing it successfully is the confidence he has that he’ll not only get the support he needs, but more importantly that he’ll consistently get the products he needs on time and just in time.

“As a small business, cash flow is king. When an ink cartridge costs more than $100 a pop, even for the small ones, I don’t have to buy one until I absolutely need it. LexJet products get here within one day. I just had an order that arrived from two different distribution points, but they got here at the same time this morning at 10 a.m.,” explains Deere. “LexJet has never missed that deadline so I can order with one day’s notice, and we get quick shipping for that flat rate of $9.99. That’s what I really appreciate – the depth and breadth of how LexJet’s distribution is set up. Sometimes I’ve ordered at 3 in the afternoon and it’s here at 10 the next morning. Hello? That’s why I’m a customer for life; LexJet has saved my bacon every time. And, when I call the 800 number, the phone system is routed so I get my personal rep. I call and I don’t get a voice system, I get, ‘Hey Jack, what’s up?'”

Deere adds that product suggestions from his customer specialist, Michael Clementi, are another plus. One of those suggestions helped lead to a successful product launch that local high schools have embraced called Trading Card Sports Posters.

Deere prints the posters on LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA (the product Clementi suggested) and applies them to Coroplast. The posters are durable enough to withstand inclement (pun intended) weather when they’re hung up around outdoor venues, like the high school football stadium.

“We only photograph seniors for the posters. We shoot an action shot of them, which I turn into a charcoal pencil drawing in the background, and then add a head shot and a photo of them with the seniors on the team,” explains Deere. “They’re typically used for senior nights at the sports banquets and it’s a gift to the senior from the booster club. Once schools see the posters I get calls from the booster clubs, so I’m in about seven high schools now. We also frame some of them, and when we do that we use LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene.”