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What else can a Mini Lab Store sell ?


NeilT

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I know that some labs are still very quite, and are always looking for ideas. Our local Post Office has reduced its magazine display and is now selling booze, beers and wine.

What else could be sold in store for little capital expence?

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Hi Neil,

I hope this bit of business helps others.

If you don't do VHS to DVD then do, as I purchased a VHS to DVD recorder only 4 weeks ago (At under £250 new) and so far have had over £400 quids worth of orders.

If anyone wants details let me know.

After all we've all got loads of tapes clutering the shelves (So have your customers).

That also goes for groups like Singers,Dancers,Am.Dram etc

Happy retailer

Denis

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Pick up a second hand Beta player and offer Beta to DVD - we paid for ours in the first order we did. Check ebay.

Get a cheap MiniDV camera as well as an 8mm camera that does the 3 8mm formats, and plug that into the back of your machine and offer that too.

But a cheap LP to CD player and offer that.

Buy a secondhand cassette player (I got a Nakamichi for $10 at a garage sale), a low cost PC connection kit and offer tapes to CD.

We have been going gangbusters on all those for the last 3 years, and we are regularly turning over $1000 a week just from these services.

They also seem to bring in photo restoration services too, so we do them through Hollywood Photofix or instore for the easy ones.

Then move into shoebox scanning with a kodak s1220 scanner - great money in this, but you MUST promote it - we use radio for all our advertising.

That should keep you busy for a week or 2!

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I do all the above as well, audio to CD patchy, open reel non existent !, but video and Cine to DVD goes well.

BUT, that hasn't answered Neil's question, what items can we buy in to retail other than providing the services we do? At the moment business is dreadfully quiet on the printing and transfer  to DVD side, we have shops, so what can we buy in to retail?

Anyone sell unconnected stuff? (ie unconnected to the photo industry)

Thanks Neil for posting this. I logged on a few minutes ago to ask the same question  ;D You beat me to it!

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World cup approaching

Take a look at petrol stations, your local food stores/ supermarkets, news agents, they are all cashing in on this selling cheap <tack> low cost, high margin. If you cant beat em' join them...

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Sounds daft but I sell alot of printer inks ...when people started to change to digital we had a few people saying this such as "you won't be seeing too much of me now i've gone digital as I can do ity at home"  Which made me panick a bit..  

So I thought if I can't print the photos i'll sell them the ink.

We spend time discussing the pros n cons of it all with our customers but mainly they give it a whirl and then come back to us.  Too time consuming, too many jams or simply can't be bothered.  After all not all of us have all the time in the world to faff around at home with the holiday pics.

Luckily the ones I sold the ink to, to try home printing and decided it's not worth the hassle still buy ink and reams of a4 paper etc from me.

I buy good quality 100% guaranteed ink with good profit margins.  As long as it continues to turn over  i'll be stocking it.

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Hey AJLA!

i might try selling the ink, but where do you get your ink from and how do you know which ones to stock as there are so many printers and lots of different models out there.

And also whats the margin you make on these ink cartridges

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I think the margins may vary depending where you are so perhaps you may need to do a bit of research but i'll send you a pm with the details.

The company I deal with will actually tell you the top selling cartridges etc.

I only stock the Epson compatibles as they are the top sellers for me, I occasionally do get aske for Cannon etc so I order them in and they are posted to me.

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Update on the mugs- I've designed some unusual 'England' designs and produced several mugs. T-shirts next !

I'm going to print up wallet stuffers and a HUGE outdoor poster to promote them, BUT, I'm going to involve 'Help for Heroes' and donate £1 for every item sold.

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Thanks AJLA for your recomendations on which ink cartridges to stock, i`m about to place an order i think i`ll order 3 off each and i`ll let you know how i get on.

But for pricing i`m thinking £9.99 for all single colour cartridges and for the MULTI PACKS how but 10% cheaper than BOOTS OEM brands

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