"Everything you reprove in another, you must carefully avoid in yourself."

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman

by Jami Petersen

In last week's newsletter, Dennis Conforto contributed an article explaining how to measure sales from a particular manufacturer according to square feet. There was a good response from retailers and I wanted to publish one representative email, found below in the Dear Dennis section.
And guest writer, Fran Saperstein, urges the scrapbooking industry to reach out to prospective beginners of our craft. She offers suggestions for both manufacturers and retailers in this week's Business SMART article.

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

Responses from Readers

I'm in the process of completing our year end inventory, and this is exactly what I've been doing while counting--I've had customers ask why I'm rearranging everything and though I didn't know how to explain my madness to them, I've been doing exactly what you've suggested so I know what manufacturers to keep and who to let go. Some products don't sell as well as I think they do because they were scattered throughout the store. Now I'm set up per vendor. I downsized the size of my selling space because I realized I was wasting money on 'air', though it made my store look so much larger--I realized I was paying for space I wasn't using, and it was actually causing my per square foot sales to be horrible. We'll see how this new theory works.

Great article and perfect advice,
Isabel
 

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by Fran Saperstein

As I attend each trade show, I am always impressed by the volume of new products that are introduced. Papers, embellishments, stickers, rub-ons… the list seems to grow with each show and each collection. The creativity is dazzling, and the layouts seem to get more complex.

As much as I am enchanted by the products, I am concerned that, as an industry, we are boxing ourselves into a corner that will not allow us to grow. The more complex and artistic we make our sample layouts, the more we reinforce the idea that scrapbooking is an art that requires a significant investment in time, money, and space. And it requires expert skills.

Many who are interested in the craft see it as overwhelming. They don’t see a place for beginners. Last week I was at a reception where everyone introduced themselves. When it was my turn, I told them about my role as a publisher in the scrapbooking industry. Without fail, they all answered, “Oh my! I’d love to do that, but it just looks so complicated and I wouldn’t know where to start.” The sad thing is that I hear this often. It makes me wonder how we, as an industry can capture those people and get them hooked into the craft. It makes me ask, “Where have we gone wrong?”

These women divulge that they have bureaus full of photos of their children and pictures from their own childhoods. They don’t get to see the photos because they’re locked away in shoe boxes—or in some cases, even archival photo-safe boxes. The memories grow dimmer with each passing day as the photos sit hidden from the family.

Imagine the potential market these women represent! If we could get them to buy just a simple scrapbook where all they had to do was pop in their photos, add dates and maybe a bit of journaling, we’d have them hooked on the craft. Now, I don’t foresee that these women would necessarily become expert scrapbookers. On the contrary, they would see scrapbooking as an answer to their problem.

Manufacturers, retailers, and publishers have a huge opportunity here. If we provide the products and the support to this group that saves their memories, but is not interested in becoming “scrapaholics”, we can grow the industry by leaps and bounds.

And how do we make it easy for them to start? Many manufacturers have started to create starter kits. Some retailers have begun to offer beginner classes for free. Retailers can assemble their own starter kits to encourage newbies. Here at Scrapbooking.com Magazine, we’ve added a basic scrapbooking section where we take people step-by-step through the process of beginning scrapbooking. We also added a section on organizing products and photographs.

But it’s not enough. As an industry, we need to reach out beyond the people who are already scrapbooking. Retailers should reach out to Mom’s Clubs, churches and synagogues, and businesswomen. These are where the future of scrapbooking sits - with the pent up demand of photos sitting in boxes.

The Memory Tradeshow

The Memory Tradeshow is the premiere market for scrapbooking and related products, family history and digital imaging.

It is the most important gathering of this industry regionally, and it’s attracting executives from all sectors: manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps, designers and press. The show’s goal is to provide the highest ROI show within the industry with a greater focus on the business of the memory industry, education and best business practices.

Learn more and save >>

Ella Publishing Co. to Announce List of Most Influential Scrapbookers.

Every year, Time Magazine releases its list of Most Influential People. This year, for the first time ever, Ella Publishing Co. will release its list of the Most Influential Scrapbookers.

The women on Ella’s list may not be saving the world or brokering world peace, but they are helping scrapbookers everywhere save memories and move a few steps closer to inner peace. And that’s still something worth celebrating.

Starting July 12, 2010 the Ella Publishing Co. blog (ellapublishing.com/blog) will start dropping hints about the identities of the nine Most Influential Scrapbooker Award nominees.

On July 15, 2010 at ellapublishing.com/blog, the full list of Influential Scrapbookers will be revealed, including bios and links to their websites and/or blogs.

On July 16, 2010, Time to Scrapbook: 9 busy women share 27 tricks for fitting it in, will be available for sale at ellapublishing.com. This exciting new eBook contains the Most Influential Scrapbookers’ best tips for making memory keeping an integral part of their lifestyles, plus gorgeous scrapbook layouts from all of the nominees.

On July 19, 2010, the Most Influential Scrapbooker Blog Tour begins. All week long, scrapbookers will hop from blog to blog, enjoying prizes and inspiration along the way. There will be 100 winners and 100 prizes.

Who are the nominees?
They’re not the world’s best scrapbookers, they’re not the world’s smartest scrapbookers, and they’re not the scrapbookers with the cutest kids. They are simply, in Ella's book, the most influential. They’re the scrapbookers who give of their time and their talents to inspire the world’s memory keepers. They’re innovating, teaching, sharing, partnering, and spreading the good news of scrapbooking far and wide. They’re attracting new audiences to the hobby, making scrapbooking look cool to the uninitiated, and keeping longtime scrapbookers motivated and inspired.

About Ella Publishing Co.
Founded in 2009, Ella Publishing Co. produces high-quality, educational eBooks for scrapbookers and crafters, covering such topics as photography, journaling, design, and creativity. The site offers a free monthly eZine and 13 eBook titles available for sale so far, ranging in price from $4.99 to $6.99. Angie Lucas, former managing editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, owns and operates Ella Publishing Co., with a team that includes her former Simple Scrapbooks colleagues Wendy Smedley, Cathy Zielske, and Rachel Gainer.