I received a call from Steve Weiss, president and CEO of Creve Coeur Camera near St. Louis, who was excited to tell me about his recent foray into the printing business. He’s expanded his stores to include a BizCard Xpress counter, and his incremental sales have been impressive. I spoke with Weiss and Lee Papadeas, president and CEO of BizCard Xpress, to understand how this unique business model is perfect for photo specialty store expansion.
JG: Tell me about how you guys got together.
SW: I went to a franchise show around two years ago thinking about a printing franchise, and I spoke with a few prospects. I really didn’t want a full-fledged printing company where I would have to hire a pressman and invest in major presses. In my search, I ran across BizCard Xpress and knew I had found the answer.
When I walked into their store, I realized we already had much of the equipment we would need to get started. From a photofinishing standpoint, there are a couple of counters, a few PCs with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on them, a business card slitter, a couple of copiers, a wide-format laminator, a wide-format cutter/plotter, a big worktable and a guillotine cutter. So I didn’t really need a full franchise, just a way in.
LP: Steve called and explained his situation. I totally understood and worked out an agreement, and they bought a fractional franchise made to order for their individual needs.
Were you thinking all along that you could make it part of your store, rather than a stand-alone building?
SW: That was exactly the point. Our photofinishing business was holding steady and our camera sales were actually up, but we needed more volume and more profit. The printing business offers substantial margins. So our BizCard Xpress business is really a copy shop, sign shop and advertising specialty store. We tell people we can print anything—superfast printing for brochures, business cards and signs, and it encompasses anything they want or need.
Has this expanded your customer base to more business customers?
SW: We’ve gone from 0 to $10,000 in 30 days because we already have built-in customers. Of our camera customers, not our pro customers but our beginner to advanced amateurs, 50%–80% are “photographers” looking for business cards. A guy who has a pool company came in to buy cameras. He bought 200 coroplast signs to put in front of the houses where he builds pools.
LP: It looks like Steve is already into the jargon! Coroplast signs are those lawn signs you see as typical 18×24-inch real estate signs.
So in terms of this industry, are you guys thinking this could be an opportunity for photo retailers to expand their businesses because they already have most of the equipment?
SW: Since we were already in the photo-processing business, we spent probably 60%–70% less than a normal franchisee. We didn’t have to buy large-format printers, registers or POS. We already wanted to buy an over-laminating machine, so that was a few thousand dollars. Our largest expense was a large-format printer/cutter/plotter. I had a vinyl machine and a couple of worktables. We went full fledged into it at about $30,000, versus a normal franchise of more than $150,000. In addition, there’s normally a two-week training period, but ours only took three days.
Because your people were already familiar with it?
SW: A normal franchisee is a guy who’s worked until 57 or 58, he’s laid off, or he wants to do something different. You have to teach him the business, and you also have to teach him retail. Our employees in the camera business are already into Photoshop and comfortable with those types of software programs, so there’s no real learning curve. They already know how to sell; they’re all using our registers and they know how to price things out.
Do you have people who are 100% dedicated to BizCard or do customers rotate to that part of the store?
SW: Our intention was to immediately open our two biggest stores with full-time staff. In both of those stores, I have a full-time person who does graphics and production. The Creve store has a manager of the department, an outside salesperson and a production person. And some of the work goes to the lab as part of the normal flow of operations.
In our other stores, we’ll put one full-time graphics person in the store, and everything else is sent to the main lab and will be hub and spoke.
Is it branded as a BizCard Xpress store within a store?
SW: This is a department inside an existing store. It’s separately signed, separately colored—the BizCard Xpress sign has a bright green logo—so everybody who walks into the store sees it.
How are you marketing this to bring new customers into your stores?
SW: Through our website, with flyers and with outside salespeople. We also take up at least one page in every one of our FSI’s. And everyone now answers the phone saying, “Creve Camera/BizCard Xpress.”
Do you get a lot of traffic off the street that you didn’t used to get?
SW: When people drive by, they now see a sign that says “Cameras, Copies, Printing and Signs.” I would say 70% are existing customers, but we haven’t even e-mailed our customer list. We’ve done a lot through Facebook. We’re just tagging it along with our existing advertising. There’s no budget for BizCard Xpress; it’s just part of our everyday business.
So for a $30,000 investment, what do you see as your ROI timetable?
SW: We should be profitable within the first year. After that it should elevate. We should be able to do $100,000 to $150,000 per store. The margins are in the 60%–80% range, so our return should be phenomenal. Also, franchises like Kinkos and Minuteman Press are our competition. Our prices are much better and our services are faster.
As a seasoned camera store and photofinishing store, are you finding you can bring your photofinishing creative expertise to business cards and things that a printing company can’t because they just don’t have that experience?
SW: Absolutely, especially someone who’s starting out. For example, we have stock photography and we know how to use it—vector art. It’s something we’re used to doing. For us, we know exactly where to get the stock photos because it’s what we do. It definitely gives us an edge in the market. And our people are already creative; and that’s tough to teach. The synergy is so simple.
Lee, did you think of this market as a possibility before he approached you?
LP: In the late ’90s I was thinking in terms of putting kiosks in Walmart stores, but this is a more perfect marriage. Steve was the prime mover, as it just makes so much sense on so many levels. It’s a perfect adjunct to his business, and to ours as well.
So it’s less of a risk for you, Steve, because you’re not opening a new store. You don’t need the plant and equipment and you don’t have to start from zero on the marketing, because you have an installed customer base.
SW: Correct.
It’s a cool story. Given the fact that camera stores are facing challenges to grow their businesses, business printing is tangential to photo printing. And you have the expertise, some of the equipment and can easily turn your people into printers. So how would someone get involved?
SW: I’d be happy to answer any questions from a photo store standpoint at sweiss@cccamera.com. For franchise information, contact Lee at leetimbcx@gmail.com or call him directly at 386-237-0446. He’s incredibly easy to work with.
