Yippy skippy!

What a day. . .we met with a large dance studio today and they were very pleased with our work and want us to handle their photography for this year. This is very exciting for us. After using the same photographer for over 10 years, they switched last year and were not happy. Since we have built up our portfolio and our experience with large groups and dance schools, they seemed comfortable talking with us about their experience with the other photographers and about their needs.

So, after 1 1/2 months of calling and bugging the fool out of them, we were able to meet face to face and close the deal. Persistence is certainly your friend in sales!

To top it off, we had a very good portrait session today with a lovely family of 4. They were a young family with LOTS of energy, but we all had a great time. We're really adding to the portrait portfolio with this family, so we are going to open up that business next year. So far we really haven't gone after the portrait market, but Steve thinks he is ready now, and is very comfortable with session planning now. I'm going to school at The Light Factory beginning in December, so that will help as well on some of our bigger projects.

Steve and our partner have been kicking around some ideas on the digital signage stuff lately, so SteveD is coming down next week to work with Steve and a contact at the Bobcats, and some others from the Breakfast club. I hope they can get that going so that SteveD can help me with the lab sales. I'm a bit behind on signing up new photographers, but I hope to really catch up in New Orleans at the show.

I finally got the fliers done for the trade show, and the flier will also go out in the monthly checks to all of the PhotoReflect photographers. With that much "touch" we should get a few leads. . .I hope!

Funny thing that Steve did the other day. He was messing around with the order data from our website, and he sent out thank you emails to all of our October online customers. . .well that generated more sales on the website!! Very cool. He offered holiday cards, and several folks took us up on that offer.

This weekend is going to be quite busy. We have the Springmaid 5K, the Tread & Shred at Renaissance Park, and then it is the Christmas Tree lighting and Santa at Baxter Village. For the rest of this week, I'm working on a proposal for the White Water Training Center and getting all of my paperwork out of the way so that mom and I can go on our cruise. (I'm very excited about that!)

Just finished up a really cool book the other day. It was a very fast read, but I took my time with it. . .the book is called "My Naked Journey" and I was so impressed by it that I bought a copy for my best friend for Christmas. The trick will be to get Steve to read it. . .think I'll tell him it's porn, then maybe he'll take a look. . .heeheehee. Anyway, an excellent read. Guess I'll have to find something to read for the cruise. . .any recommendations, just let me know.

On a sad note, our poor kitty Thelma is very sick. She has been throwing up several times each day, so I took her to see Doc Willoughby. He had to sedate her, take some blood and also took a look at her teeth. It was quite sad. She has 2 loose teeth, and one that looks rotten and her gums are swollen. Not a good thing when you can't hold a toothbrush. Anyway, she is schedule for surgery next Wednesday, and for a 90 year old, this will be a big deal. After this she will have to switch to soft food, and we do hope that she recovers well. Doc seems to be doing well with all of his animals and kids. Was good to catch up with him and hear the latest on the robot that he is building. (MAC based at that!)

Well, that's all there is for now. . .hopefully my 1 reader will appreciate the effort. :-)

Happy Holidays from the Lyons Family!  

It's a difficult life as a smellycat.  

Louise is looking at me

This cat thinks that she is the center of the universe. If I can't sleep, then I must certainly be up so that I can pet her, right? Louise is most definitely my cat.

So I can't sleep, and this cat is just looking at me with those eyes and I'm eating jelly toast and drinking milk. My friend Suz made the best peach preserves, and I still have half a jar left. They are so good!

Steve woke up while I was still deciding if I wanted to get up and get a snack or not, and he said the most brilliant thing. "If you didn't stay up so late, you wouldn't sleep in every morning." Duh. Some people really shouldn't try to be brilliant at 1:30am.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a couple of my friends, and wondering how they are doing. I'm also very excited about the trip that my mom and I are planning. We have booked a cruise and will be leaving in December. (Steve's staying home with the cats!) I've also been thinking about how we're going to manage our booth at the trade show, and about our apres show event that we will be hosting at the Hyatt. I guess I should make some notes so that I don't have to walk around with all of those plans in my head. I'll have to order the printed materials very soon as well, but since we are the print lab, that shouldn't be much of a stretch.

Steve seems a bit down lately, so I've been worried about him as well. Not sure how to help him exactly, but he sure is offloading a whole lot of account stuff on me, so I guess that helps him. The books really don't take much time since he did such a great job setting them up initially. The only piece that is missing at this point is payroll. We have to get that going so that we can show some earned income next year. Greg us supposed to come over and help us get that setup, but he's really hard to pin down since the new store is opening in January.

I haven't had a chance to work with our lab customers yet, but now that I'm doing their billing I should be able to meet them over the phone. I'd like to start calling some of our accounts that have slowed down a bit just to see what's up and to introduce myself to them. I think it will be a lot more fun for me once I get to work more closely with the photographers. I'm also excited about going to school at the Light Factory in Charlotte. That should start in January.

Well, I'm starting to get a little sleepy so I think I'll call it a night.

today is one of those days

Yes, this is one of those days when I wish that I had my old job back at Microsoft. I might even go so far as to say that I miss my old job at Microsoft.

I had great news yesterday. . .was able to get a particularly difficult account to agree to meet with us on Tuesday and then have lunch so that was very good progress. And I was told that if I close all of the business that I have in the pipeline for Steve Lyons Photography, then I have met quota and can stop. (otherwise he'll have more than he can do)

Yesterday was also a banner day for USPhotoLab. Plans are coming along nicely for the trade show in NO. We have hired a model for the booth, we have shirts and hats being made with the USPhotoLab logo and I had some ideas for apre show activities that we can do to generate more business for the lab. All in all a very productive week.

However, the rage must stop. If anything goes wrong, there is a rage. (and I mean ANYTHING)

Can't take this. . .I'm not used to it and don't want to get used to it. Humm. . .at least at MS no one ever totally lost their marbles with me.

. . .and if he "misplaces" just one more battery. . .and these are your really expensive items, that you just can't pick up at the CVS.

Anyway. We'll see how this weekend goes with one horse race and then a cheerleading competition on Sunday.

US Photo Lab is up and running. . .

Well, at least the website is up and running: www.usphotolab.com
But it's a start! We did sign up 2 new pro photographers this week, and have a prospective customer in the pipeline. The show in January should help a lot, plus we are now on the public network at PhotoReflect.com so we'll get more "browse up" traffic in the next few weeks.

My job for the next 2 months is to get the member only content ready for the site, and also put together our marketing plan for the PPA show in New Orleans in January. We've hired a model for our booth, and I have to come up with the materials for the booth and coordinate our "after the show" event at the Hyatt. This should be fun, but there is a lot of work to do to prep for the show. I'm excited! . . .except about the whole "flying to New Orleans" part of it.

Well, gotta go, we have 3 events this weekend and lots to get ready.

Cool tool

If you are an amature, or a pro, this is a very cool tool for digital photography. We use it in the field, and in the office and are always amazed by its capabilities: www.breezebrowser.com

Just for fun. . .

Just for fun, I have created my own photography storefront: www.smellycat.photoreflect.com

I'm not a pro photog, just pretend to be one when I'm hanging out with the "guys", but I do all of their photo editing so at least I've got an eye for it! This site is just for fun. Sometimes I actually carry a camera around, and sometimes I'll take a shot or two. . .and sometimes they don't look half bad.

So this will be the gallery of the "not half bad" work that I do from time to time. I often get the photogo to take silly pictures for me, so I'll post those here as well. (Ron is my favorite co-conspirator.)

So this is just for fun, family and giggles.