Time to introduce myself

[Pro-Am]

Greetings everyone, I have been lurking on this forum for a couple of weeks now and thought it was about time I introduced myself.



My name is David Barnes and I run a photofinishing business, Pro-Am, in Newcastle Australia. The business itself has been around for about 30 years, though I bought it from the original owner in 2000. Pro-Am is well known in the local photographic community and enjoys a good reputation for producing a high quality product.



When I bought the business it mostly serviced the professional community with slide processing and printing for wedding and commercial photographers. With the advent of digital technology changing the way images are produced, Pro-Am has been in a constant state of evolution as we followed the changing needs and the type of customers we support. Now probably only 20% of our client base could be call professionals, and we now service mostly your everyday photo enthusiast.



Although some of the changes we have had to make have been difficult and costly, they have been necessary to survive. When I took over the business I had 17 competitors, now other than the few big box movers, which have got into digital printing, there is now only one other independent and myself in the greater Newcastle area.



I have had a wide format printer for many years and have done very well out of canvas printing and stretching. However as far as normal prints went, other than offering some fairly poor quality readymade frames in the store, we have been sending our customers down the road to get their pictures framed. So moving into custom framing seemed a natural progression for the business. Also may I say, none of those local framers who I sent many $1000’s of work to each year ever bothered to drop over a bottle of wine at Christmas time to say thankyou, helped accelerate my decision.



So this during this Christmas to New-year break, while the shop was closed, rather than sit at home and watch the Aussies thrash the English at cricket, I fitted out the shop so I could offer custom framing. Most of the gear has been bought on the second hand market, new benches have been built and samples are on their way, so I look forward to the challenges this new endeavour will bring.

I look forward to participating in this discussion group.

[Pro-Am]

Thought I would add some photos of my basic set up

[JohnMcafee]

Welcome aboard, Pro-Am.

Good luck with the new venture

[Not your average framer]

Hi Pro Am and welcome to the forum,

It looks to me that you are making the right move. One stop service, all under one roof. That makes good sense!

I hope that you do well!

Mark