Digitizing The World » business http://www.pixmonix.com/blog The Pixmonix Blog. Converting and protecting memories Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:40:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Books, books and more books http://www.pixmonix.com/blog/books-books-and-more-books http://www.pixmonix.com/blog/books-books-and-more-books#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:06:00 +0000 sbennett http://www.pixmonix.com/frb/blog/?p=19 I took a step back the other day to take a look at everything that I have read while building Pixmonix. The list is very large. This includes book on starting and running a business, technical books (e.g., on building websites, using photo and video tools) and managing people and processes within an enterprise. When I add in the books and magazines that I have read for fun, it is kind of ridiculous. Over the next several weeks, I will try to summarize what I have read and offer my limited insights into what is worth reading.

What have you read while establishing your business that you found particularly useful?

]]> http://www.pixmonix.com/blog/books-books-and-more-books/feed 0 Business and the recession http://www.pixmonix.com/blog/business-and-the-recession http://www.pixmonix.com/blog/business-and-the-recession#comments Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:20:00 +0000 sbennett http://www.pixmonix.com/frb/blog/?p=18 Whenever I see someone I haven’t spoken to in a while, one of the first questions that they ask is “how is Pixmonix doing in this downturn?”. Like my friend Jim Harrington, who runs a slide scanning business out of his house in MA (I linked his blog in my blogroll), things have been growing pretty substantially for us during the last 12 months, even through the downturn.

Why?

Economics. The cost of scanning larger collections of slides/negatives/photos has gone down over the last couple of years. This has opened up the market for many consumers and businesses to digitize their collections. Technologies have improved to allow us to be more efficient and the market has changed to force us to be more cost effective. These are good things. For the former, we have employed a number of new software technologies, hammered out a more efficient and responsive workflow, and put a strong focus on getting great results with less time commitment. For the changes in the marketplace we can “thank” a couple of our competitors that are outsourcing labor to India and central America.

Perceived need. Now that digital cameras have strongly outpaced film, most people are seeing the benefits of digital images compared to film. This makes them want to have all the old photos in digital form. Every day I see our customers embracing and loving the things that they do with their newly digitized images. In my personal life, I have seen great joy from my own relatives as a result of the scanning of old photos. A digital photo frame with scanned images makes a great gift, especially for older relatives.

Comfort spending. It think that preservation of photos is an area that gives people great joy and comfort, especially when the economy is doing so poorly.

What have your experiences been like during the downturn?

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