2015 counting my blessing

2015 counting my blessing

2015 is starting off with blast, firstly scoring a last minute expo opportunity with Ideal Bride (thanks to Eric who approaches the organiser), wedding has always been about 20% of our market. So being in an expose should further confirm our assumption. This will allow us to test if we can achieve product market fit for that market. There were about 400 brides that came through the doors but only about 10% of them show interest on what we do. Maybe we need to look at a subsection of the wedding market, maybe a vintage wedding expo will be more aligned? Let further test out this hypothesis.

For me, besides graining exposure for FilmNeverDie, it’s a great way to meet other suppliers too, so I went around and hand out name cards and introduce FilmNeverDie to wedding venues, cake makers, hair stylists and weddings cars’ chauffeurs too! We also met Justin Hill a wedding photographer, he drop by say Hi and says he followed us on Instagram (@justinhillphoto) , how cool is that! (pictured above with Eric)

Guess who was having a booth next to us? We have Mr and Mrs Booth (http://www.mrandmrsbooth.com.au), a very friendly, easy -to-relate and chatty couple who run a photo booth. It turns out Bratt (Mr Booth)have the same birthday as me (17th of July, if you are wondering). Also Madeleine (a wedding photographer herself- http://mchiller.com/) who also manages Treacy Centre (http://www.treacycentre.com.au/) — a wedding reception venue just down the road from FilmNeverDie in Parkville also has a booth in the expo next to ours. Me and Wei Wei walk past Treacy Centre almost everyday when we walk Headie, our dog. I always wanted to work with them, and miraculously we were setting booth next to each other. We became friends with most of the supplier. In fact Treacy Centre is doing a open day on the 31st of Jan, FilmNeverDie will have a booth there too, come hang and help spread the words

After the expose, as I was in the midst of organising and handing over FilmNeverDie (as I am going for 1 month holiday in Feb to China and Malaysia) Jake aka The Instant Camera Guy rang me up and tell me he got present for me, it turns out he restored our display model large format Micro Precision Products Ltd (MPP) 4 x 5 camera, with the newly installed Graflex lens and calibrated rangefinder, not to mentioned the nice glued and touched up leather skin, the camera looks almost brand new.

Jake is definitely God sent, I mean when he moved down from Perth, he got the whole of metro Melbourne to choose for where to stay but he and Anna chose to moved to Parkville, just down the road from FilmNeverDie. This is 1 year after Hillvale Photo opened up too in Brunswick too. I mean having an awesome Polaroid repair man and the most bang for buck C41 developing lab down the road, what can you asked for more? I call this set up the Brunswick / Parkville Film Golden triangle for film lovers.

Unfortunately Jake has to moves, but guess where he moved to? To Richmond, just down the road from my church , Ha! I can still drop by his place on a weekly basis before or after church.

Our last praise point would be to thanks for getting a venue for our Polaroid exhibition, along the years of running FilmNeverDie, it really awesome who God place around you. I mean we got people who run public listed biotech company, sales reps from A2 milk to talented photographers and teenage girls who came throgh our shop. At the end of the day, I think being able to past on the love and passion for vintage camera, film and Polaroid is very important, but doing it in a relatable and personal way is even more crucial. How do you connect, nurture and cherish the relationship will ultimately determine your success in life. Through this avenue, we were able to find a gallery space we are working with to run our first Polaroid exhibition!