Steve Hagensieker - Jack's Camera Shop - Muncie, Indiana, USA - www.jackscamera.com

OK, Chris and Bill, I definitely owe you one but I've been waiting for lightning to strike.

Here's the biggest revelation I've had in the last few months.

Don't get stuck in the past with your buying habits. Review product categories periodically.

For example back when memory prices were very volatile most of were buying at most a 30 day supply because of price protection policies. This caused most of us to review our memory card inventory on a continuing basis. A big run on cards or a purchase order could leave our inventory depleted and me scrambling to write a new order.

The light bulb for me finally came on during the first week of the Christmas season when we had a run on 1gb SD cards. I finally realized that even if the prices changed by 10% either up or down the actual dollar amount change was somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 cents........a change not significant to justify changing our retail prices.

Since then I've adjusted my base inventory to make sure I have between 30 to 60 days of the most popular cards in stock. This takes one more "worry" item off my plate.

Gerry Wagman - Verona Camera - Verona, NJ, USA

Here's a small but simple idea that was created out of necessity.

I have many customers that come in with their memory cards and say "Just print them all and put them on a CD, I'll be back in an hour."

That's great, isn't it, well here's the catch: some of them - really very few of them - come back a few days after picking up their order, and ask "do you still have my memory card?", and of course I say it is in the finishing envelope.

Now I put all memory cards in a #3 coin envelope and I stamp it with a 2"x2" stamp in blue bold letters,that says " your memory card is in this envelope" and I also stamp the out side of the work envelope with the stamp.

Chris Lydle - Chris' Camera Center - Aiken, SC, USA - www.chriscamera.com

PMA has just posted a new reference guide to the requirements of different countries: http://www.pmairegs.com/passport/

They're starting with 150 countries!

Next, how to print them according to the specs you've just found.

On The Go Software publishers produce a compact, dedicated program called Passport Photo. With a US retail of about $10, the software makes it very simple to create an image file that meets specifications exactly, and you can program the specifications for several countries and all their applications.

You can get the software from www.onthegosoft.com and you can try it free before you buy.

First, import the photo that you have just made with your digital camera. The PassportPhoto software shows the boundaries of the image and lets you adjust the scale so the head size is exactly right. You can set up specifications for just about every country and variation thereof.

This software, in addition to cropping and creating multiple images on a single 4x6 canvas, allows you to adjust brightness, contrast and color. If you've taken the photograph properly you won't need to do so.

We've started printing the final images on our HP 4x6 printer so we don't have to interrupt the work flow on our RA-4 printer.

6Sight won't necessarily put any money in your pocket this Christmas but it will give you solid ideas as to where the industry is going and what the next big thing could be.

It's the "executive level" imaging conference, to be held at the Monterey (California) Conference Center.

November 18-20, hobnob with the likes of Bill Lloyd, Guy Kawasaki, Tony Henning and other heavy-hitters in the imaging future business.

October 10-11, 2008 PMA Pacific Northwest Division Annual Meeting Seattle, WA

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 -New York/New Jersey Metro Division of PMA Business Improvement Expo. Fort Lee, NJ, 6-10 PM. More information

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - PMA New England Division 2008 Annual Meeting 5:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Holiday Inn Select Boston-Woburn - Woburn, Massachusetts

October 23-25, 2008 PDN PhotoPlus Expo Jacob Javits Center, New York, NY - website

November 22, 2008 - PMA New York/New Jersey Metro Division Inc. 2008 Holiday Tailgate Party Fort Lee, NJ. For further information contact Alan Niederman at 732-308-0915.

March 1 - March 4, 2009 - DIMA 2009 Las Vegas, NV, USA

March 3 - March 5, 2009 - PMA 2009 Las Vegas, NV, USA

Did you know that every single issue of the McCurry Marketing Idea Exchange is archived on line - going all the way back to Issue 1?