March 7, 2024 • 48 mins
Connect with PVS Studios here: https://www.pvsstudios.com/
Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/
Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant, now a business coach
and consultant. I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness.
Isn't it beautiful? I know. It'slike I always try to tell people
don't tell the secret thatchronometer Beach is so
beautiful.
All right. Well, we're live.
Thank you, Jack, for joining metoday on the level up your
business podcast. Well, thanksfor having me. I look forward to
(01:01):
it. Thanks, really an honor. Youknow, we were just kind of
chatting about the weather. Imean, we both live in the same
community. And we got to knoweach other years and years ago.
So let's start with ourconnection. How, how fun that we
are connected in more than oneway and have known each other
for a long time. But tell peoplea little bit about your
(01:22):
background, and just what you doand what you've done. Yeah, so
we've been in the in theJacksonville area for 20 to 23
years and our corporateheadquarters were here or still
are here, a company called aCost of Sales and Marketing
Center, an outsize out sourceprovider of sales and marketing
services. And so I was with themfor 25 plus years, and retired a
(01:44):
few years ago. And then how wegot to know each other, of
course, was through yourprimarily through your
restaurant and coming in. Andthen once I got to know you, as
I started, we started a programthat was at Jacksonville
University focus on consumergoods and services,
(02:07):
you are kind enough become partof our board and our advisory
board that really helped us todevelop that whole program. So
yeah, so So then through throughju and the CPG program, consumer
goods and products program, andand then just through the
community and and Trask has beenkind enough to host some events
(02:31):
for us. And yeah, so it's been,it's been a real pleasure. Yeah,
it's been so rough. Oh, thankyou, Jack. I mean, really, you
know, our families know eachother now. And I always enjoy
to, you know, seeing your boysand their growing family, one of
them, you know, coming through,and it's pretty fun. You know,
(02:52):
it's an interesting, I wouldsay, kind of small, large world
of the CPG. World. So consumer,I think the acronym as I knew it
was consumer packaged goods. Andessentially, you know, when I
shared with you that I came fromGeneral Mills, and you were at
Acosta, and, you know, there's alot of interconnectivity through
the years of people that you'veserved people that I've served,
(03:12):
whether it's, you know, theretailer, or whether it's
getting to know, some of themanufacturers.
And, again, it's kind of funnythat we, you know, kind of grew
up, if you will, in the sametype of world. So, that was
pretty fun. And it was an honoralso to be a part of kind of the
helping students at Ju, theCollege of Business to
(03:35):
understand the possible avenuesfor development and for career
path, you know, amongstcompanies like Kimberly Clark,
or a small organic brand, or,you know, very large
international, global CPGcompany. So, pretty cool. Yeah,
you were you are a great fit onthe advisory board for a couple
(03:55):
of reasons. One of the things wewanted to do is broaden
the demographics, if you will,of the board, and so have people
that have a retailer background,a distributor background,
manufacturer, background, foodservice background, as well as
(04:16):
different roles within those amarketing marketing perspective
or a sales process perspectiveand general management
perspective. So have a fairamount of diversity of industry
sectors as well as functional,functional areas. And you were,
you know, so you were yourperfect so not only do you have
your new food servicebackground, but also came from
(04:39):
one of the largest, mostrespected CPG manufacturers in
the world. So it was it was yourperfect, perfect fit and a
marketing background and as anoperator as well. Yeah. So
again, when the kids get to see,you know, some broad avenues
(05:00):
As you said, for, for careerpathing, and you know great
careers in an industry that'sgoing to be stable and growing
forever. Anyway, so we reallyappreciate you being involved.
Well, I think you feel the sameway as I do. I mean, if we can
give back in the community,especially to the young, like
people who are interested, and,you know, it was my first
(05:22):
Adjunct Professor role, I don'tknow if you know this, but after
I worked with, you know, a wholesemester with your team, with
your class, and then I was ableto hire one of your students as
an intern. So that was a goodexperience. And then, from
there, I actually startedworking with Penn, Penn State,
(05:42):
I've worked with a couple othercolleges since then all over the
country, just helping them tokind of understand different
career paths, how to beinnovative within this kind of
industry. And anyway, that wasreally fun for me. So thank you,
again, for the opportunity.
So on the topic of your path,you have continued to evolve,
(06:03):
because you have just as muchenergy as I do. We're both
blessed to be naturallycaffeinated people.
You know, Jay, you board and acaster, we're not the end of
your career. So tell ourlisteners a little bit about
that next evolution. Yeah, sowe've got a small,
(06:24):
I would characterize it as astartup company that does
visual product imaging, or as wecall them visual assets. So as
most industries have pivotedvery quickly, over the last few
years, particularly since thepandemic has really
revolutionized e Comm, and theneed for really great product
(06:47):
representation, and virtualinteractivity, if you will, with
your products that you purchaseonline, you know, really wasn't
long ago, you know, reallybefore the pandemic, that most
of the retail experience andmost industries were,
you know, it was mostly brickand mortar, I mean, certainly
look online and do your researchand things like that. But it
(07:09):
wasn't, it wasn't the majorityof any of the industry
verticals, right. And so theydidn't have necessarily a sense
of urgency on having greatproduct representation on on a
call, whether it was their ownsite, or whether it was a an E
retailer.
And then the pandemic changedeverything. And so the need to
(07:33):
be able to virtually interactwith a product, almost feel it,
see it, touch it and reallyexperience it virtually, is
really ratcheted up. So that'swhat our company does. And so we
do that as an outside outsourceprovider. And we have very small
companies and people that, youknow, there's a woman in the
community that makes you know,this custom made persons and so
(07:55):
she'll bring her new purses inwhen she makes them every, you
know, X number of months, and,but we have companies as large
as Whole Foods. And so everyevery new product comes through
Whole Foods, we image and we dotheir product dimensions and
some other things. So that'swhat we do. That's amazing. I
obviously have a little bitmore in depth knowledge as to
(08:17):
what these product images areall about. And so, you know,
I've shared with you, I was inthis shopper marketing role for
many years, probably about nineyears, actually. And we had to
give the retailers so let's sayI was working with Publix who I
actually supported and Targetand Walmart and Kroger and all
(08:39):
sorts of grocers throughout thecountry. The one that I shared
with you before is my SuperValue days, because it was not
only corporate, but there werewholesale, there was something
like 137 banners or names thatthey do business. So anyway, I
would have to work with thisperson and get them the images
that they needed. And this oneand imagine doing that 137 times
(09:00):
and everybody needed a littlebit of a different format. And
exactly, it was complicated. Andso, you know, sometimes there
weren't images that were verygood, they were outdated, or the
packaging had changed and so itwas no longer representative of
the product. And that would beyou know, a pretty big problem
in the in the manufacturingworld because you're really kind
(09:22):
of held to very strictstandards, etc. So I can
commiserate with the I meanprocess of getting these images
and so I think it's reallyamazing what you've done. I also
think it's funny, you know, whenI when I think back to the
pandemic, I actually just havemy water bottles sitting here
it's empty, but you know, in thestore, you can see what the
(09:47):
right formation is right and youcan see how it and obviously not
the water bottle is is not asimportant but see how it might
relate to you. Does it fitinside your purse? Does it do
whatever it does, it doesAnd so now that you have these
images, and I've seen thequality of images that you guys
do with the 3d renderings andthe ability, you can almost
picture what it's like to holdit in your hand or to have it in
(10:09):
your world, physically. So it'spretty amazing. Well, it's
really, it's interesting. Andwhen you held up the bottle, it
kind of reminded me, it's, it'sinteresting how much you know,
many companies, and particularlythose that are more
sophisticated, how much theyinvest on their packaging, you
know, it's a real science to getthe right color of all the
(10:30):
patterns, the Fonz, et cetera,et cetera, said all whatever
you're communicating on your onyour package is really critical.
And you know, that's, if youwill, for really the, the
physical shelf. And yet a lot ofcompanies
still do. They're not nearly asinvested in the virtual shelf.
(10:52):
And now there's almost morevolume coming off their virtual
shelf than their physical shelf.
And you know, how that productlooks that you've spent so much
time and investment in thepackaging, how it really looks
in a, in a virtual shelf isreally important. And it's
sometimes surprising how, howunprofessionally some companies
approach the virtual shelf.
(11:16):
Yeah, after they've spent allthat money on getting a great
package. And then it reallydoesn't, it looks like it just
looks bad in a digital world. Sotell me in, you know, name
names, if you felt comfortable.
But, you know, we talked aboutthe amount of products out
there, what are the productsthat you have currently, or
(11:36):
would be a good fit? I mean,it's not just food. So talk a
little bit about that. No, sowe've, you know, we originally
started in the food sector, andso a, that was our background B,
there was a specific problemthat we were addressing. And so
we started there, and,and then and, and then we have
(11:57):
evolved to some some differentindustry sectors. And, and also,
we've evolved from beingfocused on large retailers,
distributors, I mentioned WholeFoods, that we do all the
business for Whole Foods. Andthat kind of started before the
pandemic. And because WholeFoods and the whole natural
(12:20):
organic food sector, had somehad some issues with getting
good imaging, and getting gooddata and information from their
vendors. So they became kind ofthe solution
for to get econ images. So inother words, they said, Hey,
listen, I can't trust you as avendor to get me the images that
(12:41):
I can't, that I need. Soconsequently, I'm going to kind
of force you to say, Hey, I'mgoing to take on your items, I'm
gonna stalk them in my store,and I'm also going to put them
online, just send mea case of your product, and then
I'll get it imaged, and thenI'll bill you back, and then
we'll be done. But they'rethey've turned out and we kind
of first started our mentality,you know, kind of pre pandemic,
(13:04):
if you will, was focused on, youknow, other Whole Foods
analogues, you know, what otherbig distributors, retailers, et
cetera. But the pandemic changechanged the model and the, you
know, very quickly for one, youknow, everything's closed. So a
lot of these imaging studiosclosed up. And so and then the
(13:25):
other thing that happened ismost manufacturers started to
launch their own sites. And sothey needed their own images as
well. And you kind of youindicated that with all the, the
banners from SuperValu. Andeverybody wants a little bit of
a different, a different imagerendering, you know, I want it
from this angle, I want thesethree, I want it spin, you know,
everybody wants maybe somethingdifferent. But anyway, so what
(13:47):
happened, kind of during thepandemic is, the big retailers
and distributors, and even ecommerce, e commerce sites, the
Big E retailers, basicallypushed all of the imaging
downstream to theirmanufacturers and said, Hey, I'm
not gonna do it anymore. You gotyour own web and manufacturers
were for all intents purposes,and that's fine, because
(14:09):
actually, I got my own site now.
And this retailer wants itlooking differently, and blah,
blah, blah. And so consequently,everything that the industry
kind of flipped, and noweverything is downstream and
done by the manufacturers. Sothat's maybe a long way of
saying they're our, our, ourcustomer base has really changed
(14:29):
now and it's all of themanufacturers and our, our sweet
spot really is because we're ahigh throughput, high volume,
very efficient model almost likea photography factory, if you
will.
We, you know, our sweet spot ismanufacturers that have lots of
items, lots of skews and afairly robust set of new items
(14:54):
coming through their pipe everyyear. So they they need we can
obviouslydo small companies and we do
small companies that mayintroduce five new items a year.
And that's fine or one new itema year. And hey, I need you to
do this item, you're fine. Andwe do. But our sweet spot is
companies like Shimano fishingas an example. And Shimano,
(15:15):
fishing has literally 1000s and1000s of items. And every year,
they're updating they're,whether it's their apparel, and
their fishing vests, and etcetera, or the rods and reels or
all there. So they're a reallygood example of a company that
used to kind of do it on theirown. And then, when they
discovered that there is anoutsourced provider that can
(15:37):
actually do it cheaper, better,faster, and is expert in it,
they said, Please take it all.
And so we do. So that's kind ofour that really is our sweet
spot. And then also forcompanies that have large,
complex, maybe not complicated,but challenging items, you know,
we do, we do a company that doesinflatable paddle boards and a
(16:00):
paddle boards. And so, you know,not many organizations have the
ability to get that kind of sizeitems. And we do a lot of HVAC
equipment. So really large, youknow, compressors, and that kind
of stuff out. So again, we havethat kind of broad capability.
(16:20):
And so we do, those are the kindof companies that are more of
our sweetspot largerorganizations, as opposed to,
you know, your Etsy producerthat's going to, you know, have
a handful of items on a regularbasis. That makes sense.
So, where are you headed? I'mjust curious. You know, it and
we should say the name of thebusiness that you are involved
(16:44):
in, which is PV studios, maybeyes, yes. Yes. Studios, visual
solutions was what kind ofstandard? Oh, yes, yeah. Okay.
PVS. Alright, so tell me kindof, you know, as you look at the
future, and this is one of thethings that, you know, at point
ne we really work with ourclients on is, you know, setting
that vision point, and sometimesI describe it as kind of like a
(17:07):
lighthouse on the horizon. It'sa beacon of light. And if
everything goes, well, you canget to it. And so, what does
maybe it's a three year, maybeit's five year, what does that
lighthouse look like for PVS?
Well, it's fairly ambitious.
I'm convinced that somebody willget there. And I Oh, candidly,
(17:28):
we're one of the larger scaleproviders in our industry, we're
now if not really the largest,it's that much of a kind of a
startup business, but our, our,our vision, and our belief is
that there this will be an ADPtype of business at some point,
now not as large as ADP. Yeah,we use payroll processing as our
(17:51):
analog. So the notion that, youknow, it wasn't that long ago
that every organization didtheir own payroll, not that hard
to do payroll mean, you'veprobably got staff or financial
staff that writes checks, youcertainly have to pay your
customers and your vendors andeverybody else, not customers,
(18:12):
but vendors. And so writingchecks, and paying your own
people was not that hard. And ifyou didn't do it yourself, you
may have used a local CPA oraccounting firm in your market
that was a highly fragmentedkind of fail, I just use the
local accountant down the roadto do our payroll. That wasn't
(18:36):
that long ago. And then ADP, andnow that all their competitors
have completelyautomated and change that space
disrupted that space. And nowreally, nobody, nobody does
their own payroll, I mean, evenmy brother who had a small and
like a five person business, hedidn't do his own payroll, he
(18:59):
had ADP or one of theircompetitors was doing this
anyway, that that is what webelieve we believe that this is
an this is a a an industry,where there are literally
millions and millions andmillions of new items that are
produced every single year. Itis new items, as you will know
(19:20):
from your background at GeneralMills, but for most industries,
new item is the lifeblood oftheir growth. If you're not
innovating, if you're notcreating new items, you're
stagnant and you know, you'regoing to you're going to lose so
anyway, new items are comingwith just rapid succession in
every industry vertical. Andevery time there's a new item
(19:40):
produced in any space, you know,including including me when you
have a menu change, you know,you need and want an image of
that product. And there's noreason why you should be doing
that internally. You know, youdon't want to have to hire a
photographer when youYou're a restaurant or you make
stand up paddleboards, I don'tneed or want, I don't want the
(20:03):
hardware, I don't want thesoftware I don't want to hire.
There's no reason why you shouldever do your own product images.
But because our industry is sokind of new, and it really was
no large scale providers, a lotof people are doing it
themselves. Because what, geez,then they find out that we're
(20:26):
there they go, oh, gosh, I wishI knew about you. I bought some
equipment, I bought somehardware, I bought some
software, I tried to hiresomebody or make somebody that's
in my marketing group, take thephotos, and it's a disaster. And
now the person that takes thepicture in their marketing
department never ever thinksit's a disaster, oh, we got
this. It's good. But the realityis, it is a disaster. And it's
(20:48):
not core to you process and soforth. So that's a long way of
saying that, we believe that itwill that eventually, everybody
will outsource their visualimages. Because the other thing
that we believe is a tailwindfor us, in our industry, or a
small nascent industry is thatconsumers will demand better and
(21:13):
better we already our productand our activity online. And so
you know, if one long ago whenyou were you know your content
when you had like a grainy imageof something you wanted to buy
online, and now you want to beable to zoom you want to be able
to spin it, you want to you wantto see a lot of things like our
(21:33):
stand up paddleboard company asan example. We're doing like
Griffeys like really quick thatshows how do I put this
paddleboard? Together? I get it,I take it. And okay, how do I
inflate it? Where's that? Wheredoes this go? Where does that
piece go? And so you want,you're going to want more and
more, or the consumers willdemand better imaging or visuals
(21:58):
to go with their to understandtheir products. So that becomes
that much more expensive andcomplicated for a business to
do. I mean, and again, why do Iwant to do that, oh, gosh, I
need a videographer. I need aphotographer, I need you know, I
need to do all the photo postprocessing the cake, you know,
cut out glare and all thatnonsense, and I just why. So
(22:24):
that's why we believe again,it's fairly ambitious, but we
believe that this will be amultibillion dollar industry.
And, and there's no reason whywe shouldn't be one of the large
players in that space as it asit evolves. So yeah, so that's
our that's our kind of our whywe believe it's, it's possible.
(22:48):
Yeah. And also what we aspirekind of to be. That's great. I
mean, you know, as you weretalking, I was thinking about
the olden days of when you wouldfind out what the new products
were, you know, via a catalogwhether it was like a JC
Penney's, or Kohl's or whatever.
Or if you were looking, youknow, for what you were going to
feed your family this week, youwould look in the Sunday paper
(23:09):
and get the FSI circular, thathad the coupons and the pictures
and all those sorts of things,or the what's on sale or deal at
your brochure, I mean, theamount of importance on the
images, because people eat withtheir eyes. I mean, they they
are, you know, kind of, they'reseeing it or they're purchasing
(23:30):
with their eyes. They want toknow what the color is, and how
does it fit? Or what does itlook like or,
and so anyways, I think it'sincredibly important. You know,
I think about also all of therestaurants out there. And as
you know, from Tresca, that wasone of my biggest, well, maybe
(23:51):
not biggest, but it was a veryimportant component of what I
wanted to do, becauseI grew up at General Mills,
where they had a photographystudio, I mean, I literally
would create photoshoots and Iwould be down there and they
would be I used to make fun ofthe team but it was like they
moved the blueberry because sortof blueberry muffin, it had to
(24:11):
look a certain way and theywould be you know, photographing
it and looking at a computerscreen and moving something and
but it may they may beautifulphotography that was
mouthwatering that made peoplewant to buy it which again,
people buy with their with theireyes. So when I did the
restaurant, I knew that I neededto have better than average
(24:32):
photography and your team cameout and did all the photography
that we use on our website rightnow and in our menus and online
ordering and I think it's a bitof a game changer, Jack because
I think you know, if you thinkabout your local I make, you
know, I make no assumptions onwhat's out there in the world.
But when I can think of like,you know, a Mexican restaurant
(24:54):
menu or a sushi restaurant menuor
In an Italian restaurant menu,like the photography does not
look great. No, no, I think Imean, you're so right. Because
and your photography looksgreat. And it's, it's great. You
know, you need somebody thatactually knows what they're
(25:15):
doing, right. But the realm thatmatters most is the strategy.
And that was you, you're like,hey, this is what I want. And I
want it to look really good. AndI want it. So it's almost like
the ad agency is a really orthe, there's two components to
marketing aproduct imaging, if you will, or
(25:35):
marketing a product. And what wedo is the mundane, the mundane,
boring, alright, just take apicture of the product, the
important stuff is like, youknow, how do you know the person
that's out there casting thepole and the beautiful scene on
the boat in the ocean, andthat's what you owe, that's who
(25:56):
I want to be looking at thepicture of the rod underneath is
like, it needs to look great, Ineed to be able to see it,
visualize it, I need to be ableto do all that. But the you
know, the ad agency and thecompany, that's what they want
to focus on, I want to createthe image that these people want
to be and the same thing is truewith the food, you know, you
(26:16):
decide, here's how I want it tolook. And then all right, you
guys come in here and and makesure it looks phenomenally good.
Do that. But you know, what'syour vision? And you did it so
well. Because I mean, we We allshop for food to online, right?
What do you want to? What do youwant to take out tonight? As
(26:37):
opposed to where do you want togo? At least that's us. And
someone's like, Oh, that looksterrible. I know, I'm not gonna
order that. It might bedelicious. But it looks awful on
their menu, or? Yeah,I was just thinking, and this is
kind of to the growth idea hereof, you know, the original value
that you folks did for thenatural and organic channel is
(27:03):
that those consumers were veryparticular, they wanted to make
sure that they knew exactly whatingredient or that it was gluten
free, or that it was, you know,whatever, whatever the case is,
and so your images, were able tohelp them know that. In my case,
people you know, at therestaurant, people need to know
that, you know, it's delectable.
(27:27):
It's such a beautifulpresentation showcasing each
individual item that they knowwhat they're going to bite into.
I was thinking of, you know, thesome of the other industries
that you service, like thefishing rods or the fishing
equipment. And just, you know,if the key differentiator of
whatever product you are whatwhatever you have, showcasing
(27:49):
that key differentiators. So ifit's a rod and reel, it's the
ease of which it spins or thesoftness. And so again, those
are things that don't, that arenot that easy to showcase in a
photograph, but are extremelycompelling, or the difference
maker for the person who'smaking the purchase. Yes. So
(28:11):
yeah, I mean, I not just anygrainy image is going to show
how soft the rod right? This isnot my, my genre this would be
for somebody else who's anactual Fisher person. But
if it's a plumbing if it's apiece of plumbing, how does the
oil again, bases but yeah, soreally, really fantastic. Yes?
(28:35):
Or the, or the way that it ontosomething again, I don't know.
But I'm thinking like, How doesmy hand fit on there? Those are
important components to people.
That's a really what's that?
Well, this is another point ofAedra. Business. I just
recognize that it's naturallife. Oh, yeah.
(28:56):
Yeah. So there you go. So PVSthey do a great job. Yes, they
do. But it's it's a reallyinteresting component. So as you
dig into the differentindustries, kind of getting the
strategy of what is it thatmakes people buy them? And
that's what you're showcasing inyour photographs? Yes. Yes. Oh,
cool. So that's, that's, that'swhat we're doing. And we're,
(29:18):
we're excited about ourtrajectory. It's just, it's just
slower than we'd like it to be.
I've only scratched the surfacebecause if I had to guess I use
it all US companies at thispoint. Any global Okay, yeah, at
this point, is it this point?
Yes, it is US based companies,but
(29:41):
I know who you should go afternext. And that's IKEA. Can you
imagine how helpful it would beif you had a Giffy of putting
together the cupboard orwhatever? Yeah. Wow. Okay. We'll
have to work on that becausethat would help me personally.
So, any, I guess thisJust kind of off the top of your
head here, but what keeps you upat night? What what are the
(30:03):
biggest challenges? What are thethings that are on your mind
that maybe I could help youbrainstorm in the moment to see
if we can't get PVS? Really?
Really? Yeah. So the firstactually, the first thing that
does that actually does keep meup at night. Is this capital?
Right?
(30:25):
Any any small business needscapital? Yes. Okay. So yeah, so
that's been a challenge. For us.
We haven't necessarily wanted togo to venture companies at this
point. So we're mostly raisedcapital through friends and
family. And,you know, the good news about
(30:46):
our business, as I've kind ofmentioned before, is we're a
scale provider. So we can, wecan be large enough to do all of
Whole Foods and some of thesebig companies that have lots of
items and so forth. The bad newsis we're a scale provider. So
that means that our coststructure is is higher I mean,
our footprint of our of our kindof our factory, if you will, the
(31:08):
equipment, the licenses cetera,et cetera. I mean, so it costs
are we've we've cut our coststructure as tightly as we
possibly can, but our coststructure is still higher than
our current revenue. So we'vebeen you know, so the board and
friends and family have been thethe capital behind the business
(31:32):
but so what keeps us up atnight? That is the main thing of
capital to get through becausewe are confident. Hey, check it
out. I just got an email.
Truscott company in eatery.
Yeah. So what do you want fromyour market? Yeah, that's
outstanding.
(31:52):
How ironic. Yeah, I'm sure I'llget a text here soon. Right. But
But anyway, so that's the goodnews. Bad news. Right. And so we
are we believe that we're,you know, a few quarters away
probably end of this calendaryear where our revenue and our
volume will surpass our or ourburn rate. So but until then,
(32:17):
you know, you asked what keepsyou up at night? It's that is
having enough capital? Because Imean, that's eventually what
really kills most smallbusinesses is, is they just
don't have the capital to keepon going.
Out of capital. And so that's,that's a that's the that's the
number one thing that that keepsme up at night, if you will.
(32:39):
Yep. So what is the capacity?
I'm picturing, and I've not beento the facility. But what are
you operating at in terms ofcapacity right now? Like, is
part of it? Like, you need toget the word out there. So
you've got the people, you'vegot the equipment, now you just
need the volume to come throughof customers. Okay, okay. Yeah,
exactly. Okay, more and morecustomers to be on. I mean,
(33:03):
yeah, that's, that's, yeah. Andwhat we do with the way we
operate now is we kind ofoperate as as the minimum kind
of ongoing velocity. Yep. Sowith our with full time staff,
and then we we, we staff up withcontract labor. So as we get
(33:27):
more volume in or as we have,this business is, and we don't
have that much predictability ofwhat's coming in, right. And
Whole Foods, they don'tnecessarily have the
predictability of who has howmany new items and when they're
coming in. So we'll, or volumeor volume is peaks and valleys,
and so we staff to the valley.
And then as the peaks come in,we'll, we'll staff up. But
(33:48):
meanwhile, you have things likeyou have your licenses for all
of your all of our equipment,and things like that. And those
are fixed costs. And so we canramp a ton of volume on top of
the equipment that we own. Andon top of the licenses that we
have. And so our marginal costsare relatively low. But we see
(34:14):
that that additional volume, soscalability is very attractive,
butone of the reasons why Yeah, so
we're just get to that kind ofminimal amount, and then we can
we'll, as we scale, it'll be aprofitable scaling. Yep. Okay.
Do you have a person in chargeof sales and marketing right
(34:36):
now? We do. Okay, well, he'scalled the CEO. Okay. Very good.
All right. And that's the that'spart of the issue with a small
company, right and don't have aton of bandwidth. And actually
what we have discovered Sarah,and this may be more nuanced
(34:58):
than you want to know at thistime.
On. But what we've discovered isthat
it takes relationship to sell toa certain extent in our in our
industry. So we have ourcustomer acquisition strategies,
we have actually severaldifferent
(35:18):
funnels, if you will, for acustomer attraction. But your
one funnel is no simple search,as I kind of mentioned to you
before, but search marketing cankind of being at the point of
opportunity when the opportunitypresents itself. You can talk to
somebody all day, you can go toa trade show, you can go to the
fishing Expo, and talk to youknow, 100 different companies or
(35:40):
any others, so you can go up anddown the street. And they're
like, thanks very much, youknow, talk to the hand.
And then when they have aproblem, and they need
something, then they go, who wasthat that came by? And you know,
who was that, you know, that Imet. But at the point when they
don't have a need, they're justnot going to buy? So anyway,
search is an important componentof position, because they are, I
(36:04):
have a need, I'm searching for asolution. And you know, and then
these folks pop up. Okay, great.
One of the other ways I think Imentioned to you is that we have
gone toa number of Industry, Trade
shows where we identify the kindof the need, at high velocity
(36:25):
items in the industry, a lot ofnew items. Imaging is you know,
is kind of all over the board.
And so we'll go to an industryconference, let's call it the
fishing show in Orlando, this ismassive show, and you'll go up
and down the floor. And, youknow, they're like, I'm busy.
(36:50):
I'm what do you do? Hey, they'reinteresting, go away. But as
soon as you sit, so having asales person, wouldn't, you
know, we've discovered is notnecessarily highly effective or
doesn't return. What we havediscovered is we use sales
agencies that are aligned tothat space. Yep, small company
(37:14):
that represents, you know,hundreds of manufacturers a
little bit like what Acosta did,yeah. Right. So but they, but
they exist in most industryverticals. And we work with one
that's in the fishing andhunting and outdoor sports
vertical. And they, when wewalked the trade, same trade
(37:36):
show with them, we can talk toanybody now. They know them all.
They know the decision maker,they can get to the decision
maker and say, Oh, by the way,right? You need to talk to these
people, because your images arelousy. And your competitor looks
like so and have you ever reallylooked at your images, and you
are bypassing or missing out onsignificant econ volume? Because
(37:59):
you're not maximizing? You know,hey, the reality is that this, I
think is I think we all kind ofrecognize this, but the data
says that the number one reasonwhy people click off of a or
leave a website, other than ifthere's a technical glitch with
the website, is if the imagesand the visuals are not good. So
(38:22):
we shot as you said earlier, youeat with your eyes, you shop
with your eyes, first I look atthe images, then I'll read all
the descriptors, then I'll readall the information. So if I
don't, if I can't see it, I'mout. And so anyway, it takes
someone that has therelationship, and also knows who
the decision maker is to say, bythe way, your images suck, and
(38:46):
you need to do something. Andyou know, we, when we bought
that same trade show, like talkto the hand go away. Anyway. So
that's what we've discovered.
And so we are our salesstrategy, that that particular
part of our customer acquisitionstrategy is via
(39:08):
sales agencies, okay, who thedecision makers, and so we have
a handful of them in differentindustry verticals. That's
great. We need more, we needmore, we want more. And so
that's part of our growth. Sure.
Yeah. So yeah, I like that. Ilike that. Yeah, it kind of
feels like the coldintroduction. Is that
necessarily?
(39:30):
It wouldn't yield the same as arelationship. Yeah. Or like you
said, the search of I've got anissue and I'm looking for
someone to scratch the itch.
That's great. I think, you know,it's a it's a service. And so
you're in the same camp as a lotof professional service
organizations where it's like, Idon't need an attorney until I
(39:54):
need an attorney. I don't needyou know.
So that's very interesting.
Yeah, so okay.
Yeah, I mean, the capital piece,I mean, unless you want it to go
out and find the venturecapitalists, and you know, I
think that's interesting. Ofcourse, there's other routes,
like crowdsourcing and things ofthat nature.
(40:17):
I'm curious, do you do a flatfee for your customers? Like,
can they sign up and have?
Is it a certain amount? And wedo everything for you all year?
Or is it per item? Or? Yeah, wecan do, we can do both. It's for
the most part, it's on a peritem basis. And most, so we've
(40:41):
tried that. And again, this ispart of the evolution of our
pricing model also, is whatwe've discovered, is that it's
just like, so unique. Everybodyneeds something a little
different, right? And they mayneed something a little
different based on theircustomers. Hey, Amazon wants
this. And I'm part of, I don'tknow, again, it's, let's let's
(41:03):
use fishing as an example. Butit could be any number of things
like, Alright, sowhat's the big, what's the big
fishing retailer, bass, Bass ProShop wants it like this. And,
you know, so and so wants itlike this. And so I need, and
then, sowhat their needs are, is very
(41:25):
different. So and they alsodon't necessarily know how many
new ones they're going to have,and when they're going to come
out, and so forth. So we've,we're able to do pricing models,
like you've described, but forthe most part, they they'll pick
a range, that's alright, here'skind of the, the package that I
want for every item I want. Forthese kinds of items. I want
(41:47):
spins and stills and so forthfor these types of items. I want
my apparel, I want them, I wantthem with a mannequin. And for
my hats, I want this and theninto will we create some No, so
we can customize for them. Andthen from then on, it's you
know, it's it's it's simple, butthat's what we generally. And I
(42:09):
think I described, we were doingall of Venus swimwear. And so
they want all right, I want itto I want the lay flats, you
know, where I can just and thenI want on mannequin maybe on
model blah, blah, blah, there'sno there's a number of things.
And I want for some types ofapparel. I need this. And for
some types of apparel, I needthat. Right. Right. Apparel is
(42:30):
an industry that I would think Imean, again, people are, well,
particular, how does the fabric,you know, what's the fit on the
shoulders or whatever I canimagine, you know, the
photography is an incrediblyimportant aspect. So yeah, we're
now like, for example, we've gotone company that's a they do
(42:51):
like hunting apparel. And theyhave what what we refer to as
hotspots. So you can zoom in toWell, I'd say you can see the
zippers and you can really seehow the vents work. But also
like one where you can zoom in,and you actually see the fabric,
what is made up. So even betterthan like, if you're touching
(43:14):
and feeling you can see, oh,that's how the fabric is made?
Or what's the density and theway that it's you know, kind of
manufactured so that, you know,yeah, yeah. Wow, that's
fantastic. Okay. Well, I mean,gosh, I think it's a really
exciting time. And I'm hopeful.
I mean, I'll obviously stay veryclose to kind of following the
(43:36):
progress, but you'll have tokeep me posted. And I actually
wrote down a handful of peoplethat I think could benefit from
this kind of in the CPG world.
different products that I have,you know, some close friends and
family that represent thesebusinesses. And I mean, my gears
(43:56):
returning as you were talking, Iwonder, well, I'm, I'm all ears.
Appreciate that. Yeah. Well,Jack, I mean, honestly, it's,
it's really fun to kind of youget your hands in so many
different things. And I knowhow, you know, connected you are
in the community to helpingfolks and I hope you know, I
(44:19):
will always help you, no matterthe topic, and,
and you for us and me.
But I'm gonna keep thinking andI'm excited to watch PBS grow
and scale and become what I knowit can be. So thank you for
sharing your journey with me.
Well, thank you. I'm alwaysexcited about your journey as
(44:39):
well. I've been fun to followTreska and your new growth
strategy in the past as yourprevious ones, your current one,
as well as point northeast andso I'm really excited about
that. And thanks. Yeah, thanksfor thanks for having me. I
appreciate any ideas you have.
I'm all ears. I really do.
(45:00):
And our listeners may have someideas as well, hey, that
actually, I almost forgot, tellus how we can find you tell us
how we can come in contact withyour company. So if people are
looking for photography, they'llknow where to go. Yeah, so they
can find us online at PVSstudios.com. And that's they'll,
(45:22):
they should be able to find usis, and it gives. And that's
another as a small company, Iknow our website is as good as
it could be. And we've reallytried to improve it. And and so
we have a lot of different typesof images. And at least it gives
you an idea of like, oh, catlike that. That's interesting. I
need my product really couldbenefit by that kind of have a
(45:43):
look, you mentioned before youwere talking about rods and
reels and how soft they are. Butother things, you know, what how
a parallel is done, or howsomething else is done? Or like,
oh, yeah, that would be a coolway to show how I put my how I
put something together once Ionce I receive it in the box. So
yeah, so we got a lot of stuffon our website that PVS
studios.com. And, yeah, but oneof the things that we also do
(46:05):
for all of our potential clientsor customers is, we'll give them
some free sample. So I send ussend us a couple of products,
and we'll do some imaging foryou and then shoot it back to
and then we can talk andyeah, and then we can discuss
exactly what you need in our inthe people that on our we do
(46:27):
have sales people that you know,once you come in like alright,
help them think about what waysthey could better represent
their products online. Have youthought about this? You know, we
can do that? Have you thoughtabout that? Or here's an example
of a company and this is whatthey did? And, you know, or what
do you have in mind? So yeah, sowe customer service sales, if
(46:47):
you will, that's great. I mean,that's a really, really nice to
offer and a good, good way forthem to get to know PVS studios.
I just thought of something andthis is not now but what if
trafficker ends up shippingfrozen pimientos in the future.
Oh, I liked that.
(47:09):
You guys, you could photographyou know, how it looks when it
arrives and the steps and thenthe, the eating and when and
when when you get those frozencaminos I'm sure Whole Foods
will stock them. And you go toWhole Foods, like make it easy
as us so yeah.
Well, we'd love to do that. Andthen
(47:30):
you do your merch. So you knowall your T shirts and your hats
and all that kind of stuff. Soyeah, yeah. Great. Well, thank
you, again, for being a part ofthe podcast. I really appreciate
it. And I'll be sending somefolks to you. I know a couple
off the top of my head. And I'llobviously keep thinking too, but
if you need anything, you'd letme know. Well, thank you, I
(47:53):
guess you know I do.
And vice versa, or anytime andI'm just glad to be part of it.
And if I can help me any otherway or help any of your any of
your the people on your podcast,you know, let me know. Thank
you. Thanks. All right. Allright.
Thanks, everybody for listeningand being a part of it. I hope
you also have a good afternoonand see you soon. See you soon.
(48:17):
Thanks so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sara Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant, now a business coach
and consultant. I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness.
Isn't it beautiful? I know. It'slike I always try to tell people
don't tell the secret thatchronometer Beach is so
beautiful.
All right. Well, we're live.
Thank you, Jack, for joining metoday on the level up your
business podcast. Well, thanksfor having me. I look forward to
(01:01):
it. Thanks, really an honor. Youknow, we were just kind of
chatting about the weather. Imean, we both live in the same
community. And we got to knoweach other years and years ago.
So let's start with ourconnection. How, how fun that we
are connected in more than oneway and have known each other
for a long time. But tell peoplea little bit about your
(01:22):
background, and just what you doand what you've done. Yeah, so
we've been in the in theJacksonville area for 20 to 23
years and our corporateheadquarters were here or still
are here, a company called aCost of Sales and Marketing
Center, an outsize out sourceprovider of sales and marketing
services. And so I was with themfor 25 plus years, and retired a
(01:44):
few years ago. And then how wegot to know each other, of
course, was through yourprimarily through your
restaurant and coming in. Andthen once I got to know you, as
I started, we started a programthat was at Jacksonville
University focus on consumergoods and services,
(02:07):
you are kind enough become partof our board and our advisory
board that really helped us todevelop that whole program. So
yeah, so So then through throughju and the CPG program, consumer
goods and products program, andand then just through the
community and and Trask has beenkind enough to host some events
(02:31):
for us. And yeah, so it's been,it's been a real pleasure. Yeah,
it's been so rough. Oh, thankyou, Jack. I mean, really, you
know, our families know eachother now. And I always enjoy
to, you know, seeing your boysand their growing family, one of
them, you know, coming through,and it's pretty fun. You know,
(02:52):
it's an interesting, I wouldsay, kind of small, large world
of the CPG. World. So consumer,I think the acronym as I knew it
was consumer packaged goods. Andessentially, you know, when I
shared with you that I came fromGeneral Mills, and you were at
Acosta, and, you know, there's alot of interconnectivity through
the years of people that you'veserved people that I've served,
(03:12):
whether it's, you know, theretailer, or whether it's
getting to know, some of themanufacturers.
And, again, it's kind of funnythat we, you know, kind of grew
up, if you will, in the sametype of world. So, that was
pretty fun. And it was an honoralso to be a part of kind of the
helping students at Ju, theCollege of Business to
(03:35):
understand the possible avenuesfor development and for career
path, you know, amongstcompanies like Kimberly Clark,
or a small organic brand, or,you know, very large
international, global CPGcompany. So, pretty cool. Yeah,
you were you are a great fit onthe advisory board for a couple
(03:55):
of reasons. One of the things wewanted to do is broaden
the demographics, if you will,of the board, and so have people
that have a retailer background,a distributor background,
manufacturer, background, foodservice background, as well as
(04:16):
different roles within those amarketing marketing perspective
or a sales process perspectiveand general management
perspective. So have a fairamount of diversity of industry
sectors as well as functional,functional areas. And you were,
you know, so you were yourperfect so not only do you have
your new food servicebackground, but also came from
(04:39):
one of the largest, mostrespected CPG manufacturers in
the world. So it was it was yourperfect, perfect fit and a
marketing background and as anoperator as well. Yeah. So
again, when the kids get to see,you know, some broad avenues
(05:00):
As you said, for, for careerpathing, and you know great
careers in an industry that'sgoing to be stable and growing
forever. Anyway, so we reallyappreciate you being involved.
Well, I think you feel the sameway as I do. I mean, if we can
give back in the community,especially to the young, like
people who are interested, and,you know, it was my first
(05:22):
Adjunct Professor role, I don'tknow if you know this, but after
I worked with, you know, a wholesemester with your team, with
your class, and then I was ableto hire one of your students as
an intern. So that was a goodexperience. And then, from
there, I actually startedworking with Penn, Penn State,
(05:42):
I've worked with a couple othercolleges since then all over the
country, just helping them tokind of understand different
career paths, how to beinnovative within this kind of
industry. And anyway, that wasreally fun for me. So thank you,
again, for the opportunity.
So on the topic of your path,you have continued to evolve,
(06:03):
because you have just as muchenergy as I do. We're both
blessed to be naturallycaffeinated people.
You know, Jay, you board and acaster, we're not the end of
your career. So tell ourlisteners a little bit about
that next evolution. Yeah, sowe've got a small,
(06:24):
I would characterize it as astartup company that does
visual product imaging, or as wecall them visual assets. So as
most industries have pivotedvery quickly, over the last few
years, particularly since thepandemic has really
revolutionized e Comm, and theneed for really great product
(06:47):
representation, and virtualinteractivity, if you will, with
your products that you purchaseonline, you know, really wasn't
long ago, you know, reallybefore the pandemic, that most
of the retail experience andmost industries were,
you know, it was mostly brickand mortar, I mean, certainly
look online and do your researchand things like that. But it
(07:09):
wasn't, it wasn't the majorityof any of the industry
verticals, right. And so theydidn't have necessarily a sense
of urgency on having greatproduct representation on on a
call, whether it was their ownsite, or whether it was a an E
retailer.
And then the pandemic changedeverything. And so the need to
(07:33):
be able to virtually interactwith a product, almost feel it,
see it, touch it and reallyexperience it virtually, is
really ratcheted up. So that'swhat our company does. And so we
do that as an outside outsourceprovider. And we have very small
companies and people that, youknow, there's a woman in the
community that makes you know,this custom made persons and so
(07:55):
she'll bring her new purses inwhen she makes them every, you
know, X number of months, and,but we have companies as large
as Whole Foods. And so everyevery new product comes through
Whole Foods, we image and we dotheir product dimensions and
some other things. So that'swhat we do. That's amazing. I
obviously have a little bitmore in depth knowledge as to
(08:17):
what these product images areall about. And so, you know,
I've shared with you, I was inthis shopper marketing role for
many years, probably about nineyears, actually. And we had to
give the retailers so let's sayI was working with Publix who I
actually supported and Targetand Walmart and Kroger and all
(08:39):
sorts of grocers throughout thecountry. The one that I shared
with you before is my SuperValue days, because it was not
only corporate, but there werewholesale, there was something
like 137 banners or names thatthey do business. So anyway, I
would have to work with thisperson and get them the images
that they needed. And this oneand imagine doing that 137 times
(09:00):
and everybody needed a littlebit of a different format. And
exactly, it was complicated. Andso, you know, sometimes there
weren't images that were verygood, they were outdated, or the
packaging had changed and so itwas no longer representative of
the product. And that would beyou know, a pretty big problem
in the in the manufacturingworld because you're really kind
(09:22):
of held to very strictstandards, etc. So I can
commiserate with the I meanprocess of getting these images
and so I think it's reallyamazing what you've done. I also
think it's funny, you know, whenI when I think back to the
pandemic, I actually just havemy water bottles sitting here
it's empty, but you know, in thestore, you can see what the
(09:47):
right formation is right and youcan see how it and obviously not
the water bottle is is not asimportant but see how it might
relate to you. Does it fitinside your purse? Does it do
whatever it does, it doesAnd so now that you have these
images, and I've seen thequality of images that you guys
do with the 3d renderings andthe ability, you can almost
picture what it's like to holdit in your hand or to have it in
(10:09):
your world, physically. So it'spretty amazing. Well, it's
really, it's interesting. Andwhen you held up the bottle, it
kind of reminded me, it's, it'sinteresting how much you know,
many companies, and particularlythose that are more
sophisticated, how much theyinvest on their packaging, you
know, it's a real science to getthe right color of all the
(10:30):
patterns, the Fonz, et cetera,et cetera, said all whatever
you're communicating on your onyour package is really critical.
And you know, that's, if youwill, for really the, the
physical shelf. And yet a lot ofcompanies
still do. They're not nearly asinvested in the virtual shelf.
(10:52):
And now there's almost morevolume coming off their virtual
shelf than their physical shelf.
And you know, how that productlooks that you've spent so much
time and investment in thepackaging, how it really looks
in a, in a virtual shelf isreally important. And it's
sometimes surprising how, howunprofessionally some companies
approach the virtual shelf.
(11:16):
Yeah, after they've spent allthat money on getting a great
package. And then it reallydoesn't, it looks like it just
looks bad in a digital world. Sotell me in, you know, name
names, if you felt comfortable.
But, you know, we talked aboutthe amount of products out
there, what are the productsthat you have currently, or
(11:36):
would be a good fit? I mean,it's not just food. So talk a
little bit about that. No, sowe've, you know, we originally
started in the food sector, andso a, that was our background B,
there was a specific problemthat we were addressing. And so
we started there, and,and then and, and then we have
(11:57):
evolved to some some differentindustry sectors. And, and also,
we've evolved from beingfocused on large retailers,
distributors, I mentioned WholeFoods, that we do all the
business for Whole Foods. Andthat kind of started before the
pandemic. And because WholeFoods and the whole natural
(12:20):
organic food sector, had somehad some issues with getting
good imaging, and getting gooddata and information from their
vendors. So they became kind ofthe solution
for to get econ images. So inother words, they said, Hey,
listen, I can't trust you as avendor to get me the images that
(12:41):
I can't, that I need. Soconsequently, I'm going to kind
of force you to say, Hey, I'mgoing to take on your items, I'm
gonna stalk them in my store,and I'm also going to put them
online, just send mea case of your product, and then
I'll get it imaged, and thenI'll bill you back, and then
we'll be done. But they'rethey've turned out and we kind
of first started our mentality,you know, kind of pre pandemic,
(13:04):
if you will, was focused on, youknow, other Whole Foods
analogues, you know, what otherbig distributors, retailers, et
cetera. But the pandemic changechanged the model and the, you
know, very quickly for one, youknow, everything's closed. So a
lot of these imaging studiosclosed up. And so and then the
(13:25):
other thing that happened ismost manufacturers started to
launch their own sites. And sothey needed their own images as
well. And you kind of youindicated that with all the, the
banners from SuperValu. Andeverybody wants a little bit of
a different, a different imagerendering, you know, I want it
from this angle, I want thesethree, I want it spin, you know,
everybody wants maybe somethingdifferent. But anyway, so what
(13:47):
happened, kind of during thepandemic is, the big retailers
and distributors, and even ecommerce, e commerce sites, the
Big E retailers, basicallypushed all of the imaging
downstream to theirmanufacturers and said, Hey, I'm
not gonna do it anymore. You gotyour own web and manufacturers
were for all intents purposes,and that's fine, because
(14:09):
actually, I got my own site now.
And this retailer wants itlooking differently, and blah,
blah, blah. And so consequently,everything that the industry
kind of flipped, and noweverything is downstream and
done by the manufacturers. Sothat's maybe a long way of
saying they're our, our, ourcustomer base has really changed
(14:29):
now and it's all of themanufacturers and our, our sweet
spot really is because we're ahigh throughput, high volume,
very efficient model almost likea photography factory, if you
will.
We, you know, our sweet spot ismanufacturers that have lots of
items, lots of skews and afairly robust set of new items
(14:54):
coming through their pipe everyyear. So they they need we can
obviouslydo small companies and we do
small companies that mayintroduce five new items a year.
And that's fine or one new itema year. And hey, I need you to
do this item, you're fine. Andwe do. But our sweet spot is
companies like Shimano fishingas an example. And Shimano,
(15:15):
fishing has literally 1000s and1000s of items. And every year,
they're updating they're,whether it's their apparel, and
their fishing vests, and etcetera, or the rods and reels or
all there. So they're a reallygood example of a company that
used to kind of do it on theirown. And then, when they
discovered that there is anoutsourced provider that can
(15:37):
actually do it cheaper, better,faster, and is expert in it,
they said, Please take it all.
And so we do. So that's kind ofour that really is our sweet
spot. And then also forcompanies that have large,
complex, maybe not complicated,but challenging items, you know,
we do, we do a company that doesinflatable paddle boards and a
(16:00):
paddle boards. And so, you know,not many organizations have the
ability to get that kind of sizeitems. And we do a lot of HVAC
equipment. So really large, youknow, compressors, and that kind
of stuff out. So again, we havethat kind of broad capability.
(16:20):
And so we do, those are the kindof companies that are more of
our sweetspot largerorganizations, as opposed to,
you know, your Etsy producerthat's going to, you know, have
a handful of items on a regularbasis. That makes sense.
So, where are you headed? I'mjust curious. You know, it and
we should say the name of thebusiness that you are involved
(16:44):
in, which is PV studios, maybeyes, yes. Yes. Studios, visual
solutions was what kind ofstandard? Oh, yes, yeah. Okay.
PVS. Alright, so tell me kindof, you know, as you look at the
future, and this is one of thethings that, you know, at point
ne we really work with ourclients on is, you know, setting
that vision point, and sometimesI describe it as kind of like a
(17:07):
lighthouse on the horizon. It'sa beacon of light. And if
everything goes, well, you canget to it. And so, what does
maybe it's a three year, maybeit's five year, what does that
lighthouse look like for PVS?
Well, it's fairly ambitious.
I'm convinced that somebody willget there. And I Oh, candidly,
(17:28):
we're one of the larger scaleproviders in our industry, we're
now if not really the largest,it's that much of a kind of a
startup business, but our, our,our vision, and our belief is
that there this will be an ADPtype of business at some point,
now not as large as ADP. Yeah,we use payroll processing as our
(17:51):
analog. So the notion that, youknow, it wasn't that long ago
that every organization didtheir own payroll, not that hard
to do payroll mean, you'veprobably got staff or financial
staff that writes checks, youcertainly have to pay your
customers and your vendors andeverybody else, not customers,
(18:12):
but vendors. And so writingchecks, and paying your own
people was not that hard. And ifyou didn't do it yourself, you
may have used a local CPA oraccounting firm in your market
that was a highly fragmentedkind of fail, I just use the
local accountant down the roadto do our payroll. That wasn't
(18:36):
that long ago. And then ADP, andnow that all their competitors
have completelyautomated and change that space
disrupted that space. And nowreally, nobody, nobody does
their own payroll, I mean, evenmy brother who had a small and
like a five person business, hedidn't do his own payroll, he
(18:59):
had ADP or one of theircompetitors was doing this
anyway, that that is what webelieve we believe that this is
an this is a a an industry,where there are literally
millions and millions andmillions of new items that are
produced every single year. Itis new items, as you will know
(19:20):
from your background at GeneralMills, but for most industries,
new item is the lifeblood oftheir growth. If you're not
innovating, if you're notcreating new items, you're
stagnant and you know, you'regoing to you're going to lose so
anyway, new items are comingwith just rapid succession in
every industry vertical. Andevery time there's a new item
(19:40):
produced in any space, you know,including including me when you
have a menu change, you know,you need and want an image of
that product. And there's noreason why you should be doing
that internally. You know, youdon't want to have to hire a
photographer when youYou're a restaurant or you make
stand up paddleboards, I don'tneed or want, I don't want the
(20:03):
hardware, I don't want thesoftware I don't want to hire.
There's no reason why you shouldever do your own product images.
But because our industry is sokind of new, and it really was
no large scale providers, a lotof people are doing it
themselves. Because what, geez,then they find out that we're
(20:26):
there they go, oh, gosh, I wishI knew about you. I bought some
equipment, I bought somehardware, I bought some
software, I tried to hiresomebody or make somebody that's
in my marketing group, take thephotos, and it's a disaster. And
now the person that takes thepicture in their marketing
department never ever thinksit's a disaster, oh, we got
this. It's good. But the realityis, it is a disaster. And it's
(20:48):
not core to you process and soforth. So that's a long way of
saying that, we believe that itwill that eventually, everybody
will outsource their visualimages. Because the other thing
that we believe is a tailwindfor us, in our industry, or a
small nascent industry is thatconsumers will demand better and
(21:13):
better we already our productand our activity online. And so
you know, if one long ago whenyou were you know your content
when you had like a grainy imageof something you wanted to buy
online, and now you want to beable to zoom you want to be able
to spin it, you want to you wantto see a lot of things like our
(21:33):
stand up paddleboard company asan example. We're doing like
Griffeys like really quick thatshows how do I put this
paddleboard? Together? I get it,I take it. And okay, how do I
inflate it? Where's that? Wheredoes this go? Where does that
piece go? And so you want,you're going to want more and
more, or the consumers willdemand better imaging or visuals
(21:58):
to go with their to understandtheir products. So that becomes
that much more expensive andcomplicated for a business to
do. I mean, and again, why do Iwant to do that, oh, gosh, I
need a videographer. I need aphotographer, I need you know, I
need to do all the photo postprocessing the cake, you know,
cut out glare and all thatnonsense, and I just why. So
(22:24):
that's why we believe again,it's fairly ambitious, but we
believe that this will be amultibillion dollar industry.
And, and there's no reason whywe shouldn't be one of the large
players in that space as it asit evolves. So yeah, so that's
our that's our kind of our whywe believe it's, it's possible.
(22:48):
Yeah. And also what we aspirekind of to be. That's great. I
mean, you know, as you weretalking, I was thinking about
the olden days of when you wouldfind out what the new products
were, you know, via a catalogwhether it was like a JC
Penney's, or Kohl's or whatever.
Or if you were looking, youknow, for what you were going to
feed your family this week, youwould look in the Sunday paper
(23:09):
and get the FSI circular, thathad the coupons and the pictures
and all those sorts of things,or the what's on sale or deal at
your brochure, I mean, theamount of importance on the
images, because people eat withtheir eyes. I mean, they they
are, you know, kind of, they'reseeing it or they're purchasing
(23:30):
with their eyes. They want toknow what the color is, and how
does it fit? Or what does itlook like or,
and so anyways, I think it'sincredibly important. You know,
I think about also all of therestaurants out there. And as
you know, from Tresca, that wasone of my biggest, well, maybe
(23:51):
not biggest, but it was a veryimportant component of what I
wanted to do, becauseI grew up at General Mills,
where they had a photographystudio, I mean, I literally
would create photoshoots and Iwould be down there and they
would be I used to make fun ofthe team but it was like they
moved the blueberry because sortof blueberry muffin, it had to
(24:11):
look a certain way and theywould be you know, photographing
it and looking at a computerscreen and moving something and
but it may they may beautifulphotography that was
mouthwatering that made peoplewant to buy it which again,
people buy with their with theireyes. So when I did the
restaurant, I knew that I neededto have better than average
(24:32):
photography and your team cameout and did all the photography
that we use on our website rightnow and in our menus and online
ordering and I think it's a bitof a game changer, Jack because
I think you know, if you thinkabout your local I make, you
know, I make no assumptions onwhat's out there in the world.
But when I can think of like,you know, a Mexican restaurant
(24:54):
menu or a sushi restaurant menuor
In an Italian restaurant menu,like the photography does not
look great. No, no, I think Imean, you're so right. Because
and your photography looksgreat. And it's, it's great. You
know, you need somebody thatactually knows what they're
(25:15):
doing, right. But the realm thatmatters most is the strategy.
And that was you, you're like,hey, this is what I want. And I
want it to look really good. AndI want it. So it's almost like
the ad agency is a really orthe, there's two components to
marketing aproduct imaging, if you will, or
(25:35):
marketing a product. And what wedo is the mundane, the mundane,
boring, alright, just take apicture of the product, the
important stuff is like, youknow, how do you know the person
that's out there casting thepole and the beautiful scene on
the boat in the ocean, andthat's what you owe, that's who
(25:56):
I want to be looking at thepicture of the rod underneath is
like, it needs to look great, Ineed to be able to see it,
visualize it, I need to be ableto do all that. But the you
know, the ad agency and thecompany, that's what they want
to focus on, I want to createthe image that these people want
to be and the same thing is truewith the food, you know, you
(26:16):
decide, here's how I want it tolook. And then all right, you
guys come in here and and makesure it looks phenomenally good.
Do that. But you know, what'syour vision? And you did it so
well. Because I mean, we We allshop for food to online, right?
What do you want to? What do youwant to take out tonight? As
(26:37):
opposed to where do you want togo? At least that's us. And
someone's like, Oh, that looksterrible. I know, I'm not gonna
order that. It might bedelicious. But it looks awful on
their menu, or? Yeah,I was just thinking, and this is
kind of to the growth idea hereof, you know, the original value
that you folks did for thenatural and organic channel is
(27:03):
that those consumers were veryparticular, they wanted to make
sure that they knew exactly whatingredient or that it was gluten
free, or that it was, you know,whatever, whatever the case is,
and so your images, were able tohelp them know that. In my case,
people you know, at therestaurant, people need to know
that, you know, it's delectable.
(27:27):
It's such a beautifulpresentation showcasing each
individual item that they knowwhat they're going to bite into.
I was thinking of, you know, thesome of the other industries
that you service, like thefishing rods or the fishing
equipment. And just, you know,if the key differentiator of
whatever product you are whatwhatever you have, showcasing
(27:49):
that key differentiators. So ifit's a rod and reel, it's the
ease of which it spins or thesoftness. And so again, those
are things that don't, that arenot that easy to showcase in a
photograph, but are extremelycompelling, or the difference
maker for the person who'smaking the purchase. Yes. So
(28:11):
yeah, I mean, I not just anygrainy image is going to show
how soft the rod right? This isnot my, my genre this would be
for somebody else who's anactual Fisher person. But
if it's a plumbing if it's apiece of plumbing, how does the
oil again, bases but yeah, soreally, really fantastic. Yes?
(28:35):
Or the, or the way that it ontosomething again, I don't know.
But I'm thinking like, How doesmy hand fit on there? Those are
important components to people.
That's a really what's that?
Well, this is another point ofAedra. Business. I just
recognize that it's naturallife. Oh, yeah.
(28:56):
Yeah. So there you go. So PVSthey do a great job. Yes, they
do. But it's it's a reallyinteresting component. So as you
dig into the differentindustries, kind of getting the
strategy of what is it thatmakes people buy them? And
that's what you're showcasing inyour photographs? Yes. Yes. Oh,
cool. So that's, that's, that'swhat we're doing. And we're,
(29:18):
we're excited about ourtrajectory. It's just, it's just
slower than we'd like it to be.
I've only scratched the surfacebecause if I had to guess I use
it all US companies at thispoint. Any global Okay, yeah, at
this point, is it this point?
Yes, it is US based companies,but
(29:41):
I know who you should go afternext. And that's IKEA. Can you
imagine how helpful it would beif you had a Giffy of putting
together the cupboard orwhatever? Yeah. Wow. Okay. We'll
have to work on that becausethat would help me personally.
So, any, I guess thisJust kind of off the top of your
head here, but what keeps you upat night? What what are the
(30:03):
biggest challenges? What are thethings that are on your mind
that maybe I could help youbrainstorm in the moment to see
if we can't get PVS? Really?
Really? Yeah. So the firstactually, the first thing that
does that actually does keep meup at night. Is this capital?
Right?
(30:25):
Any any small business needscapital? Yes. Okay. So yeah, so
that's been a challenge. For us.
We haven't necessarily wanted togo to venture companies at this
point. So we're mostly raisedcapital through friends and
family. And,you know, the good news about
(30:46):
our business, as I've kind ofmentioned before, is we're a
scale provider. So we can, wecan be large enough to do all of
Whole Foods and some of thesebig companies that have lots of
items and so forth. The bad newsis we're a scale provider. So
that means that our coststructure is is higher I mean,
our footprint of our of our kindof our factory, if you will, the
(31:08):
equipment, the licenses cetera,et cetera. I mean, so it costs
are we've we've cut our coststructure as tightly as we
possibly can, but our coststructure is still higher than
our current revenue. So we'vebeen you know, so the board and
friends and family have been thethe capital behind the business
(31:32):
but so what keeps us up atnight? That is the main thing of
capital to get through becausewe are confident. Hey, check it
out. I just got an email.
Truscott company in eatery.
Yeah. So what do you want fromyour market? Yeah, that's
outstanding.
(31:52):
How ironic. Yeah, I'm sure I'llget a text here soon. Right. But
But anyway, so that's the goodnews. Bad news. Right. And so we
are we believe that we're,you know, a few quarters away
probably end of this calendaryear where our revenue and our
volume will surpass our or ourburn rate. So but until then,
(32:17):
you know, you asked what keepsyou up at night? It's that is
having enough capital? Because Imean, that's eventually what
really kills most smallbusinesses is, is they just
don't have the capital to keepon going.
Out of capital. And so that's,that's a that's the that's the
number one thing that that keepsme up at night, if you will.
(32:39):
Yep. So what is the capacity?
I'm picturing, and I've not beento the facility. But what are
you operating at in terms ofcapacity right now? Like, is
part of it? Like, you need toget the word out there. So
you've got the people, you'vegot the equipment, now you just
need the volume to come throughof customers. Okay, okay. Yeah,
exactly. Okay, more and morecustomers to be on. I mean,
(33:03):
yeah, that's, that's, yeah. Andwhat we do with the way we
operate now is we kind ofoperate as as the minimum kind
of ongoing velocity. Yep. Sowith our with full time staff,
and then we we, we staff up withcontract labor. So as we get
(33:27):
more volume in or as we have,this business is, and we don't
have that much predictability ofwhat's coming in, right. And
Whole Foods, they don'tnecessarily have the
predictability of who has howmany new items and when they're
coming in. So we'll, or volumeor volume is peaks and valleys,
and so we staff to the valley.
And then as the peaks come in,we'll, we'll staff up. But
(33:48):
meanwhile, you have things likeyou have your licenses for all
of your all of our equipment,and things like that. And those
are fixed costs. And so we canramp a ton of volume on top of
the equipment that we own. Andon top of the licenses that we
have. And so our marginal costsare relatively low. But we see
(34:14):
that that additional volume, soscalability is very attractive,
butone of the reasons why Yeah, so
we're just get to that kind ofminimal amount, and then we can
we'll, as we scale, it'll be aprofitable scaling. Yep. Okay.
Do you have a person in chargeof sales and marketing right
(34:36):
now? We do. Okay, well, he'scalled the CEO. Okay. Very good.
All right. And that's the that'spart of the issue with a small
company, right and don't have aton of bandwidth. And actually
what we have discovered Sarah,and this may be more nuanced
(34:58):
than you want to know at thistime.
On. But what we've discovered isthat
it takes relationship to sell toa certain extent in our in our
industry. So we have ourcustomer acquisition strategies,
we have actually severaldifferent
(35:18):
funnels, if you will, for acustomer attraction. But your
one funnel is no simple search,as I kind of mentioned to you
before, but search marketing cankind of being at the point of
opportunity when the opportunitypresents itself. You can talk to
somebody all day, you can go toa trade show, you can go to the
fishing Expo, and talk to youknow, 100 different companies or
(35:40):
any others, so you can go up anddown the street. And they're
like, thanks very much, youknow, talk to the hand.
And then when they have aproblem, and they need
something, then they go, who wasthat that came by? And you know,
who was that, you know, that Imet. But at the point when they
don't have a need, they're justnot going to buy? So anyway,
search is an important componentof position, because they are, I
(36:04):
have a need, I'm searching for asolution. And you know, and then
these folks pop up. Okay, great.
One of the other ways I think Imentioned to you is that we have
gone toa number of Industry, Trade
shows where we identify the kindof the need, at high velocity
(36:25):
items in the industry, a lot ofnew items. Imaging is you know,
is kind of all over the board.
And so we'll go to an industryconference, let's call it the
fishing show in Orlando, this ismassive show, and you'll go up
and down the floor. And, youknow, they're like, I'm busy.
(36:50):
I'm what do you do? Hey, they'reinteresting, go away. But as
soon as you sit, so having asales person, wouldn't, you
know, we've discovered is notnecessarily highly effective or
doesn't return. What we havediscovered is we use sales
agencies that are aligned tothat space. Yep, small company
(37:14):
that represents, you know,hundreds of manufacturers a
little bit like what Acosta did,yeah. Right. So but they, but
they exist in most industryverticals. And we work with one
that's in the fishing andhunting and outdoor sports
vertical. And they, when wewalked the trade, same trade
(37:36):
show with them, we can talk toanybody now. They know them all.
They know the decision maker,they can get to the decision
maker and say, Oh, by the way,right? You need to talk to these
people, because your images arelousy. And your competitor looks
like so and have you ever reallylooked at your images, and you
are bypassing or missing out onsignificant econ volume? Because
(37:59):
you're not maximizing? You know,hey, the reality is that this, I
think is I think we all kind ofrecognize this, but the data
says that the number one reasonwhy people click off of a or
leave a website, other than ifthere's a technical glitch with
the website, is if the imagesand the visuals are not good. So
(38:22):
we shot as you said earlier, youeat with your eyes, you shop
with your eyes, first I look atthe images, then I'll read all
the descriptors, then I'll readall the information. So if I
don't, if I can't see it, I'mout. And so anyway, it takes
someone that has therelationship, and also knows who
the decision maker is to say, bythe way, your images suck, and
(38:46):
you need to do something. Andyou know, we, when we bought
that same trade show, like talkto the hand go away. Anyway. So
that's what we've discovered.
And so we are our salesstrategy, that that particular
part of our customer acquisitionstrategy is via
(39:08):
sales agencies, okay, who thedecision makers, and so we have
a handful of them in differentindustry verticals. That's
great. We need more, we needmore, we want more. And so
that's part of our growth. Sure.
Yeah. So yeah, I like that. Ilike that. Yeah, it kind of
feels like the coldintroduction. Is that
necessarily?
(39:30):
It wouldn't yield the same as arelationship. Yeah. Or like you
said, the search of I've got anissue and I'm looking for
someone to scratch the itch.
That's great. I think, you know,it's a it's a service. And so
you're in the same camp as a lotof professional service
organizations where it's like, Idon't need an attorney until I
(39:54):
need an attorney. I don't needyou know.
So that's very interesting.
Yeah, so okay.
Yeah, I mean, the capital piece,I mean, unless you want it to go
out and find the venturecapitalists, and you know, I
think that's interesting. Ofcourse, there's other routes,
like crowdsourcing and things ofthat nature.
(40:17):
I'm curious, do you do a flatfee for your customers? Like,
can they sign up and have?
Is it a certain amount? And wedo everything for you all year?
Or is it per item? Or? Yeah, wecan do, we can do both. It's for
the most part, it's on a peritem basis. And most, so we've
(40:41):
tried that. And again, this ispart of the evolution of our
pricing model also, is whatwe've discovered, is that it's
just like, so unique. Everybodyneeds something a little
different, right? And they mayneed something a little
different based on theircustomers. Hey, Amazon wants
this. And I'm part of, I don'tknow, again, it's, let's let's
(41:03):
use fishing as an example. Butit could be any number of things
like, Alright, sowhat's the big, what's the big
fishing retailer, bass, Bass ProShop wants it like this. And,
you know, so and so wants itlike this. And so I need, and
then, sowhat their needs are, is very
(41:25):
different. So and they alsodon't necessarily know how many
new ones they're going to have,and when they're going to come
out, and so forth. So we've,we're able to do pricing models,
like you've described, but forthe most part, they they'll pick
a range, that's alright, here'skind of the, the package that I
want for every item I want. Forthese kinds of items. I want
(41:47):
spins and stills and so forthfor these types of items. I want
my apparel, I want them, I wantthem with a mannequin. And for
my hats, I want this and theninto will we create some No, so
we can customize for them. Andthen from then on, it's you
know, it's it's it's simple, butthat's what we generally. And I
(42:09):
think I described, we were doingall of Venus swimwear. And so
they want all right, I want itto I want the lay flats, you
know, where I can just and thenI want on mannequin maybe on
model blah, blah, blah, there'sno there's a number of things.
And I want for some types ofapparel. I need this. And for
some types of apparel, I needthat. Right. Right. Apparel is
(42:30):
an industry that I would think Imean, again, people are, well,
particular, how does the fabric,you know, what's the fit on the
shoulders or whatever I canimagine, you know, the
photography is an incrediblyimportant aspect. So yeah, we're
now like, for example, we've gotone company that's a they do
(42:51):
like hunting apparel. And theyhave what what we refer to as
hotspots. So you can zoom in toWell, I'd say you can see the
zippers and you can really seehow the vents work. But also
like one where you can zoom in,and you actually see the fabric,
what is made up. So even betterthan like, if you're touching
(43:14):
and feeling you can see, oh,that's how the fabric is made?
Or what's the density and theway that it's you know, kind of
manufactured so that, you know,yeah, yeah. Wow, that's
fantastic. Okay. Well, I mean,gosh, I think it's a really
exciting time. And I'm hopeful.
I mean, I'll obviously stay veryclose to kind of following the
(43:36):
progress, but you'll have tokeep me posted. And I actually
wrote down a handful of peoplethat I think could benefit from
this kind of in the CPG world.
different products that I have,you know, some close friends and
family that represent thesebusinesses. And I mean, my gears
(43:56):
returning as you were talking, Iwonder, well, I'm, I'm all ears.
Appreciate that. Yeah. Well,Jack, I mean, honestly, it's,
it's really fun to kind of youget your hands in so many
different things. And I knowhow, you know, connected you are
in the community to helpingfolks and I hope you know, I
(44:19):
will always help you, no matterthe topic, and,
and you for us and me.
But I'm gonna keep thinking andI'm excited to watch PBS grow
and scale and become what I knowit can be. So thank you for
sharing your journey with me.
Well, thank you. I'm alwaysexcited about your journey as
(44:39):
well. I've been fun to followTreska and your new growth
strategy in the past as yourprevious ones, your current one,
as well as point northeast andso I'm really excited about
that. And thanks. Yeah, thanksfor thanks for having me. I
appreciate any ideas you have.
I'm all ears. I really do.
(45:00):
And our listeners may have someideas as well, hey, that
actually, I almost forgot, tellus how we can find you tell us
how we can come in contact withyour company. So if people are
looking for photography, they'llknow where to go. Yeah, so they
can find us online at PVSstudios.com. And that's they'll,
(45:22):
they should be able to find usis, and it gives. And that's
another as a small company, Iknow our website is as good as
it could be. And we've reallytried to improve it. And and so
we have a lot of different typesof images. And at least it gives
you an idea of like, oh, catlike that. That's interesting. I
need my product really couldbenefit by that kind of have a
(45:43):
look, you mentioned before youwere talking about rods and
reels and how soft they are. Butother things, you know, what how
a parallel is done, or howsomething else is done? Or like,
oh, yeah, that would be a coolway to show how I put my how I
put something together once Ionce I receive it in the box. So
yeah, so we got a lot of stuffon our website that PVS
studios.com. And, yeah, but oneof the things that we also do
(46:05):
for all of our potential clientsor customers is, we'll give them
some free sample. So I send ussend us a couple of products,
and we'll do some imaging foryou and then shoot it back to
and then we can talk andyeah, and then we can discuss
exactly what you need in our inthe people that on our we do
(46:27):
have sales people that you know,once you come in like alright,
help them think about what waysthey could better represent
their products online. Have youthought about this? You know, we
can do that? Have you thoughtabout that? Or here's an example
of a company and this is whatthey did? And, you know, or what
do you have in mind? So yeah, sowe customer service sales, if
(46:47):
you will, that's great. I mean,that's a really, really nice to
offer and a good, good way forthem to get to know PVS studios.
I just thought of something andthis is not now but what if
trafficker ends up shippingfrozen pimientos in the future.
Oh, I liked that.
(47:09):
You guys, you could photographyou know, how it looks when it
arrives and the steps and thenthe, the eating and when and
when when you get those frozencaminos I'm sure Whole Foods
will stock them. And you go toWhole Foods, like make it easy
as us so yeah.
Well, we'd love to do that. Andthen
(47:30):
you do your merch. So you knowall your T shirts and your hats
and all that kind of stuff. Soyeah, yeah. Great. Well, thank
you, again, for being a part ofthe podcast. I really appreciate
it. And I'll be sending somefolks to you. I know a couple
off the top of my head. And I'llobviously keep thinking too, but
if you need anything, you'd letme know. Well, thank you, I
(47:53):
guess you know I do.
And vice versa, or anytime andI'm just glad to be part of it.
And if I can help me any otherway or help any of your any of
your the people on your podcast,you know, let me know. Thank
you. Thanks. All right. Allright.
Thanks, everybody for listeningand being a part of it. I hope
you also have a good afternoonand see you soon. See you soon.
(48:17):
Thanks so much for tuning intothis episode of level up your
business with me, Sara Frasca.
If you have a problem in yourbusiness that's keeping you up
at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
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