Prairie Sweet | Tools & Templates for the Professional Photographer

Welcome to Prairie Sweet Boutique’s MAKE IT SWEET Blog!

We are definitely going to be making it SWEET today – with a very exciting Vendor Feature with one, if not the, biggest professional photo labs in the industry.

We are thrilled to visit with Mike Hanline of WHCC!!

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Welcome!  Mike – Thank you SO MUCH for being a part of our Make it Sweet Blog today!  Let’s start by having you tell us a little about yourself and your business:

WHCC: Oh my, there is a lot of history to WHCC. My parents owned a portrait studio in the late 40’s and 50’s and ended up selling it and opening a lab in Kansas City in 1956, which is where I grew up. My wife and I migrated north to Minneapolis in the mid 90’s after selling the lab and ended up forming a partnership in WHCC in 1996. The original partner was bought out several years ago and now our sons; Chris and Tim are partners in WHCC. 

WHCC occupied a 4,000 square foot building until 2004, when we made our first move to a new 11,000 square foot lab. Now WHCC occupies three buildings in Eagan, Minnesota, one in Mesquite, Texas, and one in Fresno, California, totaling nearly 200,000 sq ft, employing just under 300 people year round and 500+ during the holiday production season.

WHCC was the first 100% completely digital professional lab, probably worldwide, in early 2002 when we processed our last rolls of film. We truly led the digital transition in our industry and remain proud of that still today.  

Much has changed over those early years when all we produced was digital photo prints! All product lines continue to sell well and remain popular year after year. We pride ourselves on continuing to develop new products and enhancements to all current products on a continuous basis. We work hard to incorporate new product ideas from a variety of sources, with WHCC clients being the best source of course.

The team that is WHCC has been built over the years includes skilled, motivated individuals that care about our clients and their success. We’ve worked very hard to build a culture that revolves around the success of our clients as the basis for our success. That is what drives us and to be a part of that culture deserves and demands the right kind of individual. I couldn’t be more proud of our staff and how we conduct our business and the principles on which we make our daily decisions.

PRAIRIE SWEET: Wow!  What a great history – so nice to hear about – especially your ties to the Kansas City area.  So besides running an awesome business, what do you do for fun? 

WHCC: Aside from having a great deal of fun at WHCC, my wife Diana and I enjoy traveling, much of it for work, but more and more simply to see the world. We’ve been fortunate to travel in Europe the last few years, take a trip to Japan, another to Singapore and look forward to more over the next few years. I’ve also been a life long golfer and car enthusiast, while Diana enjoys interior design and spending as much time as possible with our kids.

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Thanks for letting us get to know you better on a personal level.  Next Question:  What is the BEST thing you’ve ever done for your business?

WHCC: Spend time in the market listening to photographers and clients thus staying abreast of the most current market trends. That information drives what we do and where we are going. The real “secret” is transforming that information into a viable, value proposition for your clients. That drives long-term success through building relationships that endure.

We are in our second year of conducting our own “Spend an Evening with WHCC” tour. In 2012 we had over 5000 clients visit us at our traveling open houses where all of our products are on display and our Customer Service staff is there is help you. This has been a great experience for both our clients and us and has added many, many new product ideas to our list. In essence, we bring our convention booth to you, with a little food and cheer on the side.

PRAIRIE SWEET:  GREAT ADVICE – and possibly the ONLY way to stay successful as a business in an ever-changing industry.  We love the “Spend an Evening with WHCC.  I was able to attend the one in Kansas City last year – great food, a chance to look at your products and even meet some of your team.  I have fun meeting Lacey in Marketing there. 

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Sticking with the topic of business, please share with us your TOP TIPS for how to BOOST YOUR SALES/BUSINESS:

WHCC: In my opinion you will build your business through creating and maintaining relationships with clients who come back to you over and over again through the years. Treating them with respect and integrity will serve you well. Leave them feeling great about their experience with you each and every time you come in contact with them. There are many, many options out there in the market, if you don’t value the relationship properly, your clients will end up somewhere else. 

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Once again – great advice.  I think this is something we can quickly forget or put aside as we get distracted by other things.  A great reminder to make this a priority.

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Speaking of maintaining client relationships, please share with us your TOP TIPS for how to PAMPER YOUR CLIENTS:   

WHCC:  First and foremost, make your clients feel special. This isn’t hard – just give them your full and undivided attention.

Second, make it very easy for them to conduct their business with you. The vast majority of them want you to guide them and help them with their buying decisions.

Lastly, give your best clients a gift from time to time – reward them and show them they are special to you. We have many small products that serve that purpose, but the most important aspect is to just say “thanks”.

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Love it – give them your full and undivided attention and be there guide through the process!

PRAIRIE SWEET:  We’ve enjoyed hearing your business savvy responses.  We’d love to know what’s in store for WHCC.  Please tell us – What is your next business related goal?

WHCC: Just keep your eye out for our emails. For example we are just launching a new Album product, “premium lustre paper” that will get significant attention during the remainder of 2013. It’s all about bringing the best to the market and providing a successful product to showcase our client’s images to serve their clients. It’s a winning equation all around.

PRAIRIE SWEET:  Can’t wait!!  Thank you SO much for being part of our blog today.  We love the business-minded tips from someone who definitely knows how to run a successful business!  Best Wishes to WHCC and the WHCC family!

Now, it’s time for the REVIEW portion of this post.

Today we will be reviewing:

• WHCC 5×7 Flat Press Printed Cards (5 paper types)
• WHCC Wallet and 3×3 Mini Accordion Books
• WHCC 10×10 10 spread Press Printed Album with Custom Photo Cover

But First – an overview of WHCC.  WHCC as you’ve read in the above interview portion of this feature has a long history of serving the needs of professional photographers.  They are professional in their own right and continue to lead the industry with innovation, high quality products and great customer service.

ORDERING:  WHCC has a great website with everything you’ll need to place an order including templates, FAQs and detailed info about each of their products.  They have all of the products in demand for professional photographers and continue to add new products as they see fit.  Shipping is free with every order (minimum of $12) and your package often comes with a little treat.

PACKAGING:   All of the products we ordered were package very carefully and covered in plastic and adhered to cardboard when necessary.

OTHER:  When looking at WHCC’s website I was impressed with their philanthropic efforts and was even introduced to some charities that I was not aware of.  They also take the initiative to be “green” and responsible with their production and the products they use to make sure they are being friendly to the environment.  Way to go WHCC!

PRICING:  WHCC, while one of THE biggest professional photo labs, continues to have very competitive pricing for their products while still maintaining the highest quality.

Now on to the PRODUCTS:

First up are WHCC’s Press Printed 5×7 Flat Cards.

We chose 5 different paper types (although WHCC has a huge selection of paper options) to review.  We’ve ordered press printed cards from several companies.  One thing that impresses us with WHCC is their selection of premium papers.  You can get your own free set of paper samples from WHCC (when you open an account) so that you can touch and feel them for yourself.  However, we’ll do our best to describe them and have some photographs that may help as well.   The price of the cards includes envelopes which you can get in white or parchment.

A note to photographers:  Press Printed cards are the way to go.  If you are still offering photo cards/photographic print cards – consider bumping up the quality of your product line by offering press printed cards.  The quality is so much better – plus you have so many more options in terms of paper choices and get a 2-sided card.  From our experience, 5×7 flat cards (which are 2-sided) are the most popular but there are also more options like folded, tri-folded, boutique shapes and so forth.

CARD STOCK:  One of the biggest positives for WHCC is the quality and thickness of their press printed cards.  No one (well at least I can’t think of one) wants to deliver a thin flimsy set of cards to their clients.  From their standard smooth cards to their premium matte and watercolor papers – every paper has a nice weight.  I’ve been disappointed before with other labs with thin card stock – you won’t have that problem here.

COLOR: The colors were right on with what we were expecting.  If you have a callibrated to WHCC you will have no problems (we didn’t take the extra time for this – and had no problems – but be sure to get your free test proofs done to see how your monitor works with WHCC’s coloring.  There is also lot of guidance on their website for how to get your colors to match properly with theirs).

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 5×7 Flat Press Printed Card (come 2-sided) in Premium Matte Paper.  Here we used our Prairie Sweet Sunshine Card you can get HERE.  These cards have a smoothe matte finish.  We like these cards a lot for a standard everyday type of card.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 5×7 Flat Press Printed Card in Pearl Paper using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Evelyn Senior Card Template you can get HERE.  Pearl paper is in it’s own league in terms of its characteristics.  It’s a nice weight card stock with a shimmer to it.  We know lots of photogs who love this paper for their High School Senior Girl clients or even for holiday cards.  It definitely has a unique factor.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 5×7 Flat Press Printed Card in Bamboo Paper using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Christmas Whimsy Card Template you can get HERE.  I have to tell you – I’d never tried the Bamboo Paper before and I think I’m in love with it — well, as much as you can be in love with a paper.  It’s a thick, matte card with a subtle texture to it and a natural feel if you will.  I really like the way it feels in my hands and how the colors look so vibrant on it.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 5×7 Flat Press Printed Card in Semi-Gloss Paper using Prairie Sweet’s Vintage Bold Card Template.  This card is probably the thinnest of the group but still has a nice weight to it.  It is also the glossiest of the papers were are reviewing.  If you like a little bit of glossy (it’s not super glossy – just semi), bright colors – this is a good choice for you.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 5×7 Flat Press Printed Card on Watercolor Paper using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Soft Linen Card Template you can get HERE.  If the Bamboo paper is my personal favorite (I tend to go for the natural, classic look), then the watercolor paper has to be a close second.  This paper is has a nice matte feel to it with a subtle texture to it.  It isn’t quite a thick as the bamboo paper but is still a nice weight.  We love how it goes so well with our Soft Linen Baby Collection Templates.

OVERVIEW of CARDS:  WHCC really does a great job with their Press Printed Card Line – lots of options, good quality card stock and great color matching.

NEXT UP:  Mini Accordion Books!

We LOVE mini accordion books and sell several templates for them.  They just make the greatest little gifts or add-on items for your clients.  You can put so many pictures in them and included beautiful colors and designs for a really nice product.  They are also have a great price point and come in sets of 3.  Many photogs sell them in sets of 2 and keep the third as a sample.  If you haven’t incorporated mini accordion books/albums in your products offerings yet – we strongly suggest you try them out and get a sample for your studio.

WHCC offers 2 sizes of accordion books:  Wallet (your standard 2.5×3.5 size) and Square (3×3).  They offer custom photo covers or a variety of bookcloth, leather, suede, mineral, etc. cover options.  One of the coolest things about these mini accordion books/albums is that they have a magnetic closure.  This is great for several reasons.  1.  The books stays closed.  We’ve all seen books that will never lie flat again – never the case with these.  Also, since they are magnetic – they will stick to each other OR they’ll stick to magnetic services!  Put them on your fridge, file cabinet at work, etc. and then pull them out when you’d like to share your pics.

Note for photographers – sell up the point that these come in sets of three (of the same design) by telling your customers they can keep one for themselves and then give one to each parent or set of grandparents – perfect!

Above is a sample of WHCC’s Wallet Accordion Mini Book using Bamboo Paper and a Sapphire Mineral Cover (love the mineral covers – so durable and cool!) using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Mallory Mini Accordion Album Template.   Again, love the bamboo paper on this one and of course the sapphire mineral cover is cool too.

A few more details.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 3×3 Square Accordion Mini Books with Standard UV Paper and UV Coating using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Little Honey 3×3 Accordion Album Template.  The UV Paper with UV Coating provides a high gloss product that would be resistant to permanent fingerprints, smudges, etc.  The paper and coating also makes the colors seem even brighter.   As you can see on this sample, we’ve used the custom cover option which allows for more design and pictures – a different look.

A few more details.

LAST but not least – WHCC’s 10×10 Press Printed Album:

Albums are a great way to take your business from smaller orders selling only 5x7s and 8x10s to larger orders giving your clients keepsake products they’ll treasure for always.  Albums are especially popular for the High School Senior and Newborn/Baby Markets.

WHCC has lots and lots of album options and sizes.  Like the mini accordion books, the Press Printed Albums have many cover options including leather, book cloth, mineral, suede, etc. to custom photo covers, metallic covers, padded covers or a combination thereof.

For this sample, we chose a 10×10 (popular size) Press Printed Album with a Custom Photo Non-Padded Cover with 10 spreads (20 pages).  We chose a satin lustre finish on the pages.

Above is a sample of WHCC’s 10×10 Press Printed Album with Satin Lustre Coated Paper, a Custom Photo Cover and Non-Padded Cover using Prairie Sweet Boutique’s Anna 10×10 Album Template which was modified a little (color changes which any owner of the template can make) to fit the pictures from this session better.   WHCC has a very nice product here.  The album is sturdy and has a nice feel to it.  The colors are good too.

Here are a few more details showing the way the lies and the thickness of the pages.  Album pages need to be thick and these are.

A few more details.  {please note that the weird red cast on the picture if probably due to the fact that I was wearing a neon orange athletic shirt and is not what the pages look like}

A final shot showing a full page spread.  To get the Anna Album Template we used for this review, click HERE.

OVERVIEW:  Once again, we want to thank WHCC for participating in our Vendor Feature today.  We hope you were able to learn something or be inspired.  Our goal is to help facilitate ways for you to boost your sales and pamper your clients so that you too can have a successful business in the photography industry.

To sign up for an account with WHCC, visit www.whcc.com and click on “Become a Client”.

And last but certainly not least, our GIVEAWAY portion of the post!

WHCC has been incredibly generous and is giving away a 10×10 Press Printed Album (est value: $70-215) – See entry details below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway