“It’s been a pain but a definite asset in growing my business,” says the owner of DVD by the Sea.
 
“They rent from me, return it to the wrong kiosk and the competitor says it’s the customers responsibility to get it right. I say the customers have better things to do.”
 
When a customer contacts him with this issue, he asks them to call his competitors and try to retrieve the discs. But if that doesn’t work out, he’ll absorb the cost of the movie. It’s a small price to pay for customer loyalty.
 
“The customer never makes the mistake again, and they’ve become my customer,” he says, which counts for a lot on Whidbey Island, the rural of area Washington State where he lives. Word of mouth travels fast around there. “I don’t have any disgruntled customers. “
 
He also guarantees all his movies. If a customer has a problem, they get a full refund.
 
Bonus tip: sell your movies
“Immediately promote selling your movies from the machines,” urges Fries. He learned the hard way in his first year of operation after acquiring a very large movie collection when the movies became dated.
 
Now he says he rarely has to pull a movie out of the machine, because they sell themselves.
 
He prices the movies on a sliding scale. For the first month, the new releases are $30 plus tax, because he doesn’t really want people to buy them yet. After 30 days, they are $20, after 60 days they sell for $10, and after 90 days they sell for only $5, which is usually cheaper than Walmart.
 
“You can corner the market on used movies if you want,” he says.
 
Fries also runs a PowerPoint presentation on the monitor above the kiosk advertising movies for sale, so his customers know they can buy the movies if they want.
 

Home of DVD by the Sea in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

“It’s kind of like the final frontier. You don’t get any further out in the middle of nowhere than Dutch Harbor, Alaska,” says Fries, who, along with his wife Paula, runs the DVD by the Sea kiosk business.
 
When Alaska Ship Supply first approached him about getting a kiosk, he was skeptical. “It was a pretty risky location,” he say, but he evaluated its merits. “It’s a large department store with a lot of employees, so they must have a strong customer base. While there’s only 4,000 people in town, there are thousands of fishermen coming there looking for king crab.”
 
He’s been operating it for over a year now, doing brisk business with the fishermen who like to relax with action-adventure movies.
 
When he was launching the kiosk, he shipped it directly to the store and explained to them how to set it up. At that point he was already an experienced kiosk operator with four kiosks near his home in Whidbey Island, and was well-versed in trouble-shooting the machines.
 
“I was only able to do that because I knew how reliable the DVDNow kiosks were. I knew I won’t have to fly there just to the fix the kiosk,” he says. He was able to help the store owners deal with any technical issues over the phone.
 
What he does is arrange for the movies to be shipped to his house, and then immediately spends the morning adding the RFID tags that enable the machine to recognize the discs. Then he ships the movies out using flat-rate boxes which go by Priority Mail and the store employees put them in the machine on the release date.
 
He takes pictures of the new releases and prints them on card stock for box art for the side panels, and includes this in the package.
 
The rest he and his wife can do from home using DVDNow’s Connections software.
 
He also operates another kiosk at the Foodland IGA in Juneau, Alaska, which launched in December 2012.
 
“The beauty of this business is you don’t have put the kiosk in your own backyard,” says Fries.
 

Self-serve DVD rental kiosks make the best employees ever and they never ask for a raise.

 
“We took the best of the best of what we’ve learned over the years about how to run your DVDNow business and created a virtual event that any of our customers can complete in just two two-hour sessions over the weekend,” says Bob Gallner, the VP of Sales for DVDNow Kiosks.
 
Jump-Start will show you the best way to launch your kiosk business, based on the wisdom of one of DVDNow’s most experienced and successful operators, Anthony Sellers, who is also a successful entrepreneur in his own right.
 
“The comment I get a lot from people is there’s so many things you talked about here that I would never have thought to do that make a huge difference in my business,” says Sellers.
 
Over the years, though trial and error, Sellers has developed proven methods for promoting your kiosk and working with store owners to offer cross-promotions such as buy a pizza, get a movie coupon.
 
“The key to increasing revenue is simple – you have to create impulse rentals,” says Sellers.
 
Once you do that, Sellers says your DVD rental kiosk becomes like an employee that you have no problem with – it doesn’t make demands, ask for a raise or call in sick. “When people realize that they have a real business with virtual employees working all the time they get really excited – if they have five kiosks, it’s like having five employees busy generating that passive income that so many people look for.”
 
Sellers will also share his branding and marketing secrets: “A brand is always going to reside in the hearts and minds of your potential customers. What you want is something that clicks in the mind of your customers where your kiosks change from being a good option to being the only option.”
 
Jump-Start also includes an hour-long one-on-one session at a later date with Sellers, which can address your individual concerns and questions.
 
“It’s like having your own personal coach who can help you with the specific needs of your business,” says Gallner.
 
The biggest benefit of Jump-Start is that because it is a virtual program, it can be offered more frequently.
 
“When starting your new business it makes more sense to get your training sooner rather than later,” says Gallner. “We found some people couldn’t attend our in-house Boot Camp training because their jobs wouldn’t allow them time off, and because the trip to Vancouver was just too far. And also people who started their business were finding they had to wait too long because Boot Camp only took place twice a year.”
 
Jump-Start was created to give DVDNow customers an additional option to learn everything they need to know about running a DVDNow business.
 
“Fiscal analysis proves that people who participate in DVDNow Boot Camp and Jump-Start training get off to a faster start and experience far better results than those who don’t,” says Sellers. “We’ve seen it over and over again.”
 
Give your business a boost by registering for Jump-Start now. Call Customer Support at 1-877-849-4272 ext. 3 or email customersupport@dvdnowkiosks.com.
 

TapSnap is a family business for Ben Bender and his sister Ellyn Cohen.

 
The last week of April was chock-a-block full of events, starting on April 23 with a charity event EATS (Eat Along the Street) at the Vie party venue that raised funds for Two Kitchens/Two Countries to support children’s programs in Thailand and Philadelphia.
 
The public relations firm in charge of the event said: “We’re getting great feedback about TapSnap from a bunch of different people. Glad you and I could work something out on the fly like that, because I think having you at the event was really special and new.”
 
Next was a cause very close to Bender’s heart, a charity gala for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Eastern Pennsylvania on April 25 at the Vie party venue.
 
Also on April 25, they were at the International Special Events Society’s ReFRESH 2013 event at Lincoln Financial Field. (He has multiple machines so he can be in more than one place at the same time).
 
On April 26, it was the closing party/cocktail reception for Philadelphia Technology Week, held at Urban Outfitters Headquarters.
 
And on April 28, it was the Pennsylvania Bridal Expo at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
 
Not bad for a new business just getting off the ground.
Bender has teamed up with several meeting planning companies, such as EBE and Roberts Event Group, who intend to use him as a supplier for their private and corporate events.
 
“The meeting planners love it, because many similar products don’t work for the corporate market. With TapSnap, there’s no booth, which eliminates a lot of liability issues because it’s open concept, and the sophisticated look of the machine and small footprint means it fits in well at any venue,” said Bender. “Plus it gives their event social media clout because guests share pictures online while the event is still happening.”
 
He adds that when the event is over, the pictures and online photo galleries remind attendees what a fun time they had while giving the host an important record of the event, with data and information about the people who attended.
 
Bender, who also works full-time in purchasing for a pharmaceutical company, wanted to start his own business to give his family an additional level of security. Because TapSnap can be run mostly on evenings and weekends, it was a perfect fit, plus he really wanted a business that did some good in the world.
 
“TapSnap is fun, it gives back to people and creates memories,” he said.
 
In other words, a perfect fit.
 
To learn more about TapSnap, which is a creation of DVDNow Kiosks, visit www.TapSnap.net or call 1-877-577-0566.
 

Use this platform for quick tweets about new releases you just installed, to tweet a photo of your kiosk with the location tagged, and use the tags #dvdnowkiosk or #yourcompanyname. This will allow you to monitor any mention of your company or DVDNow by your customers, by grouping any # mentions so you can do a quick search on Twitter. This is good to put out any fires or complaints about your business and allows you the ability to quickly retweet any positive mentions of your company and DVDNow Kiosks. Follow people in your area such as local restaurants and stores. Don’t be afraid to retweet a post you like, especially if it’s something about your community. Attract members of your community to your Twitter account by promoting it on your kiosk.
 
Make a special coupon code to use only on Twitter. This will help draw traffic to your page and get people to like you. Use a QR code generator to create a code that looks like a barcode that can be easily read by smartphones and instantly connects to your account.
 
This will make it easy for customers to find your Twitter account. But be sure to put your Twitter handle on the advertisement for those people who don’t have a smart phone.
 
Facebook
 
Facebook is a great place to create a community and build customer relationships. There are a few ways that you can use Facebook to market your DVDNow Kiosks business.

 
The first way is to create a company page. If you are going to promote your business for commercial gain, this is the place to be. Please note that Facebook has strict rules about using your personal profile for commercial gain. In a nut shell, DON’T! What you should use your personal profile for is marketing yourself. This is different than marketing your kiosk for commercial gain, as you are not promoting your kiosk outright, but striking up a conversation about your kiosk.
 
There’s a bit more flexibility with using your personal profile. You can use your friends list and segment them to make it easier to target with emails. And of course you can have friends which you cannot do with your company page. Using your personal page allows you to create and participate in local groups on Facebook. What you should do before you start marketing yourself with your personal profile is change your privacy settings to allow for Facebook followers. This will allow people to follow your public posts without being added to your Facebook friends list. This will also allow you to keep your private posts, comments, pictures, etc… private.
 
Two final tips on social media
 
1. Be careful what you post, as it never goes away. So proof your posts before tweeting or posting.
 
2. Good content is hard to find. Great content is a gold mine. Strive for quality not quantity.
 

The Goose supermarket on Whidbey Island hosts one of Brian Fries’ kiosks.

And the best part is that Brian and his wife Paula are not working all that hard.
 
They split the tasks with Paula taking all the things that can be done at home so she can be there for the children — such as the bookkeeping, remotely loading the movie trailers that will run on the flat-panel screen above the kiosk, and dealing with the Connections software.
 
Brian spends one day a week out loading movies into the four local machines and one morning a week preparing movies to ship to Alaska. He also fields the occasional customer question (about five a week) and spends 15 minutes remotely restocking the kiosks each morning so they appear full. Which all adds up to a lot of free time, so they can enjoy life on their five acres of property on the edge of the town of Coupeville, WA.
 
“That’s really the only things we do. I would definitely not call it a full-time job,” he smiles. “It’s a lot of fun. I really like it. Every time I go into a location, I get approached by curious customers. They all say ‘What a cool idea! I wish I thought of that.’”
 
With their kiosks in Alaska, the couple has negotiated a deal with the store owners to handle the day-to-day tasks, so all they have to do is provide movies and troubleshoot any minor issues that come up, which doesn’t happen very often.
 
“I was only able to do that because I knew how reliable the kiosks were. I wouldn’t have to fly there to fix it,” he said, adding that, “I’ve never had a problem that DVDNow’s tech manager Dale couldn’t figure out.”
 
The couple, who are both electricians by trade, started the business in 2009 after the economic downturn sideswiped the construction work that had been their mainstay.
 
Fries says Paula did the research and found the Canadian company, DVDNow Kiosks, which supplies kiosks for $25K to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own business.
 
After finding their first location at a new local grocery story in Bayview, WA called the Goose, they never had to look for another one again because locations started approaching them.
 
“From the very first day, people were coming up to the machine wanting to rent movies, and it’s been that way ever since,” says Brian.
 

TapSnap breaks the mold of the traditional photo booth

“At the Science Fair, all the kids were there with their parents and hamming it up for the camera. Next thing the parents were being goofy too. At the St. Patrick’s Day dance, the kids were taking their pictures with the Shamrock sunglasses and green hats I provided as props, and they were all dressed in green,” says Kim Deimling, the TapSnap franchise owner for Park City Utah. “The technology is so unique, exciting and fun. It makes people happy.”
 
She’s starting with schools because as a substitute teacher, former PTA president and mother of two teenage girls, that’s her comfort zone. She sends TapSnap prints home with the children and teens and so far it’s working like a charm to promote her business. The kids can’t stop talking about how much fun TapSnap was. Already requests have come in for events like an auto show, a bat mitzvah and weddings and she’s talking with a hotel in Park City about doing some of their events.
 
Alex Gallner, who is handling TapSnap operations in Los Angeles, had his first event at a charity art auction hosted by former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, Dave Navarro. All proceeds went to Linda’s Voice, an organization dedicated to putting an end to domestic violence. He has also done an art opening for the renowned artist Alex Monopoly.
 
“In Los Angeles, there’s a photo booth at almost every party,” he says. “But those are the traditional photo booths. TapSnap is much more intriguing. People see it and go, ‘What is that?’ and then they begin smiling and laughing around it, and soon they’re taking pictures.”
 
Across the country on the East Coast, Milton Guerrero will debut his TapSnap franchise at an event hosted by the national wedding Web site, TheKnot.com, on April 11 at the Bloomingdales in Long Island’s Roosevelt Field Mall.
 
“Every wedding I went to in the last year had a photo booth,” says Guerrero, who owns the franchise for Morris County, New Jersey. “But TapSnap breaks the mold of the traditional photo booth. Because that giant screen is out there in the open, it draws a lot of attention and brings the crowd together. There’s a lot more interaction and it’s a lot more social than the traditional photo booth.”
 
He sees his main market as weddings to start with and then plans to branch out in corporate events and parties.
 
“I fell in love with TapSnap right away,” he says. “It is elegant and looks like something I’ve never seen before. And the social media aspect is a huge selling point. I think it will do well.”
 
TapSnap is expanding rapidly across the U.S. and you can be a part of it. Find out how today by calling 1-877-577-0566 or visit www.TapSnap.net.
 

DVDNow in the media

Small-town papers are more likely to be interested in this type of news, especially if you have a new kiosk in the area, or a network of four or more kiosks.
 
So how should you go about doing this? Here are some general steps for you.
 
Step 1: Research your local media who might cover the story
 
With local media, it’s all about location. You want to look at media where you live, and where your kiosks are. If this happens to be the same place, you’ll have a greater chance of getting coverage. Some local papers are extremely local, which means they don’t care about anything beyond their coverage area.
 
Identify the reporters and media who would be most likely to cover your story by looking at whether they’ve done similar stories in the past.
 
If you live in a small or suburban community with a local paper, they are probably your best bet.
 
With larger papers, your best bests are the business or entertainment/lifestyle writers.
 
Maybe there is a reporter on your local TV station or newspaper who goes out and about doing features on small businesses or the community? That the type of person you want to approach.
 
If there are any popular local or lifestyle blogs with a general or movie focus, you will want to try to include them as well.
 
You will also want to check if your local newspaper runs short business announcements. This would be a good place to announce the launch of a new kiosk. Often papers have online forms where you can share your news.
 

If you or your friends and family know anyone in the local media, you should try to use your connections to get in touch with that person.
 
Compile a media list with the name of the publication, the reporter or editor’s name and job title, their phone and email. You may also want to note whether they are TV, media and radio. The main thing is to keep the emails all into one column, so later it will be easy to cut and paste into your email account.
 
A good Web site for identifying media in your area is Mondo Times, which lists media in US states, though you will still have to research each site individually to get contact information. Sometimes the contact information is hard to find, and you’ll have to phone to get the correct email. It’s better not to ask the reporters themselves, but try to get this from the reception.
 

Step 2: Pick an angle and make a press release or announcement
 
Media like drama, and they like things to be new. That means it’s up to you to try and find an angle that creates drama and makes it more of a story.
 
The most obvious angle, and one that seems to work well, is: Independent local operators take on Redbox. Another similar angle is: how you are helping independent and smaller grocery stores compete with the Walmarts of the world.
 
Generally media are more likely to be interested in doing a story if you have a network of kiosks. If you have a large network, that might be the focus of your press release.
 
If there is something new in the news about Redbox or DVDs, you could try to capitalize on that.
 
If there’s something else unique or interesting about you or your business, you can try to leverage that as well.
 
Here are some sample press releases you can use as a starting point. It’s okay to use content from these in your own local press release, as long as you adapt it so it’s about you and make sure the information is not dated.
 
Press release sample 1
Press release sample 2
Press release sample 3
 
Once your release is ready to send, cut and paste your media email addresses from your excel spreadsheet into your Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) as opposed to your “to”. This is so they aren’t aware of all the other reporters you are sending this to. It’s good to send a high-resolution picture with your story, but make sure the file isn’t too large. When you send a release, include your contact information (phone and email) at the top.
 
Then you are good to go.
 
You could also skip the press release step, and try just phoning the media (see Step 3), but often what they are looking for is something that saves them work. Some papers will even print a press release exactly the way it is sent.
 

Step 3: Follow up with the media
 
After you send your press release, wait a few hours or even a day. Maybe someone will call you. But if not, you should call them.
 
Prepare a script of two to three main points you would like to get across to the reporters or editors. This should be short and sweet. Try to think about it from their perspective and how a story about your business would be interesting for them (and their readers).
 
Many reporters and editors receive so many emails that it is vital to call and follow-up. Otherwise they just might not even notice yours, even if they would find it interesting.
 
Call and try to speak to the editor or reporters you sent your release to. Often they will ask you to send it again. Or you will get their voicemail. Don’t be offended if they don’t call you back. It’s nothing personal. Be persistent but not pesky. If they say they are busy now, ask them if you can call later.
 
If they do say they want to do the story, make it as easy as possible for them by responding to their requests promptly. Often, they are under intense deadline pressure so if you make their job easy you are more likely to get coverage.
 
Then you’ve done everything you can do. Ultimately, it’s up to the media whether they decide to cover your story. Good luck!
 

Janet Irven (left) had her kiosk custom-built into the wall at the new MacEwen convenience and gas bar in Ottawa, Canada

Last year she started a DVDNow Kiosks business – a self-serve movie rental business that allows her to earn passive income as people rent or buy movies and games from her kiosks.
 
This year, she launched her TapSnap business – a special event phototainment system that has revolutionized the photo booth for the social media era.
 
“I think work should be fun. I spent years working all hours as an oil and gas executive. Now I want to do work that makes people happy, provides entertainment and adds joy to their lives,” says Irven.
 
Both businesses are part-time, flexible and require limited hours, so Irven can concentrate on what matters most – being there for her son.
 
A Chartered Accountant by trade, and former VP of Finance for an oil and gas marketing firm, Irven’s movie rental company Express Cinema operates three movie rental kiosks in Peterborough.
 
Her first kiosk launched in June 2012 at Charlotte’s Pantry, a bakery/grocery store in downtown Peterborough. It turned out to be the perfect place and the perfect time.
 
Her city had been without its Blockbuster and Rogers video stores for a year by then, and people embraced the arrival of the kiosk.
 
“It’s just in the heart of a really great neighborhood downtown with old heritage homes where there’s a lot of professionals like lawyers, doctors and accountants,” she says. “We have a university and a college so there’s a lot of students. The store gets a lot of foot-traffic, and I’m seeing a growing trend of repeat business, plus the store owners really up-sell it.”
 
For her second kiosk, she forged a partnership with MacEwen convenience and gas bar, a 40-store chain in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
 
“The executives had been down in the States looking for kiosks. My timing couldn’t have been better,” she says. With the deal they made, she gained the first-place position to be the movie rental kiosk supplier for any of their new stores and any stores that will be remodeled.
 
Her first kiosk launched in MacEwen’s Peterborough store in July of last year, and when they were building a new store in Ottawa this year, she was in on the ground level. They even custom-built her kiosk into the wall.
 
Her third kiosk is operating at a Daisy Mart convenience store chain.
 
The main competition is the corporate giant Redbox, which has said they would add as many as 2,500 kiosks in Canada during 2013. So far there is only one in Peterborough at the Walmart Supercentre.
 
Her key advantage over the Coinstar(CSTR)-owned Redbox and over video-streaming services like Netflix(NFLX) is that she is able to offer new releases up to 28 days sooner than the competition because she isn’t bound by studio distribution contracts.
 
When she heard DVDNow Kiosks was launching TapSnap, she was among the first to get on board with the new franchise.
 
“As a former event planner, I could immediately see the potential TapSnap has to add a huge boost of excitement to any party or event – from graduations to milestone birthdays to bar and bat mitzvahs to weddings and more,” says Irven.
 
She took her machine to the Pickering Bridal Show and already has some events booked including a couple of weddings, and a food festival.
 
“TapSnap brings instantaneous fun to any event, especially corporate events where sometimes people are a little nervous or they don’t know everyone,” says Irven. “It removes people’s inhibitions and helps them loosen up. Unlike a photo booth, it’s out in the open and spontaneous. And the real-time social media aspect is huge.”
 
Learn more about TapSnap