Falling in Love Again— With Your Business
Re-igniting Your Retail Engine Starts From Within
March 2007 By Laura Oles
In an industry that has undergone radical change in the last decade and now faces tough competition from several different retail channels, it’s easy to understand why many retailers may need to recharge or restart their business engines. This feature examines how to rediscover the passion and joy inherent with running a retail imaging business.
Steve Khalaf still remembers his first love like it was yesterday. He recalls fondly that special something he’d once hoped for more than anything.
It was the law.
A man who has run a string of successful businesses and has been in the photo industry for over twenty years started out wanting to be a lawyer. Khalaf admits he’s a long way from law school but has embraced photography and made quite a nice living. So what caused him to change course?
“My daddy died when I was young, and I had to make a living to help take care of my family,” Khalaf states. He doesn’t sound the least bit bitter; in fact, he takes enormous pride in the fact that family is of utmost importance and that his life reflects those choices. So, when it was time to step into his father’s shoes to care for his loved ones, he did so by launching a string of successful ventures, but it was the idea of a one-hour lab in his grocery store — a radically new concept in 1984 — that led him to take his first steps down the photo path. Like his previous ventures, he immersed himself in learning as much as he could about all aspects of the business and then dedicated himself to growth and success.
It worked.
Khalaf’s Kingwood Photo Lab in Kingwood, Texas has seen many years of substantial growth and is known for handling a variety of celebrity customers such as George Foreman and members of the Houston Texans NFL team.
But Khalaf is struggling to recapture his passion. Like many who have ridden the thrill of the early 80s and subsequently weathered the film-to-digital conversion of the last decade, Khalaf has lost some of the joy he found in photo.
He’s in good company. Bill McCurry, president of McCurry Associates, travels the country working with photo retailers and says, “This is something I see all the time. These folks are smart, talented and have survived many years of crippling competition, but they’ve lost touch with what they loved about the business in the first place.”
Steve Khalaf still remembers his first love like it was yesterday. He recalls fondly that special something he’d once hoped for more than anything.
It was the law.
A man who has run a string of successful businesses and has been in the photo industry for over twenty years started out wanting to be a lawyer. Khalaf admits he’s a long way from law school but has embraced photography and made quite a nice living. So what caused him to change course?
“My daddy died when I was young, and I had to make a living to help take care of my family,” Khalaf states. He doesn’t sound the least bit bitter; in fact, he takes enormous pride in the fact that family is of utmost importance and that his life reflects those choices. So, when it was time to step into his father’s shoes to care for his loved ones, he did so by launching a string of successful ventures, but it was the idea of a one-hour lab in his grocery store — a radically new concept in 1984 — that led him to take his first steps down the photo path. Like his previous ventures, he immersed himself in learning as much as he could about all aspects of the business and then dedicated himself to growth and success.
It worked.
Khalaf’s Kingwood Photo Lab in Kingwood, Texas has seen many years of substantial growth and is known for handling a variety of celebrity customers such as George Foreman and members of the Houston Texans NFL team.
But Khalaf is struggling to recapture his passion. Like many who have ridden the thrill of the early 80s and subsequently weathered the film-to-digital conversion of the last decade, Khalaf has lost some of the joy he found in photo.
He’s in good company. Bill McCurry, president of McCurry Associates, travels the country working with photo retailers and says, “This is something I see all the time. These folks are smart, talented and have survived many years of crippling competition, but they’ve lost touch with what they loved about the business in the first place.”
