Have you made a scrap/ photo book for your child?

[silvina]

Hi.. During my pregnancy, I designed an amazing book for my son. It took nearly 4 months to put it together. I showed it to people and everyone loved it. So I decided to started a business designing pregnancy and baby books. We've had a few clients and everyone's been really happy with the results, but business is a bit slow. I'm trying to figure out what we're doing wrong.

I think our website is good, clear and pretty, the price is about as cheap as we can go without losing money.. remember these are hand designed, unique books, not 'upload all your pics and let a computer build it' kind of books. The idea is that it's something beautiful to give you child on his/her 18th birthday.

People spend hundreds of pounds on their wedding albums, but don't seem so interested when it comes to their kids? Would appreciate any feedback and advice... we are at www.hellobabybooks.com/

Thanks!

Silvina

Just took a look at your site really quickly and it's very hard to read the text against the picture background and in that tiny little box. That would immediately put me off looking further if this was something I was interested in, which I am not as I am a graphic designer.

Have you advertised? SEOed the site? Google Adwords? Facebook? Twitter?

I also just took a look at your pricing and it seems a bit odd. £45 for soft back 7x7 and £150 for hard back? That's a huge jump in price! Are the hardback books really that much more expensive?

And I think the jump in price for the larger ones is also huge. Perhaps you are undercharging for your small soft back?

Looks lovely agree with the points made by Tee2072.

I disagree with your points about uploading on site. You can get some fab ones done and you havent a unique product. There seem to be everywhere and Asda/Tesco are doing a good service here too at a reasonable price.

Have you googled and seen who else is doing this? There are business fares, school fetes, chamber of commerce, government gateway etc but watch your spends as advertising is a nasty expensive overhead. Leaflets are the cheapest or posters at natal classes/baby clubs

Do people want a pregancy book???? I think its something you shove in the back of the cupboard with those 3D scans - your marketing to the higher/posher market here. What about a pet book - people will spend a fortune on their pets?

I know you compare the wedding photos but that is something that isnt skimped on. £150 for a book is quite a lot and not everyone would want to spend so much on a gift - There must be stats available on average spends on gifts. Like everyone says you take loads of photos on the first but run out of time on the 2nd and 3rd.

I think your aiming at the top end of the market so your website needs to ouze class. Everything you do needs to be aimed at the posher bespoke end.

I would question just doing this business will provide you with a good income as you could assume you'll get one order a fortnight. What sort of profit margins are you working on? The trouble with doing a business off a hobby is that its not profitable....Dragons den is a good one to see this.....some great ideas but make no money.

I love the book its stunning but I wouldnt buy one I'd rather invest in art.

I like the books. Personally find the prices a bit steep for myself but appreciate the effort it takes to make them. If I had more spending money I would want one. Have loads of photos of DS but no photo albums (all online for family abroad to see!).

Tee2072: thanks for you comments and suggestions. I will give a look again to the text in the website. After we did a campaign on Facebook, we are actually doing better. Thanks for your reply!

Bacon: Yes, of course, you can find always cheaper stuff made by a machine in Tesco and Asda. Or even iPhoto. Where you can only upload photos but you cannot make any change to the ready made format they provide. But that is not the quality we are offering here. And maybe it was not clear in my message, I´m a graphic designer, I work in graphics as a daily basis, so its not a hobby really. Thanks for your comments.

FairyArmadillo: Thanks a lot for your lovely comment!