Snaps - The One Hour Photo Shops
My First Business, an unbelievable experience never to forget.
I had determined that public service was not for me. I took over a small shop in Westfield Burwood (see left) with very little money. The equipment alone was worth over $100,000 in 1980 which of course had to be leased and hardly anyone in Australia knew how to operate. Now that was a steep learning curve.
I had very large photos of my farms at the back of the shop which I looked at regularly to remind me that they would be sold if I did not make this work.
They called me the Westfield cowboy, with my bright coloured shirts in Red, Black & Yellow, jeans in Black & Red, wide buckled belt, and high heel boots. The first 6 months were very scary, but by Christmas time we were doing 200 rolls of film a day, and the shops across the corridor were complaining to management that we were interfering with traffic flow. We just kept producing.
We opened up a new shop every year for the next 4 years, Westfield Miranda (see below), Westfield North Rocks, Seven Hills and an enlargement shop in Burwood also.
