Thursday, December 6, 2007

Digital Photo Album Prodcution - A Technology Business You Can Start Today

The following suggestion has probably been considered or attempted by others. However, the potential lies in your ability to capitalize on potential clients not having the time to complete the tasks for themselves. In the case of the Digital Photo Album business, there are thousands of people who are very familiar with converting paper photos to digital files but only a handful really have the time to engage the process. Be sure to seek business guidance! This can be hard at times considering the amount of books and tapes sold on the subject. Just remember to look for information from people who have a similar business model as yours.

Start a business converting family paper photo Albums to digital photo albums. If you have a computer and a scanner you're ready to start. If you use a mac, get iPhoto from Apple.com. I start with this application because iPhoto has the most complete process I've seen with a very low learning curve. Plus, after you have finished scanning in all the photos and cleaning them up, for an extra charge to your client, you can layout a hard cover photo book in iPhoto, and send it directly to Apple to be printed. You can then have it mailed to you or the client for very little expense. If you're on a PC consider Picasa 2 by Google, online at google.com for FREE. Did I say it was for FREE? I give a tutorial overview of Picasa on my site at theanthonyreport.com in the free tutorials section. It works similar to iPhoto but without the service of going directly to a book format. Still, the learning curve is low and the software is free. Both of the above require minimal computer system configurations ($500 e-machine or $1,200 iMac ) and scanner/printers run about $80.00.

Your search for clients begins at a Starbucks, the local Grocery Store or a book shop. At each there’s usually is a Posting Board where locals can place flyers. Keep it simple, a flyer saying, “I convert Paper Photo Albums to Digital Photo Albums, Call for a Quote” is enough. Of course leave your name and number. When they call, and they will, tell them you charge $5 to $10 per page and photo repair is extra. Now you might be thinking, “I know nothing about Photo repair”, don’t worry the features in Picasa and iPhoto make it easy to do minor enhancements. Anything requiring fixing serious damages to the image, find a professional in the yellow pages or Google. Setup an appointment to see the photo album and you’re off. Something you might want to take notice of when looking at the photo album is whether or not the pictures are stuck to the book or if the covering is stuck to the top of the picture. This could add time in completion and you may have to charge extra or bill them for it later.