Help- On Starting A Slideshow Business..

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Rania

Help- On Starting A Slideshow Business..

Postby Rania » Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:44 pm

I would love some tips,advice and ideas on starting a slideshow business. I have a good computer, photo editing software, nice scanner and psg. Where do I start?? How do I generate customers?? I love making slideshows and I'm good at it.
I've made several for my family and they cherish them. Any good advise, tips and ideas would be so helpful!
Thanks Rania
Feel free to email me :)

truhlth

Postby truhlth » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:22 pm

I to amd extreamly interested in this also. I have several sports teams after me to put together shows for them and the end of the sports season. I made one for my daughters soccer team and ever since then I have been contacted by several individuals so I guess it's time to turn this into a small business. Anyone have any information?

Thanks Scott :wink:

thecompletist

Postby thecompletist » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:41 pm

Hi Rania & Scott,

Some questions to ponder...when considering taking doing a few shows for family & friends to the next level.

How much time do you have to dedicate towards this?

Is your idea of this business to:

1. Simply to let others around you know that you now do these DVD Slide Shows as a home based business?
2. To get yourself a company name, business card and begin to actually introduce yourself to people or business people who could use a professional DVD Slideshow etc.?
3. To write a business plan, create an identity/logo/tagline, get a website, take your company to market with a structured Launch?

If you give me an idea of where you fall with these questions I can offer some creative ideas in regards to statements 1, 2 or 3 ............I am currently in the final phases of a #3 myself...

All the best,

Jeff

Gandalf001

Postby Gandalf001 » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:15 am

Hi Rania/Scott/Jeff
I think you may have kicked off a very popular topic. I would also like to turn it into a small retirement type business in the future.
Some things to also think about: Encourage recipt of CD images rather than actual photos for laborious scanning (unless you charge Significantly more) - obvious really. Because you will be selling products, consider more royalty free music as on several mentioned sites.

Jeff's Statement 1 is very comfortable and may be enough for many, but can lead onto No 2 easily, especially when like Scott you have football teams looking for shows, consider all those in the league and easy word of mouth, football presentation events etc.
No 3 is semi/professional and will probably need backing up with actually taking the photos on occasions - good to start in a small way (not weddings -too much responsibility for a beginner) - but football matches and prize givings, kids parties etc = ideal.
Good luck to you all.
Pete

thecompletist

Postby thecompletist » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:42 am

Thanks, Pete,

Well I'm going thru the #3 process but only because I have done most of it before in a previous life/career.... the branding of a company, logos, launching a website & years of sales & marketing... I am starting a new full time position with a large comapny here in Canada unrelated to Slideshows... but knew I would do these on the side regardless... so I've used my time off over last 60 days to build something (a company) that I feel will have me busier than I can handle in less than 6 months!! The plan then is to farm work out where appropriate.

Before my site goes live I have been doing probono work too as part of the "buzz-marketing" to get my name out there... which has me doing some small personal shows, a realestate virtual tour and also working on a "Business Resume DVD" for a Top Realestate Agent who wants to have various sections within the menu on a DVD that allow other Agents & clients to see her Achievements, Marketing Plans, Who am I & why relocate to her City etc... . Another one I just finished was for a Exploration Company who mines Gold in China... I did a 4 minute piece for them to use at a Trade show & hand out to Brokers since they trade on the NASDAQ.

Endless applications...

Jeff

Rania

Postby Rania » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:31 pm

To All,
Thanks so very much for all your ideas and thoughts! Yes, I want to take this to a professional business level.
You've given some great ideas to think about. I'm not sure on how to acquire royalty free music?? The pictures on CD certainly would save hours of scanning time.
Keep the ideas flowing, you help so many beginners ( like me) to possibly realize their dreams someday :D
Feel free to e-mail me:raniaedington@yahoo.com

truhlth

Postby truhlth » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:41 pm

Jeff,

I am ready to begin stage 2 and ready to move to stage 3 as quickly as possible. I have the time as I work mostly from home.

Scott

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Postby marmart » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:16 pm

I have a notebook I give to people with pocket folders for each chapter/section of their video, they put their pix in order of scan and put them in the folder, and on a Chapter sheet they write the music selections that go with each section and I give them sticky notes to write any captions they want a have them put the sticky on the appropriate pix. This sheet also has a place where they write the name of the title slide. If they scan the pix for me, they must be at 300 DPI and put on the CD IN ORDER of how they appear in the video. With this system, even if I have to scan pix, it really streamlines the process.

I love this section and am interested in hearing how others do things.

Mary

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business

Postby radman » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:43 am

I do photoshows for people and organizations and have been told that I could charge plenty for them. Making the shows is easy. Doing a show for a Bar Mitzvah, wedding prenup dinner, anniversary, birthday, confirmation dinner etc (one of those, this is your life shows) is easy and could use templates... The time killer is the scanning. Everyone I have talked to says, just ask for scanned pictures.

Yea... most people don't have the knowlege or equipment to scan... and won't/shouldn't do it.

How do I do it cost effectively. I have a scanner with a feeder but it only works for small pictures.. Has anyone used a copier with a scanner function that sends it to your computer. That should be very fast. Maybe it is rentable.

Any suggestions on this...?

thecompletist

Postby thecompletist » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:36 pm

what does it cost to have a local photo place do it?

If it was 50 cents and you charged the .75 a photo... you would be ok and your time is better spent having them do it and deliver it on a disc for you?

Just a thought I would do myself if it comes down to it

Jeff

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re scanning

Postby radman » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:27 pm

not sure I would feel comfortable dropping off someones archive of precious photos somewhere. I think it has to be in my care the whole time.

sumgrl19

How I do pictures...

Postby sumgrl19 » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:22 am

I do custom slideshows as a business. Most of the slideshows I get contain many, many photos. I usually try to fit as many photos onto my scanner as I can for each scan then go back and just crop them out and save them individually in my photo editor program. This is hard work, but it takes way less time then scanning them individually. I really don't mind putting the extra time into scanning and editing because it is really worth it in the end.

As far as prices go...I know that I charge way less than most slideshow companies out there. I only charge $.50 a photo. I do not offer packages...only a ala cart set up. Eventually i will gradually raise my prices, but the lower prices are building me a nice customer base.

Anyways, this it just what I do....don't know if it will help anyone! :)

Jessica

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Postby marmart » Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:52 am

Hi all,

I think having a copy shop or photo place scan your pix is out of the question, at least where I live, they wanted $5-one place $10 per photo!! Maybe we are in the wrong business!!

I have an Epson scanner and I can put 3-5 pix on the bed, leaving some room between and it scans them as individual pix, which is a godsend since my last scanner scanned as one pix and I had to crop etc in PS. The only problem I have had with customers scanning their own is the quality I get them in. I almost would prefer to scan myself. I charge $1.75 for a scanned pix, $1.00 if not.

Mary

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speeding up the scanning process

Postby mjmell » Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:49 pm

I purchased an Epson 2480 Photo scanner with automatic feeder when I had to scan almost 600 4x6's for a big graduation show. I can stack a fat pile of 4x6's on it and push SCAN and walk away, and each one gets scanned and put into it's own file, no cropping. A huge time saver. If you have 3x5 or wallets, just group them together. You'll have to switch to the flat bed top do large portraits, but at least it's versatile.

Now that I have it, I couldn't imagine going back to the old way of placing them on the glass individually.

But I agree with everyone above, the scanning is the worst part! Its simply not creative!
-Mary Jane

Mike S.

Re: speeding up the scanning process

Postby Mike S. » Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:55 pm

mjmell wrote:I purchased an Epson 2480 Photo scanner with automatic feeder when I had to scan almost 600 4x6's for a big graduation show. I can stack a fat pile of 4x6's on it and push SCAN and walk away, and each one gets scanned and put into it's own file, no cropping. A huge time saver. If you have 3x5 or wallets, just group them together. You'll have to switch to the flat bed top do large portraits, but at least it's versatile.

Now that I have it, I couldn't imagine going back to the old way of placing them on the glass individually.

But I agree with everyone above, the scanning is the worst part! Its simply not creative!
-Mary Jane

Have never seen an automatic photo scanner in action. Is there any chance what so ever that a client's photo could get damaged by a jam?

Thanks,
Mike S.

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