
Families may have several generations of saved photo prints to sort through. Photo by Becky McCray
Legions of people over 55 have boxes and boxes of old photos. They’d love to have them in albums or scanned into digital format, but they may not have the time, equipment or experience. Enter photo organization businesses.
These are perfect for small towns and especially for younger people looking for a business that’s simple to start on the side.
Think of all the people who are downsizing to a smaller house and having to go through all their stuff. Then add in all the people who have inherited boxes of unsorted photos from parents. That’s a big target market.
The Sidney Morning Herald reported on one business offering this service in Australia.
The pair charge $55 an hour to organise prints into albums and $60 an hour to digitise prints and slides. Boomers account for 75 per cent of their turnover, with some clients happy to pay for up to 60 hours of service.
“Baby boomers have been our bread and butter – they see that value,” Morrison says.
“They are recognising you really can’t put a price on this stuff.”
You may already have a flatbed scanner built into your printer that would be enough to get started with, or you can purchase one specifically designed to work with photos, negatives and slides.
You’ll find more suggestions here at tocofi, The Original Instagrams – What to Do with the Box of Old Family Photos: Scan and Enlarge Them.
And here’s an article from Cathi Nelson specifically on scanning photos as a home business:
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- How small town businesses can market to remote workers and turn them into new customers - May 15, 2023
- Survey of Rural Challenges 2023 results - May 8, 2023
- Rural and small town ideas from the OU Placemaking Conference IQC 2023 - April 5, 2023
- Rural tourism trends say small towns are still cool - March 27, 2023
- Move Your Money and Bank Local - March 22, 2023
- Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign - March 13, 2023
- How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores - February 19, 2023
- Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info - January 31, 2023
- Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors - January 15, 2023
- 2023 trends for rural and small town businesses - December 26, 2022