Converting old photographs into digital images by scanning them is a terrific small business opportunity that offers flexible hours and a minimum investment. In fact, in addition to managing The Photo Managers, I share a photo scanning business with my teenage children.
It has been an excellent opportunity to teach them the fundamentals of running a business, including taking responsibility for a project, the importance of customer service, estimating a job, collecting money, and saving for the future.
This past month, my 17-year-old daughter earned $1,000 working for one client. She scanned hundreds of photos in the comfort of our home, under my supervision, and has a new batch to start this week.
Many people have a lifetime of printed photos that they consider priceless. We know the first thing many want to rescue from a burning building is their photo collection, but they often languish in shoeboxes, basements, and attics.
Why?
That amount of time and effort to organize, sort, and collate a collection is often overwhelming. Many people assume they will get to it someday, but that someday never comes until there is a trigger such as an illness, retirement, funeral, wedding, milestone anniversary, or birthday.
Also, many people fear that their photos may be lost if they ship them to an offsite scanning company.
This need has resulted in a great business opportunity for people who would like to scan photos for profit.
Again, the numbers are impressive; 1000 Memories estimates that there are over 1.7 trillion paper photos stored in albums, attics, and shoeboxes, while Scan Café estimates that Americans have taken 550 billion non-digital photos. All of these photos represent the heart and soul of a family’s history and an opportunity for you to help solve their problem. Within your neighborhood and circle of family and friends, there are thousands of photos waiting for someone to organize, sort, and digitize.
Here are tips on getting started, including the initial investment, income potential, and resources to help.
1. Getting the Word Out
Photo scanning offers the chance to work with family, friends, neighbors, and local businesses within your community. Tell your network that you have started a new business, and you can help them get their photo life in order.
We have begun by posting flyers throughout our neighborhood and offered fundraising options to our school community. We gave back a percentage of all orders, which was an excellent incentive for people to bring us their boxes of photos. This was also an effective way to introduce our business to our family and friends.
Just come up with a catchy business name such as Neighborhood Shoe Box Scanning Service.
2. Equipment Needed
If you are going to start a scanning business, you need to invest in the proper equipment. A home flatbed scanner is not the right tool for high-speed scanning. Most people start with the Kodak PS50 Photo Scanner, which can scan up to 50 photos a minute, and EZ Photo Scan offers a competitive price ($1,299) and great customer service to help you get started.
The average shoebox has 750 loose photos, and the average cost per photo scanning charge ranges between $0.35-$0.40; thus, a shoebox of photos will cost $300. When we started, our goal was to scan eight shoeboxes of pictures and earn $2,400 to recoup our investment. We accomplished our goal quickly.
3. Earning Potential
One company, ScanCafe charges $0.37 per scanned photo, if you go with the average 750 loose photos, this equates to a fee of $277.50.
Another photo scanning company, FotoBridge charges by the package. A package of 500 photos costs $135.95.
In addition to purchasing the scanner, we bought a laptop that we dedicated as the scanner laptop; thus, we were able to keep our client’s photos separate from our family photos.
You can also rent your scanner for those who are interested in doing it themselves. This offers you another income opportunity. Mollie Bartelt and Ann Matuszak started their own company called Pixologie and offer assistance to others looking to start a similar business using their model. The typical rental cost is $100 a day.
5. Additional Services
Photo scanning opens the door to other money-making opportunites, such as converting outdated media, photo organizing, and digital photo management. The Photo Managers provides excellent training and support for this growing niche in the organizing and photo marketplace. My son has earned an additional income creating slideshows and photo books for families for graduations, weddings, and anniversaries. These jobs are the result of connecting with families whose photos we have scanned.
6. Photo Organizer Events
Save Your Photos Month, sponsored by the Save Your Photos Alliance, is an annual event held the last Saturday of September. It is FREE to get involved and a great way for you to promote your new photo scanning business.
The Photo Managers hosts a National Conference every year and is the only educational conference and expo for photo organizers worldwide. The conference features dozens of small group and interactive learning workshops, led by an impressive collection of passionate experts and certified photo organizers. This is a great way to connect with other professionals who are offering scanning and photo organizing services.
Conclusion
If you are looking for ways to add revenue to your existing business or starting a new business, I highly recommend exploring photo scanning as a viable business option.
What questions do you have about scanning photos for profit?
I haven’t seen any recent post recommending tis type of business lately online. Is this still a viable business model? I want to start a business like this but don’t know if the demand is still there.
Hi Dina,
I believe it is, but Cathi Nelson is the expert on this topic. You can connect with her here: https://thephotomanagers.com/
Good luck and keep me posted!
The scanner you recommended is discontinued. What other scanner do you recommend?
Hi Michelle,
The Epson FastFoto FF-640 High-Speed Photo Scanning System with Auto Photo Feeder — scans 1 photo per second. It also gets 4 1/2 stars on Amazon. https://amzn.to/2Ctp6Cv (affiliate link)
Do you need to get a business license?
Each state has different rules for collecting sales tax, protecting yourself etc. You should contact your local state government about their laws. In my experience, there is no need for a “license” but you do want to be well trained if you are going to charge a fee for your services to ensure you are providing a quality product.
I’ve looked on the APPO website, and I was hoping you could give me more specific detail on training within this website. I’d really like to follow through more. Thank you
Hi Marie,
It’s probably easiest to contact Cathi via her website contact form:
http://www.appo.org/general/?type=CONTACT
Good luck and keep us posted on your journey!
Great article! I’ve actually been thinking about starting this type of business as a little extra income for our family (I’m a stay-at-home mom).
One of my biggest questions that I’m unsure of, is what type of storage devices should one use? Or, do most people do something like SmugMug (as an example)? Maybe there should be multiple options depending on what a clients needs/wants are…
Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
You are correct Denise; it depends on the client needs. We also recommend backing up your photos in 3 ways, the originals, an external hard drive and the cloud. The Association of Personal Photo Organizers at http://www.appo.org offers a lot of training and support for small businesses that focus on scanning.
Perfection!!! I have the tools, experience and ability! By jobe I think I have it!
I didn’t see how does one charge/price for this service?
Hi Donna, That’s great! Cathi says, “The average cost per photo scanning charge ranges between .35 – .40 cents thus a shoebox of photos will cost $300.”
Hi Cathi! I came across this article recently and I think this is such a great idea! I am a stay at home mom looking for a side job and this seems like it would be perfect for me! I currently live outside of Chattanooga,TN and through the beginnings of my research on this, it seems like our market is not saturated with this type of home business. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me:
1) I’ve been doing some preliminary research on scanners and some articles I’ve come across suggest a flatbed scanner for pictures and negatives due to them being more delicate. I know you suggested above a feeder type scanner for efficiency purposes. Have you run into any misfeeds of the picture where the original was damaged? I want to be efficient with the work, but don’t want to damage any originals.
2) Do you have your clients sign any type of contract or agreement before you start the work? I’m just trying to think practically about any legal issues and what not.
3) How did you start getting the word out? What was your marketing strategy?
Thanks!
Hi Kara, Cathi did an interview here and it covers some of the questions you have: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/capturing-family-legacies/
Here is another post that has some more information on this opportunity: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/photo-organizers/
Good luck on your journey and keep me posted!
Hi! I also live in Chattanooga, and one local service, Southtree, has TERRIBLE Yelp reviews. Our community definitely needs alternatives! I am excited by this. It will take me awhile to save up the money, but maybe you and I can learn this business together, if you’d like! Email me at jennifermitts(at)gmail(dot)com or text me at (423) 838-1969. I think it’d be fun to have a learning partner (or even a business partner)! Maybe we could even open a brick-and-mortar store together!
-Jen in Hixson
I don’t know, there are many site like ScanDigital and others that do this same service. It seems like a pretty saturated market.
This is definitely not a saturated market! Many people are hesitant to send their photos away through the mail and are willing to pay for personalized service from someone in their own community. We have over 650 members throughout the US and Canada and many include scanning services as part of their business. You can learn more by downloading our free guides at our website http://www.appo.org
Could you please be a bit more specific with where to find the free guides on http://www.appo.org/?
I was wondering what other costs besides the scanner you had to set up before starting your photo scanning business (i.e. insurance, advertising, etc.). Thank You
There are few additional costs to setting up a scanning business. You should speak with an insurance agent about liability insurance and marketing can be accomplished in many different ways including attending networking groups in your area. You can learn more at our website http://www.appo.org. We have 2 free guides with a lot more details.
What type of specifications for a computer would you need for this type of business?