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How do I start an online photo restoration business?

Hopefully this article will give you a few tips on starting your own online photo restoration business.  First of all I am not an expert in this field but I have just recently opened my own website for photo restoration and had my eyes opened wide along the way.

For the purpose of this article I am going to assume that you posses all the skills and experience in this profession and have the confidence to carry out the many tasks that will eventually come your way.  Also I am going to assume that you have no knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Below I am going to outline a few considerations that you should be aware of before you leap into it.

One.  Ensure that you have enough savings to keep you going for a minimum of six months as it will take you that long before you start to receive enough custom for an income. I will explain this in more detail as we go along.

Two.  You do not have to be a computer geek but it will help if you have some skills in I.T. and also possess an adequate level of communication and literacy skills. 

Three.  You will probably have to employ someone to build and maintain your website.  This is very important make sure that you choose the right one. There are hundreds of web builders out there so take the time to carry out some research and get quotes from at least three to see who is going to give you the package you desire and commitment you will require.  It’s a bit like choosing a pet as they will be with you for a long time.

 Okay above are three considerations but here is the main one.  I knew that I had all the skills and confidence to start my own business but I was completely naive when it came to websites.  I thought (a bit like field of dreams) “if you build it they will come” well they will but it takes time, money and a lot of hard work.  You could have the best website in the world but if no one knows how to find it then the only people that are going to see it are friends and family that you have told.

This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. Before I built my website I had never even heard of this term but now it haunts me each day and will continue to do so for some time.  Basically in order to get your site noticed by search engines like Google and so forth you have to load your site with keywords and text etc (search engines do not recognise photos but they love text).  I won’t go into too much detail on SEO but suffice to say when my website was first launched it had a few hundred words of text, now it has over 16,000 words of text and it is still growing.  I mentioned earlier you will require some money to keep you going as SEO does not work over night. I am told frequently by my website SEO team that you have to be patient it will take months for your site to grow and become popular (but remember time is money).

I hope after reading this article I haven’t deterred you, that is not my intension I merely want to prepare you in order that you do not make the same mistakes that I made. This article can be applied to anyone wishing to launch a website or start a small online business.  I have used Photo Restoration as that is my field, Good luck and I sincerely wish you all the best.

I hope this has been useful to you and feel free to leave a comment below.