Building a Business As a Family Historian In Imaging

In the end...we only regret the chances we didn't take, the relationships we were afraid to have,
and the decisions we waited too long to make. 
Lewis Carroll

​by Skip Cohen

It's Marketing Monday, and here's another idea to help you rebuild your business, but it goes beyond your clients and is just as important for you and your family!

The pandemic has changed everything in our lives, but it's also created some unique opportunities here and there. Photographs of family and friends have never been more valuable. As the pandemic cuts down on our ability to physically be with family and friends, people are looking in the rearview mirror more and thinking back to the good old days. And if your parents are elderly, it's even more difficult to be close to them.

"My Journey" - I've referenced the Senior Friendship Centers in posts many times over the years. Besides classes, adult day care, meals on wheels, and health services, one of the programs they offer is called "My Journey." It's a recorded interview giving seniors the chance to talk about their lives and create a legacy recording for their children and grandchildren. 

I love the concept, but it's audio-only, and you can take it a step further. ALL of you have the gear and the skills to do this in more depth than a recording. You can create a family video with virtually any level of sophistication. You can also maintain social distancing, offering clients a video recording as they share stories about their lives for younger family members and friends.

Old Images - Whether in your files or helping clients restore and repurpose old photographs, here's another opportunity to be a storyteller. Everyone has hundreds of images, usually not stored properly, but all waiting for a new chance to be shared. 

Again, as the photographer, it puts you in the driver's seat as an expert in imaging and presentation quality products. 

Note: That's me on the lap of my great grandmother with my mother and grandmother on either side. Four generations, but there are no stories and all three of them have long since passed away.

Your Own Family - This has so much potential to capture memories and should start with your own family. Don't wait until everybody is gone to say, "I should have taken the time!"  

A year or two before my Dad passed away, Bambi Cantrell spent some time doing a short video of Dad taking a look back. It's a great service/product idea to pitch your clients as something new you're now offering. You don't need to wait for an excuse for the December holidays. Take advantage of all the family time you have now. Use your blog to write about it and share some of those stories, obviously, with permission.
 
And if you've got grandparents or great grandparents still alive, don't let time get the best of you. Make it a point to talk with them and capture those stories. Ask them questions about their childhood and growing up. Have fun with questions about the kind of kids they were, things they did in school, specific friends, pets, and places they visited. The list of information, fun to have and share, is virtually unlimited.

​Don't make the mistake I did - Take the time to become your family's historian. You never want to be looking back and wishing you'd captured/created a video about your roots! And as a new revenue stream for your business - take the time to lay out a plan. You might even want to pick a particular client to be your first project and permit you to share parts of the concept on your blog.
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Don't let the pandemic win when it comes to your business.

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