A Change of Direction

It's been a while since my last post and in that time I've had a rethink about my business.

Although it's my first love, I've decided to postpone my idea of traditional scrapbooking and album creation business in favour of offering a photo scanning service to begin with. In this way I hope to build up a client base, then offer a digital scrapbooking service. I still plan to  offer traditional scrapbooking, but at a later stage.


In recent times in Australia we have had a series of dreadful natural disasters. These have ranged from cyclones, to floods, to bushfires.

People caught up in these disastrous events have lost a great deal including, tragically, loved ones. When interviewed, the survivors nearly always say that their trauma has been exacerbated by the loss of irreplaceable and precious family photographs, documents and mementos.

What if we could safely store all of these things together in one small container which could be grabbed and tucked under somebody's arm as they ran from danger to safety? Even better, what if it was possible to have several of these (each with exactly the same contents) stored in  several locations, so that if a container was not able to be rescued from a particular location, there would be a container somewhere else with its contents safe and sound and easily retrievable? We live in the digital age and, of course, such a scenario is possible for all of us.

Generations X and Y have this problem sorted. They have their images and other important documents stored in mobile phones which, naturally, have been surgically attached to their bodies. If they are really savvy they have probably stored them in online repositories out there in cyber-space as well. But for those of us of the baby-boomer generation our images are mostly of the printed-on-paper kind. We may have come into possession of our parents' collections of printed photos as well. 

 

    My Mum in 1939 at the age of 21

How to keep these safe from the ravages of time, incorrect storage methods and, of course, natural disasters?

Unfortunately, despite the fact that many of us of the baby-boomer generation, are digitally aware, many of us are time-poor and although we would like to have our precious memories stored conveniently and safely, we just don't have the time to organise and undertake such a daunting task.

That's where I hope to come in with my little business, which now has a name. It's called 

Allow Me To ... and I've even got as far as designing a logo for it.

I've tried to depict a mixture of old and new technologies. The image of the old-fashioned photo-frame I found at The Graphics Fairy, one of my favourite blogs. The modern little icons I found at Open Clipart. 


I'm still working on the website. I have the basic design created, but I keep finding all sorts of things that I need to know - such as Javascript - that are must-haves on an on-line business website. Also as I trawl around the internet looking at sites for similar businesses, I realise that  I'll have to work hard to find innovative ways to attract people to my particular business as there is quite a bit of competition out there.


For now, I've posted an ad on the Gumtree website under the Business Services category in the "Other" subsection for the Gold Coast area. And I've designed and printed a flyer which I'll distribute in our immediate neighbourhood via a letter-box drop. Very last Century, I know, but needs must for now.