How to Start an Online Photo Editing Business

How it works: Editing the photo

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Save the photo sent by the customer to your computer’s pictures.
Open you computer editing software (The GIMP)
Open the picture you want to edit by going to file then open and selecting the picture.
Zoom in by selecting a greater percentage at the bottom left-hand side of the screen containing the picture for a better view.

Remove blemishes- Using the healing tool (looks like a band aid) click one area on the picture you think is perfect while holding the ctrl key. The click an imperfect area to transfer that flawless spots shade onto the imperfect spot. This is only for spot treatments on the face.

Click the smudge tool (pointed downward index finger) and set the opacity to around 35. Now run the mouse over the face carefully smudging the features to look like makeup.

Whitten teeth- Click the lasso shaped tool and outline the teeth. The go to colors and then go to hue saturation, bring the lightness up and watch the teeth lighten. Click select then none to get rid of the lasso.

How it works: Taking orders

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The customer should email you their digital photo’s as an attachment to an email. The email should also include some text giving their name. This will help you determine who has paid and who has not. The revised photos will be sent back by email as well.

How do I advertise my site?

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The best way we have seen is through public forums. Target places that service teens, actors, musicians, anyone who is likely to take digital photo’s and is concerned enough with their appearance to want them edited.

How much should I charge?

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Since you don’t have a brand established yet you must remember that the only thing separating you and your completion is that you prices will be better. I would say this leaves you charging no more than $5 a photo.

Creating a Background

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Now you need to choose a template for you website. This determines the layout of your website and the background colors. Just scroll through their list of premade templates and click the one you want.

Naming your site

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Now it’s time to name your site which should probably include the word babysitter or babysitting in the title. This will help the search engines find and list you site when people go searching for a sitter service. Please note: The name of the site is not the web address of the site so don’t bother putting .com after the name or not leaving spaces in between the words.

Registering

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So you are eager to publish or place you site on the internet.

Open a web browser (internet window) and go to http://www.weebly.com which should take you to the homepage of this awesome site.

On this page it should ask you to create a user name and password. Remember this should be something you can remember.

It should also ask for and email address. If you don’t have an email address go to a search engine and type in ‘free email provider’ a number of great option should come up.

After you click to agree to their terms click the sign up button.

Content

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Go to the basic’s tab and drag and drop in a text editor box on your Home Page and About Us page.

On the home page you should explain that what a photo editing business is and how committed you are to your customer. Your about us page isn’t about you but about the company and reassuring the customer of your dedication. These people will be sending you money using credit cards so it is more than appropriate to dedicate to pages to reassuring them that you are an honorable person.

Your blog comes premade with this website provider and this is your best in house advertising system. Tell why your service is the best thing since sliced bread again and be sure to provide examples of what you did that your completion won’t.

On the service page we recommend dropping in the two columned text editor and put the name of the package you will be providing and the PayPal button (provided by PayPal when you sign up for an account in your personal account page)

This website provider gives you a premade contact form so this is as easy to create as drag-drop-and set the emails to go to your email account.

The FAQ’s page should be used to explain how your service works. Tell the customer to email their digital photo’s to you, your refund policy, how long it takes you to process a photo, everything!

Adding pages

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We recommend adding a Home, About Us, Services, Blog, and Contact Us page. Also it may be helpful to add a FAQ’s and a Terms of Service Page.

Getting your free website

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Now for a big freebie. Believe it or not, there are lots of places to get free websites some of which will even help you set up the site. The site I like best is weebly.com which gives you two websites for free. But the best part of this website is that the whole thing can be set up in one day (order forms and all).

As your company grows you can expand to a paid website and even have someone design it for you, but that is for another day.

The GIMP

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This free photo editing software can be downloaded here. This program allows you to remove blemishes, whitens teeth, change eye and hair color, you name it…this does it.

Free email service

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There are so many free email services out there, but the one we like the best is Gmail. Why? Because this email service owned by Google always has the latest and most advanced features like text messaging. It’s a pretty safe bet that Google will always be on top of things; so get a Gmail account and take some time to familiarize yourself with all the great features it offers.

What do I need to get started?

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All the equipment we suggest using to start and run your business is free. What does this mean for you? Every dollar you earn is pure profit! So what do you need to make this possible? An email address, a website, a photo editor, a Paypal account, and a word processor.

What is photo editing? How do a make this into a profitable business?

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Photo editing is the process by which you will retouch and refine images/pictures sent in by you customers. In a world where the majority of photographs are taken by amateurs on a digital camera, a business that offers these people a service to make them look natural flawless can be very profitable. Imagine this, you have the ability to take a person’s favorite snapshot and offer them the chance to have clear skin in that photo, along with whiter teeth, and even instant liposuction. Top that off with the fact that they can get this without ever leaving their home. Now you see why you need a photo editing business: no startup, tremendous potential, and easy to learn.

Why should I start a photo editing business?

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Because everyday someone captures a memory in a digital photograph, and that memory is something they would like to preserve. But who wants to keep a photo if you face is full of pimples, you’re a little more than chubby, and you teeth are less than pearly white. Imagine what someone will pay for you to fix those things!

Research, Research, Research

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Make sure that you are offering competitive prices. You don’t have brand built up yet so the only reason someone would want to work with you is that your product is cheaper than the other guys!

Sample Pages

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Just to lend a helping hand we have created a sample of each of the pages we suggested you create. Feel free to copy our pages word for word or simply use them as a guide.

Products & Services (Sample Page)
We would like to offer you some amazing deals! Why? In the hopes that you will tell all your friends about our great services and come back for more. So here’s the deal:

Grand Opening: Makeover Magic/$2.00 per photo

1. Crop/resize your photo

2. Remove your blemishes•

3. Smooth wrinkles

4. Whiten your teeth

5. Even skin tone

Opening Day: Headshot Package/$4.00 per photo

1. Crop/resize your photo

2. Remove your blemishes

3. Smooth wrinkles

4. Whiten your teeth

5. Even skin tone

6. Trim eyebrows

7. Alter eye color*

8. Stain lips*

9. Change hair color*

10. Modify backdrop*

*Colors for these services will be select by the Fix My Face staff

Old School Honors/$3.00 per photo

1. Crop/resize your photo

2. Remove your blemishes

3. Smooth wrinkles

4. Whiten your teeth

5. Even skin tone

6. Convert image to black and white

How do you pay for the product? No worries, credit cards will be accepted through PayPal. It’s a completely secure way to send funds. If you’re still worried, we recommend using a prepaid credit card you can get from any major grocery store for $25.00 and no personal information is required.