Starting a Scrap for Hire (S4H) Business

Turn your a hobby you love into a way to make extra money! That’s what using your digital scrapbooking skills can do for you when you start a Scrap for Hire (S4H) business!

I’d like to share my experiences as a S4H digital scrapbook artist. I began scrapping for others in 2008 when my business partner, Wendi Corteville, and I started Treasured Albums. We spent hours choosing a name that people would remember and connect with the services and products we offered. We chose this motto: “At Treasured Albums, turning memories into treasured albums is our passion.”

In the upcoming articles, I’ll share with you ways to find clients, how to manage photos and journaling, best practices while designing for others, and how to package and deliver the final products to happy clients.

My S4H business is set up like any other business. Consider the following list when setting up your business:

Business Plan
Logo
Business cards
Email address
Marketing flyers, advertisements, posters, and presentations
IRS Tax ID number
Registered business name
Partnership operating agreement
Client confidentiality agreement and order forms
Accounting spreadsheets – assets, revenue, expenses (including mileage)
Bank account linked to PayPal
Websites – domain, shopping cart, Facebook, or blog
Sample photo books, scrapbook pages, and other display products
Laptops, software, printer, scanners, cameras, etc.

The most important thing you need to get started is a business plan. A business plan is a roadmap that keeps you focused on your goals. It’s important to jot down what products and services you want to offer, how you are going to sell your work, who is your competition and target market, and how you are going to make a profit. At Treasured Albums, we specialized in creating photo albums to preserve life’s precious moments, family heritage, love stories, and baby/children’s books. Our competition was a franchised photobook company in the area with a limited number of background designs and products. We targeted clients from church groups, mom-to-mom events, and senior centers. We posted ads on every bulletin board in town. We held workshops in community libraries and offered classes in the community education flyers.

Scrapping for others is a rewarding experience. One of the best parts of my job is taking people’s stories and photos and designing a finished product that will be cherished for years to come. In order to exceed a client’s expectations, you’ll need to use high quality and beautiful digital products. The Scrap Girl Boutique has a wide variety of S4H products available so that youcan offer designs that are right for the collection of photos. The kits and templates make it easy to quickly create finished products your clients will love. My clients love the embellishments and clusters. Using products from Scrap Girls gives you an advantage over the competition.

There are so many ways to scrap for others. You can design and deliver finished layouts as prints or JPG files. Scrapbook pages, greeting cards, invitations, canvas prints, business cards, baby and senior announcements are just a few ideas. Not many people know this, but some photobook sites allow you to upload your own backgrounds and embellishments. In other words, you can use the wonderful products at Scrap Girls and create beautiful photobooks your clients will love without using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Or you can design a layout and upload a JPG image to the photobook site. Another idea is to take ideas from crafters who are selling all sorts of things using clip art. Transferring images to wood, fabric, or clay is another way you can personalize a photo gift for a client.

At Treasured Albums, we offered a unique touch by incorporating personal memorabilia. Here’s a layout from a heritage album (below). This cute couple met at a dance hall on Belle Isle. I got lucky and found a Belle Isle dance ticket in a box of old paper my mom gave me. I removed the date from the ticket and used it as a complementary embellishment. Needless to say, the family was impressed with the thoughtful details.

Treasured Albums was my first venture into S4H. Now I have a new S4H business called Vintage Scrapbooks which allows me to combine my love of digital scrapbooking with vintage elegance.

Good luck to all who are already scrapping for others or those of you who are ready to get started! I look forward to hearing from you about your S4H adventures!