Need advice on starting a business

thrasherfox

BUSA
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I am thinking about expanding my consulting business to include document scanning and photo scanning.


I have all the equipent and software for scanning documents and converting to PDF documents or other documents such as MS Word.

I can also perform OCR on the scans so they can be regular documents that can be edited.

I also have the equipment for scanning photos and negatives.



What I do not know is what is a fair and reasonable price that I can charge for such work.


I also am not sure at the best way to advertise. I already have a web site that I can modify. However can you advertise and sell services like this on ebay?

This type of business I would not be limited to local business. it is something where people could mail me items to scan and convert and I could do the job and mail everything back.



If anyone has any advice as far as reasonable charges and advertising concepts I would greatly appreciate the input.
 
as far as price goes, call another company that does this work and get some prices, they dont know your their new competitor. adevertising? word of mouth, maybe offer demonstrations for free to potential customers, hit the pavement, who else does this, can you steal their costomers bye undercutting them?
 
as far as price goes, call another company that does this work and get some prices, they dont know your their new competitor. adevertising? word of mouth, maybe offer demonstrations for free to potential customers, hit the pavement, who else does this, can you steal their costomers bye undercutting them?

ehh, that is one of my biggest problems. I am not much of a cut throat guy.

That is one reason my computer consulting business doesnt explode. I am good at what I do. but I do it as a side business and I just cant moraly go out and undercut and steal business from other people.

I mean people have done it to me. And I know I will never make a killing at running a business because I just cant screw people over like that. but at least I can sleep at night.

I have had a difficult time finding other businss's that offer this kind of service so I have not been able to find a "going rate"

I have done research on line and have not found one place on line that shows a price, they all say call for a quote.

And again I have issues with calling a business and lying and pretedning I am a potential customer.

Yeah I know, I suck :banghead::banghead:
 
Get quotes from Kinkos for the work you are thinking about doing. Then charge a fair bit less and away you go. :thumbsup:

I see I was beat to the just call a potential competitor... Point is Thrash that you aren't being cut throat, you are just in business.

Actively working to steal a client from another small business is one thing, but figuring out what the going rate is (Kinko's is expensive)
and pricing your services accordingly but at a 20% discount or more is just common sense and good practice, that's business and it's called
competition.
 
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good reason for no prices posted... there is no telling what you are going to be converting...

I just finished my second office going to EMR... it sux... even with a good scanner (I have an HP with a 50 page feeder and duplex scanning and 25 page a minute speed (single side scanning and cost was $1500) there are a few issues.

Dog eared pages
Staples
Page jams
Categorizing/ sorting of documents for naming
Processing time for OCR
and then the monotony of the job.. (the very worst for me)

If you have a nice tidy stack of 1000 documents.. not too bad, if you are working with old records (most of what I did) it is a bear....

The conversion to PDF and OCR is another issue.. So far there is no 100% accurate OCR software out there and what there is, not blinding fast.. processing time will have to occur off site most likely because it takes a lot of time. Problem here is confidentiality.. some clients are not going to allow it or can not (Dr's, lawyers, etc)

Most certainly a need for a good program as more doctors go with EMR but pity the people doing it... it is a grueling affair..

what kind of gear do you have?
 
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We paid $0.75 to $1.00 per page when we converted our files. But the comany that did the scanning made out on volume (32,000,000 documents to scan). I don't know what a good rate for a small volume would be.
 
Bear in mind, you are never going to compete with the Kinko's of the world. Not gonna happen. In order to get your business off the ground, you have to

A) find a way to differentiate what you do
B) market that difference effectively

Nail those two down and you're good to go.

I also wanted to mention that you do NOT have to screw people to make a living. You do, however, have to compete at some level. There is a cutthroat level of competition that you can go to, however, playing at that level does not automatically imply that you're dishonest.

What you DO have to do, is make a profit. Having said that, don't fall into the trap of believing that there is such a thing as a "reasonable" or "fair" profit. When you do that, or when you try to be Mr. Nice Guy by cutting your prices, you're only hurting. . .

. . .yourself and your family. You can't let people take food off of your table. Even if it IS caviar. There is nothing wrong with charging what your product is worth. Notice I did NOT say, charge what is "fair." There is no such thing so get used to the idea. Charge what the product is worth. If your product is worth x amount of money and it puts a 90% profit in your pocket, you're only deceiving yourself to charge less than that. Pricing your product (or service) has nothing to do with morality, Ron. It has to do with making sense out of your business.

So, if you differentiate yourself and it makes your product and service worth three to five times what Kinko's charges, then by all means, that's what you should charge. Learn the lesson of perceived value and run with it.

Years ago, I was consulting with a client who had a very lucrative business but she never did (and still does not) charge enough for her services. She is probably taking half of her potential to the bottom line. Unfortunate but real. Funny thing is, she still makes an arm and a leg! Love her to death and we're still friends to this day but dangit. She doesn't charge enough!!!

Best of luck to you, Ron. I hope it works out well!

--Wag--
 
Bear in mind, you are never going to compete with the Kinko's of the world. Not gonna happen. In order to get your business off the ground, you have to

A) find a way to differentiate what you do
B) market that difference effectively

Nail those two down and you're good to go.

I also wanted to mention that you do NOT have to screw people to make a living. You do, however, have to compete at some level. There is a cutthroat level of competition that you can go to, however, playing at that level does not automatically imply that you're dishonest.

What you DO have to do, is make a profit. Having said that, don't fall into the trap of believing that there is such a thing as a "reasonable" or "fair" profit. When you do that, or when you try to be Mr. Nice Guy by cutting your prices, you're only hurting. . .

. . .yourself and your family. You can't let people take food off of your table. Even if it IS caviar. There is nothing wrong with charging what your product is worth. Notice I did NOT say, charge what is "fair." There is no such thing so get used to the idea. Charge what the product is worth. If your product is worth x amount of money and it puts a 90% profit in your pocket, you're only deceiving yourself to charge less than that. Pricing your product (or service) has nothing to do with morality, Ron. It has to do with making sense out of your business.

So, if you differentiate yourself and it makes your product and service worth three to five times what Kinko's charges, then by all means, that's what you should charge. Learn the lesson of perceived value and run with it.

Years ago, I was consulting with a client who had a very lucrative business but she never did (and still does not) charge enough for her services. She is probably taking half of her potential to the bottom line. Unfortunate but real. Funny thing is, she still makes an arm and a leg! Love her to death and we're still friends to this day but dangit. She doesn't charge enough!!!

Best of luck to you, Ron. I hope it works out well!

--Wag--

Thanks Lou,

I understand where you are coming from. But I have always waned to treat people fairly. And while I want to do well for my family, I wont to it at the risk of not being able to look myself in the mirror.

There are times in my computer consulting business where people did not feel I charged enough. I have had people pay me twice what I charged.

And thats ok with me. if someone feels that good about my work I wont tell them no. but I would rather have people wanting to pay me more than I charged than quietly thinking I charged them too much. you know?


Hey!! btw I applied for a job in Sieara Vista AZ. how far are you from there? :D
 
Sierra Vista is not too far from us. Relatively speaking, that is! A couple hours from Tucson if I recall correctly. Some decent areas down there. I think you might find it appealing to you!

Keep me posted on what you're doing!

--Wag--
 
Thanks Lou,

I understand where you are coming from. But I have always waned to treat people fairly. And while I want to do well for my family, I wont to it at the risk of not being able to look myself in the mirror.

There are times in my computer consulting business where people did not feel I charged enough. I have had people pay me twice what I charged.

And thats ok with me. if someone feels that good about my work I wont tell them no. but I would rather have people wanting to pay me more than I charged than quietly thinking I charged them too much. you know?


Hey!! btw I applied for a job in Sieara Vista AZ. how far are you from there? :D


I lived in Sierra Vista for about a year. Loved it. Get a dirt bike also because there is some great off road riding out there.

I think what is being suggested is some sort of market survey. Taking a survey of what others are charging and what individuals think is a fair price actually allows you to develop a fair schedule of charges because you are asking them.

Competitive business practices could be viewed as unethical from almost anyway you look at it. It is unethical to take business from another person or is it better for your new customers because your services is better?
 
The best way to end up with a successful small business..



start out with a successful large business. (esp. in this economy)

Just a little levity. :whistle:
 
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