Parents . Rate my Business Idea

dewsbury

Here is a business idea that I am toying with.

Many of us parents have camcorders. Most of us take lots of crap video footage, that is pretty poor to watch. Bad sound & camera quality.
We also rarely transfer the footage onto a better more permanent media.

Here is the idea.
I video your kids using a professional camera man and editing for 99 euros
I then give you this video footage on a DVD.
I also put this footage on my new web site (security protected etc).
You come back to me once a year (or so) for birthdays or special occasions.

You pay me 50 euros per annum to maintain a video album of your children.
The video is (obviously) available to anybody you want to see it.
Incidentally the idea also works for adults, grand parents etc.

Presumably we all think our kids are sooooo cute and merit endless watching over the internet.
Put it this way .... would you like if your parents could have invested in this service and you had your own childhood on record.

Rate this suggestion please.
Be harsh and tell me why it won't work.

TequilaMockingBird

Why would I want to pay you 50e per annum to to maintain (host) this for me when there are so many free sites that will, or as you say its on DVD?

99e for how long? How much footage am I getting for that?

I don't mind it wobbly, bad sound etc. Its more personal to the family (i.e. I remember I had to drop the camera because you did this..)



I don't mean to offend, but I do wish I had asked for similar input when I was starting my own business. It may not have been quite the disaster it turned out to be.

Cantab.

dewsbury wrote: »

Here is a business idea that I am toying with.

Many of us parents have camcorders. Most of us take lots of crap video footage, that is pretty poor to watch. Bad sound & camera quality.
We also rarely transfer the footage onto a better more permanent media.

Here is the idea.
I video your kids using a professional camera man and editing for 99 euros
I then give you this video footage on a DVD.
I also put this footage on my new web site (security protected etc).
You come back to me once a year (or so) for birthdays or special occasions.

You pay me 50 euros per annum to maintain a video album of your children.
The video is (obviously) available to anybody you want to see it.
Incidentally the idea also works for adults, grand parents etc.

Presumably we all think our kids are sooooo cute and merit endless watching over the internet.
Put it this way .... would you like if your parents could have invested in this service and you had your own childhood on record.

Rate this suggestion please.
Be harsh and tell me why it won't work.

How big is your market?

Also, I wouldn't pay you €99 for some video in an artificial setting.

Also, DVDs (particularly recordable ones) aren't as permanent a form of storage as you might think.

I don't see how you can make money with a price of €99.

- pay professional photographer
- arrange times with clients that also suits photographer
- time to edit video
- burn DVD and post
- All the overheads/paperwork of running a business

My rule-of-thumb is: unless you can come up with a business plan where you're going to make at least €50k working part-time or €100k working full-time, I'd say you're wasting your time. Your spare time/health/stress levels/family/friends are more important.

Go get a good book and lie on a beach. Get yourself a G&T while you're at it.

silja

I paid 130 euro for a photographer to come to our home and take both staged and action shots, but I don't think I'd pay for video. What do you get for 99 euro? Unless I am having a naming ceremony I don't think I'd pay that (ie not for "normal" birthdays etc), because unless you are willing to stay here for a day or more, you'd be unlikely to get enough "cute" footage to make it worth while, and a videographer that has to be booked is unlikely to get that all important first smile/ step etc.

You might have a better business in editing? Ie parents would give you all their video footage and you cut out the booring bits, set it to music etc, then put in nice DVD cases for granny's birthday ...

Sulukie

Sorry but I have to agree with the other posters, the only time I use our video is on the spur of the moment to catch that first - which last night was banana over the tv screen!

I don't want to discourage you but your idea wouldn't appeal to me at all.

Sulukie

snellers

I'm sure there are people out there who would be interested in the video option for their special days......I just can;t imagine anyone would want to pay a yearly fee for you to host it on a site though - with the likes of utube that is free why would someone pay for you to host for them? (yeh I understand privacy - but they have it on DVD anyway so if concerned about privacy wouldn;t have it online)

sorry I personally think the idea is flawed - there might be something in the video side of things but hosting...etc - no way

Hotblack Desiato

The internet part isn't going to work. Ireland is still largely a broadband desert, what is available is relatively expensive and slow, and people are not going to pay money to watch youtube-style low quality video. If they're on dialup they're not even going to be able to use that.

di11on

I also feel that daddy's witty narration and commentary while taking the blair-witch style footage all add to the authenticity and spontonaiety of it all... gives you the feeling of really capturing a family moment.

That said, I know we have hours of footage and rarely look at it... and maybe some day when the hard drive gets fried we'll loose everything?!? Having someone professionally edit the footage.. maybe add sound etc. and put it on DVD would definitely be of interest.

simu

It seems like a waste of money when I could do all that stuff easily myself. Also, some kids might be shy with a stranger filming them.

Oryx

dewsbury wrote: »

We also rarely transfer the footage onto a better more permanent media.

This is the only part of your plan that would interest me. I take lots of photos and video but rarely put it together in an easily viewed way, mainly its on various computers, discs, SD cards and video tapes.

If someone could offer to put it all together on DVD for me, that I would be interested in. The web hosting is of no use as the people who would access it (grandparents mainly) are not computer savvy or broadband connected. Wheras copies of a well put together DVD would be brilliant.

I would be reluctant to invite in a stranger to video my kids. It would make them uneasy.

Big_Mac

I could do most of what you are suggesting myself, but then again can be a bit of a know it all

However, I would not go for the internet bit of it. Definitely not.
I realise the service you are offering would be secure, but its too risky for me. I for one would not want a website hosting images of videos of my daughter. Yes its secure, but watch it on a computer, its in the temp folder and if you are a victim of hackers or something it could be stolen. Slim chances I know, but it is so easy to get images around the internet these days. Post up one pic, and before you know it it could be everywhere.

Also, if you consider that people can not always be internet savvy and all they hear are scaremongering stories, it won't take long before parents could be easily terrified by the idea

Not worth the risk imo.

MojoMaker

Frankly it's a creepy idea, videoing small children and maintaining repositories of images and video. Quit while you're ahead lest you really get into trouble :mad:

Ludo

While I wouldn't have any use for a service like this myself for various of the reasons pointed out in the earlier replies, I think the idea that this is "risky" and "creepy" is taking things way too far. What next? Professional photographers are not allowed to take photos of babies for protraits for fear of being branded some sort of deviant? They do keep the negatives themselves so are they "creepy"? Are people who put photos of their children on sites like Flickr etc putting their children at risk as they are there for all to see? Are they irresponsible parents for doing such a thing?

Media driven paranoia seems to be reaching dizzying heights when a business proposal like this is termed as creepy.

GeorgeBailey

Big_Mac wrote: »

Yes its secure, but watch it on a computer, its in the temp folder and if you are a victim of hackers or something it could be stolen.

For what purpose exactly would a hacker want to steal a picture of your child and what would it matter anyway? Time for the tinfoil hat methinks.

Deliverance

dewsbury wrote: »

Here is a business idea that I am toying with.

Many of us parents have camcorders. Most of us take lots of crap video footage, that is pretty poor to watch. Bad sound & camera quality.
We also rarely transfer the footage onto a better more permanent media.

Here is the idea.
I video your kids using a professional camera man and editing for 99 euros
I then give you this video footage on a DVD.
I also put this footage on my new web site (security protected etc).
You come back to me once a year (or so) for birthdays or special occasions.

You pay me 50 euros per annum to maintain a video album of your children.
The video is (obviously) available to anybody you want to see it.
Incidentally the idea also works for adults, grand parents etc.

Presumably we all think our kids are sooooo cute and merit endless watching over the internet.
Put it this way .... would you like if your parents could have invested in this service and you had your own childhood on record.

Rate this suggestion please.
Be harsh and tell me why it won't work.

Fairly good idea, but most people that are interested in this already have recording equipment and access to free editing software in their operating systems. I think you need to really research your target market to see if they exist to the point where there is profit to be made.

I think your idea has merit in an ideal sense, but it would take a lot more research to put it across as a viable idea.

Big_Mac

GeorgeBailey wrote: »

For what purpose exactly would a hacker want to steal a picture of your child and what would it matter anyway? Time for the tinfoil hat methinks.

Tinfoil Hat? maybe Its just a possiblity though. I'm new to the parenting thing and I am just completely over cautious about everything at the moment.. Sorry if I jumped the gun a bit

BIRDCAGE

I like the idea suggested earlier of taking peoples footage and compiling it all together. I only recently got around to unloading the camcorders harddrive and just put everything onto dvd, although very amusing for us to watch, an edited version sounds liek a goer.