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The science of genealogy, which deals with the study of the history of childbirth and the establishment of family ties, is today at the peak of popularity. This is no longer just a historical discipline or a costly, but very exciting hobby. There are more and more companies offering their services for compiling a family tree and reconstructing pedigrees.
However, the demand for pedigree compilation services is growing much faster and the competition in this area is still too low.
The business of compiling a family tree is certainly promising and profitable. But it comes with a lot of difficulties. Not all orders can be fulfilled.
If the client cannot provide any information about their relatives, if archival records have not survived or are inaccessible, then your search is unlikely to be successful. In this case, the order is recognized as unpromising, and you waste your time (from two weeks to a month) on primary research, which does not fully compensate even the nominal fee from the customer for filling out the questionnaire.
In addition, compiling a pedigree is an expensive service (from 35 thousand rubles and more) and not everyone can afford it.
However, there is another option for this interesting business – less expensive and labor-intensive, but very profitable. This work is also partly research, but does not require access to the archives.
You receive from the customer as much information as possible about his relatives, living and deceased, talking with the oldest members of the family, systematizing and formalizing the information received.
In the West, pedigree compilation services have long been in demand. Famous and not so famous people rarely write memoirs on their own, preferring to turn to specialists for this.
In Russia, this is still not so common, however, in our country, well-known journalists and publicists often receive orders to write celebrity biographies and even stories about large companies.
These services will be in demand among ordinary people. Indeed, when ordering a genealogical study, you will receive, at best, copies of official documents, and at worst, only a list of names indicating a minimum of information about your ancestors.
The most valuable thing that revives these dry facts are memories, but, unfortunately, they left with the people to whom they belonged. But you can save the memories of those who are still alive. Transmitted orally, they are quickly forgotten, but in written form they are preserved for centuries.
Family record keeping services can be provided at three price points.
The first, most budgetary option is that you record your conversation on a voice recorder, and then transfer the audio recording to the customer.
A more expensive option is shorthand (or transcription of a voice recorder). In this case, practically no literary processing of colloquial speech is carried out, and everything is recorded in a row.
The last type of service is the most expensive, because it is already a full-fledged work of a publicist who collects material, systematizes and processes it, and then arranges it literary.
Your commercial offer may also include services for digitizing old photographs, retouching them, and even publishing a thematic photo book for an additional fee.
When drawing up most business plans, an important item of expenditure is the choice and payment of rent for the premises. In our case, these costs will be minimal, at least in the first few months, and possibly years. You can successfully conduct all business in the home office mode. And from the equipment you only need a phone, a computer recorder and a printer.
More tangible costs should be budgeted for advertising pedigree services.
Take care to create a website with your contacts, even if you plan to work only in your city. Although orders are often carried out remotely. In this case, the interview is conducted by one of the relatives, and the file with the recording is then sent to you for transcription and processing.
The second place in terms of efficiency is occupied by print media targeted at an audience with an average and above average income level.
Calculating the payback period of a genealogy business is very difficult. After all, this is a new phenomenon for our country. Despite being in demand, pedigree compilation services will need good publicity.
It takes time to develop a client base, get feedback and recommendations from the first customers. Do not count from the very beginning on services that are more profitable for you, but the most expensive for the client.
As experience shows, budget options are most in demand. The starting capital for opening a genealogical business is quite low – from 150 thousand rubles. The payback period for a family history business depends on how soon and how many clients you can find at the very beginning of your business. According to preliminary calculations, the first profit can be expected in six months from the start of work.
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