Have you ever taken a photo of someone famous? Maybe you just enjoy viewing celebrity photos? Well, here’s a business you’ll find interesting.
Jordan Osher, CEO of Meet The Famous, introduced “the first and only celebrity photo agency for the everyday person.” Here, people can upload, distribute and sell their candid celebrity photos.
“In less than six months, we’ve received almost 100,000 photos from our users which have appeared in over 750 media outlets worldwide,” states Osher. “On top of getting their photo(s) published, our users receive 60 percent of all the sales collected from their photos, which can range from $5 to $100,000+.”
Most Read: What is the Average Income of a Subway Restaurant Franchise Owner?
With this success, Osher shared some of his insights with me in a brief interview:
Tell us about your business and how you came up with the idea.
I was walking in Soho one day and saw Kanye West on the street eating a hot dog. I snapped a photo of him with my camera and uploaded it to one of my social networking sites. A publication found out about the photo I took and contacted me to see if I would be interested in licensing it out to them. It was then that I realized that there is value in every day people’s candid celebrity photos, so we created the first “home” for people to upload their celebrity content. If we sell their content, they receive 60 percent of all sales collected.
How have you marketed and promoted your business so far?
We have spent the first year on development and relationship building with all the major, worldwide publications. We are now just starting our marketing campaign and partnerships with some of the major celebrity media outlets around the world.
What marketing techniques have worked the best and why?
Word-of-mouth has been our biggest marketing asset. When a user uploads a photo and then sees that they’ve made real money, they are very quick to tell their friends (and now most of them don’t go anywhere without a camera).
10 Home Services Businesses to Start Now and How to Succeed
What major challenge did you face in starting your business and how did you overcome it?
The biggest hurdle we had to face was credibility and understanding of the sales process. We created a service that has never been done for the everyday person, so they didn’t quite understand how the whole thing works and how much money can actually be made from their photos. Once the sales started to trickle in and we created a “how it works” video, we saw a huge increase in photo submissions.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who want to make their business ideas a reality?
My advice is to do as much research as possible, and keep overhead as low as possible. Most people think that because they have a good idea, they should start a company around it. It’s vital that you really do your homework and find out who your competition is and how big your market is before trying to raise money for your company.
12 Essential Steps in Choosing and Building a Side Hustle
Is there anything else you would like to add?
If you want to be successful, you literally have to live and breathe your business and work as hard as possible and hope to get “lucky.” Just having a good idea doesn’t mean your company will be successful. Sometimes you need that big “break” that will help launch your company.
