Elevator Pitch: The Filing Fairies

Elevator Pitch is a regular feature on Lifehacker where we profile startups and new companies and pick their brains for entrepreneurial advice. This week, we’re talking with the brains behind digital photo organiser The Filing Fairies.

In 128 words or less, explain your business idea.

Every year we are taking and storing thousands of photos – which are stored on cameras, phones, computers, and memory cards; many unprinted and many never looked at again. People are overwhelmed by their photo collections and they no longer enjoy the simple pleasures reminiscing over photo can bring.

Natural disasters can bring unexpected loss of treasured family photo collections. A crashed hard drive, lost phone or misplaced SD card can have the same impact.

The Filing Fairies have dedicated themselves to developing simple solutions to help people (with various skill levels and technological knowledge as well as their diverse device types) to organise, utilise, enjoy and protect treasured photos and empower them to tell their stories through photos.

What strategies are you using to grow and finance your idea?

To date we have budgeted to attend a number of key networking events to help grow and drive word of mouth to drive referrals. Also by participating in various social media forums where our target market is most present we are building our brand presence.

We have also worked to establish industry partnerships and professional memberships which have allowed us to build a strong brand reputation as leaders and experts in the niche market of Photo Life Management.

By hosting events like Save Your Photos Day (September 26th) we are educating the general public as well as aligning ourselves strategically with Alzheimer’s Australia who are also in the business of protecting memories. Register here.

How do you differentiate your business from your competitors?

Professional Organising was in the top ten outsourced services in 2014 and we have seen continued growth (and competition) in the area of home organising services. By specialising in Photo Organising we have become the leaders in this unique niche. We were the first to be certified in Australia by the Association of Personal Photo Organizers and are also Australian Ambassadors for them. Many of our Professional Organising colleagues see the value of our specialised skills and refer their own clients to us for photo organising needs.

What’s the biggest challenge facing your business?

As ‘mumpreneurs’ with young children our biggest challenges have been family disruptions. Both anticipated ones like school holidays as well as unforeseen distractions like sick kids! Good time management, daily, weekly and school term planning of workloads has been essential.

What one phone, tablet or PC application could you not live without?

As a partnership that is operating from separate home offices and often remotely between clients, we rely heavily on Dropbox for file sharing but of course without the internet itself we could not function at all!

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?

One that comes to mind immediately is that “often done is as good as perfect” but I think Sir Richard Branson said it best, “believe in yourself and back yourself to come out on top. A fulfilling career is waiting for those brave enough to find it”.

Want to see your startup featured in Elevator Pitch? Get in touch using our contact form.


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