Entrepreneur: My-Headshots, circa 2013

Again looking for other sources of income, I had the idea to create a site specifically for models and actors to market their professional headshots. The concept was that each subscribed model would get a dedicated page containing their favorite pro headshots and some basic personal information. Their page would actually contain their name, as in myname.my-headhsots.com, becoming what would have been the first electronic “comp-card”. In fact, the site was designed so it could not be “browsed” — you could only get to specific pages by having the named model page link.

Then they would create things like email signatures that would include a link to their personal my-headhsots page. My idea was to get photographers who specialized in shooting headshots to pay a small fee per clients and offer the my-headshots page as an added value of their service over another headshots photographer.

Well… although I still like the concept to this day, I quickly discovered that most photographers are more into their art than their business, and thus fail to see the advantages of this. (Each headshots page also offered a link back to the model’s photographer, so this would have been good advertising for the photographer as well as for the model!)

Without getting a bunch of photographers to sign up, this was dead in the water pretty quickly. Too bad, because I think it could have been a great service –although I don’t think it would have generated much income for me!

Once again, I found a few snapshots of the site pages…

Entrepreneur: Skadget online sales, 2016

Playing around with various efforts to add small revenue streams, I decided to try my hand at sales of small technology goods online. It was an education researching products in China, contacting and conversion with Chinese factory representatives, and the like.

To start small, I identified a unique USB cable that had actual springs at each end for strain relief. This cable was also on of the earliest ones to use higher gauge wires so that it supported faster charge times for phones.

I chose the name “Skadget” and convinced the Chinese supplier to engrave my logo on the cables even though I was only ordering a small quantity (I think 100-200 total, in 2 colors)

I wrote up a great product listing, including a technical article on the benefits of the higher-gauge wires, and listed them for sale on both Amazon and Ebay.

I quickly discovered that selling on Amazon was only useful if you had products that could move in very large quantities — the fees involved were just not worth the effort for low-priced items in limited quantities. But Ebay became my focus, and I did manage to see all my stock over several months — and got some great feedback about the cable quality!

However, I quickly decided that this was not a venture I really wanted to pursue, because I simply didn’t have the capital to invest, and to do this properly meant having dozens of products and ordering significant quantities. Once again, it was a great learning experience even if it didn’t pan out as I had initially hoped.

Photographer: Goldleaf Portraits, 2021-

In 2018 I attended the annual conference of the PPA (Professional Photographers of America). After being inspired by the various speakers, I thought about developing a different “brand” for a new photography venture.

What I chose was a very high end, concierge model of portraits for senior citizens. I had always felt that there was a lack in that area — I had experienced people scrambling to look for a good photo of a loved one after they had passed, for example, and often finding that the last professional shot was from some even many years prior.

I spent almost two years developing this concept, including sourcing a supply of museum-quality hand-carved frames, and obtaining various pieces of equipment best suited to my business model.

I had just completed the web site, and was about to start marketing when COVID-19 struck. And here I was with a business proposal geared exclusively to people 75 years and over! So everything went on hold for what I hoped would be a few months. Unfortunately, as we enter 2022 I have not launched Goldleaf Portraits… but I am hoping to start in the first quarter of 2022. Time will tell if this concept will be successful, but the nice thing about semi-retirement is that I do not need any specific success level — if I sell 10 per year I will be quite happy.

You can see the website here: Goldleaf Portraits Website