SMALL BUSINESS | Professional Exposure Photo processors build career on friendship

A dad's suggestion leads to a successful business.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- Renee Scheetz and Karyl Ventresco's lifelong friendship developed into a business partnership.
The two women played together as toddlers and grew up together, both attending Boardman High School. Ten years ago they opened their shop, Professional Exposure, a business that processes pictures for professional photographers in the area.
"We've known each other all our lives. We fight [like sisters], too," Ventresco said, laughing.
Scheetz had eight years experience at a photo processing lab when she and Ventresco decided to go into business for themselves. Ventresco had earned a teaching degree at Cleveland State University but was having trouble finding a full-time position.
Father knows best
Her father, the late James Ventresco, owned Par Color, a photographic chemical company. Mr. Ventresco suggested Scheetz and his daughter start a photo processing business and offered them the money to finance the venture.
"Dad provided not only the money but a lot of ideas and a lot of advice," said Ventresco. "He had the best business advice."
"Without him, we probably wouldn't have survived," Scheetz added.
Mr. Ventresco died this past April in an airplane accident.
Professional Exposure processes photos for photography studios and specializes in portraits, wedding photos, high school senior photos and sports photos. The company does custom printing and digital work, such as swapping heads in photos, opening eyes and removing unwanted people from group photos.
"If there's somebody you want to wipe out of a picture, we can do it. You can never trust a picture again [because of digital advances]," Scheetz said.
Scheetz, who learned from her prior photo lab experience, taught Ventresco the basics of photo processing.
"This is something you learn by watching somebody else or playing around with it until you figure it out yourself," Scheetz said. "I've went to seminars to learn different aspects of the business, but it's mostly hands-on training."
Adaptation
Scheetz and Ventresco said they are constantly learning new techniques, especially since the advent of digital photography.
"The transition to digital affected the whole industry really,'' said Ventresco. "Everyone in the industry pretty much learned by trial and error."
The women hope to provide more affordable digital photo processing service to amateur photography customers in the near future, saying they now cater mostly to professional photographers because the cost is prohibitive to others.
Sheetz and Ventresco said starting the business involved hard work and long hours, but they now have six employees and plan to stick with the business, staying at their current location.
"When we first started my dad said that people would think we had it easy once we owned our own business, but they wouldn't know what we went through to get there. People don't think of that, the 14-hour days and no weekends. They don't see the whole picture," said Ventresco.