So you’ve decided to start a Photo Booth business but don’t know where to start?
You’ve come to the right place! Here I’ll give you a rundown on all the major things you need to know to get started. I will warn you, this is not a complete list – you will need to learn some things as you go. However, this is plenty to get started, so let’s begin!
1. The Plan
If you’re going to start a Photo Booth business you need to plan for a few basic things. Some might say you need a business plan and experience, others say go in blind and learn as you go – I think you need a small roadmap. Here’s what that is:
- Know your market
- What will you offer?
- Where will you get supplies?
- What’s your contract?
- How will you get paid & booked?
Know Your Market
Who will you be selling to? Companies? Individuals? Both? And how many other booths are in your market? What do they offer? For how much?
These questions are crucial if you want your photo booth business to be anything more than a dream. If your market is saturated, you may need to price lower or offer something the others don’t as a way to attract customer attention. If you’re selling to companies, you’re more likely to need insurance and a more polished presence.
What Will You Offer?
Your product and service offering is one of the other things you need to think through. This will determine what equipment and supplies you’ll need, the level of insurance you’ll require, and how well you stand out in the market you decided on. A good offer here can carry you really far, so don’t skip out on planning your services & products. For example, if you’re the only 360 booth provider in an area with a lot of demand for 360 booths, you’ll be rolling in money and loaded up with bookings!
Where Will You Get Supplies?
Once you have your products and services defined, you’ll need to know where you’ll get the stuff you need to deliver the offer you promised. With that comes backdrops, equipment, print media (if you want to print), and more. This is important since it’s one of the things that can (and likely should) affect your pricing. After all, you’re going into business to make some money – so you don’t want to sell your services at cost! Thinking through your supplies list and how you’ll get them will definitely make you feel more secure as the bookings roll in.
What’s Your Contract?
You will definitely want a contract or terms that a client agrees to before they book you, these can be simple or they can be more complex, but the clauses in your contract always depend on your specific needs and services. It is STRONGLY recommended that you get these looked over by a lawyer at some point, but to start you can draft something simple that should get you through your first 20 bookings. Here’s a short example for a drop-off booth I provided to a member in the Photo Booth Community group on Facebook.
(Client Name) agrees to rent an unattended photo booth from (Your Business) on (Event Date) at (Event Time) for (Event Duration). Client has agreed to pay a total of (Total Price) for (List of services rendered with some description). A deposit of (deposit amount) shall be paid by (Deposit Date), and the remainder (Remainder amount) shall be paid (Some number of days) days prior to the Event. By signing this agreement, the Client agrees to the terms set in this agreement and the Client waives liability in the event of guest injury or accident during the operation of this booth. By accepting this agreement, the Client also accepts responsibility for any loss or damage that may affect (Business) property for the duration of the aforementioned Event. (Request signature)
As a rule, you always want to have clauses that limit your liability and provide some rules regarding your equipment. Again, this is not a comprehensive contract, but merely a skeleton that you can build off of to get an idea of what you need.
How Will You Get Paid & Booked?
Now for the star of the show: getting booked and paid! For most businesses starting out a simple PayPal/Venmo/Zelle/Square setup is plenty to get money flowing into your account. And with a simple Google Calendar or Calendly, you can start getting your dates reserved and ready to go. Once you start getting a few customers, you’ll want to upgrade to something that automates the work away, so you can focus on other things. That’s where Spekkio comes in! It allows you to define your products & bundles, create booking forms, track leads, and more. And since you can get paid right on Spekkio’s forms, you don’t have to worry to send the payment request or stress about unpaid invoices again!
Now that you have all that planned out, you can move on to step 2…
2. Let’s Get Growing
You have your plans, but how will you execute? In general, buying ads at such an early stage isn’t very useful, so you need to do the hard work at the beginning to push your services in the open market. This might mean going to trade shows, networking with businesses, cold email, cold calls, offering to your existing network, and many other things. If you do the things you know gets you in front of people, you are likely to get at least a few takers which can start you on your Photo Booth journey.
I have another blog post discussing just how doing the obvious work can get you to new heights in your business at: Grow Your Business
3. Adapt
Business is a game of trial and error, and maybe your plans didn’t work out the way you thought they would, but that doesn’t mean give up! That means you just need to adapt to the market to find better fit. Maybe you had some success but then your business just doesn’t seem to want to grow anymore. The same thing applies! You need to adapt to the changes that a business experiences as it grows and as the market shifts. Ultimately, the only thing that is guaranteed is change, so if you can learn to roll with the punches that life throws, you’ll find that over time, you’ll come out on top.
If you liked what what you read, let me know! Leave a comment for me or share it with someone you think can benefit from this content. And if you’re an owner of a photo booth, photography, DJ, or other event business – please check out Spekkio! I built it based off of my own experience working in and running a family photo booth business and I’m trying to make it the simplest way to get leads, get booked, and manage your business. We use it ourselves, and would be delighted if you could give it a try (free for 7 days – with no payment info required)!
Happy Holidays!
