I never said as a kid “when I grow up, I want to operate photo booths,” but I did end up buying a pretty sweet business that works as a great side hustle in the evenings and allowed me to get better at my photography hobby. In this article I’ll show you what it’s like to run the booth, how I bought it, some pros and cons and how I find customers.
What’s Running a Photo Booth Business Like?
It takes a little getting used to, but after about 5-10 events it’s a breeze. I typically arrive an hour and a half before the start time for the event, setup the booth, do some test photos and we’re good to go. You do need to know the basics of camera settings such as iso and shutter speed in order to make corrections based on the amount of light at the venue. Before I arrive I already have the bottom of the photo strip customized with information about the client’s event.
I have to manage an inventory of my supplies, which mostly consist of special paper and ink and props. Once the booth is operational it’s all automated so people can go in the booth, touch the screen to get started and then two prints come out about a minute later. Typically at weddings there will be a guest book where one print stays and the other print is for guests to keep. After the event I load back up, drive back, unpack the booth and then send digital copies to the person who booked the event, usually via email, but sometimes they’re old school and request a flash drive.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Running a Photo Booth Business?
Pros
- Work Flexibility – I only book dates that work with my calendar. If I have personal plans for a particular date I simply don’t book it. This gig is super flexible.
- High Hourly Rate – It’s very possible to make $100 an hour once the booth is paid for. Booking 2-3 events per month covers my basic living expenses.
- Fun Environment – This really depends on the group of people at the event, but some people are a blast! I’ve had weddings where they let me drink with them, been out on the dance floor and laughing all night at the ridiculousness of the photos people take.
Cons
- Friday and Saturday Nights – If you’re a social butterfly who goes out every weekend, you’re probably going to not like being booked on the weekend nights. The vast majority of bookings are for weddings and school dances which are always on the weekends.
- Driving – I service a 200 mile radius, but that’s personal preference. I’ve seen most of the state I live in due to driving to events all over. Depending on gas prices this can increase my monthly budget.
- Can Get Boring – Although you’d think it’s fun, it can get boring standing in one spot and watching everyone else have a good time while pretending you’re having the best time ever right alongside them. Honestly, my face starts hurting from smiling for four hours straight sometimes.
- Drunk People – At times I end up being a bouncer to the booth so drunk people don’t damage it or take photos of things that aren’t exactly appropriate… if you get my drift.
- Can Get Repetitive – Once you’ve figured out how to run the booth, working your 20th wedding over a summer can feel a bit like groundhogs day.
How Much Can You Make?
Once the booth is paid for, your only real expenses are the ink to run the booth (about $50 per event), the gas to get there and some props which are usually about $25 budget to add new ones for each event. A typical event I charge anywhere from $499 to $799, so depending on travel time you can make $75-$100 per hour pretty realistically.
How Did I Get Into This Business?
In a word… craigslist. I’m always searching for different creative ways to make money and I found a guy who had started the business already, but was moving out of state so he needed to sell since he was too busy with a new job he was moving for. Since I knew he was motivated I was able to negotiate down the price and work some of his scheduled bookings for free in order to drop the price further. The booth ended up paying for itself in about eight events. If you’re looking for a new booth online it’ll probably take you quite a bit longer to pay it back though.
Where Do You Get Customers?
Knowing how to build a website really helps on this end and gave me one of my biggest competitive advantages. I taught myself how to build websites back in 2011 so when I bought my business I immediately built a site with a blog, worked on getting it ranking in Google and really targeted long-tail keywords for cities and small towns within 200 miles of my location where people would be interested in renting a booth.
I did a search in Wikipedia for towns in my area based on population, then built an individual page targeting each city or town over 3,000 people. That ended up being close to 100 pages of content, but I end up getting a ton of my business from smaller towns because nobody else is marketing directly to them.
Below is an image of some of the many leads building a website has brought. If you’re interested in learning how to easily build a website or blog for your business to get more leads I can show you how, click here to learn how to setup a blog for less than a cup of coffee each month.
Wrapping it Up
Being a photo booth business owner was something that I stumbled upon and I was glad I gave it a shot. I’ve met a lot of interesting people working events all over my state while learning more about business, marketing and having a side-gig that pays for most of my living expenses.
