So, you’ve started your photo booth business, hurray! Now what? Well, depending on what stage of your journey you are at, you might already have your first gig lined up, or maybe you are still searching for customers. Perhaps you’ve already completed your first event and things went terribly wrong. Or maybe things are going smoothly so far and you think there’s nothing to worry about! Well, having been in this industry nearly a decade, let me tell you from experience.
Things seldom go right.
As Murphy’s law explains, if something can go wrong, it will. And photo boothing is no exception to that law. (In fact, I’d say “Murphy” was a photo booth owner if I didn’t know any better.)
The good news is there is plenty you can do to be prepared, so you can increase the odds things will go right! And when stuff does hit the fan, you are equipped to handle it like a pro. Let’s have a look at what I believe are the 10 biggest mistakes new photo booth owners make (and how you can avoid them). Oh, and don’t mind the order. Number 10 is just as important as number 1, so be sure to read carefully and take them all to heart if you want to come out on top!
Not making checklists
The first mistake I see new photo booth owners make is not using checklists. Guess what, I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade (at the time of writing) and I STILL use checklists when I occasionally work events. Why? Because they work. The best brains in the world still fall short of a checklist. Just look at the study done on doctor’s using checklists in the operating room, which has been shown to reduce deaths by as much as 47%. Now the mistakes you’ll likely make when photo boothing probably won’t result in a death, but you can reduce the likelihood of pissed off clients, unnecessarily high stress, and last-minute scrambling because you forgot to pack extra printer paper.
Personally, I’d recommend at least two types of checklists. The first one is a packing checklist. This should contain a list of all the gear you need (at every event) plus the additional gear you need (for that particular event). Before you head out to your event, check every item you packed against your checklist, and if anything is missing, simply spend the additional 5-seconds to add it in and check it off. No more last-minute panic freakouts wondering how you are going to get across town to pick up those forgotten props or printer tray.
The second checklist I’d recommend is a setup/teardown checklist. This checklist should outline the key setup steps to be ready for your first guest. This list can be more or less detailed as needed, but essentially should ensure that, if followed, all the major parts of your setup are completed in order for you to start on time. The list can be reversed for teardown, or you can have a teardown-specific checklist to make sure things get put pack in their proper locations. These lists will aid tremendously when you hire your first staff, since you don’t have to ‘hope’ things are done the right way, since anyone can follow a checklist. Easy peasy.
Not practicing before an event
Another mistake I see new owners make is not practicing before an event. Lebron James doesn’t wait until the night of playoffs to start practicing free throws. Sure, you and I are no Lebron James, but it doesn’t mean we can skip practice. I’m a huge proponent of last-minute learning, and I don’t think you need to be an expert in every possible thing relating to photo boothing. But you should 100% be comfortable with setting up, tearing down, operating, and troubleshooting all the general issues that could arise during an event. Things like knowing how to take a good photo in your photo booth, what to do when your computer doesn’t recognize your camera, how to handle software crashes, how to handle changing lighting conditions, what to do if your printer ribbon tears mid-event, and so much more.
The best way to get better at something is to do it more often. Well before you ever show up to your first event, you should be setting up and practicing as if it’s event day. Do several rounds of test photos, then shutdown, pack up, and repeat. If nothing goes wrong, awesome! Now try again, but this time find a way to break things. Tear the ribbon and learn how to repair it. Run a bunch of background apps and tap the screen a thousand times to try and crash your software. Try setting up outside and see if you can still get a good picture. When you show up prepared, it shows. Not only will you feel more confident, but things will go your way, and when they don’t, no sweat, because you know how to handle it.
Not bringing backup equipment
In an effort to ‘be lean’ and start off running, you scrounged up all you had saved and bought your first full booth setup complete with everything you need to work your event. But you ran out of money and are hoping one of everything will be enough. Sorry, but I’m here to tell you, it won’t. If you are seriously going to start a photo booth company (maybe too late at this point), you should plan to budget for 2 of everything from the very start. Not having backups is a huge rookie mistake that can tank your business early on, or at the very least, will result in very upset customers.
Now if you think 2 of everything is excessive, then maybe you are in the wrong industry. However, I’ll cut you some slack. If there is one thing you don’t need 2 of at the start, it’s the physical photo booth shell itself. In most cases, unless you drop your photo booth from a building or down a flight of stairs unprotected, you can probably keep using the same shell for years to come. Thankfully this saves you some $$ since the shell is often the most expensive part of the entire setup. But you should still absolutely have backups of every possible component, including cables, hub, printer, camera, tablet, and flash (this includes the printer accessories like catch tray, roll and ribbon holder). I recommend keeping things organized by packing the most essential backup parts in a backpack (like this) or a small travel case that you can bring inside the venue and keep near the booth so it’s ready, in case of emergency. My bag consists of things like the camera, lens, usb cables, extra media, flash tube, surface pro (preloaded with booth software), hotspot, usb hub and more). For larger parts, like your printer, leaving it in your vehicle is often fine at most venues, as it will likely only add another 10 minutes or so if you need to swap it out midway through your event.
In addition to the booth parts, don’t forget to pack several extra rolls of media. They are compact enough that you should always have enough to operate at full capacity 2+ hours beyond your booked time. If you don’t use them, no biggy, but better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Not showing up early enough
Now that I’ve upset you by telling you to go out and spend a bunch of money on gear that’s not going to contribute to your bottom line, here’s an easy one that won’t cost you a penny! Show up early enough.
Notice I said ‘early enough’ and not ‘on time.’ I’m a fan of the military adage, ‘If you’re early, you’re on time, and if you’re on time, you’re late!’ The same virtue should ring true to photo boothing, regardless of what you personal thoughts are on timeliness. No matter how prepared you think you may be for something, you should always expect the unexpected. The easiest and most obvious form of the unexpected has to do with your travel to the event. If, worst case scenario, there is an accident on a major road you need to take, what’s your alternative route? How long is that going to take you? Instead of hoping it doesn’t happen, add that total expected delay into your estimated travel time and bake that in to decide you need to leave.
Need to be up and running by 6pm? I recommend showing up at least 2 hours early if you are seasoned, and 3 hours if you are new. This is especially true if you’ve never done a site visit and have no experience with the venue you are going to. Figuring out parking, where the site location is, how to get power turned on to a nearby outlet (don’t expect this to always ‘work’), where to store equipment (or how to get it back to your vehicle), changing your clothes, all take considerable amounts of time. Even if you are a pro and can setup in under 30 minutes, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have all 30 minutes to dedicate to setup, especially when things go wrong or aren’t as you planned. I can’t tell you how many times myself or my team has finished setup only to site bored for the next hour and a half before the event got started. I also can’t tell you how many times we’ve used all 2 of those hours adjusting to some last-second change of plans or venue complications that had us scrambling to start on time. Trust me, it’s better to be in that former scenario than the latter.
Tip: When you finish setup early, you make a good impression on the venue, planner or your client, and they will remember that the next time they need a photo booth.
Spending too much time researching instead of taking action
This one plagues every new business owner and is often what designates the title of wantrepreneur. There are an endless number of things you can learn in the world of photo booths, and you may never feel like you’re at a point where you have obtained the ‘right’ amount of knowledge to begin acting. While I strongly support being prepared, no amount of preparation in the world will result in a profitable business without first taking action. Rather than mulling over the ‘what if’ scenarios, find a way that you can put your learnings into effect immediately. Make some phone calls, visit some venues, talk to some friends, and get your first booking on the calendar ASAP. Momentum will help you continue to push your business forward, and you’ll learn more from completing that first booking than you will in preparing for it.
Even if you aren’t at the point of taking a booking, what is one thing you can do right now that will push you closer to your goal of starting a photo booth rental business? Maybe it’s launching your website that’s ‘not quite ready.’ Or pulling the trigger on that photo booth you’ve been asking questions about online, when you could be getting hands-on and testing things out on your own. Whatever it is and wherever you are at, there’s something you can do today (before you even finish reading the rest of this post) to take action and get one step closer to your goals. So what is it for you?
Buying a photo booth before getting your first customer
You might assume that in order to start a photo booth company, you need to actually own a photo booth. Right?
Wrong.
While there is definitely a need for some type of equipment/gear in order to successfully fulfill an event, there is no reason you need it to start the company. Buying a photo booth seems like the first logical step to many new to the business, and new owners usually start with the question of “what’s the best photo booth to buy.” Although that’s a valid question, there’s no reason buying should be your first step. Rather, figuring out who your target market is, why they buy, and what you can do to best fulfill their needs should be your first step, as I cover at the beginning of my Mastering Profits course. Once you have an idea of what you can provide, with a little help from a friend (no, not THAT friend 😉), you should be able to come up with an offer, along with some basic imagery or illustrations that represent your offer. From there, you can begin pitching clients through word of mouth, sponsoring an event, or doing some form of advertising to get your first leads. With an event officially booked, you can now use the money you just earned (aka, validating your business) to purchase your equipment and begin practicing before the event.
This practice works great in the world of photo booths, because there are many new services that come along, and if you try to offer all of them, it can be quite expensive. However, if you instead pitch them as ideas to new and existing clients, you can validate those ideas before you ever spend a penny, and find which ones are right for your market. Without buyers remorse. So instead of asking “what’s the best photo booth” – start asking “how can I get my first customer?”
Not reading the frickin’ manual
One of the easiest mistakes to correct, and also one I see new (and seasoned) photo bothers make time and time again, is not reading the frickin’ manual (RTFM). Mark Cuban attributes RTFM to his early business success, as he would spend hours on end studying software manuals to learn more than anyone else in his line of business. And the world of photo boothing is no different. In fact, I’ve learned more, and improved the technical capabilities of what we can offer by reading the manuals more than any other source of information. If you have a question about how to do something, instead of engaging in a group discussion online or phoning a friend, open up the software manual and get to reading! Not only will you (most likely) find the answer to your problem, but if you keep reading, you’ll often learn something new that can help you get a leg up on your competition.
Most owners, even after reading this post, simply won’t bother with reading the manual because it’s boring, time consuming, and our need for instant gratification leads us to find an easy answer elsewhere. But if you want to get off on the right foot, and even get ahead in this industry, you need to be a master of knowledge acquisition, and the easiest way to acquire knowledge is often right there in front of you, free of charge.
Not spending money on equipment where it matters (aka cheaping out)
Another mistake owners make when starting their photo booth company is trying to save a penny and not spending money where it matters most. Running a business can be an expensive proposition. But the world of photo boothing is attractive to most because of the seemingly low-cost barrier to entry. And after all, if Joe Schmoe can do it, so can you! However, the decision to ‘save’ money can often hurt your business from the start, and result in an overall poor experience for you and your guests. Assuming you make it through the beginning phases of your business, you’ll most likely be repurchasing all the equipment you should have purchased from the start, resulting in spending more overall than you would if you bought the right gear to begin with.
To be clear, not everything you buy needs to be top of the line, and you may be targeting a different market/demographic that is not interested in having the best-looking, or most feature-rich experience. Your client may simply want an inflatable booth with a way to get prints, and nothing else. So in an effort to be helpful and not just tell you what you ‘shouldn’t do,’ here’s a list of the equipment I recommend not cheaping out on, and why:
Printer – Get yourself a proper Dyesub printer from a reputable brand like DNP, HiTi, Primera or possibly Sony. Please for the love of your guests, skip the Canon Selphy, unless you need it as an emergency backup in the interim. A good dyesub printer will enable you to get professional, archival quality prints in a matter of just a few seconds (5-8 for the top of the line). The media costs also tend to be much less per print and are much more reliable workhorses made for the commercial environment, meaning over the life of the printer, you’ll probably save money anyways. I use only DNP DS620s in all our standard photo booth printers
Flash – Your flash is your single (and most likely only) source of lighting. And as I discuss in my post on taking the perfect photo booth picture, it’s the most important element of a good photo. Buy a decent studio flash strobe such as the Digibee 400/800 (the one I personally use), Elinchrom, or Einstein. It is going to set you back a few hundred dollars, but will produce the power you need, along with the adjustability to be flexible for every environment.
Backdrop Stand – Maybe an afterthought for most, but a solid backdrop stand will easily set you apart from the newb who purchased a backdrop kit on Amazon for a hundred bucks. Opt for a nice pillowcase style stand with custom aluminum frame for a clean setup that’s highly flexible. Or if you want traditional or sequin backdrops, get a solid pipe/drape stand with flat steel bases, to avoid being a trip hazard and to have a stand that doesn’t fall apart after a few uses. The same goes for the backdrops you buy – skip Amazon and find them from a high-quality manufacturer like PropShopPros or PB Backdrops.
Photo Booth Shell – Your shell doesn’t need to be expensive, but you certainly shouldn’t cheap out on it. Buying a cheapo shell from Amazon, Alibaba, or the likes often results in frustration (i.e. no manufacturer support for broken/missing/replacement parts), or a low-quality build that is often clearly visible to clients and won’t stand the test of time. Need help figuring out what to buy? Check out what made my list of best photo booths to buy.
Not getting properly insured
It’s tempting to want to do the absolute minimum before going out and making money with your photo booth, but this is definitely one mistake you want to avoid making. And making this mistake could cost you tens of thousands, or at the very least, result in you losing a job at the last minute. There are many types of insurance, all of which have their benefits, but the one I am referring to here is called General Liability insurance or (GL). General Liability insurance protects your business from a range of liabilities, possibly including guests tripping over your power cords and breaking their arm, to your photo booth falling over and starting a fire.
It’s what is represented on a COI (Certificate of Insurance) and what your clients are referring to when they ask to be added as an additional insured to your policy. Most, if not all venues require having a GL policy and being added as an additional insured prior to allowing vendors to show up and work onsite. And depending on where you are located, your policy minimums may need to reflect anywhere from $1 million to $5 million in coverage, in addition to requiring a commercial vehicle policy and potentially umbrella coverage. Not to mention, you’ll be required to carry workers comp with state-minimum coverages (except in some States where if you are the sole owner/worker, it’s not required). These policies can be quite pricey, ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars per year, regardless of whether you work a single event.
If you are not sure which type of coverage you need, here’s a good guide. If you are wanting to do work in a major metro like NYC, Vegas, etc. expect to be on the upper ends of those limits. Check with an insurance broker to see if you can qualify, since photo boothing is a niche most insurers don’t cover. And be sure your policy allows for unlimited additional insureds. It may also be helpful to include your policy coverage in your contract terms and require that clients review this against the venue requirements prior to booking. This could save you from a last-minute insurance request, that could mean losing the job days before, because you legally aren’t allowed to work at the venue. Trust me, I’ve taken many last-second events from owners who have lost the booking due to this very reason.
Not getting contract and payment secured before the event
Finally, the last on my list of mistakes new owners make is not getting the contract and payment secured before the event. Imagine planning for weeks on end and prepping for the night ahead, only to show up and be told the client hired a different company. Talk about embarrassing, not to mention defeating. But this happens time and time again with new owners. The best promises in the world won’t hold their weight in the court of law, and shouldn’t mean anything more to you than a good intention. Unless you have it in writing, and ideally in a commonly accepted legal format (aka contract), don’t bet on it. In fact, you should avoid doing any kind of work for the event, until you have a signed contract in hand that makes it clear what the client booked, and the financial commitments involved with their booking. Payment is not always possible before an event (mostly this is true when you get into corporate where there are strict payment terms or vendor registration requirements that take weeks to months to complete). But in the case of almost every private event, it’s not only preferred to get paid up front, but it’s quite common. We collect 50% of the total invoice balance at the time of booking, and require both this and a contract to fully secure the date (with the exception of those corporate events I mentioned). Then, we require the remaining 50% balance within 30 days of the event date, prior to us ever showing up onsite.
Having clear payment terms and collecting payment up front eliminates the need to ‘beg’ for your clients to pay you after you’ve fulfilled your promises, and ensures you can cover all of your costs. It also helps sift out the less-than-desirable clients who try to take advantage of not paying you to justify getting more time for free, or deciding you weren’t worth what you originally charged and settling only part of the balance. Sure, there is small claims court, but in most cases, this won’t be worth your time, and the cost probably won’t justify the potential damage this can do to your business. By collecting all of the payment up front, you are left with the joy of fulfilling your end of the deal in full (without any harsh feelings towards your clients). And you weed out those looking to take advantage of a new and unsuspecting photo booth owner.
By following this list, you will be able to quickly set yourself apart from other new owners, and get a leg up on your competition!
If you found this helpful and you want to explore more potential pitfalls to avoid, or you want to learn other shortcuts to success for your business, consider signing up for a 1-hr private coaching session with yours truly. We’ll dive into solving your own business struggles or anything else you’d like to discuss.
Happy Boothing!
