The World's Leading
Portable Photo Booths

We’ve Got You Covered: 24/7 Support you can Rely On

If you think our products are cool, just wait until you meet Foto Master’s support team. We are all about giving you true peace of mind. You will get personal attention from professionals who really care about you and 24/7 availability by phone, online chat, email, Skype, or Facebook.

Keeping Your Service Fresh: Constant Software Upgrades

Amaze your customers with the latest, cutting-edge photo booth features and brand new premium content on a regular basis!

With the “Foto Master Advantage” service package your lifetime software license gets constantly upgraded with both major and seasonal version releases.

Software releases include dozens of new, often game-changing capabilities and industry-leading features developed by Foto Master as well as exclusive premium content that keep you way ahead of the competition.

Supply of Exclusive Leads

As part of the “Foto Master Advantage” service package you will be given access to the ‘Lead Distribution Platform’ (LDP) – a dedicated system developed by Foto Master to help you speed up your return on investment.

The system automatically provides you with contact details of people (leads) in your area currently interested in renting your Foto Master photo booths specifically.

• The leads are sourced by Foto Master directly.
• The leads are shared quickly, keeping them current for you.
• The leads you receive are not shared with anyone else, keeping them exclusive for you.
• The contacts expect a product owner in their area to contact them with an offer.

For more information about how the system works, visit this blog post.

Your New Family: A Friendly Community of Foto Master’s Photo Booth Owners

We have a group on Facebook for Foto Master’s photo booth owners to which we’ll add you upon your purchase. Once you join as a member, you’ll find a very active, warm and friendly community with helpful discussions, resource sharing, sharing of experiences, software update announcements and much more. It works, looks and feels like a real family.

An interview with the brilliant Nicole Scott Bonilla of Magic Mirror Miami, a passionate entrepreneur that decided to start her own event rental business with Foto Master’s portable photo booths and support services.

Nicole had it all figured out, she was working at a radio station, following the path she had planned for herself, when suddenly she was fired by her boss. Seeing her mother being her own boss throughout her entire life inspired Nicole. She began believing that she can do it as well. Not long after she was fired, Nicole saw a Foto Master ad and realized that she’s finally ready to go her own way and start a photo booth business – knowing that her love for bringing joy and making people happy is what she can do best.

From her very first Mirror Me Booth Nicole grew her Photo Booth business into a booming enterprise, generating an income she never dreamed of bringing home while working in the radio station.

“For all of you starting out and nervous, that’s where I was 1 year ago. Our Foto Master photo booth came in that week and our first event was in a few days. We have networked a lot (for free) though various business open houses, etc.

Last week we got a call to go to an awards ceremony tonight for all businesses in our county. We got there and was placed at a table with executives from Pratt and Whitney, a billion+ dollar company located in our county. Also several other huge businesses like Hussey Seating that makes bleachers and stadium seats for stadiums all over the country. Then the awards happened. We were nominated by a past client for New Business of the Year, and we won it!!! Our US Senator Susan Collins had a special Congratulations Presentation folder and we received this beautiful award.

Our first year we did about 75 events and are booked through 2021 almost every weekend. We are excited to what the future holds. A year ago we were nervous and scared. We had never done anything like this. Now, a year later and this is our second major award in a week. We have newspapers calling for stories about the company and awards. Keep your chin up, do extra things for the customer and believe in what you do!” Laura Cole, Go FOTO Yourself New England.

The charming Matt Conta of SoundWave DJ and Photo shares some great tips as well as inspiring stories about scaling a local DJ business into a full event-rental company with several national locations, having a technology partner such as Foto Master playing a role in his success.

The lovely Pam Laundermill of Parties Outta Sight sharing her inspirational story of how she started her entertainment business, from a trade show and a last minute booth assembly in a Vegas hotel room with Foto Master’s CEO to her booming business servicing many satisfied clients.

An interview with the creative Phil Wexler of Fotoboyz. Fotoboyz is one of the largest Experiential Marketing companies in the USA, holding events nationwide as well as internationally. Phil shared some very important tips about the culture one builds a successful brand around, and how partnering with Foto Master and the technology and services that it brings to the table can help you get there.

An interview with Luna Tolunay of Fun Planners, one of the world’s biggest and most successful full-service event rental companies. Join Luna as she shares the success story of Fun Planners and how Foto Master’s technology helps Fun Planners bring cutting-edge experiences to the most luxurious corporate events.

An interview with Chris Randell and Teresa Joseph of Notorious P.I.C who share the story of their success that is deeply rooted in their passion for working together and their own personal love story.

An interview with the dashing Sylvain Pichot sharing the secret to his success with his France-based company Pics Me. Driven by his customer-oriented approach and genuine love for the industry, Sylvain truly delights in what he does and it shows!

Introduction to the Photo Booth Industry

The photo booth industry is an amazing field to be a player in. It’s filled with people who possess true passion for entertainment and bringing joy to others.

Photo booth service providers vary. You can find full time photo booth rental companies with a huge fleet of photo booths and employees, less specific event rental companies that rent out many types of products such as bouncing houses, VR and games alongside its photo booths, DJs or wedding photographers who expanded their services and offer a photo booth as well as music and photography, and many other startups that service events over the weekend and use their company to generate a side income.

The commonality of these different companies is that they’ve started providing photo booth services at some point, but obtained the knowledge presented in this guide, later down their path, in one way or another.

We’ve formulated this 7 step guide by talking to our customers about how they started out and what was it that made them go into this business. The conversations revealed many stories about hiring a photo booth service or attending an event that had a photo booth, and a feeling that they could do a better job at it. Other companies expressed that they simply had a desire to offer something new and a photo booth was the perfect way to expand and scale the services they were offering. Others simply wanted to jump on the fun, feeling unstimulated by their 9-5 day-job, longing for a change.

If you feel that the photo booth industry is for you, get on board and follow the next steps.

Step 1: Business Plan

Start with a plan! There’s more than one place to start at, but we recommend that you start with what most excites you. After working with many customers and advising them on the best starting point, we realized that the best way is to start with the bottom line:

How much money can I make by doing this? Want to discover the answer to this question? Check out our first Video on “How to Start a Successful Photo Booth Business” with Eli, Foto Master’s director of operations.

Your first step is to estimate your potential profit by breaking down your expected income as well as expenses that you’re bound to have. Let’s start with the income. Here is a simple formula to help you calculate your expected income:

Average Rental Price per Event × Number of Events

This formula will give you a good sense of the profit you will be able to make. Here’s an example:

If I charge $1000 per event and I’m working 5 events a month (which means 60 events a year) the total income will be $60,000.

In order to increase your bottom line, you can either do more events, or charge more per event. Let’s take the same example of 5 events a month while charging an average price of $1,700 per event. With the same number of events I will achieve a 6 figure annual income of $102,000.

Remember, the price is not just an arbitrary number. Every increase in pricing comes with the expectation of providing additional value. Charging more is great, but make sure you back it up with more value.

Some companies charge $2500 or more on average per event and wouldn’t even consider a gig for anything less than that, while other companies charge $500 per event.

There is nothing wrong with either one of these companies, the market is HUGE and with every year there is an increase in the volume of events, with new vertical markets added that will want to rent a phot booth such as shopping malls, restaurants etc, servicing new needs. Many will look for the cheapest option, while many others will look for the best option and some will go for the in-between. It’s very important that you decide what type of company you want to have before starting your new photo booth business.

As you recall from the formula that I presented at the beginning, we explored the option of increasing the revenue by increasing the average rental price per event. Another way of increasing the revenue is to do more events. How can you do more events? Here are a few factors that can help increase the number of your events:

• Marketing
• Value proposition
• Sales skills
• Organized system to keep track of your leads and customers
• Pricing
• Photo booths at your disposal

If you have an effective, good marketing strategy, a fair pricing structure and a single photo booth to offer, supply and demand will help you decide how to increase your bottom line. If your photo booth is overbooked, which means that there’s more demand for your services than you can supply – you will either want to: Increase your pricing or purchase another photo booth to be able to supply the increasing demand.

Last but not least are the expenses that must also be taken into account with your business plan when calculating the bottom line for your business. A great way to approach it is to start a spreadsheet and write down the fixed cost of the business. Some examples of expenses to take into account:

• Average gas cost per event
• Yearly LLC registration fee
• Yearly state tax
• Storage cost for your equipment
• etc

Keep in mind that when you’re just starting up there are many ways to save on cost. For example:

• You can take calls from home saving you the office rental cost.
• If you have an in-house storage or garage you can save on warehouse storage cost.
• You can operate the booth at events by yourself instead of hiring an attendant.

You can save on a lot of these expenses at the beginning, and as your business grows – you can start delegating, building a team, move to an office with storage and scale up.

How to Make Real Profits with Your Photo Booth Business

Getting to the truth of the matter.

Here’s a fact: Not every photo booth company will generate the same income. Here’s another fact: Even if two different companies generate the same income they will not enjoy the same profit. Why is that?

Let’s have a look at the following example: A photo booth company that charges $1000 for a four hour gig works out to $250 per hour. Sounds like great money right? Certainly beats a day job. However, if you miscalculate the expenses that come with it, you risk working for free.

When you look at the amount of money a photo booth company charges from the outside – it looks incredible, and you’re smart enough to know the difference between income and profit, but unfortunately there are some entrepreneurs that get into the photo booth business and find themselves spending more on expenses than they originally planned to.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that this kind of profit is not attainable. The main reason some photo booth companies don’t see enough profit is due to the cost of running inefficient equipment, the cost of refunding a party due to lack of support, the cost of designing overlays, the time it takes to configure a workflow, the cost of constantly producing new marketing materials, the cost of consumables and quality props.

That’s why it makes sense to purchase your photo booth from a company that has the best-designed, efficient hardware, most powerful software that has everything you need built-in and 24/7 support services. By following this logic, you are lowering your costs, so you end up walking away with the maximum profit. Win-win.

So What Does It Actually Cost to Run a Photo Booth Company?

Let’s take our previous example: a hire fee of $1000 for a four hour event.

These are the costs you can expect to incur when you hire out your photo booth:

• Wear and tear on your photo booth
• Custom templates and animations
• Gas
• Wear and tear on car/trailer/van
• Booth operator/attendant
• Album
• Printer media
• USB flash drive
• Wear and tear on props
• Mobile internet

On top of that, you may have your fixed costs of running a business such as a storage space and unexpected expenses that should be taken into account like the rare cases of having to issue a refund.

Some may say that the case of having to refund a party comes with the greatest cost, because, not only that you don’t get paid for the job you were hired for, you run the risk of having your reputation damaged. This is why Foto Master offers a HUGE, unparalleled 24/7 support team to have you covered all day, every day with any question or concern before, during or after an event.

The next thing you will want to take into account is the time and money you invest in customizing assets for your client’s event. If you are creating assets like photo layouts and/or animations from scratch, then the time and money involved can be valued from $20 and quickly get above and beyond $100. For that matter, this is why Foto Master’s software has a huge variety of ready-to-go workflows, layouts, presets, animations, overlays and other assets built-in.

One of the most frustrating things will be to lose a gig to competition because your software can’t provide the feature requested by the customer. This is why Foto Master’s software is built to keep you ahead of the curve and your abilities limitless. Our team of support professionals can also help you find and choose the best solution when your customer requests something out of the ordinary. Consult with us free of charge and we will guide you towards bringing your client’s wants into reality.

Last but not least, isn’t it nice to get leads without increasing your marketing budget? With Foto Master’s Lead Distribution Platform (LDP ) you can get exclusive leads and convert them into bookings without the added marketing spend! This is another big advantage for generating a higher profit on a yearly basis.

If you take all the events you serviced throughout the year and calculate all your savings using Foto Master services, you will be able to see the results in the nifty graph below that shows the difference in average cost per event.

But Wait – here’s More!

You also need to have a good handle on the fixed and recurring costs of running your business.

These include:

• Admin time and wages (i.e. paying yourself)
• Pension and taxes
• Storage rent or office space
• Vehicle and business registration
• Consulting and accounting
• Insurance
• Office supplies
• Phone and internet
• Marketing materials
• Advertising
• Website hosting

Let’s assume for example that these costs amount to $1,000 a month (and you need to decide what to pay yourself as well), and we also assume that you only manage to get 60 bookings for the year, here’s the breakdown:

Tip: The Photo Booth you choose for your business will affect your profit in a big way. Efficiency of operation makes a huge difference.

The point of this information is not to scare you out of the idea of starting a photo booth business. Like any industry, there are a lot of pitfalls to watch out for. Fortunately for you, we have seen them all and learned the hard way. Foto Master has been designing, manufacturing and developing photo booths and photo booth software with the express purpose of helping people, like you, start successful and profitable photo booth businesses since 2011. We are at your disposal! Go ahead and leverage our experience.

Let’s assume that you’re just starting out and you go out to 5 events a month, meaning 60 events a year. If your average fee is $1000 for a 4 hour event, your yearly income adds up to $60,000 a year. Now let’s look at the annual expenses and the expenses per event to calculate your potential profit per event:

You hire a booth attendee for $25/h. You want him to arrive early just in case so you will hire him for 7 hours, adding up to $175 per event.

With 60 events a year, something is bound to go wrong, and if it does and you weren’t able to fix the issue quickly – you don’t have a choice but to issue a refund to your client to protect your reputation and brand name (which will still get a hit if you couldn’t execute the event). Using Foto Master’s powerful software, quality hardware and 24/7 support can reduce the chance of having that happen to you.

In our example, we’ll assume that 4 out of the 60 events were such cases, where you tried your best but you were not able to solve the problem quickly enough to please your client. By using a reliable software, well designed hardware and having the technical support by your side when you need it can prevent you from needing to issue a refund. If you don’t have these assets – you might be looking at a loss. Let’s assume you’re not using a Foto Master products and services and you had 4 events that required refunds a year – 4 events like these add up to $4,000 saved with Foto Master.

When you launch your business, you want to add photo and video marketing materials to your website. If you don’t have the video shooting and editing skills, you will have no choice but hire a professional videographer or purchase ready made marketing materials from a vendor. That may cost you ~$500 for a good professional video. With Foto Master you don’t need to invest so much in the extra expenses because you get those completely free of charge! 5 such videos a year can add up to $2,500 in expenses or savings.

Depending on your marketing strategy (more about that in the next step), you may need to spend advertising money for every lead. With Foto Master, you can get several leads a year with no extra spend using the free Lead Distribution Platform that we’ve created to send exclusive rental leads your way. For every lead you end up winning and booking you get can get $1,000+ added to your income without those expenses entailed.

Clients have different needs, some may want a specific type of experience with the booth, some may want a different one. If you’re using a software that can answer every client’s needs and is not limited to one feature or the other – your potential to book the event is higher. Being able to answer “yes” to a client’s request can mean another $1,000 in your pocket.

Want to be able to offer new layouts and animations to enhance the user experience of your client’s guests? Want to be able to offer versatility for your repeat customers and not have to pay for every custom animation you source from a vendor or for every template? With Foto Master – you don’t have this concern. Your software includes over 400+ professional animations and over 325 templates and counting. Having a wide variety of designs to offer and choose from will save you from having to spend so much money on animations and templates.

Step 2: Marketing Plan

Once you’ve worked out your business plan and are happy and excited about the numbers this new venture is expected to generate for you, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get started on your marketing plan.

This is a very exciting step because now you get to plan:

• Your new brand identity
• Your new website
• Paid marketing
• SEO
• Offline marketing

Let’s get into it.

New Brand:

It’s time to choose a name for your company. Start by thinking of a name that you will love to say and be proud of. Next, consult with friends and family to get a sense of how others feel about the name. Once you’re happy with the choices, you’ll want to check if the web domain is available for your business name. You can do a quick search on websites like lookup.icann.org. Finding a unique brand name will help your business stand out.

Next comes your brand identity. This is the visual personality of your business. Things like color theme, logo, fonts and any other design choice that your customers will see on your website, and other visual materials. Working with a skilled designer will go a long way with bringing your brand to life.

There are a number of websites where you can find an affordable freelance designer. Remember, you’ll want to add the cost of the designer to your expenses spreadsheet that we mentioned in episode 1.

Your New Website:

Now that you’ve formulated your new brand identity, it’s time to bring it to life. What better way to do that than creating a beautiful website dedicated to your new business? There is a selection of simplified development platforms like Squarespace or Wix that provide you with the necessary tools to set up a new website without previous knowledge.

If you’re feeling up to it, you can also create something a bit more advanced of course. If you have the tech skills and web development expertise, you can create a WordPress based website or even hire a professional web developer to build your website’s theme from scratch.

SEO Plan:

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Simply put: you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find you when they search for the services you provide. This is one of the most important things to factor in when building a website. You want the search engines to love your website and offer it at the top search results. We highly recommend contacting a professional service provider that can help you with SEO down the road, unless, of course, you have the knowledge it takes to do your own SEO.

Paid Marketing:

Now that you have a beautiful website set up, and you have your SEO down, you can concentrate on other ways to increase traffic to your website. There are many proven platforms, google ads for example, that you can use for paid marketing. Take into account before launching your paid campaign, that if your website is not properly constructed to convert online visitors into bookings, and that the services you offer are not accurately presented there – the cost per booking may increase based on these factors. Keep this in mind when planning your website.

If you feel comfortable with what you have, define your marketing budget on the platform or platforms you selected to launch your paid campaign on and constantly monitor its success to see if it’s worth increasing or reducing your budget at any given time.

Offline Marketing:

Every event you attend has the potential to generate you additional leads and bookings. When servicing an event, make sure that you come with this mindset. Always carry business cards with your contact information and be prepared to write down guests’ info to be able to contact them later for their future events. This is a HUGE marketing opportunity so don’t waste it.

With that in mind, since you are just starting out – don’t hesitate to book a few free events with your friends and family or even local charities. Use these events to meet potential prospects, get your name out there and film them for future use as unique marking materials for your own website.

What’s absolutely great about starting your new business with Foto Master is that Foto Master provides you with many professional photos and videos from real events, featuring your product, that can be used for your marketing needs, so you can begin the work on your website within 24 hours from making the investment.

Our next video will cover the value aspect of your proposed offer and help get a better understanding of pricing.

Step 3: Value Proposition

A value proposition tells prospects why they should do business with you, pointing out the benefits of choosing your services. In this video we will try to answer the question: What is the value you’re offering your potential customers that may sway them into choosing you for their events?

Not all leads coming your way have the same motivation or urgency. For some, having a photo booth at their event is a must. For others a photo booth is merely optional. Some will understand the value your offer brings with it and will be willing to pay more for better value propositions and some won’t recognize the difference.

Here comes the practical tip: list the services that you think your end clients will value and only then, when you understand everything that you have at your disposal, you can move forward with pricing and packages.

Here are some of the things that customers may value:

Price: setting the right price is key. If you price your services too low – it may send the message: “Low price low value”. Some prospects may run the other way, some may go for it but expect to get the same value they would if they paid more. On the other hand, setting a very high price may filter too many prospects, so keeping a good balance and setting a price that corresponds to the value you provide is the way to go.

Product Experience: If you have a great product on your hands, one that provides truly unique and exciting experiences – many customers will recognize the value in that and will be prepared to pay a higher price. Better product – more value.

Product Aesthetic: Just like everything else in life, the attractiveness of your product plays a great role. If your product is not only visually pleasing but also possesses the WOW factor, it can be a determining factor in the value your prospects will attach to it.

Personal Connection: Establishing a personal connection with your clients can go a long way. The manner of your communication over the phone, your approach, professionalism and charm can be the reason your client will choose your services. Leave them with the feeling that they are in great hands, and that you will provide them and their guests an outstanding service at the event. There’s nothing better than paying someone you feel positively about – someone you actually like. I, for instance, would definitely pay more to be serviced by someone I find pleasant to work with.

Peace of Mind: Many clients will be willing to pay more to have peace of mind, trusting their vendor to execute the event flawlessly. This element can be translated into things like:
How early you’re prepared to arrive before the event starts. If you only need 30 minutes to set up your photo booth but are still willing to commit to arriving 90 min prior to the event – just in case – you will make your customer feel at ease, and relieve him of unnecessary stress. Being willing to arrive earlier than others can also give you an advantage when you negotiate.
Another angle you can use to your advantage is your insurance volume. If you insured your product for up to $1,000,000 for example, mention it to the corporate clients or venues that consider it as a determining factor.
Peace of mind can also be achieved by pointing out that the software you’re using is the most stable, feature rich and versatile software out there. They are simply getting the best there is.
These are just 3 examples but there are plenty more ways to put your prospect’s mind at ease, making them feel comfortable with choosing you for their event.

Workflows, Features & Content: Having a software that provides high-end content, unique features and the flexibility that allows you to tailor the workflow to your customers needs comes with great advantages. This can be the difference between being able to say “Sure! we can do it for you, we can make it happen” Versus “Sorry… we can’t do it. We don’t have the capability to achieve what you’re asking”. Being able to offer such flexibility can be the reason you get the booking.

Branding and Customization: Add even more value by offering branding and customization options, starting from photo layouts in the software, choice of animations, games and workflows to the external booth wrap, roll ups and other add ons. If you’re able to come up with a generous list of customization options and branding ideas, you will have a better chance of providing more value than others.

Other Add-ons: Add-ons like fun props, special backdrops, scrapbooks, thumb drives holding all the photos taken using your photo booth, a background removal experience using green screen, an edited video of guests using the photo booth during the event (which you will be creating anyway for your marketing needs) are a great way to increase your value proposition.

Step 4: Sales Skills

When leads begin to stream in, the phone starts ringing and your new service is on demand. A new skill set that will help you increase your conversion rate from lead to a booking event is now required. In Episode 4 Eli will explore what it means to be a good salesman and what you need to know to be able to book more events.

Since you’re only just starting up, you are the very first sales manager of your newly founded business. You will be the one communicating with your clients, negotiating prices and managing their accounts with the goal of booking as many events as you can handle in mind.

When doing sales, your number one task is to understand your client’s needs and match them with the package that best fits them. Be advised that there can be a difference between what the client says he needs and what he actually needs, and your job as the experienced photo booth owner is to help uncover what it is that he is actually asking for by asking the right questions and pinpointing what he values and what he doesn’t.

These questions can also help you understand what is best to offer each client. An example of such a question is: Which venue did you choose for your wedding? The answer will give you an idea of what your prospect is willing to invest in. If their chosen location is expensive, it might reflect on your customer’s budget. This can navigate you towards offering them the more luxurious products and packages that you have.

Having the questions ready can help you close more deals and increase your conversion rate from potential leads to booked events.

In our previous episode we mentioned how important the communication with your prospects is as it will reflect the service that your customer will come to expect from you in his coming event. Focus on:

• Answering in a timely manner.
• Be polite and professional.
• Bring your special charm and charisma into the game.

Prepare yourself though. You will hear a lot of noes, but don’t let the noes shake you. You will not be able to get a yes without first sifting through the noes. Let’s take a 5% conversion rate as an example and break it down. 5% is quite a good conversion rate, yet it means that out of 100 prospects you will talk to, only 5 will eventually book with you. Being prepared for the noes doesn’t mean you shouldn’t always fight for the yesses. Do everything you can to improve your conversion rate.

In our next episode I will further discuss how to increase your conversion rate by using solid information systems.

Step 5: Organized System and Processes

Controlling the flow of information can help you increase your conversion rate from a lead to a booked event. Not only that, but it can also save you time and money. In Episode 5 Eli will explore the advantages of using information systems such as a CRM and a Lead Management System.

Good sales skills are imperative when it comes to converting potential leads into bookings, but they are not the only thing you should rely on. There are other valuable tools that can help you increase your overall conversion rates and you should consider adding to your arsenal.

Let’s break it down to what we actually need our selected system to be able to do for us:

• Follow up with leads and keep the conversation going.
• Help us book more events with less effort.
• Help us measure our results and get a better understanding of what it is we do that affects our conversion rate one way or another.

While there are many more utilities that can come in handy, these are the most important ones you’ll want to have at your disposal when starting a new photo booth business so this episode is dedicated to them.

So – what do you need?

CRM: A customer management system can help you track the status of the prospects you have in the pipeline and close more deals. What’s nice about the photo booth industry is that a single phone call can end up with a booked event on your calendar. Some events can even be automatically booked online. That’s why I am not about to recommend that you invest in an expensive CRM system that’s aimed at enterprise companies with long sales cycles like HubSpot or Salesforce, but an industry focused system such as Booth Book, Check Cherry or other similar systems that allow you to book directly from your website.

Being able to monitor and track your performance via your chosen system, will give you a good idea of where you stand in terms of marketing and conversion rates as well as help you analyze your results. For example, if a lead was lost – you can try and figure out why it happened and learn from it to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

Having said that, information systems are a great tool to consider when starting a photo booth business, but it’s not a must. Still, I would recommend investing in a good industry focused system as it can without a doubt help you improve your business.

Step 6: Pricing

We’ve reached the point where you need to determine how much you should charge for your services. To do that, we’ll have to start by going all the way to the end!

There IS a formula that can help you calculate your maximum income potential based on your value proposition. The only thing you need to do now is to find it! Obviously, it’s not an easy undertaking, but understanding what your final goal is – is a great starting point.

Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Let’s assume that Company A has a great, unique and highly demanded product. Let’s assume that they’re also offering added value; Their service is outstanding and they’re doing a great job advertising it. Their marketing strategy is aimed at a high budget clientele such as big wealthy corporations.

Company A priced its basic package at $5,000 per event, with the certainty in mind that what they offer is worth the price their customers pay. Company B is not as confident in its own value proposition – whether it’s because it doesn’t fully understand its own value or because it just doesn’t believe in its own services, so it’ll set a number that doesn’t necessarily adhere to its value proposition and driven solely by price. They will book ANY event that offers to pay them $500 a gig.

Let’s say that both companies generated 100K in revenue this year. How did they do it?

• Company A booked 20 events.
• Company B booked 200 events.

Who do you think will have the larger net profit? The company that did 20 events or the one that did 200?

Your instincts are correct. Company A, the company that only had the 20 events was the one who made the larger profit. How do you figure that?

Every event you go out to brings expenses along with it, whether it’s gas, labor, the cost per print, equipment maintenance and don’t forget the TIME you invest.

Marketing-wise – let’s have a look at the conversion rate. Let’s assume that the high price point that Company A set lowers their conversion rate to 2%, while company A has an outstanding 10% conversion rate due to its low price point. So – to book 20 events – Company A will need to generate 1000 leads a year, while Company B will need to generate 2000 leads to book 200 events.

So not only that Company B’s marketing budget needs to be higher to generate 2000 leads a year, but they’ll also spend large amounts of time and effort on the leads they’re getting: converting them and managing the actual events. All of that to end the year with less profit than company A.

This is exactly why the pricing episode comes right after the value proposition episode, because without it it’s impossible to understand where you should set your pricing when you’re starting your photo booth business.

Now before we continue on to the next episode let’s discuss 2 more important aspects of pricing: Creating different packages and whether or not you should put your pricing on your website.

Breaking your value proposition into different packages will help you make sure that no money is left on the table. What a waste it would be if a company with a high budget, willing to spend up to 10k on your services and absolutely loves what you have to offer will book you for only 2K because you failed to recognize the added value you could offer. We’re not saying that you should charge 10K for the same service, but that you create packages with add-ons that can help customers elevate their event to a whole new level while spending more money with you.

Last but not least: should you put your pricing on your website? This is not a yes or no question, it depends.

If you’re getting large amounts of leads and you want to be able to easily filter through the ones that aren’t relevant and focus on those that you can convert – putting the price on the website will help you. Advertising the price also creates a psychological effect of transparency and fairness. Having said that, if what you offer is difficult to explain, you feel that your value is not coming through and you’re not getting as many leads as you’d like – consider leaving the pricing out of the website and have prospects fill a “contact us for pricing” form instead.

Step 7: Photo Booths at Your Disposal

It’s not a bad idea to plan ahead and think about the long term while planning your photo booth business. Determine which booth to purchase first, which one to expand with and what will work best for your market. In this last episode of “How to Start Your Photo Booth Business” Eli will explore different booths from various booth families, such as Mirror Photo Booths, DSLR Photo Booths, iPad Photo Booths and special photo based products that will help you plan ahead.

Choosing the right photo booth to start your business with is important. It affects your business plan, value proposition and pricing. There are many different photo booths from different booth families to consider.

First we have the latest and greatest photo booths that are now in mainstream – Foto Master’s Mirror Photo Booth Family. These are great products that always get the WOW response from event guests. Customers who want to amaze their guests and provide a truly unique experience will book a mirror photo booth on the spot. The popular options in the family are:

• The Mirror Me Booth
• The Mirror X Booth
• The Mirror Air Booth

They can fit any event, you can wrap them to add branding and they are what we would recommend you start with. You can’t go wrong there.

If you value a smaller footprint mirror photo booth you will want to look at the Retro Mirror Booth or Beauty Mirror Booth that run the same software, they offer a similar experience and can be especially attractive to customers who are planning retro events or to venues with a tighter fit.

If you’re planning on targeting the top tier clients, consider the Tower Mirror Booth. The Tower Mirror Booth is the largest and most luxurious product in the family. You’ll need to make sure that you also have the staff to transport this beast 😉

If you want to start with something more traditional – the second go to product is a DSLR Photo Booth. Go for the smaller Retro Photo Booth or the Spire Photo Booth. They both use a professional camera and are much superior to the home used devices.

The next product family is the iPad Photo Booth family. The iPad photo booth is great and has the advantage of being small in size as well as easy to transport and set up. The iPad photo booth can be a great option to offer the lower budget clients. With the right software and attractive looking hardware like the Pylon iPad Booth, the iPad photo booth will give a professional high-end feel even if it’s priced a bit lower.

Last but not least are the unique photo based solutions like the Photo Mosaic Wall. The Photo Mosaic Wall is a phenomenal solution, offering an interactive experience like no other. The Air Graffiti Wall is another example of a unique photo based experience.

These solutions are exactly what many corporate customers are looking for. The originality of the experience and the range of possibilities you can offer with them can warrant charging 5 figures for an activation at corporate events.