Been in the photo booth industry for nearly 10 years and generate $400k annually (set to do over half a mil by 2024) in the wedding and events space. I don’t feel like I am the expert by any means in business or entrepreneurship, but I’ve built a couple successful companies on a small scale, and have an MBA, so maybe I can contribute to your success. AMA!
Could someone with a 9 to 5 do this and make solid money at it? Like right now - 3:30 in the afternoon on Monday… What are you doing?
Yes and no. Well for starters, I’m just responding to these messages. And answering the occasional email in-between. I have an active event in Vegas that was just setup that will be operating all week long and I won’t ever see the equipment or client in person. $7500 invoice.
If I were you and you truly wanted to get into this business as a side hustle, i would buy a selfie station type booth (ipad only, mobibooth is a great option), sign up for Snappic’s pro plan, learn the equipment and start knocking on doors. Approach churches, local restaurants, businesses, bars, hospitals, etc. and offer to showcase your services (focus on brandable aspects, analytics, etc. all stuff you can learn with public resources and in-app). If you get someone who bites, you can very ‘easily’ turn that into a $1k/month service (on the cheap end), with an optional install cost. It would be an equipment lease. Buy a second booth and rinse/repeat. Now you don’t need a bunch of staff, not need to burn your weekends out (except for growing the biz), and you can generate consistent cash flow. As you do it more charge more per month for new clients.