When To Add A 2nd Photo Booth To Your Business
“Am I ready for a second booth?”
This is one of the greatest and most important questions for young photo booth businesses and the answer is going to be different for every person/business but here are some steps to help you know if you are ready or how to GET ready to buy another photo booth.
Most people think that having the business coming in and turning down dates is the first step to determine if you should have a second photo booth. I disagree. The first is creating the systems and plans to be ready for a second photo booth on paper before ACTUALLY being ready for a second photo booth. Run your business as if you have 2 or more photo booths even if you only have one.
1) Have a system for EVERYTHING. Even if you don’t plan on adding a second photo booth for a year or more – start now. Put a system in place for everything that you do from load in, setup, policies for how to deal with clients, software steps, take down, uploading photos, EVERYTHING. The more detailed and documented – the easier you can train someone else to replicate your results.
2) Create a wait-list. When we started to fill up our calendar we would tell our clients ‘Unfortunately all of our photo booths are booked that day already – would you like me to put you on a complimentary wait list? There is no obligation obviously – but sometimes things happen – events get cancelled or we add another booth so if you would like I can put you on our wait list.’
Once I had a wait list of about 12 different dates that were at least 8 weeks out then I would buy another photo booth. The photo booth took me 4-5 weeks to receive and I could easily find, hire and train staff in that time.
3) Train your staff! Our business has a full training video on every step of the process and it’s saved us hundreds of hours of main hours in training and also helps us to have cohesion amongst all of our staff – even when we are training remotely. We have them setup the photo booth at home (where there is zero pressure) a time or two prior to coming to events just to help them familiarize themselves with the gear. This is also great for refreshers and a reference tool just in case staff forget how to do something. Make sure that they can run events solo several times prior to scaling to a 2nd photo booth.
4) Start simple. I would suggest having the same photo booth with the exact same EVERYTHING. Creating a consistent product and having simple training means having the exact same equipment for everyone – every time. Once you have proven training methods and a system in place then you can look at expanding to different systems/booths etc.
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5) Keep pricing high. Adding a second photo booth right away is going to be hard and you want to maintain your margins as much as you can. It’s not until you are running several units where you can start to look at volume pricing and a volume model IF that’s the move you want to make. Don’t immediately discount your product just because you added a second photo booth.
You are going to want to make as much as you can per event starting off to deal with the added headaches and growing pains of your second photo booth.
6) Have backups of everything. You should already have this for your first photo booth – but having it for a 2nd photo booth is equally as critical. Never go to an event without backup equipment.
Bottom line is that adding a second (and third, and 10th) photo booth is a hard and scary task and shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s more than just ‘CAN I?’. It’s ‘SHOULD I?’
Regardless of IF you decide it’s the right move for right now – I’d suggest putting a lot of these tips in place to help your business run more smoothly/efficiently and consistently.
Best of luck on continuing to grow and improve your photo booth business! #happyboothing
Article Originally Written by Chris Meyer of the Slow Motion Booth
