Learn How To Increase Your Photo Booth Business By Attracting Bar Mitzvah Clients

May 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

UNDERSTANDING THE TRADITION

The Jewish community celebrates what is known as the Bar Mitzvah. In Hebrew “Bar” means boy and “Mitzvah” means commandment. This rite-of-passage into adulthood traces back thousands of years.

This new phase in life begins at age 13 for boys and 12 for girls. This milestone signifies adulthood and bestows all the rights and responsibilities expected by tradition. This custom is based upon sacred religious beliefs and the age selected for both sexes signifies the typical age that puberty begins.

Until children reach their Bar Mitzvah age, their parents are held responsible for their actions. Once the child goes through their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the parent is no longer held responsible for the child. This rite is important because the Jewish community requires strict adherence to all traditions and religious beliefs for adults.

UNDERSTANDING THE CELEBRATION

This enormously important event is celebrated with a feast and gifts. It includes all family members, friends and the entire community! In addition to the celebration, the boy or girl is required to make a speech and read from the Torah.

The boy or girl helps lead the event and has their Rabbi close by for support. The Rabbi honors the new adult with a certificate for this coming of age. According to scared belief, adults that strictly follow tradition will be rewarded for their efforts in the next life.

The Jewish people believe the average life span is 70 years. When a person reaches 83 they are considered to have fulfilled their adult responsibilities and obligations. They are then allowed to turn back the clock to the tender age of 13.

WINNING NEW CLIENTS

How do you win clients in the Jewish community for your photo booth business? Understand their traditions and values.

If you are not plugged-in to this you are losing out on the Bar Mitzvah market. These events often surpass the most lavish weddings!

Remember, theirs is a sacred tradition. Give them a way to capture their memories for a lifetime of remembrances with your photo booth. By offering a truly special experience, you will gain lifelong customers… and friends!

AAA Photo booth is here to help you understand all the possibilities of how to generate an income with one of our photo booth packages. The rest is up to you.

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How An Event Planner Can Help You Grow Your Photo Booth Business

May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Business to Business Networking

Finding an event planner to partner with can cut down on hours of phone calls in cold calling and hundreds of dollars in advertising. Your booth likely sells itself, making the resources to generate a positive income stream all you need. Having a dedicated event planner at your service is literally money in the bank.

What is event planning you ask? There are various types of event planners right in your own back yard. They coordinate large social gatherings such as weddings, concerts, ceremonies, sports competitions and business conventions. Usually they are responsible for overseeing the whole process of the event including parking, transportation, reservations, and catering services. Event planners also obtain all the local permits needed for the event.

Understand Business Connections

Catering, baking, and floral services are valuable sources of information. Why? They often work for or with event planners and can give you the right contact information rather quickly. Forging a referral partnership with them is not a bad idea either.

Making Positive Contact

When first contacting a potential partner, it’s best to try and identify the person who can approve the partnership and learn the way they prefer to be contacted. It is far more likely that you will find success if you understand their preferred mode of communication.

Try and forge a relationship with a busy event planner and stay loyal to them. Don’t go around town asking every even planner to sign up with you. Remain loyal to them and provide their customers with outstanding service. Creating one powerful alliance in the event planning industry can take you far.

Set Up A Light Business Meeting

First impressions are everything in today’s world and having a face to face meeting with your potential partner is key to securing a good partnership. Once you get the owner or decision maker on the phone, have your pitch ready and begin with talking about the benefits they will receive by partnering with you.

Keep it simple and ask for a meeting. Offering to buy them lunch often works wonders.
Example: “Hi, my name is John Smith, I live here in (your town) and I’m the owner of a photo booth business. Have you ever hired a photo booth for one of your events?…”

“Great. Well, I know I can offer your clients valuable keepsakes for their event and people always crowd around these booths, so I was wondering if you had time to meet with me over lunch to discuss becoming referral partners. We can take a look at what your clients need and see if we are a good match. Lunch is on me, so what time works for you?”

Let them decide where the meeting is and when. Be ready and have a place in mind, in case they prefer you choose. A casual restaurant or a coffee shop is a great meeting place. It is a good idea to make sure you know most spots in the area too. If you are in a big city or go at a busy time, you may have to wait in line for others to finish eating and you don’t want this to happen if you can avoid it.

Offer them a cut rate if they hire you exclusively. This will strengthen the value of your proposal and build brand loyalty. Remember to stay loyal to them too. If you are asking them to only use you, they should be able to expect you to do the same.

 

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Use Custom Art to Set your Photo Booth Business Apart

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Opportunity

You can set yourself apart using custom art in your photo booth. This makes your photo booth more fun and the more importantly, COOL. Choices that are cool are very important when children, teenagers and young adults are involved. This will engage more people and provide a better experience and can be done by adding props or artwork in your photo booth filmstrips. Let’s talk about how to add some art to yours!

 

Props

Everyone loves being silly and having a good time! When you make the experience more enjoyable, you’re making the person who rented the booth look like a star! This is very important for repeat customers.

People love funny props to wear in their photos. A large colored bucket or table within arm’s reach full of props is essential. 

 

Favorite Props

1 – Big silly hats and sunglasses.

2 – Blow up toys like guitars and animals.

3 – Hair bands and crowns.

4 – One piece costumes and wedding props.

 

Here are a couple great sites that sell props for your photo booth.

  • http://www.etsy.com Has a great selection and starter packages.
  • http://ohhappyday.com Has some great free printable props you can make yourself.

 

Film Art

This is where you can offer the customer all kinds of fun things to do. Film art is the background in the film strip. You can have everything from the Wild West to ocean scenes, star wars, pirates and much more. Technology today makes it possible for near endless film art.

 

Surf YouTube for Prop Ideas

Go to YouTube and watch some videos on photo booth art. YouTube is a valuable source of information on how to use props for your photo booth.

Just go to www.youtube.com to get started. Once you are there, type in “photo booth props” and scroll through may videos of useful information and ideas for photo booth art.

Remember, by adding props for your customers and art to the film strip, you will set your photo booth business apart. The more unique and entertaining your photo booth is the more success and revenue you will enjoy!

 

We Are Always Here For You

AAA PhotoBooth is here to help you with your photo booth rental business. We work hard to bring you current information and recommendations that add value for you and your customer.

Not all products and services are free, but we do our best to always offer you superior quality. 

Filed Under: marketing your booth, Tips & Tricks

How Same Sex Marriage Laws Effect Your Photo Booth Business

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

THE OPPORTUNITY

Same sex marriage laws are becoming more common these days as activists for equal rights are making greater progress. Politicians are saying the number of universal marriage laws are going to surpass the more numerous women’s pro-choice health laws.

It wasn’t until 2004 that same sex couples could get married anywhere in the United States. Today same sex marriage laws exist in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and our nation’s capital is likely next with the state of Maryland.

 

MOVEMENT ORIGIN

The state of California started the movement, but opponents have fought the marriage equality laws through the ballot. However, over the last few years more than 18,000 marriages took place before Proposition 8 temporarily halted same sex marriages again.

In the United States, 29 states have passed laws approved by voters to prematurely block these laws from ever becoming part of their state’s constitution. Many people still believe in the concepts of marriage as one woman and one man.

 

NEW CUSTOMERS

So what can this do for you? If you live in one of these states and own a photo booth rental business or are thinking of getting into the photo booth industry, this group of untapped customers can jumpstart your business with a new niche to cater to.

Remember, there are some people in the photo booth business that will overlook the opportunity or feel uncomfortable renting a booth out to a same sex couple getting married. This is where unbiased business owners have a have a huge advantage!

 

NETWORKING

Get the word out about your photo booth business amongst the gay and lesbian community. News travels fast in a close knit community and your photo booth business will be appreciated.

One way to do this is to research local gay rights activists and introduce yourself. Be the first to offer them your services because some people in this world still judge.

Get in contact with the leaders of these organizations. This is the first step in getting your services known. Once you establish your business in the same sex community, chances are your services will be more needed than you think.

A wedding is still a wedding, no matter the sexual orientation of the people getting married.
Event planners are also an excellent resource of information on how to get your photo booth introduced into the gay community.

 

SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY!

Marriage equality is on the rise because people want the American dream. The numbers of same sex marriages are a staggering business opportunity with great rewards when you get your business out in front of others that are not taking advantage of this lucrative niche.

YOU will be the one they remember and recommended to others to capture the memories of their most cherished day. The important thing to remember is to not discriminate. All married couples need your photo booths!

AAA Photobooth is always looking for information that is relevant to your success. We search for new ideas to give to our customers. That’s what separates us from the rest in our line of work. We do this free of charge!

 

 

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PAID AND FREE ADVERTISING FOR YOUR PHOTO BOOTH BUSINESS

April 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

 

NEWSPAPERS

Newspapers and different forms of advertising can help your photo booth business in many ways. By getting your photo booth in front of people that have upcoming events, you’re giving them ideas that they may not have of thought of before.

Advertising your business, especially when you’re first starting, out is very important. You need to let people know you exist. The cost of advertising in newspapers can be quite small if you look at the big picture. There are ways to advertise in newspapers for free, in their online publications, or you can place paid ads. There are still plenty of people who still read the printed paper, making it a viable advertising space.

This article is going to talk about some different ideas about paid advertisements and free advertising online. The need for photo booth rentals is bigger than you might think. From weddings to special events, people love to sit in photo booths and capture the moment on film strips they can take home. The little bit you invest in paid advertisements can pay for itself and build a customer base when done correctly. The people you meet while renting out your booth can be customers in the future and are your best way to get word-of-mouth advertising. So let’s take a look at some different types of advertising for your photo booth business.

 

PAID ADVERTISING

Newspapers are great for running block ads in the business section. Depending on the publisher some ads can run for 1 week, 2 weeks, or a month. Most often, running an ad for 2 weeks is typical. Prices can be quite reasonable and sometimes a payment schedule is accepted. If you run an ad for two weeks and it costs you $80, it’s well worth it if you get just 2 clients from it. Along with the branding you will receive for your business it can be worth it!

 

FLYERS

Flyers can end up on restaurant tables, giving people something to look at while waiting for their meal, and with the right permission, can be cheaper than a newspaper ad. Find an owner that can see the benefit in cross promotion and you’ve got it made. Make sure you remember to put your contact information on the flyer. You would be surprised how many people make great ads, only to forget the contact info.

 

BROCHURES

Hotels often carry brochures near the tourist information and local restaurants advertised. It would be best to find a bigger hotel that is known for hosting banquets and events. You could spark quite an interest by placing an ad with those types of businesses.

 

FREE ADVERTISING

You can advertise in many places online for free if you know where to look. Look for online forums that allow free advertising by doing a Google search for the topic that you’re targeting and post useful comments. Hundreds of pages should show up in the search results for forums dedicated to your town, city, state or topic.

Creating a blog works wonders and can propel you to expert status in your given field. It’s a lot of work though, so unless you like to write, don’t take on this task.

SWAP AND SELL GUIDES

Every town also has a swap buy and sell guide. Some will let you advertise for free in the printed version or on their online web site. Craigslist is another place you can advertise your business for free. US Free Ads www.usfreeads.com is a great site that offers free advertising for your business, but for $10 a month you can get a premium membership. This allows you to upload pictures of your photo booth, use the easy html editor, and make a link to click on. This can be well worth the $10 a month.

Hopefully these tips and ideas from AAA Photo Booth will help you see the potential for making money and getting your business started.

Filed Under: marketing your booth Tagged With: , ,

WHY CHARITY EVENTS AND PHOTO BOOTHS GO HAND IN HAND

April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Charity events provide excellent opportunities to get hired and get exposure for your photo booth. Like weddings, charity events are special occasions and having a photo booth can capture the moment while giving the event an area for people to gather and pass the time.

UNDERSTAND THE OPPORTUNITY

By thinking outside the box, you can expand your business and make your photo booth pay for itself over and over again. Why not take advantage of events that are happening in your own backyard?

Unsure of how to find these types of events? Most charity events offer some type of food for which they have hired a caterer. Call your local catering services and ask them what they have going on and ask if you might partner with them. Offer to promote them to your clients and they will do the same for you.

You can also look in your local newspapers and local message boards online for upcoming events. Once you have established a few contacts, they are more than likely to call you for future events.

YOUR PROMOTION

By having your photo booth at a charity event, you’re making your money work for you. You’re getting exposure for your business from the client, the caterer and the people attending. Every one of these factors is something to consider.

People will keep their photo strips mementos and remember how much fun they had in your booth. They will likely see their photos again and think “Hey, let’s call that guy who has the photo booth for our upcoming charity event!” For all you know, the photo booth was the highlight of the night. Leaving a lasting impression is as important as building your mailing list.

AND THE PROFITS WILL COME

Making money and memories are the ultimate goals of your business and a charity event exposes you to large numbers of guests. Every guest attending is potential new business. It’s a little like watching children leaving a grocery store. How often do you see parents urging their children to follow them, after their attention has been caught by a big gumball machine or any number of red capped toy dispensaries? By having your photo booth at a charity event, you’re turning grown adults into kids again, even if it is just for a few moments.

Who doesn’t like to have fun and act silly? Why not put an adult-size gumball machine in plain view? Your machine will attract attention and form a line full of excited big kids spending their time around your booth waiting for the prize to come out!

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Charity events offer a chance to make connections, earning you repeat business and new clients that will call you in the future. It’s crucial to have a way for these future clients to contact you, so printing your information on the back of the photo strips is a great way to go. Adding your name and business name, along with a phone number and website, is a near-guaranteed way for them not to lose your information.

Business cards inside the booth, arranged in a card holder, work well for some people. Having a sign outside the booth on a stand is also a good idea. Try and think outside the box and remember that making the event special and fun is what counts.

Filed Under: marketing your booth Tagged With: , ,

Top 5 software products to help run your photo booth business

April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

There’s a lot of small business software available for purchase online and in retail stores. We’re going to take a look at the top 5 software programs that will help run your photo booth rental business with the least confusion possible. Having the right software not only makes your business run smoothly, it helps you get organized and maximize profits by tracking valuable data like your spending habits and most profitable months. By keeping accurate digital records, you can eliminate the daunting task of doing it all by hand.

1. QUICKBOOKS

QuickBooks is an accounting software system that makes your life not only easier, but eliminates common errors. If you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t know anything about accounting,” then QuickBooks is for you! QuickBooks is built for people with no experience in accounting. All you need to do to begin is enter your company information, sales and expenses.

Tax season? Who likes tax season, right? QuickBooks makes it so easy to keep all your records that when tax season arrives you can enjoy larger tax return because you have saved your accountant so much time. QuickBooks is the most sought-after small business program because of its ease of use. You can try it for 30 days before you buy, so there’s nothing to lose.
http://quickbooks.intuit.com

 

2. MICROSOFT OFFICE 365

Microsoft Office 365 is another industry giant who has been at the forefront for home and office software. Microsoft Office 365 joins all the best online communications and community resource tools together in one program. Not only is it user friendly, it’s quite efficient for social networking. This is great for the small business owner who wants to broaden their horizons with email support, instant messaging, video chat, documents and up-to-date calendars. Microsoft has always been a leading force for large corporations and small business owners alike. They too offer a free 30 day trial to get you started.
http://www.microsoft.com

 

3. PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING

Peachtree Accounting offers four different programs depending on what best suits your needs. All 4 packages come with standard accounting tools and business management tools. Starting off with the Peachtree Pro for a small business owner would be the appropriate package for the photo booth rental business. Peachtree offers an assessment that will tell you what package will work for you. Peachtree comes with a 60 day money back guarantee.
http://www.peachtree.com

 

4. SAP

SAP business software is not just for the industry giants any more. With packages designed to work with small and medium sized businesses, they have truly entered the long tail of the market. For employees, they have what they call “on-the-go-access” with a mobile app for your business. They boast an excellent service department with a toll free number and online customer live chat support system. SAP offers 3 different business plans that can get your business up and running in little as 3 days with the starter package. SAP can be also very flexible with payment plans.
http://www.sap.com

 

5. OPEN OFFICE

Open Office is the only free accounting and business software system to make it on this list. Open office is totally free to download and requires no license fees. If you’re used to another business software program already, then this should be a snap! Open Office can even read your files from another platform. To learn more and see if this is right for you please visit:
http://www.openoffice.org

AAA Photo Booth is here to help you make the best decisions for you and your business. Together with the right resources and information it’s our goal not only to provide you with a quality product and service, but to give you relevant information to point you toward success. If you find our blog articles helpful you will LOVE our newsletter. Sign up today. It’s free!

 

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Why Wedding Clients Prefer Video Capable Photo Booths

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For most people, weddings are the biggest days of their lives. Everyone wants it to be a special, memorable occasion and have as much as they can to remember it by. What better way to capture the big day than to record everyone’s heartfelt wishes on video?

 Choosing a photo booth with video capability, such as our AAAUltimate Booth, will allow a small business to market to weddings far more effectively. Here’s why:

 

A Perfect Environment

Photo booths at weddings allow the perfect environment for producing sincere videos showing how the guests feel about the big day: they have privacy and room to collect their thoughts, and the time limit will make sure that they condense everything down to the things they really came to say. Relatives can cheer, Dad can get a little misty, and friends can say things meant only for the ears of the bride and groom.

 

Much Better than Any Slideshow

After the event, you can offer to edit together a longer video made up of short clips of the guests’ videos. Start out with cheerful congratulations, sprinkle in the comic relief, and build up to the tearful and sincere words from those closest to the newlyweds… before you know it, you’ll have turned a bundle of disconnected clips into an award-winning dramatic experience! No slideshow could hope to have as powerful an impact.

After everything’s been put together, the newlyweds can keep the video collection private, or upload it to YouTube for the whole family to have easy access (see our article “How to Upload a Photo Booth Video to YouTube” for more information). Either way, it’ll be a wonderful thing for them to look back on any time they want to remember their big day and the friends and family who helped them reach it. With the ability to offer all of this at your disposal, you can count on having much happier customers—and you’re certain to see an increase in business.

 

 

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Filed Under: marketing your booth, Wedding photo booth ideas Tagged With: , ,

Why Everyone Should Rent a Photo Booth for Their Wedding

March 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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Weddings certainly aren’t everyday events, and everyone wants photos taken of their big day. While professional photographers can do a good job of taking a plenty of great photos, their photos sometimes lack intimacy—people act differently when there’s somebody on the other side of the camera.

 

When the photographed are the ones in charge of their own photos, they’ll feel a good deal less self-conscious. What better way to do this than with a photo booth? There are many other advantages offered by photo booths at weddings, such as…

 

A Chance to Relax

Weddings may be exciting, but nobody’s ever said they aren’t stressful! A photo booth gives everyone a chance to hide behind the curtains, where they can just goof off and laugh for a while. A photo booth can give the big day a relaxed, pleasant atmosphere and take the edge off all that family mingling.

 

Something for Everyone to Take Home

 Everyone’s here to see the new couple, and that expensive wedding dress may never see the light of day again, so it’s important to immortalize the big day! Copies candid strips of bride and groom photos make wonderful mementos that everyone will want. 

 While the focus is on the bride and groom, the wedding’s a big day for many friends and relatives as well, and everyone wants something to show for it. Photos and videos from a photo booth make a great souvenir, and allow everyone to show off how great they looked in that tux or dress.

 

Make a Photographic Guest Book

 Why not take this age-old tradition and spice it up with a modern touch? You can make a simple list of attendees come alive by adding photographs beside each name. See our post titled “Turn a Boring Wedding Guest Book into an Exciting Photo Guest Book” for more tips and ideas.

 

Stress-Free Added Fun

 Our photo booths are a quick set up, which means it’s completely stress-free for the people planning and running the wedding (and easy for the vendor running the booth). Once it’s set up, there’s nothing else to worry about—it runs itself, and people will have a blast getting their photos taken.

 Every wedding will feel more relaxed, more exciting, and more rewarding for everyone involved with the addition of a photo booth. It’s an easy sell for vendors and a worthwhile investment for customers.  

 

 

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Filed Under: marketing your booth, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Photo Booths and Trade Show Marketing

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’re wondering what you can you do, besides market to couples getting married and school dances, trade shows are a good place to start. Trade shows offer exceptionally good opportunities for those in photo booth businesses—you don’t need to be a part of the trade in question in order to make money here! With a little savvy and negotiation skill, you can start making money at any expo. Here’s how:

 

Contact a Vendor

 Look up vendors who will be attending the trade show in question. If you already have good relations with any of them, go to them first; if not, make a list of which ones you think most likely to benefit from your photo booths and start placing calls. Don’t just settle for emails—they’re easy to ignore.  Do send an email first but be certain to make a follow up call.

 

Designing a Good Sales Pitch

 You’ll need to practice a sales pitch before you contact anyone about the possibility of working together. Here are a few suggestions for how to convince them:

  •  Draws customers: With so many trade booths open for visitors to drift between, it’s easy for one company to be looked over and hard to gain more attention than others. However, with a photo booth next to their stall, people will come from all over to get their photos taken, assuring a greater level of exposure for your client. While the crowd waits for their turn and for their photo to print, they’ll turn to actually look at your client’s display to pass the time, making them worth infinitely more than people just passing by.  

 

  • Provides Excellent Advertising space: You can offer the sides of your booth as space for printed advertisements. Be sure to take measurements of the sides of the booth in case they want to develop print material to display.

 

  • Long-lasting brand exposure: Offer to use their logo as the backdrop for photos taken inside the photo booth. Anyone who uses it will take their pictures home to show to family and friends, then place it on their wall for all to see—and showing off your client’s logo for years to come.

 

  • Website advertising: By adding their website to the back of the photo paper itself, everyone would be taking home their website too! More clicks means more profits, after all.

 

AAA photo booths are an opportunity both for the entrepreneurs who own them and the companies that hire them, especially at events like trade shows. If you get the word out about what you’re offering and why a booth can be so valuable in these situations, wise vendors will jump on the chance to hire you.

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Filed Under: marketing your booth, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,
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