Spring Wedding Season Top 5 FAQ’s for Photo Booth Owners

April 17, 2013 by

spring wedding season by: Tim BouwerThe warm weather and chirping birds are proof that spring wedding season is upon us. As their special day approaches, your clients will want to confirm that your photo booth business will meet all their needs. Having a wedding in an unpredictable season like Spring can be stressful, but you can easily calm your clients’ fears by preparing confident answers for the questions they will ask. To help you out, we’ve compiled the top 5 most common questions so you can be ready with well-prepared answers.

 

  • How long have you been in business?   This question is the most common when considering any service, so even if you haven’t been an established photo booth business for very long it’s important to answer honestly. In the instance that you’ve only been in the business for a year or less, stay away from specifics. Use phrasing like “We are a fairly new business, but we’ve had excellent feedback and worked many different types of events!”. This is a great time to pull out your portfolio, thus leading us to the next question.

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    • Do you have references?   In short, you need references. Be prepared to have printed testimonials and examples of your work in a digital and printed portfolio to share with your potential clients. This will not only provide them with tangible proof of the product they’ll receive, but reinforce their decision to choose you based on the great feedback from your past customers.

     

    • What kind of equipment do you use?   For AAAPhotoBooth owners this question will be an easy one to answer with confidence. You can assure your clients that your photo booth business uses the most cutting edge software and equipment. There is no need to overwhelm them with details. Knowing the brand name and model of your equipment will be enough for most clients.

     

    • What will the booth look like:  This question is bride code for “Will it be an eyesore?”, so be ready to show the client pictures of the booth looking its best and most unobtrusive. Let your clients know the dimensions of the booth and what it requires to function (outlets, a sheltered area, etc.). If applicable let the client know you can be flexible with their theme, blending the photo booth into their decor or color scheme. For AAAPhotoBooth client’s that service mostly weddings, the booths now come in white!

     

    • How long does it take to set up? Can you set up early?  Weddings run on a tight time schedule. Making sure your clients know you can set up quickly and work with their timeline is key to maintaining their business. When the issue of time comes up, be sure to learn your client’s expectations so you will both be on the same page when the day of the event arrives.

     

    The key to keeping your photo booth business on top is preparation. If you can answer all of these questions professionally and back up your answers with visual proof then your client will feel confident they are working with the best in the business.

     

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

Building Pricing Packages to Grow Your Photo Booth Business

January 31, 2013 by

Grow Your Photo Booth Business - Photo Credit: Eric Dickman

 1. Set a baseline: Determine the shortest event timeline you’re willing to work, and offer it with a single set of photos for each session. Depending on the style of photo booth and the set up, the final product could be digital images available for download from your company’s website, or small, printed photos that are available immediately at the event. Set a minimum event time (2 hours is a good starting point), and bill a set amount Always include necessities, such as booth attendants or setup/take-down time.

Here’s a sample:

  • 2 hours of photos
  • Free photo strips for every customer
  • Photos will be available for download at our website after the event
  • 1 photo booth attendant
  • Setup and breakdown not included in 2 hours of service

 

2. Set a top tier: Roll out all the standard options for the most inclusive, most expensive package you plan to offer. Gear this package toward your target audience — if wedding receptions are the focus of your client base, then design this top package for a long wedding reception. Include every step of every applicable package you offer elsewhere, as well as final extras and a longer service time.

Here’s a sample:

  • 4 hours of photos
  • Free photo strips for every customer
  • Customized photo strips for the event
  • Customized photo album printed after the event
  • CD of all photos
  • Photos will be available for download after the event
  • 2 photo booth attendants
  • Setup and breakdown not included in 4 hours of service

 

3. Fill in with additional options: Variations in the length of the event, the final photo options offered, the number of attendants available, and additional services should occupy the middle pricing tier. Base the pricing for these tiers by the number of hours worked.

 

4. Keep specialty items a-la-carte: For event-specific requests — such as photo strips that match a wedding’s color scheme, a printed banner of the newlywed couple’s photo booth portraits, etc. — offer a menu of a la carte pricing options that can be added to any package. Many companies also offer the extra pieces of higher-end packages as individually priced options. This allows customers who opt for a shorter rental, but want the added items such as a photo CD, to get the package they’re looking for.

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

WordPress Plugins to Manage Event Bookings For Your Photo Booth Business

November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For those who use the WordPress CMS to maintain their online presence, there are dozens of plugins that offer the ability to schedule and manage  reservations. Sitting on Photo Credit: Joe Lanmanthe  left-hand dashboard at the back-end of your WordPress site, these plugins feature devices to help navigate a busy client load:

 Bookings: With this tool, website administrators have the ability to map out “resources,” typically in the form of rooms — for a photo booth owner, that might be a single booth, or a single operation — and make a public schedule listing those resources.

 Plus side: Additional features include the ability to block out unavailable dates or set time limits on reservations.

 Drawbacks: Most useful features reside on the back-end of the site; the pieces of the plugin clients will see have a somewhat austere look. The free version caps at a single schedule with 25 bookings each month; a licensing fee gives access to unlimited schedules and reservations.

 

Booking Calendar: Clients enter information into a fairly basic front-end calendar, while administrators have access to a number of scheduling tools on the back-end.

Plus side: A colorful interface, user-friendly actions panel and auto-filled reservations list are on the positive side for this reservations calendar keeper. Details about each reservation, including name and contact information for each client, fall into an easy-to-understand main listing, displayed after a few clicks through the WordPress dashboard.

Drawbacks: The interface clients see on the front of the website leaves a good bit to be desired from the photo booth perspective, and is mostly fixed to date, time, location and contact information. Specific packages or personalities will be difficult to convey.

 

BookingBug: Offering a broad spectrum of services and customization options, BookingBug is a reservations widget that can be plugged into a WordPress site, and shared, customized and optimized from there. The basics, the bare bones of the widget interface and the ability to take appointments, come free with the download. Snazzier features come with a monthly service fee.

Plus side: BookingBug is more business management tool than reservations tool. Depending on the package, it can take payments, be edited to fit a site’s themes and colors, and include separate reservations pages for each resource.

Drawbacks: Of the most popular WordPress bookings plugins, BookingBug is on the upper end of the pricing scale. Pricing kicks in after two weeks, and a BookingBug.com account is required.

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks, Website Tips, WordPress Plugin Reviews 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!

 

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , ,