The Jiffy Photo Booth

Guide to Making Money

Renting Photo Booths (Version 1.2 updated 11-29-2016)

By: Soren Coughlin-Glaser

Contact me directly at:

(503) 230-1181

info@JiffyPhotoBooth.com

Chapter 1: Introduction

Why Should You Start Renting Photo Booths?

(Spoiler: To make money!)

I can’t promise you are going to make Gazillions of dollars

your first year renting photo booths, but with a little work

marketing a photo booth rental business, and running it

like an actual business you can make a great living renting

photo booths either full or part time.

How much? I’ll get into the details throughout this e-book,

but I rent out booths for about $200 an hour and my costs

for supplies for that hour is, at the most, $7.50. Many

times an hour costs less than $3. If I have 100 events a

year at an average of 4 hours per event I can bring in

$80,000. With 2-4 booths and a good marketing plan you

can bring in more than that. Your Gross income from

renting photo booths depends on how well you market in

your area, how much your local clients are willing to spend

and how many events you can book.

Of course, running a business or any sort has overhead

costs and advertising costs, but the photo booth rental

business can be run part time and from your home or

garage, and with our Jiffy Photo Booth portable photo

booth kits, doesn’t require any special storage or transport

because it fits in a car and can be set up by a single person.

I am writing this free e-book to give you some in depth

information about the photo booth rental business and

our Jiffy Photo Booth photo booth kits, but you can apply

the knowledge in this book to any photo booth you might

purchase. Throughout this e-book you’ll learn about my

personal experiences renting booths to make money and

give you some basic tools to start off your photo booth

rental business on the right foot.

Who am I?

I’m Soren, owner of Jiffy Photo Booth (sales) and Portland

Photo Booth (rentals). Back in 1996 I was a wedding and

event photographer in Portland Oregon. At the time there

was no event photo booth rental market. Photo booths

weighed 900 lbs and couldn’t be delivered to most events.

I had to make my own booth and I began renting my

portable photo booths in 2006 as an add-on to my existing

wedding packages. I created my own market and now

photo booths are standard services at weddings and

ebvents.

I want to share my passion for photo booths with you.

With my knowledge of starting a photo booth rental

company I can teach you the essentials so that you can

have a successful rental business too. If you have any

questions about my photo booth ideas, philosophies or my

photo booth kits feel free to call me to discuss personally

at: 503-515-2880 (pacific time zone) or email me at:

info@jiffyphotobooth.com

I sell a complete turnkey photo booth system that you can

use to start or upgrade your own photo booth rental

business, but this E-book should provide useful

information for anyone in the industry no matter which

booth you purchase. (See more at:

www.jiffyphotobooth.com )

Read on, and you will see how renting photo booths to

weddings, events and parties is a fun and lucrative small

business that can be part time or full time, and allow you

to be your own boss.

What is a photo booth?

Photo Booths are a popular rental item at weddings,

Ba/Bar Mitzvahs, company parties and business events.

This e-book will guide you through the process of

purchasing and developing a money making rental

business that you can treat as part time or full time, and

run from your home.

For this e-book a photo booth is an automatic kiosk type

structure that people go into and push a button. The

Booth then automatically takes a certain number of shots

and automatically prints the images either in a strip or a

custom layout. These booths can have a curtain or be

open air against a scene or background. This e-book does

not discuss the photographer shooting groups and printing

them type “photo booth.”

How I Started

My business model for renting photo booths to events

evolved from my 18 years in the event industry. Back

when I started as an event photographer there simply was

no photo booth rental industry. A few companies existed

that had a truck and a trailer and rented out 1000 lb.

photo booths, but it was a tiny niche business that most

people hadn’t ever heard of. The old booths had to be

filled with chemicals and maintained with parts that were

only available from foreign suppliers.

I looked at purchasing an old chemical booth but soon

began researching how to build my own with the new

digital cameras that were becoming popular. I spent way

more time and money on the project than I would have

had I just purchased a traditional booth, but what I ended

up with was a product and a business model for renting

portable photo booths that you can adopt and make

money copying.

I didn’t invent the photo booth rental business model but I

believe I created a unique variation of it utilizing my event

industry knowledge and my novel portable photo booth

system. (see: www.portlandphotobooth.com and

www.JiffyPhotoBooth.com )

The Business Model (Free is the key word)

The basic idea behind making money renting photo booths

to events is that the event or party host pays a flat fee or

hourly charge for you to deliver and run a photo booth at

the event venue. Guests in the photo booth go in for

“free” and receive a photo booth strip for “free.” Free is in

quotes because while the guests go in for free, the host is

paying you.

When talking with a perspective photo booth renter, use

the word “FREE” with them. “The guests go in for FREE,

and get a two FREE photo booth strips.” The props are

provided for FREE.” Everyone loves a FREE photo booth!”

A similar word is “GIFT” which I like to use to emphasize

that there is a product I am offering the client which is a

GIFT to their guests. “Your wedding guests get the GIFT of

a photo strip compliments of you.”

Additionally our photo booths save a copy of the digital

images which are either placed on line for all the guests to

view and or given to the party hosts on a CD or flash drive

after the event. The more of this you can do for FREE for

the client the more they will like your services. Of course

you bundle all the services in your quote for the client.

Another use for the saved images is to project the images

from the booth onto a screen at the event. This can add

quite a buzz to the photo booth at an event. You can even

display ads for your photo booth company mixed into the

slideshow. When I do this, I play a slideshow of the actual

images taken in pretty fast order, no more than 2 seconds

a photo. Strips don’t fit on a screen very well.

Alternatively, you can create a custom grid of 2 on top two

on the bottom photo strips that can be projected. I

suggest to any photo booth owners out there that the

program Hot Folder Prints from Breezesys

(www.breezesys.com) be used to create an easy slide

show of the images and create custom layouts. You don’t

even need to use Breeze’s photo booth program to be able

to use Hot Folder Prints. There will be more about specific

photo booth programs in a later section.

A quick note about software: Photo booths require

software and computers. Most of the computers are

Windows based. And while you may be a computer expert

you will need to learn how to be pretty good at things like

managing print queues, installing and managing drivers

and firmware, installing and learning programs, and file

management. But you shouldn’t be afraid, because one of

my main goals at Jiffy Photo Booth is to make sure that my

customers who purchase booths from us know everything

they need to know, no matter how little back ground they

have with cameras or computers. The more you know and

are comfortable with the software and equipment the

easier it is to run a photo booth rental business, and I help

you get there.

Why Free Works

Free really is the key word here and what makes this

business so successful. Go to any mall with a pay photo

booth in it and watch it for a while…. Wait around and see

how many people go in and spend $5 for their photos. I

bet you’ll come away from the pay photo booth thinking

“how can that make money?” at $5 a pop for photos

almost no one will do it. Everyone loves a photo booth,

but paying for the pleasure just isn’t worth it most of the

time. Now, go to a wedding or event where the pre-paid

“Free” photo booth is and you’ll see hundreds of people

using and enjoying the booth. People have so much fun in

a photo booth when it is free, that a party host will pay

you hundreds of dollars for bringing the booth to their

partyevent. This business model has brought event photo

booths into the mainstream. In fact, in most areas of the

country having a photo booth at a wedding is now a

tradition much like hiring a DJ, or florist.

Coming from the photography world makes me

uncomfortable with the thought, but I have even brought

my photo booth to weddings that didn’t hire a

professional photographer. While a photo booth is not a

good replacement for a professional photographer at a

wedding, it does sometimes replace one at small events or

company parties that may have hired an event

photographer in the past.

Because I have a background in photography, I also make

myself available, for a small upcharge, to roam around an

event take candid photos of the guests. This is a great way

to make a little more from a photo booth rental event, and

adds quite a bit of value to your services. It can also be a

great way to learn about event photography while you

grow and expand your event business. The basic

equipment needed for this is only a camera – a decent

event lens like a 24-70mm, and an on camera flash. Just

send the clients a disc of images after the event, usually at

the same time as you send the photo booth images.

Unlimited Prints

When you advertise your services another key word (I

think this is #3 word after “Free and Gift”) is UNLIMITED.

You offer unlimited prints to your clients, but with prints

costing only $0.15 per pop and people taking over a

minute in the booth you are really limited to less than

$9/hour in print liability.

Why Photo Booths are Popular (and not going away

any time soon)

Photo booth rentals at parties are getting more popular all

the time. I know because I see increased demand for my

services (see www.portlandphotobooth.com) every year

even though my competition gets bigger every year.

I feel like the number of photo booths in a region or city

can equal to or greater than the number of photographers

in that area.

And I see a benefit to having competition. The best thing

to happen to rental photo booths in my area has been all

the competition from other rental companies. When I

started out there was no market for photo booth rentals in

Portland because no one knew they existed, now people

are looking for me instead of me going out to find the

business. The more photo booths get used and seen, the

more people will think about including that service for

their own events in the future.

What You Need To Get Started

Bare minimum you need a photo booth kit and some

paper/ink for the printer. You can get started with a

simple kit from Jiffy Photo Booth for under $4000 and

upgrade the booth later if you find you love it, but you will

probably find that our Standard or even Deluxe models $5-

$6K will make enough money to pay for itself quickly

enough.

Our booths are meant to be portable, which means a

single person can transport and set up and run a booth

with just a normal car. This allows a photo booth operator

to not have employees which can cut your operating costs

significantly.

It also gives you the opportunity to have more than one

booth and be able to train employees easily. Your pool of

employees is huge, since the operator doesn’t have to be

big, or strong, or own a special vehicle. Once you expand

into multiple photo booths your opportunity to make

money also expands.

In my experience selling photo booths to entrepreneurs, it

is not uncommon for my client to book several paying

events before the booth ships to them (2-3 weeks)

To be a successful business you’ll have to treat your new

company like a real business. This means contacting the

Secretary of State’s office for your sate and registering

your business name and finding out whether your state

requires you to collect State and local sales taxes. Once

you have an official business name in your state/city you

are ready for your virtual store front (web page).

There aren’t many photo booth rental companies that I

know of that have a retail space. Most are run from

homes of individuals except for rental shops that are part

of another local business such as a photography studio or

event rental business. So that is great news because there

is no need to rent space. If you have a closet or garage

you have enough space to store one of our portable photo

booths.

Then you need a website….

THE INTERNET IS YOUR STORE FRONT

You do, however, need a web site. Your website will be

your store front. It doesn’t need to be a fancy website,

but it will become your most important form of advertising

for your company. No matter what advertising you do,

even word of mouth, and handing out business cards

personally, your clients will go to your web page before

booking an event.

If you start out with no money left for hiring someone to

make you a web site at least you can register a domain

name for your self online at GoDaddy.com and reserve

your name on the internet. Then for less than $10 a

month you can throw up a starter page with a photo and

contact info for your new rental business, and put money

into the site as you grow.

It takes Google months to find new sites and get you into

its search engine. And if there is a lot of competition in

your area it can take longer to get on the first page of

search results. In my own rental business I still get over

50% of my new business from people Googling for a photo

booth rental company in my area. (I talk about Google like

it is the only search engine… and I think it really is. Don’t

ignore Google, it is works)

Since Google and the internet are so important to my

business, I would urge you to take your website seriously,

and if you don’t know much about it, there are many

business out there, including ours, who can create and

manage a web page for you. Of all your expenses after

purchasing a photo booth, your web page is the most

important to your success.

Since every company has a web site, you can use this

knowledge to check up on your competition. Google

“photo booth rentals (your city)” and see who pops up.

How many are there? What are they charging? How

attractive are their web sites? Knowing what your

competition is up to is an important piece of your

business. You don’t want to start out charging $300/hour

when the competition is charging $200 and, visa versa, you

don’t want to be charging $100/hour when you could be

getting $200.

We offer a $750 web page package with our photo booths

that gets you a web page with very little effort. See my

own site at www.portlandphotobooth.com for an

example. Or go to Craig’s list and see who in your area can

do it for you, or a local community college may have

students that are dying to build their resumes for very

little cost.

But whatever you do, you must realize that your web site

is your biggest source of advertising and the face of your

company. Skimp on your web site and you are throwing

away the money a good web site would bring in. Design a

great web site that Google will love will pay off more than

any other investment in your company.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The next step is SEO. After you have a domain name and a

website, SEO (search engine Optimization) is what will

make your site the top ranked Google site. If you want

you can search for SEO on the internet and learn how to

do it yourself. If you created your website yourself you

may be able to handle SEO yourself. But, it takes time and

effort and hiring out can save lots of mistakes. For about

$200 a month for 6-9 months a good local SEO company

can do wonders for your web site. I recommend hiring

someone for this and do it at the start to give Google the

best impression of your new business. Talk to friends and

family to see if they have recommendations of good

companies.

If you feel like you have a good understanding of web

pages and some basic social media and marketing skills

you can get ahead of your competition by using a CRM

(client relationship marketing) platform. I use

www.hubspot.com It takes some work but that hard work

pays off with great rankings on Google which leads to

more business.

GET YOUR SITE SOCIAL

Creating a Blog on your website, and linking to a few social

media accounts can go a long way in marketing your web

site. I suggest you open a Facebook for business account,

a Google+ account, a Google Adwords account, A YouTube

account, and a Google places account. If you open these

accounts (which are free) and link them to your web site,

and make 1-4 blog posts a month, your web site will get

noticed quickly.

GOOGLE ADWORDS

Google lists web pages on its search engine in the order in

which it thinks will help the user the most. Try searching

photo booth rentals (YOUR AREA HERE) and see what pops

up. The first 2-3 listings below the Ads are what Google

thinks are the best results, and where you want to

eventually be. But you may also notice that the very top

of google and the right side are photo booth rental ads.

Google allows you to have an ad on the first page even if

you have a 5 minute old web site. This is great news

because you can get your web page noticed by searchers

before Google lists you on its main pages.

Another great thing about Google Adwords is that you pay

only as much as you want. And you pay only if someone

actually clicks on your ad. The cost of Adwords varies by

how much competition you have locally, clicking on your

ad can cost you from 25 cents to over a dollar each time,

but you can set limits to make sure you never go over

budget. I suggest you try it at the start when your page is

new to get some benefit out of Google before it finds and

ranks your site. Start with something small if you like $10

a week or something like that, and of course like any other

web related thing, there are experts out there to help you

do this for a fee.

Google+ FACEBOOK and TWITTER (social)

The next step after Google is naturally Facebook. Start a

facebook page, its free! Take a picture with your phone at

every booth event you do and post it to your Facebook

page. Google likes web pages that have links to social

media, so you have to do this. Twitter can also be a great

place to post pictures and comments. Do this every week

and your clients will notice.

Recently I had a client call me and say that he liked my

website and my Facebook page, and that’s why he hired

me. He just blurted it out, and that’s what people do,

even after looking at a website they will go to a

businesses’ Facebook page to help them feel like the

business is legitimate.

Google+ accounts are important because google uses

content from Google+ pages directly in people’s searches.

If you post your Blog articles to google+ they may show up

right on google for people to be able to connect with you.

Get Your Booth Guests Your Contact Info!

Every person in your booth is a potential future client. But

how can they find you after the event? At my events after

a guest comes out of the booth, they can see their images

on an iPad right outside. They can see their image even

before the print comes out. And they have the option of

texting the photos to their phones, or emailing the photos

to themselves. This is so popular with users in the booth

that I can’t recommend it enough. It also gets you

involved with the guests and allows them to have an easy

way to contact you after an event because they have your

phone number and or email address in their phones

instantly when they receive their images. When they have

an event, they can find your contact info right on their

phones.

The key to making your booth work with sending images is

to get the people out of the booth to do it. You can’t

expect them to do it on the screen of the booth after they

get their pictures taken, it just takes too long and keeps

other guests from going into the booth, Since guests in the

booth are potential future clients of yours, you want as

many people to go through your booth as possible at every

event.

EVERY EVENT IS A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

(Why you stay with your photo booth at every

event and why it is so inexpensive to run a photo

booth)

I used to bring my photo booths to weddings that I was

shooting as a photographer. I would tell my brides about

the photo booth service and add on $500 or so to my

wedding package and they would always say “Wow, what

a neat idea, I’ve never heard of that.” In today’s market

almost every bride has heard of renting a photo booth for

weddings. It’s not just the brides that didn’t know that the

service existed it was the guests too. By seeing the booth

at a wedding, guests couldn’t believe that such a cool

photo booth was available to rent, and guests at weddings

became my next customers. I was focused on weddings

because that is the event industry I knew the best, what I

didn’t realize for a while was that every guest at a

wedding, 100-200 people, was actually a potential future

customer!

Even today, in Portland, I get guests in the booth that

haven’t heard about having a portable photo booth at a

wedding. And Portland has a ton of photo booth rental

companies. That’s how I know there is so much room to

grow in this industry. A photo booth company with one

booth in a metro area of a million people could average 40

weddings in a year. Add to that company parties, and

small personal parties and school events and you have a

thriving money making business.

But how do you get the business that’s out there? To take

advantage you need to connect, however briefly, with

each guest that goes through your photo booth. You can

do that because a photo booth rental business is a hands-

on business. You or your employee stays with the photo

booth. (This is part of the business model) The photo

booth attendant’s job is to do several things.

The most important thing is to get as many people through

the booth as possible during the time you are there. This

may seem counter intuitive at this point, you may be

thinking “I’ve already been paid, why would I want to

spend more money on prints, I should make fewer people

go in the booth,” but this is dead wrong. More people

through the booth means more people will be exposed to

your business, and more people will be having fun which

means more people will think hiring you is a great idea.

The secret truth in the photo booth rental industry is that

the photo booth strips cost you almost nothing. That’s the

truth, you can charge hundreds maybe even over a

thousand dollars and you may spend only $20 on the strips

themselves. Photo booths have a huge profit margin. With

modern professional dye sublimation printers such as my

favorite, The DNP RX-1, the photo booth produces 2 sets

of 4 images on 2x6 photo strips for less than 15 cents.

15 cents is all you pay for a photo booth strip that you can

put your company name on. It’s a business card that

won’t be thrown out, and in fact will end up on a bulletin

board or a refrigerator for years to come. The 15 cents per

double strip is the key figure, and why you want as many

people to go through your photo booth as possible.

Potential photo booth purchasers sometimes ask me

about getting a booth that doesn’t print, but instead sends

the images to the internet. This idea could work in certain

situations, but with the reality that prints only cost 15

cents each, why not do prints. For $20-$30 an event,

every guest at the event can have a “FREE” take away GIFT

with your name on it, or with your clients advertising info

(commercial clients love to have their logo at the bottom

of the strips)

So, why can photo booth operators charge $200 an hour

for $7/h cost? It seems too good to be true. There are a

few other costs you have to examine to estimate how

much money you will net for an event. Consumables like

paper and ink we have talked about already, but then

there is advertising, props, insurance, business liscences,

travel, employee cost if someone is running the booth for

you, and wear and tear on the equipment. For me, I

estimate this cost at about $125 per booth. This figure

may be a little high but I like to be safe. I get this figure by

adding up the cost of the booth, advertising, web page,

license and insurance for 6 years averaging 100 events a

year at an average of $550 gross per event. So, there are

costs, but also pretty hefty profits. Even 100 events a year

is less than 2 days of work per week.

The other reason you can charge so much for photo booth

services is that it is a real skill. A photo booth operator

must be able to juggle the technical aspects of running a

booth as well as the personal skills needed to interact with

100-200 strangers at every event. When I sell a booth to a

client, I feel like I need to help them not only with the

technical aspects of the booth itself, but also to share the

knowledge of the business and social aspects of the booth

business as well. I have been there, done that and am still

doing it. I am here to share this with all of you to make

your photo booth business as easy to start as possible.

Other Business Models (Pay Per Photo Booth)

The majority of available photo booth rentals out there are

for 2-4 hours and my model is to just charge a flat fee for

that service. You get paid up front, sometimes 1-2 weeks

before the event, and usually you can collect a deposit of

up to 50% at the time of booking. But, there are occasions

where selling the booth one photo at a time can make

sense. I tend to avoid this type of work, but others have

made it work for them. Most event photo booths do not

have bill collectors or credit card machines, but with an

attendant outside the booth who needs that. Better to

have a person interact with a guest at an event than a

machine. An example of a pay per use event would be a

fair where you can rent a booth and set up shop offering a

keep sake of the event. People may pay $5-$10 per shot.

And 10 groups per hour would be $50-$100 and hour,

which may be worth it to you for the exposure and profit.

Sometimes the events you do may be for charity or a non-

profit organization looking to raise funds. In this case, you

may donate or discount your rental fee, and also collect

money from guests, that goes directly to the organization.

In an auction situation I sometimes reduce my rate by 50%

and donate all money collected to offset the cost of the

booth. In these cases the money collected may not cover

the organizations cost to hire me, but it offsets it and

creates the fun atmosphere that makes coming to charity

events feel worth it to the guests. In my own business I

would say that the majority of fund raisers I attend do not

even collect a fee, but instead use the booth solely for

entertainment for their guests.

Of course when doing these events I offer to put the

organizations logo on the strips, essentially turning it into

a promotional piece or business card that the guests are

very unlikely to throw out, but will instead put on their

walls or refrigerators proudly.

This is a good place to transition into the next section –

LOGOS- and how branding the strips is a major reason for

the photo booth industries success.

MORE ON MARKETING

How to BLOG

I mentioned that you need a Blog section of your website.

It is a great way to keep your site updated with content. It

can be very similar to what you post to your Facebook

page, and Google loves constantly updated sites. So get a

blog on your site, Wordpress is a good way to start, but

any easily updateable blog section of your page is a must.

Post images from events, clients you work for, stories

about photo booth events, or tips for enjoying the photo

booth. Use your blog and facebook posts to make yourself

the local photo booth expert.

We offer a wordpess web page design service that can get

you blogging and listed on google as soon as possible. But

the beauty of wordpress is that with a little time and web

research most people can do it themselves and even if we

design the page initially for you, you will be able to

maintain and update it yourself in no time.

SIGN UP FOR FREE LISTINGS FOR EVENT PROFESSIONALS

Part of your early internet marketing strategy should be to

sign up with 2-5 internet resource lists. This is often free

and can help establish your web site presence across the

internet. When clients search for event help in their area,

many of the google listings are internet directories. One

such example is www.wedj.com and there are many

others that vary by region in their popularity. Signing up

for free listings can help your initial web rankings. So, it’s

free, and you should do it. Look up photo booths and

wedding services in your area in Google, and see what

directories might pop up in Google and sign up with those

first.

The Photo Booth Renaissance

Throughout the 20th century photo booths were a fixture

in train stations, malls, and soda shops. And as anyone

who lived through the 20th century can tell you, photo

booths popularity had decreased considerably in the latter

half of the century. So, why the recent explosion in

popularity?

1. Digital Technology

The first reason is that digital cameras and digital printers

are now capable of true photo quality results. Digital

cameras and printers can also talk to computers. A few

software developers realized that they could get all these

technologies to talk together and recreate the old

chemical photo booth with modern digital equipment.

These technological breakthroughs could essentially turn

your already purchased equipment into a photo booth! If

you are curious to check it out, go to my web site and

download our photo booth software

http://info.jiffyphotobooth.com/free-canon-dslr-photo-booth-software

and give it a try. All you need is a Windows computer, a

Canon DSLR, and any windows printer. With these pieces

of equipment you can create a simple photo booth just for

testing purposes and see if the photo booth excitement

might just sweep over you. Our software is simple but it

works really well for basic professional photo booth use. If

you need more advanced features such as video, green

screen, or custom layouts then I suggest DSLR Remote Pro

for Windows. http://www.breezesys.com Our software is

free to try, and Breeze is only $300 and is free for 14 days.

Anyone who purchases a Jiffy Photo Booth kit gets my

personalized instruction on how to use the software.

Where our own software is simple, the more feature rich

software, like Breeze, can really benefit by a personal

tutorial from me. Software that is feature rich can appear

complex at first, but if you take your time and learn the

basics first doing events with simple traditional strips then

move on to advanced features later as you feel more

comfortable, you will find that it’s not very difficult at all.

2. Portable Structures

Digital technology was the spark that started the fire, but

it took more than that. Imagine going to a wedding and

seeing a computer, wires, a printer, a background, a

photographer, a camera on a tripod…. It’s a mess not

fitting a fine event and not conducive to having fun. It

took a few portable photo booth pioneers to create the

portable structures that could house and create the photo

booth equipment in photo booth form and somehow do it

in a way that is easy to transport to an event.

In my own rental business I have 4 photo booths. I had to

come up with a booth system that allowed me to store my

booths at my home studio, or else I would have my profits

eaten up by rental space. I also needed the booths to be

portable enough to fit into my car, and any car that an

employee would have. (Our booth fits in a Honda Civic)

The booth had to be light enough that I could hire workers

of any adult size (100lbs to 250lbs) otherwise I would only

be able to hire burly guys with trucks, or have to provide

trucks and trailers myself which would be another huge

expense. Finally the booth not only had to be able to fit in

any car, and set up by any adult person, but it had to be

able to get into all of the event spaces that I knew were

having all the events.

I was once contracted out by another photo booth rental

company to do an event because they simply couldn’t get

their booth into the venue they had booked. Meanwhile, I

was able to book events in private homes, on balconies,

even on roof tops with no elevator service. My Jiffy Photo

Booth design can go anywhere a person can go, inside or

even outside. If it rains I can just use a pop up tent.

One service I advertise on my web site is that I can run my

booth on battery power in venues that don’t have power!

All this takes is a portable battery power pack available at

Home Depot. These power packs contain a deep cycle

lead acid battery – similar to a car battery – and an

inverter that provides 120V just like a standard home

outlet. A battery pack costs about $200 and can be used

over and over, and can power a booth for about 6 hours.

You could set up your Jiffy Photo Booth anywhere!

3. Logos and Strip Customization

Another key factor in photo booths popularity is the

explosion of digital images on social media and peoples

cell phones. Everyone loves photos and everyone likes to

share them, yet in my opinion people are missing the old

tactile feel of holding a print in their hands, and being able

to use a magnet to hold prints to the fridge.

Photo Booths help fill that gap, they give people instant

prints, they get to take them home, they perceive of it as a

free gift, and also photo booths are easily set up to deliver

digital images to the party host and even email and text

message images from the booth to the guests so they can

Facebook and Instagram them and get their digital fix as

well.

And, that brings me to logos and strip customization.

Modern photo booths such as our Jiffy Photo Booth have

an ability the traditional old school booths never had,

which is the ability to put a logo or at least text on every

photo booth strip which personalizes the strips to the

event. Not only is this enticing for a bride and groom

looking to personalize the strip to their wedding, but it is

critical to the popularity of photo booths used by

corporate clients you will have to promote their brand and

products.

My clients for my rental business include huge

corporations like McDonalds, Nike, Microsoft, Adidas,

Copala Wines, Toyota, and Honda. I also am hired by local

businesses and organizations like Public Schools,

Universities, Hospitals, Restaurants, and Real Estate

Groups. Aside from Businesses the other 50% of my rental

business is filled with Weddings, Birthday Parties,

Company Employee Parties, Dances and Holiday Events.

Almost 100% of the events I am hired to do love the idea

of strip customization that we can do for them. Not only

are you selling your clients a fun interactive entertainment

experience, you are giving their guests and clients the gift

of photos with their brand on it.

Props

There is no doubt that having a box of props at an event

can make the experience much more entertaining for your

guests in the booth. You can charge more for bringing

props to an event, or just bundle it in with your services. I

feel that props make people feel so happy that I should

just bundle it in and bring them to almost every event.

My favorite props are:

Mustaches and Lips and Glasses on a Stick.

(These are great because they are easy to use, funny, reusable, and won’t mess up any

one’s hair. Wooden or felt are best. Paper gets destroyed after one event. My daughter

cuts them out for me and I hot glue them onto bamboo sticks meant to skewer food

that I get at the grocery store. I get the STIFFENED FELT at a craft store, you can order

plastic templates at OrientalTrading.com, or go to ETSY.com and order the whole thing

done for you.)

Plastic Viking Hats.

(Come on, who doesn’t like a Viking hat. See: Orientaltrading,com)

Over Sized and Novelty Glasses

(Neon, Elvis, Harry Potter, Cat Eye….. See: Orientaltrading,com)

Feather Boas

(Red, Pink, White, Black. Be carefull, they make a mess!….. See: Orientaltrading,com) I

prefer fluffy magic scarfs that I buy on amazon.com

Top Hats and Vintage Hats

(Mens and Womens hats black and red, and fedoras (plastic diff colors) See:

Orientaltrading,com)

Tiaras

(Plastic ones break but they cost 50 cents, I have a few plastic and a few nicer metal

ones)

Pirate hats, swords, and eye patches

(Aaaaaaarg!!! Nuff Said!)

Angel head Piece and Devil Horns

(everyone feels like a Devil in the photo booth)

Boxing gloves are a recent fun addition to my prop box,

and it’s amazing what a rubber chicken can do to entice

someone to go into the booth.

Just don’t go overboard. Expensive props have a way of

making their way to the dance floor and then

disappearing. Experiment and try different things, and get

a few different Holiday props as you book events for

different holidays, but my basic kit above seems to keep

people happy all year long. Wigs are cool but tend to get

trashed and people worry less about cooties with plastic

props.

Guest Books for Weddings

A very popular add on for weddings is a guest book. Most

photo booth prints out come in twos. This means that one

print can go to the guests and the other strip can go into a

guest book. Guest books make a lot of sense for weddings

and important personal events where the guest of honor

knows everyone at the party.

All you need is a scrap book, glue/tape and some pens. I

personally prefer 12 x 12 simple albums with sleeves that

accept the 12x12 pages. I lay out the 12 x 12 pages on a

table so that more than one person can access the guest

book at the same time. When a page is done with 1-4

strips I take it and slide it into the book. These type books

have removable/addable pages so they always look

finished and you can’t run out of room. The plastic sleeves

also catch any strips that come loose over the years so

they won’t get lost.

The 12x12 pages can be black if you use glitter or gel pens,

and any pen works on white pages. You could also make

custom prints with a white space for people to sign the

prints themselves with sharpies.

EMPLOYEES (One booth or two)

A single person can set up, transport and run my Fortune

Photo Booth system. You can make $200+ per hour

renting the booths out. But when you start renting booths

out, you realize that most events happen on Saturday

night. Once you book an event on Saturday July 16th, all

the other calls you get for the 16th have to be turned

down.

Back before I started selling photo booths I had several

Summer weekend nights with 7 events at the same time. I

have since reduced my number of photo booths to 4, as

more of my time is taken up with designing and selling the

Jiffy Photo Booth kits. For me having multiple booths (at

least 2) is a must for a rental company whose main goal is

making money.

One booth is fine for a part time run from home business.

A booth may be able to bring in 40-50K a year, but the

step from 1 booth to 2 is a business changing event. With

two photo booths you can book a small wedding on a

Saturday for a discount and still not worry about the big

full price wedding that you might miss if you book the

small event. You can even do non-profit organization

discounts and school events for less knowing you have a

full price booth back up.

I advertise right on my main page that I do non-profit

organization discounts, And I get several calls a week

about doing non-profit events. Best yet, most of the non-

profit events I do (about 40% discount) are on weekdays.

I think of weekday events as bonus money. You know you

are going to book the big Saturdays in June, but a

Wednesday in February for a local school is a bonus!

The big decision you have to make about going to multiple

booths isn’t whether it will pay off, I believe it will, but if

you want the extra work of managing employees.

It is work managing employees because you have to train

them and teach them how to handle the booth at events.

You want to be confident that they will represent your

business in a professional manner, almost like you were

there yourself. Can you let go of the control of your

business enough to make that happen? If the answer is

yes, then you are ready to take your rental business to the

next level, and ready to bring in more money.

Because our Jiffy Photo Booth kits are so portable and

modular, your employees don’t have to have special cars.

They don’t have to be big burly men either. I have

designed my photo booth kit to be easy to teach

employees how to use, and how to set up. I send newer

employees to events earlier of course, and I make sure my

cell phone is on for tech support, but after 1-2 events on

their own I can usually trust a person to run and manage a

photo booth with no problems.

Open Air Vs. Sit Down Photo Booths

There are two main types of portable photo booths, those

that have the guests sit down behind a curtain and those

that have the guests stand with no curtain or a back drop

(open air). Each has its benefits, but in my opinion the

seated curtain type booths offer better quality photos,

easier operation, and are easier to rent than the open air

style.

Our Jiffy Photo Booth kits come in both flavors. The sit-

down booth can actually be used as both an open air

booth and a sit down booth so you can offer both to your

clients. The open-air style booth is a bit quicker to put

together but can only be used open air style shooting with

a backdrop.

Open air is attractive because the booth is open and the

guests can see what people are doing in their photos. At

the right type of event the open air booths can cause quite

a buzz, but sometimes some people won’t go into the

booth because they don’t want people to watch. This can

be quite serious at a party where most people don’t know

each other or a lot of people are more reserved. A second

caution is that people are at a much different height

differential when standing. Imagine a parent and child

both standing in a photo. The shot has to be much wider

to get both faces in a photo. Sitting is a great equalizer of

heights and putting a child on a lap basically evens out

adult/kid differences. A third consideration with open air

is the lighting. Having an open area can cause all sorts of

strange lighting issues. With a sit down curtain booth the

lighting can be made to be very consistent, with an open

air booth you do need to learn how to use the photo

strobe that is in the kit.

The biggest benefits of an open air style booth are the

publicity, the large number of people you can get in a shot,

and how little room it takes up and that it is really easy

and quick to put together. But I believe after using our

booth as both an open air system and a sit down booth

you will see the advantages of having both types of booths

in your company.

BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL PHOTO BOOTH

There are all sorts of different things that a photo booth

can do. Video recording is one of the most popular.

Guests go into a booth at a wedding, for example, and

leave a message for the bride and groom. Usually if you

have a flexible photo booth kit, like we sell at Jiffy Photo

Booth, then all you need to do is change or upgrade your

software to create new functions of your photo booth.

While there are a lot of options, keep in mind that just

renting out a photo booth that takes 4 shots and pints out

a strip of photos is still by far the most popular and

established rental markets. It is fun to offer all the bells

and whistles, but make sure it’s worth it to you financially

to add all the effects and options, and make sure it doesn’t

detract from your main money making option which is

usually the traditional photo booth rental.

Green Screen

Having a green sheet behind the subjects in the booth

allows that color to be dropped out and replaced by a

photo / background. You can make the guests appear to

be in the mountains, or in Paris… all you need is photo

booth software that handles the task (such as Breeze and

Darkroom software) and the background photo of your

choice.

Green screen capability is almost never perfect but it can

be a great gimmick for the right event, and offering it can

make your business look high tech and multifunctional.

The downside to green screen is that in a traditional photo

booth strip the pictures are small and having a distracting

background can make the images less interesting. It

doesn’t seem like a good fit for a wedding, but could be

great for a commercial product advertisement, or a way of

advertising for a business or location.

Video

Adding video to your photo booth is pretty easy. You most

likely need a DSLR camera such as a Canon T2i or T3i or T4i

camera These cameras take stunning photos and videos,

and most importantly, they have the ability to hook up to

an external microphone. Because the camera is inside the

booth, the cameras built in mic will get too much booth

and external noise to hear what people have to say.

Video is a useful option to offer to commercial clients who

wants to record, employee, or customer comments for use

on line or in promo videos.

Wedding video guest books are another great offering you

can have in your rental business.

SLOW-MO VIDEO BOOTH

Google it if you haven’t hear about it. There are some

great videos of slow-mo wedding video booths. The jury is

still out on this trend. While it is really funny to see

someone get slapped in slow motion, the guest don’t get

much out of it like they do in a photo booth, and some

people just don’t want to go through the act of dancing,

slapping or throwing props in front of a camera. The slow

motion photo booth also almost requires you to be a wiz

at video editing which is another draw-back. Still, with

software and a specialty slow motion camera this can be

an interesting option. I think it makes much more sense to

do an open air style photo booth with slow-mo video to

give more room for movement in the shot.

Animated Gifs

Most software these days offer animated Gifs as an

option. This is where 4-8 shots are put together into a

simple stop motion animation movie that can be emailed

to the client for them to show off on social media.

Flip Books

Flip books are a series of shots like an animated Gif, but a

little more like 25 -20 shots taken in rapid sequence.

These still shots are then printed out on cards and stapled

together. The resulting flip book can be physically flipped

through to create a fun motion book for the guests.

Equipment Notes

Cameras

There are three main types of photo booth cameras. One

type is an older Canon Powershot point and shoot camera

Such as the Canon S5 IS and S3 IS. These Powershot

cameras work well in a modern photo booth and

autofocus quickly. Unfortunately these powershots are no

longer made. Canon no longer makes point ant shoot

cameras that work in photo booths. You can find these

cameras used on Amazon and Ebay. These cameras have a

flash which is critical for good exposures in a photo booth.

Canon does still make DSLR cameras such as the Rebels- t5

and t5i which work well in photo booths. The image

quality of the DSLR’s are excellent but they don’t

autofocus quickly enough for moving subjects in the photo

booth. You can use DSLR’s in Manual focus mode and

then they work fine. Most rental photo booths today use

these cameras. Some Canon DSLR’s can also do video, but

an audio jack to hook up an external microphone is

essential. Jiffy Photo Booths use Canon DSLR’s in most of

our kits, although we do custom kits with different

cameras if they better suit your needs.

Some Nikon DSLR cameras also work in photo booths, but

are a bit more expensive than the Canon’s. You have to

check the software you choose to see which cameras are

supported.

The last type of camera that works in a photo booth are

web cameras. Web cams are not very expensive and they

can usually auto focus well, but their major drawback is

their lack of a flash. They are also lower resolution and

have lower color accuracy, but they get better every year

and are very inexpensive. Built in web cams in tablets

have the disadvantage that they cannot be aimed at the

subjects easily because they are attached to the screen.

Printers

There are two main printers used in photo booths today,

Inkjets and Dye Sublimation photo printers. Professional

toll type Dye Sub printers are my choice for a good photo

booth

Dye Sub printers are about twice the size of a large toaster

and can weigh 30-50 lbs. They work by heating a multi

colored ribbon which transfers the color from the ribbon

to special paper. Dye Subs main benefits include cheap

running costs, durable performance and fast operation. A

typical Dye sub holds 200-700 prints at a time on a roll of

paper and a roll of ribbon which means you aren’t

constantly changing paper. You change the ink and paper

at the same time every time so you aren’t bothered with

multiple ink changes like in an inkjet printer. A Dye Sub

printer costs around $800 up front but in my experience

they last 6+ years of heavy use. They are repairable and

some come with great warranties that allow them to be

replaced quickly if you have a problem. These warranties

are very important for a busy rental company that relies

on the printer to make money.

Although the up front cost of a Dye Sub printer is high the

speed-reliability and cheap prints make up for it. A busy

photo booth may have 100 events a year. With 100 events

and an average of 100 prints per event that’s 10,000 prints

a year. Over 6 years that is 60,000 prints. At $0.15 per

print it comes to $9000 in paper and ink over a 6 year

period. Add $1000 for the printer and you are at $10,000

in printer and prints. An ink jet printer such as the Epson

Picturemate costs $175, and $39 per 150 prints. Each

Picturemate will only last about 100 events before it has a

problem. That’s $0.26 per print (and I am being kind to

the Picturemate, they almost never get the full 150 prints.)

over 60,000 prints that’s $1050 in printer costs, and

$15,600 in paper and ink. So you can see how the Dye Sub

printers higher cost is more than made up for by the

consumable costs down the road.

An ink jet needs attention every 20 shots or so because

they cannot hold more than 20 pieces of paper at a time.

Over 6 years that would be 3000 times you have to fiddle

with the printer during your events, and that doesn’t

include print head cleanings and ink changes which can be

embarrassing to you with your clients waiting in line. On

the other hand the dye sub only has to be changed 86

times over the 6 years and many of those times you will be

loading paper at home before the event, and there will be

0 times during an event that you will have to fiddle with

the printer.

Dye sub prints come out at photographic quality and are

laminated so they are instantly dry and water proof. Most

printers have the print to your client in less than 20

seconds, which is often faster than they can get out of the

booth. This always amazes the guests when they see how

high quality and fast your booth is. The prints are water

and smudge-proof.

Inkjets are a super cheap way to start out. I myself used

inkjets when I first started my business, and they do work.

Print times are about 1 minute, which is barely fast

enough to keep up. Ink jets print two strips on a 4x6

which you then have to cut to make two strips. Dye Subs

cut the strips automatically. You can cut the paper of an

inkjet into strips first, but then you’d have to print twice to

get two copies, and the printers seem to be more reliable

in handling 4x6 paper rather than thin strips.

If you are serious about making money and running a

smooth operating photo booth then there isn’t much

choice – Go for the roll type Dye Sub printer. I suggest the

DNP RX-1 which holds 700 prints at a time and has a less

than $0.15 print cost. But if you are just starting out and

don’t mind being more hands on with your printer, you

can get a great feel for the photo booth business with an

ink jet and upgrade later once you are making money. I

recommend the Epson Picturemate portable printers for

this.

Every once in a while I get a client who wants a booth, but

really feels like the Dye Subs are too heavy. In that case an

inkjet can be a real back saver. The Picturemate printer

weigh almost nothing compared to a dye sub. And the

Picturemate’s paper and ink can be purchased at most

Office Depots whereas the Dye Sub supplies are only

available online.

You may have also heard of mini dye sub printers, such as

the Canon Selphys. These printers produce water proof

images and are about as fast as inkjets. They may be good

emergency backup printers but I have avoided them

because they drop the prints onto the paper tray which is

an awkward presentation for your clients.

COMPUTERS

When it comes to computers I hate to say it but PC’s are

the choice for photo booths, not Apple. I love my iPhone

and my iPad, but PC’s running your booth are more

affordable and compatible with the current hardware you

need in your photo booth.

I am a big fan of using tablets in my booths as the main

computer and screen. This is because tablets are light,

have plenty of computing power and eliminate the need

for a button and a separate touch screen which are just

more pieces of equipment that can fail. There are

computer/tablets now that range from 8 inches to 22

inches and work really well in a photo booth. My favorite

size for a portable and light set up is around 13 inches.

People in the booth never feel 13 is too small and it travels

easily. I also use 10 inch tablets often and never get

complaints from my clients about the monitor. The only

reason you would need a larger monitor is if people will be

standing far from the camera, and that makes lighting a

big challenge. In a normal situation 10-13 inches is big

enough.

Some photo booth operators have options in the booth for

emailing and Facebooking the images inside the booth,

that is another reason for a big screen. This to me is a

horrible idea. You have to get the people out of the booth

quickly, so more people can go in. Imagine a group of 3-8

people trying to enter Facebook login info inside the booth

on a touch screen while other people want to go in. That

is why our Jiffy Photo Booth iPad Station outside the booth

solution is perfect for getting people out of the booth and

still offering them the social sharing opportunities that you

can use to further connect with your clients and book

more events.

Non-Internet Marketing (I Love Bridal Shows!)

Besides your webpage and Google/Facebook advertising

there are several proven ways to advertise your new

photo booth rental business. But, please do the web site

first!

My own marketing plan includes going to 1-3 local Bridal

Fairs in my area each year. I estimate that the big bridal

show in my city gets me at least 30 events every year. One

of the cool things about the bridal show bookings is that

almost half of them aren’t even weddings. I am always

amazed at how many people going to the show aren’t

even getting married. You also have the Moms and

Bridesmaids and friends that go with a bride and groom,

who all have jobs and lives and go to parties and events.

At the Bridal Show I am marketing to everyone!

My job at the show is to get as many people into my booth

and get as many prints (with my logo:

www.portlandphotobooth.com at the bottom) into their

hands. I use a 10x10 space and one booth, although you

could do 2 booths if you are ambitious. I always have a

helper with me during the events to keep handing our

business post cards out, and guiding people through the

booth process. People seem to like to be told what to do.

Even if directions are written inside the booth, a little

personal instruction helps them enjoy the booth even

more and creates an opportunity to interact with your

future clients.

I designed my Jiffy Photo Booth Kit for weddings, Of

course it works at any type of event, but I specifically

designed it to work at weddings. This gives my booth

system some key advantages over my competition.

First, my photo booths are meant to accommodate 1-10

people in the shots. Brides love this because they can

picture their whole bridal party in the photo booth. In

reality 10 people will try to get in the booth less than 2

times per wedding, but the possibility of it happening gets

the brides to book you.

Second, my photo booths can go anywhere, inside or out

and be run on battery power if needed. It’s amazing the

number of times every year that I do a wedding in a field,

or in a balcony only accessible by stairs. My booth can be

carried and set up anywhere.

Third, my booth blends in at any wedding. My booth does

not look like an arcade machine, it is simple and black and

that goes with any event. I put decals on the booth that

say PHOTO BOOTH, and everyone knows what it is, even

from across the room.

Our booth panels can also be customized with printing to

make it look however you want. We can also make you a

custom LED sign so the booth is lit up in dark locations.

You are not limited to simple elegant and black, you can go

crazy and print it purple or rainbow colored. I have done

single events for big companies like McDonalds where I

printed the booth to look like a Hamburger on all sides.

Having this customizable option is a fantastic thing to

advertise on your site and has booked me events even if

the client ended up using the booth as is, just having the

option of customizing it to their brand go them interested.

If a company does want it customized, you can make more

money on the event by charging several hundred dollars

extra for the printing.

There is a super important, and often wasted, opportunity

that occurs at 90% of all weddings. Most booth operators

ignore this opportunity because it requires a little effort on

your part, but I urge you to take advantage. This

opportunity is with the event venue that the wedding is

being held at. And event venues do much more than

weddings.

You must develop a simple business relationship with

every venue that you ever wish to work in again. Every

venue has a banquet or event coordinator and almost

every event space gets booked before the client will start

thinking about booking a photo booth. What if you could

get the Venue’s event coordinator to refer your photo

booth as an option for every event they service.

So, what you do is introduce yourself when you get there,

and make sure the coordinator is happy with your booth

placement in their facility, and then if the coordinator

looks like they are friendly and have a minute I try to get

them to test out the booth. Then they have a photo booth

strip to hang on their office wall. Get all the event

employees to go in the booth. Then the really sneaky part

that I like to do is to send the digital files to the email

address of the coordinator a few days after the event.

If you really want more business at a venue, meet with the

coordinator during the week, and offer them a deal where

their clients get a better rate at that venue. And then you

have to keep up the venue relationship a little bit each

event or at least once a year to keep you at the top of their

recommended photo booth list. Coordinators also seem

to burn out often, and employee turnover is high which

means you have to start over with the venue every time

this happens.

Insurance and Licenses

Every business needs a business license and they are easy

to get. Usually a simple form and a yearly fee under $100

is all you need. Check with the web site of the Secretary of

State for the state that you live in for detailed info.

Liability and equipment insurance are also important.

Check with your home owners insurance first and see if

they can help with covering the equipment in-case it is

stolen or damaged.

Liability insurance doesn’t sound important at first, but it

can actually save you money even if you never use it. It is

a growing trend that Hotels and venues demand that all

vendors have liability insurance. If they don’t they require

you to purchase it through them. I have found that if I

have to do this twice a year it saves me money to have my

own policy. In general, 1 million in liability is enough,

although I have found some venues that require 2.

Conclusion

I have discussed the basics of starting a photo booth

business, and I hope I haven’t bored you out of it. It is

important to think about insurance and technical

considerations, but once you have your booth the fun

really starts.

If you are really thinking about making money renting

photo booths, then start buy telling a few friends that you

are thinking about it. Ask them if they know of any events

coming up that could use a booth. Before you know it you

will have a few leads and you may have to purchase a

booth sooner than you thought.

I for one, am thankful that photo booths have been so fun

and profitable for me. I enjoy talking about the booths

and the business with new and old clients. Feel free to call

or text or email me with any questions.

Remember, Everyone Loves a Photo Booth!

Soren

www.jiffyphotobooth.com

503-230-1181

info@jiffyphotobooth.com