This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, greetings. What's up, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is episode 426 of Side Hustle School. If you have been to a wedding recently or perhaps another event, you may have seen a photo booth.
Photo booths are everywhere these days and chances are that booth was provided by an outside vendor who brings the equipment and then staffs the event, either printing out the photos on site, posting them digitally afterwards or sometimes both. But how does the business behind the booth work? Well, today's story is about a couple who start a photo booth hustle to create memories and cash. And as regular listeners know, I often encourage you to spend as little money as possible when you're first starting your side hustle. But what if there's a situation where you do need to spend money to get started?
Like you need to acquire some expensive equipment perhaps, but naturally you wanna make sure your money is not wasted. Well, in this story, you'll hear how the photo booth team handled that issue. They went from idea to income and they had to invest a substantial amount in startup costs, but before doing so, they did enough research to feel confident. Last but not least, we'll look at the main way they get their business, which is a lot different from what most other photo booth providers do. This photography story is nothing to snap at.
I'll bring it to you in just a moment. [Music]
Today's story comes from Chris Pulidolo from the Hudson Valley outside New York City. By day, Chris is an investigator for the state government as well as an assistant pastor. His side hustle is Paramount Photo Booths, a rental company he runs with his wife. They got the idea after attending a wedding with a photo booth and being unimpressed with the quality of both the booth and the photos.
They thought there might be an opportunity to provide something better. But they also wanted to make sure they weren't just diving head first into a business they knew nothing about. So before dropping thousands of dollars on equipment, Chris spent a few months researching. He saw that there was another photo booth rental company in his city, which was a good thing, not a bad thing. It showed him that there was demand in the area.
He already knew that couples in New York City are often willing to spend a lot of money on weddings and that photo booths are increasingly a staple at those weddings. He noticed as well that the Hudson Valley of New York was becoming an increasingly popular area to get married. Couples from New York City would often come upstate to get married at venues with barns, vineyards, or just on top of the mountains with a view of the Hudson River. Chris researched further and he saw that the photo booth companies in his area, both the one in his city and others nearby, weren't using Google AdWords. And many of them didn't show up in Google at all.
Some of the websites he eventually discovered looked outdated or just unprofessional. This was another good reason to start the project. There was demand for the service and they figured they could easily beat the competition. Next, he began to look at gear and equipment. Chris discovered a booth called Strike a Pose after he heard an interview with the two owners on a podcast.
After looking at different options, he decided to purchase that booth, which he still uses to this day, even though the company that made it is now out of business. This professionally manufactured booth, rather than a makeshift homemade one, helps them stand out. They use a Canon Rebel DSLR camera and studio quality lighting so that there's no flash. They also chose a deep, rich, red backdrop rather than the black and white one that many photo booth companies use. That's because they say a lot of people wear black and white to formal events so they tend to get washed out in the backdrop.
Last but not least, in the equipment department, no photo booth is complete without props and Paramount has a huge variety. They have signs, hats, glasses, lips, mustaches, tiaras, mullet wigs, a Batman mask, a Darth Vader mask, Thor's hammer, a Captain American shield, and I'll just stop there because my list keeps going on and on. Basically, they have a lot of stuff and they try to buy props that are durable, easy to clean, and replaceable. After starting up three years ago, they're now a market leader in their area. They rent photo booths to clients having all sorts of different events, mostly on the weekends.
They provide not just the booth, but also those props and a friendly attendant. Weddings are their most common gig, but they also do sweet 16 parties, proms, bar and bat mitzvahs, class reunions, fundraisers, and yeah, once again, my list goes on and on. They do a lot. A lot of props, a lot of events. The other quality that separates them from the crowd is their customer service.
They always respond quickly with detailed information and quotes. Back at home, Chris's wife is looking after four children and she also manages emails, calls, and texts for the business while he's at his day job. And then for the events themselves, Chris gets the booth set up and manages the hardware and software. All right, so how do they find customers for all those weddings, proms, sweet 16 parties, and so on? It turns out that Google AdWords is their bread and butter.
They spend about $250 a month on it and it brings in the majority of their business. They've also used Facebook ads to advertise to people with the relationship status of engaged, but they found that AdWords works better for them. It's more cost effective. Paramount photo booths also ranks well organically in Google for a local search. If you're in the area and you type in photo booth rentals, they're gonna come up near the top.
They're also listed in Google Map results as well. Now remember the other businesses, the other photo booth rental companies didn't do any of these things. They relied on more traditional wedding marketing like going to bridal shows and exhibiting. But with Google, the Paramount team doesn't have to plan their lives around a bridal show calendar and they also don't have to pay for exhibiting at them. They did have some real startup costs though.
They had to buy that photo booth, they had to buy all the props, a bunch of random stuff like a storage tote, a prop table, chairs, extension cords. But if you're interested in doing this, there's some good news. Chris spent about $8,000 getting this going and he says that prices have come down quite a bit and these days you could get started for around $3,000. Also some more good news, especially for him, Paramount photo booths was profitable right away. The first year in business they made $11,000 that rose to $18,000 in year two and $21,000 in year three.
Keep in mind this is part time, they try to find a way to do it around their schedule and it's also something that they enjoy. But still there's nothing wrong with making more money and that's what they wanna do. Chris hopes to continue growing the business and he hopes to buy more photo booths to meet more demand. He's also trying to sell restaurants, bars and clubs on permanent photo booth installations as a marketing tool. Has anything gone wrong along the way?
Well, not a ton except for one time in an event when disaster struck. Their onsite printer completely failed with no backup and Chris had to refund the client. That wasn't a good day but it was also an unusual situation. Since every event they bring the photo booth to is a celebration of some kind, everyone is usually happy. It creates a great work environment.
The attendees have a fun memory to go away with and a host or whoever pays for the event is glad to have made the investment. Finally, for Chris and his family, it was love at first click. Awesome, I hope you enjoyed how that photography story developed. Starting a side hustle really is nothing to snap at. Just don't lose focus.
All right, so what if you want to try this business? Well, fortunately, Chris has a lot of free resources on his site, photoboothtraining.com. This is separate from the site he uses to market his business. This is just a collection of helpful guides and tools and tips. He's not really selling anything.
He just does want to be helpful. So on that site, you can read things like how to find your own photobooth gigs and how to get paid, how to create a basic Facebook ad for the photobooth business and more. So of course, we will link that up in the show notes for you. And I also thought it was interesting that he invested in that professionally made booth because he thought a lot of the handmade ones weren't that great. I almost wonder if you could also try more of a DIY approach, like if you had a good camera and some basic stuff, like could you put together a handmade booth that was actually good and perhaps cost less money?
I'm not sure, but as he mentioned, the startup costs have actually gone down quite a bit in the three years since he started this project. So if you do anything with events or you'd like to, you might want to look into this. I hope you enjoyed this story. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those show notes I mentioned are at sidehustleschool.com/426.
I'll be back tomorrow with a totally different story. I hope you'll join me for it. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
