You are excited after figuring out which business you want to venture into to earn more. 
You land on a photo booth business and start researching what you need. After all, it seems simple enough; set up a backdrop, have props, and start taking pictures of people and charging clients.

Well, you got the gist, but like any other business, you need a plan. It may seem like something easy and fun. However, if you want to make it a sustainable business that will bring you profit, you must draft a comprehensive business plan. A business plan sounds tedious, but it’s necessary to make money. 

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering if this will be another expense where you get a professional business guy who’s a friend or a friend of a friend. Either way, in business, you spend money to make money. So, if you decide to get a professional to help, make sure you have done your homework, shopped around, and settled with someone you feel will do the job well. On the other hand, you can draft your business plan using many tools available online.

The most important aspects of any business tend to feel the most tedious: planning and keeping up with how the money is flowing or not. Considering you have a business which offers content creation, shows the creative side and it’s a rapidly growing market! But most times, us creatives tend to get consumed with our creations and making interesting things and forget that we also need to feed ourselves using the same creativity. 

Figuring out how to make a profit is also part of the creative process; numbers must become part of creativity! You need to make money from your creativity and hard work. The best way to ensure you are not lost in all this is to plan. Planning helps you take good care of your cents so that you don’t worry about the dollars.

Now that you have a quick gist of what your photo booth business will require, we can expand on what should be in your business plan as you draft it. Anyone with a business plan or studied business will tell you seven general steps to be followed when creating a business plan. 

This is basically the short of the entire business plan. You mention the business concept, financial features (cash flow, ROI, etc.), financial requirements, current position, and major achievements thus far. This is a segment that, if anyone is to read, would immediately understand your business.

This should be done as a synopsis, once you have completed the other elements of the business plan!

Your business is not the only one of its kind. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum but is part of an industry. You must research and understand this industry’s trends, pricing, threats, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses.

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) analysis is really useful to use here.

This is basically how you run the business from daily to monthly. This shows how you continually function from organizational structure to administration. It shows how you run every big and small detail of your business.

This includes income statements, cash flow statements, long-term liabilities, assets, and equity. In general, this is the most sensitive and important part (next to marketing, which is need to achieve it!), the whole reason you’re doing the business, the money. This part must be very clear and meticulous, as every penny counts.

A business plan is the smartest way to get ahead of many competitors. It allows you to be organized enough and know what needs focus and the exact steps needed to get the desired results. It is a road map that every successful business uses. A business plan for your photo booth business guarantees a higher probability of success.

Now you have that sorted its time to go shopping….

Now that you have a quick gist of what your photo booth business will require, we can expand on what should be in your business plan as you draft it. Anyone with a business plan or studied business will tell you seven general steps to be followed when creating a business plan.

You are going to need a few things for the photo business to run well and be on a professional level. Here are some essentials you will need to have a good start.

• Brand
• Website
• Photo Booth – This goes almost without saying. You need equipment that will help you set up amazing photo or video experiences. Choose your booth (which is ultimately your tool) wisely – try to go for something no one else in your area has. Do your research and purchase what is affordable for your budget.
• Software – Choose wisely and ensure it offers all the features you require; be ready to learn and spend a lot of time getting to know your software.
• Lighting – If anything, photography is nothing without lighting. What is captured is the light bouncing off objects. You can have the best camera equipment, but you are wasting your time without lighting. Get good lighting equipment that can work well indoors and outdoors for corporate-like event shoots. Understanding your setup and what is required to make pictures look good requires the lighting to be on point.

• Social Media and Printing Stations – This is where the biggest difference between traditional photo booths and your business is seen. Traditionally you went to a physical place, got pictures taken, and waited for some days to pick your photos, now we can take them, print them on site or deliver them straight to someone’s phone on email or text!

  ***Investing in a portable printer to give people physical mementos.
  ****Instant social sharing is something you should invest in. In today’s society, people are used to instant results, especially with things like photos. This will help your business.

• A high-quality background drop – pillow case is a great option as you can have 2 designs in one and switch them out.
• Props – People are sometimes awkward in front of cameras and don’t know what to do. Also, props are required to mark the occasion and show what was happening, such as a wedding, product launch, etc. They give people fun and interesting things to do and have fun pictures that mark the day.
• Signage – Wherever you set up your booth, you want people to be aware of your presence. Having a sign(s) informing and directing people to your location is important; of course you will have it branded!