Been in the photo booth industry for nearly 10 years and generate $400k annually (set to do over half a mil by 2024) in the wedding and events space. I don’t feel like I am the expert by any means in business or entrepreneurship, but I’ve built a couple successful companies on a small scale, and have an MBA, so maybe I can contribute to your success. AMA!
What were the steps or phases you took to scale your business from running it yourself to today. Is there anything you would have changed about the way it scaled?
I’m happy with where things are at now. But I would have invested more heavily into more simplified solutions that fit a broader market for at least part of our offerings (or under a different brand). Something that scales easier and still has good margins.
It was really just a lot of day in/ day out putting in the hours and grinding on every possible aspect of the business I could, improving little by little, and it all added up.
Thanks for taking the time to respond! Interesting when you say simplified solutions for broader markets considering how people always recommend scaling in on a particular niche.
Did you find it easy to relinquish some control and pass it on to your first hire and how did you manage this? I’m currently in the boat where demand exceeds supply so I’m weighing up how to bring my first hire in and what the next steps are so any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Well the slight niche being the industry focus (trade show, retail stores, birthdays, etc), but offering a standardized solution for them that’s easily deployable and more affordable.
No that’s the hardest part. Huge amounts of training, trust but verify, and processes to ensure things can’t go wrong (to the extent that they can be controlled). Now though, I can go to sleep while a big event is going on without a worry most nights. There is always the occasional problem that requires my expertise, but majority of events are rinse/repeat for my team.