How Much Money Can You Make from a Photo Booth

The popularity of photo booths is skyrocketing. According to 360 Industry Insights, the global photo booth market was valued at $494.91M in 2022. Further, its compound annual growth rate is expected to be 14.62% between 2022 and 2028. Surely, that’s a healthy market for such a new concept.

With all that potential, a business owner considering a side hustle might well consider adding a photo booth to their repertoire. Generating revenue with a photo booth has limitless potential.

But exactly how much money can you make from a photo booth side hustle? And how much do photo booth owners make? This guide will explain it all.

Generating Revenue with a Photo Booth

Every photo booth owner knows their rental business model is predicated on which cost system they select. Really, there are two choices:

Offer your photo booth at an hourly rental rate
Offer your photo booth rental for a flat fee

There are obviously pros and cons to each of these paradigms. But only you, the side hustler, will know whether you prefer fixed income or sliding scales.

But to answer the question about earning income from a photo booth in this article, let’s get specific. Here, we’ll use the flat fee rate structure:

Choosing Your Rate

Selecting your modern photo booth’s rate depends on a variety of factors. Namely:

Your target market
Your location
Whether your rental is available on weekdays or weekends
The bells and whistles (or lack thereof) featured in your booth

Most flat-fee photo booth rentals offer a couple of hours in their basic packages. So, for the sake of this example, let’s estimate your rental package is available for customers for three hours.

Again, purely as an example, let’s imagine you are going to launch a photo booth in New York City. And let’s say your rental will be made available on weekends for special events like weddings, bar mitzvahs, and more.

According to The Cut, the average price for a three-hour wedding photo booth rental around New York is about $1,300. Divide that by three, and you stand to earn about $433 per hour.

Maximize Your Event Earning

You likely won’t just work a single event each week, however. To calculate your income opportunities with a photo booth, let’s assume you work four events each weekend of the year. Assuming you take off two weeks a year, that’s the potential for 200 booked events.

200 events multiplied by $1,300 means income opportunities with a photo booth potentially sit at roughly $260,000 gross.

Up Front Costs and Recurring Costs

Any small business owner knows that gross income is not all pocketed, however. Countless elements stand to lower your overall take-home, including:

Upfront costs, such as the initial investment in your photo booth
Prop fabrication costs
Staffing payroll
Insurance
Transportation for your photo booth to and from event locations

There’s no getting around the upfront cost of purchasing a photo booth. However, many of these additional factors can be limited or mitigated with some savvy business planning.

If you plan to staff the photo booth yourself, your payroll is essentially eliminated. And transportation can be limited, as many photo booths are designed for ease of travel (no costly box truck needed).

Further, if you bundle your prop fabrication with your initial investment, your side hustle won’t need continued spending on props.

While the costs to run your photo booth side hustle aren’t inherently zero, there are many ways to lower them. Lowering your operating costs is the fastest way to recoup your initial investment. And reaching your break-even point is the fastest way to start earning income from a photo booth.

Earning Income from a Photo Booth is Easy with Photo Booth Int.

As you can see, profiting from a photo booth is a staggering opportunity.

Your photo booth side hustle has the potential to be great. And Photo Booth Int. is here to help you realize your vision. We have numerous photo booth services to explore. And we love partnering with small business owners like you to bring your photo booth vision to reality.

If you are ready to start profiting from a photo booth side hustle, we’re here to help. Learn more about Photo Booth Int.