Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Pather.
Hi Josh, It’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us. To start, could you share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Josh Pather; I am the founder and CEO of Photo Booth International. We manufacture photo booths and sell them to people who want to start a successful photo booth rental business. Photo Booth International exists thanks to my first business, Photo Booth Dallas – a photo booth rental company I began in December 2012. I worked at a call center during the week but also used to DJ on the weekends. One day, a friend and I went to a wedding and saw a photo booth for the first time. It would be a great addition to my DJ services, so we decided to make our own.
After some brief research, we drove to Home Depot and spent $300 on all the materials. We made our first photo booth out of wood; we made the cutouts to fit the monitor, sanded it down, painted it black, and spray-painted the words “Photo Booth” in white on the side. We didn’t have much money to invest in professional high-end electronics, so we went to Walmart to get our printer, computer, and monitor. That first photo booth wasn’t perfect by any means. It was slow to print, the software was complex, and the monitor didn’t even have a touch screen, but it made us our first ten thousand dollars. We knew we were onto something, so we did even more research and optimized our photo booth with better equipment and a better outer shell.
One year later, our fleet of photo booths quickly grew to 15, and we were booked out every weekend. At this point, I had already left my 9-5 job and was 100% invested in my photo booth rental business. My wife Jazmine even left her job to help me because I couldn’t handle all the bookings myself. Photo Booth Dallas made over $1 million within the first two years of business. It was so awesome to see that this was a profitable and high-demand business. Whenever we went out to work the events, people always asked us, “How can I get started doing this? It looks like a lot of fun.” This is when I realized there was a demand for turnkey photo booth packages, and that’s how Photo Booth International was born.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of my biggest mistakes at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey was spending less time learning to read my financial statements. I didn’t know enough to pick the right CPA and ask the right questions. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that my old CPA had wholly messed up my bookkeeping. I had to pay a new CPA to return and redo 4 years’ worth of books. I’ve learned that you don’t need to know everything about the subject; you need to know enough not to get screwed and to be able to recognize any red flags.
We’ve been impressed with Photo Booth International, but for folks who might need to be more familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart?
We specialize in various photo booths to suit every need; however, our flagship photo booth is our Miami Mirror Booth. It is an incredibly sleek-looking portable mirror booth. It comes in a heavy-duty travel case with wheels, which makes it easy to transport. It also includes all components, such as a DSLR camera, high-speed computer, printer, and software needed to work an event when our customers receive it. It’s genuinely a turnkey system ready to go. Our customers get exclusive access to free marketing and business training materials along with the booth, which will help them fast-track their new business.
The majority of our customers are brand new to being entrepreneurs. Many of them work a regular 9-5 during the week and want to make extra income by doing something fun, but that will be a great return on investment. We also have customers already in the entertainment and wedding industry looking to add more services to generate more revenue for their business.
I launched Photo Booth International in 2015, and since then, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and made over $18 million in revenue. INC 5000 also named us the #63rd fastest-growing company in Texas and the #1239 fastest-growing company in the country.
What sets us apart from our competition is that we offer all the tools, training, and resources you need to start your own photo booth rental business. Anyone who’d like to start and launch their Photo Booth business in just seven days can join the Photo Booth Business Club (https://photoboothbizclub.com/) at $37/mo, where you can get training videos on how to get more leads and bookings and learn how to set up Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Instagram Ads. Being a business club member, you get access to the exclusive private Facebook group where you can get tips and help anytime and live weekly Coaching Calls.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
If you know someone who wants to start a Photo Booth Business, we offer a $500 referral fee. Fill out this form: https://photoboothint.com/referrals/. Follow us on our YouTube channel and social media platforms. I will share the links here below.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.photoboothint.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photoboothint/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photoboothinternational
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/photo-booth-international/
- Twitter: https://x.com/photoboothint
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Photoboothint/
