Proms and home-comings are great events for photo booths. Teenagers love to get in a photo booth, pose and receive amazing prints. School officials appreciate a professionally run booth that provides students with the fun only a photo booth can.
Since these events are annual they are great for your business and you can quickly secure several of them. It is a great feeling knowing that you have several events on the book each year when the calendar turns.
Not all schools run their home-comings and proms the same. Some leverage their staff to source vendors while others use volunteers. It is the latter that can give you some troubles in securing the event year-after-year. This is due to the nature under which most volunteers contribute the time. They typically are mothers and fathers of students and only participate for the couple of years their children are attending the events.
To ensure that you continue to get repeat bookings there are a few tactics that you can use. Each of these have served me well over the years.
- First is to send a letter a few month prior to when the event will occur introducing yourself and your business. For proms you should send your mailers around the first of the year as this is typically when committees are formed and budgets set. Home-comings should be sent the first week that school is in session.
- While at the event work to network with school officials this will go a long way towards booking the next year. This will most likely require an attendant and yourself so that you are free to converse.
- Send a contract with a small discount shortly after the event works for schools that have their staffs manage these events.
As I mentioned these have worked well for me over the years, but by no means are they guarantee. You still have to work hard during the event and ensure that the students have safe and respectable fun. Once key area to focus is on keeping the photos respectable and within school guidelines. Here are a few tips to help facilitate this.
- Request the section of the school's handbook on conduct. I then study that to make sure that I can keep the photos compliant.
- Have a school representative or event chaperone review all prints prior to the students receiving them. Making this step widely known goes a long way to keeping the photos taken respectable.
- When providing a closed booth place the booth's printer on a table near the booth. This will help keep the flow moving while the print is reviewed (see previous item).
With these tips and the infectious nature of photo booths you will have successful school events with satisfied repeat clients for years to come. Just remember to take care of the schools for be loyal to your business.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for those new to school functions? Please leave a comment below.
