Do Not Be Late

As an absolute minimum, never ever ever be late to your gigs. I can not stress this enough.

If you have employees, PAY THEM, yes PAY THEM to arrive earlier than the contract time. Also pay and instruct them to stay a little later if necessary.

If the contract says you will arrive an hour and a half before the function, be there 2 or 2 and a half hours before.

At a wedding this is the bride’s special day. She wants it to be stress free. You are not going to be in her good books if she is worried about you arriving.

Other than a total system breakdown, showing up late is perhaps the worst thing that can happen. Before you even arrive you have invoked a sense of anxiety and a negative image in the customer’s mind. It would take twice as good a job if not more to reverse that, though I have seen that happen. If ever there is a time for punctuality (no pun intended) this is it.

If for some uncontrollable reason you are unavoidable detained, call ahead both to the client and/or the venue to let them know you are coming.

Dress To Impress

Take your appearance seriously. I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that more people care what you look like (or your employees) that what your photobooth looks like. Or at least, if you don’t look your best they will not even care about the booth.

People (correctly or incorrectly) make the assumption that what the attendants are wearing reflects how they will perform in other aspects.

This is especially important because there are a lot of “horror stories” out there about a people showing up in T-SHIRT AND JEANS to a wedding.

Always dress to fit in with the crowd you are playing for and always look confident.

It is fine to dress casually while setting up and then change (unless the facility itself has a dress code). However, if you get caught setting up in your set-up clothes, make it obvious to the party concerned that you will be getting changed.

Make A Confidence Call

A simple call a few days before the event reassures the customer that you are coming. It also helps to create a rapport between you and the customer.

Also check all the important details to make sure nothing has changed. This didn’t happen to me but I remember once during the confidence call that the bride had kept everything the same other than one detail - the GROOM. This was important to know beforehand.

Do Not Talk On The Cell Phone

You are on the stage when you are working. Nothing says I don’t give a rats butt about the job then constantly looking at your cell phone. 

Don’t Look At The Clock

We all need to look at the click for timing reasons (and yes sometimes we want to know “how much longer”). But remember, you are “on stage” and people are looking at you. A good idea is to take the watch off your hand and put it on the table. That way, when you look at it is not made obvious to the crowd.

Buy A Power Source Checker

These little units are cheap - usually from $5 to $20. And it only takes a few seconds to test your power source - but one day that $20 may save your $5000 photobooth.

Always Back Up Your Cable

The most important thing to have backed up is cables.

Always make sure you have a backup of the most critical cables. (which would probably be all of them)

Always have spare cables available (2 of everything)

More often it will be the connecting cables that fail rather than the equipment itself.

Do not allow a $5 cable to be the reason for a thousand dollar fund.

Use A UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)

At the very least use a surge-protected power bar ($50 could save you $5000 at some point - plus a refund).