What should I check before buying a photo booth business?
Check the booths themselves, the printers and consumables, the software and templates and whether they transfer, the booked-event calendar with its deposits, and the venue and planner relationships. Then ask how much of the work depends on the owner standing at every event.
A photo booth business looks simple from the outside: a few units, a van and a weekend calendar. What you are really buying is a set of machines, a set of software accounts and a pipeline of event bookings that depends on relationships. Each piece can be checked before you commit. The general steps in how to find a business to buy still apply, and this page covers what is particular to booths.
The booths and what feeds them
Ask for a list of every unit, with its type (open-air, enclosed or 360), its age, its serial number and its repair history. See each one set up and running, not only photographed. Printers, cameras, lighting and tablets wear out at different rates, so ask what the owner replaces and how often. Check the supplier of paper and ink, and whether the stock on hand is part of the sale.
Software, templates and accounts
Booth software is often licensed by subscription, and the licence may sit in the seller’s personal name. Ask which accounts, design templates, overlays and social handles are held by the company and which by the owner. Find out whether each licence can be assigned to a buyer or must be re-bought. Your lawyer can read the licence terms and tell you what transfers.
Bookings, deposits and relationships
Read the booked-event calendar alongside the deposit records. Ask what is owed back to clients if an event is cancelled. Ask which venues and planners send work, whether those relationships are written down or only personal, and how many of them would stay with a new owner. Call a few of them if the seller agrees.
The owner’s own role
- Does the owner attend every event, or do trained attendants run them?
- Who handles setup, teardown and customer complaints?
- Could the business run through a full season if the owner stepped back?
- What would you pay staff to replace the owner’s weekends?
Related reading
15 pages on the same subject, grouped by topic.
Buying
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
- 03Canadian Intellectual Property OfficeGovernmentA guide to copyright
- 04Office of the Privacy Commissioner of CanadaGovernmentPIPEDA requirements in brief
- 05Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are financial statements?
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