Shining Through Challenges - The Photo Booth Business Way
Sep 26, 2023
Jesse
Ready for a behind-the-scenes look into the life of an entrepreneur? Join me on an adventure as I spill the beans on my unique journey of setting up a photo booth business, from the initial dreams of owning a salon to the unexpected turn of events that led me to "Barra Siampeh", my photo booth venture. Here, I candidly share the rollercoaster ride of coming up with an unusual business name, deciding to keep business ventures separate, and the challenges faced in the process.
Furthermore, I delve into the significance of social media promotion in today's business world. Particularly on how adding value to your Instagram followers through regular content updates can work wonders for your venture. With a sprinkle of humor and a dash of grit, I unravel the realities of the seemingly glamorous entrepreneur lifestyle, and how a simple photo booth business ended up transforming my life. Whether you're an aspiring business owner or a curious soul who loves a good challenge-overcoming tale, this episode is bound to captivate you. So buckle up, and let's hit the road to entrepreneurship together!
Ready for a behind-the-scenes look into the life of an entrepreneur? Join me on an adventure as I spill the beans on my unique journey of setting up a photo booth business, from the initial dreams of owning a salon to the unexpected turn of events that led me to "Barra Siampeh", my photo booth venture. Here, I candidly share the rollercoaster ride of coming up with an unusual business name, deciding to keep business ventures separate, and the challenges faced in the process.
Furthermore, I delve into the significance of social media promotion in today's business world. Particularly on how adding value to your Instagram followers through regular content updates can work wonders for your venture. With a sprinkle of humor and a dash of grit, I unravel the realities of the seemingly glamorous entrepreneur lifestyle, and how a simple photo booth business ended up transforming my life. Whether you're an aspiring business owner or a curious soul who loves a good challenge-overcoming tale, this episode is bound to captivate you. So buckle up, and let's hit the road to entrepreneurship together!
Hi guys. My husband said I don't need to explain, but I'm gonna explain. I'm starting this podcast. It's gonna be about once a month kind of thing. I'm gonna focus on what I'm doing. I can't do this. This is no. I think I'm just being really hard on him right now.
Speaker 2:
I knew doing this podcast wasn't gonna be easy and it's not easy, it's. It's. It's really hard for me to communicate my feelings, communicate what I want to say and put it out there for people. And I have some keep saying don't apologize, don't say sorry, don't say this. It's really hard to get in front of people and talk or to say anything, to explain anything, to talk about your family, to talk about your job, to talk about your marriage, just to talk in general about stuff. I thought like, oh yeah, I could do this, it's totally gonna be easy. No, it's not easy, it's not easy at all.
Speaker 2:
Doing these photo boots have been like a like what do you say? Like a trick, trickle effect. I started doing one and then somebody else wanted one, and then another person wanted one, and then another person wanted one and I was like, whoa, this is really picking up. And I was like, oh, I could totally do this. If you could just take a moment of your time and subscribe now like comment share.
Speaker 2:
If somebody asked me a few years ago, where do you see yourself in, like five years, ten years, I wouldn't have said owning a photo booth business. My thing would have been like I'm gonna own a, be having a salon, I'm gonna be a stylist, I'm gonna be a makeup artist Like that was my goal. My dream was to start a salon business, be a stylist, be a makeup artist. And I could tell you that did not happen. Started my own business. Started my own salon business did not happen. Started in a photo booth business did happen.
Speaker 2:
And that took a turn. Like I really wanted to, you know, be a salon owner, be a makeup artist. Like I really wanted to do stuff like that. And now I own a photo booth business. And so someone would say, like, where do you see yourself? I would be like, yeah, I would have been owning a salon. No, I own a photo booth business now and I have a trailer out front that I've been saying I'm gonna work on. I mean it's completely gutted, but I want to be, I want to turn that into a different business now. I want to. I don't know, maybe turn it into a mobile photo booth business, have that as a setup, or turn it into, I don't know, maybe a coffee trailer or something. That's something else I might want to do.
Speaker 2:
And right now, the photo booth miss, the photo booth business is my business. It's what I work on, it's something I do almost every day. You know from either messaging people back or scheduling, creating templates, posting on social media. That is my business. That is something that I'm doing, and it did take me a long time to to come up with the name para siempre. I Didn't want it to say forever photo booth, but that would have been taken in English, so I had to use it in Spanish and it is a little hard to say it and I feel super like when people like start speaking to me in Spanish, like I'm like I don't speak Spanish, and then they look at me and I'm yes, I know my photo booth name is para siempre and I don't speak any Spanish.
Speaker 2:
When I was looking into names for the photo booth business, I was like, oh, let's do. I Was. I was just trying to think of something. I was trying to think of a catchy name, but something that also wasn't like yeah, I mean for a while it was for Caldea's photo booth, just because I couldn't think of a business name and there was a lot of names out there for the photo booth like someone's name. I'm just gonna throw out names I'm not sure if people use them or not, but like luminaire photo booth or or or some what are some other ones like? I'm Like a lot of people that have 360 photo booths. They're like something, something 360 photo booth, something 360 booth, and I did want to do like a simple booth, but that was taken, that's a business name or or something else. And so I had to go on to Instagram and put in the search forever the momars are typing forever. A bunch of different ones popped up and then it put like forever photo booth, and that was already taken. And then I was like, okay, I live in California, let's think of a different one. I was like, okay, how about golden state? And I type in golden state and I start typing photo booth and that's already taken. And I was like, okay, what's our? What's our? Our like California is like flower. And I was like, oh, poppy, we could call it a Poppy booth. And I start typing Poppy, and that's already taken. I'm like, wow, a lot of people have good ideas. So then I'm like, okay, let's think of something. And I was like, okay, let's do forever photo booth. So I start typing forever photo booth in, and that's already taken. And then I was like, darn it, okay, that's taken.
Speaker 2:
So I was like, what else can I use? And then I was like, oh, let's try Luxe, which is like a, I think, a Latin word for light or something like that, and that was already taken. And so I was like, okay, I can't use any of that, let's try it in Spanish and see what it says. And it was like but, I see it and put it in. And I was like, oh, okay, I could do that. I can pronounce that that's something I can use. That's something that sounds catchy, I guess.
Speaker 2:
And my husband's like let's just change it to cows photo booth. And a lot of people call me cow. Like in my family, a lot of close friends call me cow. It's not something disrespectful at all towards me, it's just a nickname that was given to me. And I was like, no, I really don't like cows photo booth, like it wasn't catchy for me, it wasn't something that I wanted. It just didn't fit me. Even though I know it's a nickname, it's just something I didn't want. So then we, I was like okay.
Speaker 2:
And then I told him I was like well, I think I want Barasempana. And he was like okay, and it was something that I kind of like waited on for like about a month or so. And I was like okay, I'm gonna look it up, nobody's taking it. I'm gonna wait a while just to be, just to confirm. Because I was like I need to order business cards, I want to brand it with that, like I want that to be my name. And I was like in a month, when I look, this is what I told myself. In a month, when I look, if the name is still there, then I'll use it. Because most of the time that I look, a lot of the names that I wanted were already gone. So I was like okay, if it's still there in a month, then I'll use that name. And then a month came around and I could tell him. I was like what do you think? What do you think? He's like well, it's your business. If that's what you want to do, if that's the name that you want, then you know pick it. And when the month came, the name was still there and I was like, okay, I'm going with Barra Siampeh, and so that was it.
Speaker 2:
And then we literally kind of cleaned the whole of the Instagram. It was a mix of my stuff that I sew and the things I create and the photo booth and I wanted to keep those two things separate. I just wanted the Instagram just to be. I wanted the Instagram just to be about the photo booth. I only wanted photo booth stuff. And this was a big argument with us. He was like no, well, it's both things that you kind of do, but I wanted to keep my creation stuff with creations and my photo booth with my photo booth. Like I didn't want people to think like, well, what does this girl kind of do? Like she kind of does a lot of stuff, and I kind of just wanted just to keep the photo booth stuff photo booth and my sewing stuff just my sewing stuff for my projects I do separate. I did not want to combine the two.
Speaker 2:
So we went through the whole thing and we deleted all the stuff that I uploaded of everything that I created, my sewing projects, the cups, the blankets that I sew, just everything that was on there, that was all my creations were gone. Everything was deleted and we started from. I won't say it's from scratch, because there was some photobooth pictures that we did keep on there, but we started from the bottom with that and then I had to wait a few days I think I had to wait like a week or two to get my my uh, raquel Diaz designs back and put it on for my other page that I had for, like, my creation stuff. So I had to wait like a week or two for that, just to get that name back. And then now my new page that I have for that is Raquel Diaz designs. I haven't really posted on there lately or created things. I mean I have done stuff here and there, I just haven't posted on it and I told my husband right now I'm going to put that aside, like if someone asked me, then I'll create stuff for them or you know, whatever it is, then I'll do it.
Speaker 2:
But my main focus right now is on the photobooth, is is running the photobooth business. It's not my sewing projects or the other projects that I do, it's just going to be focusing on the photobooth and I'm okay with that. I do want to get back into sewing, um, the things that I want to sew, and eventually I will, once I put it all together and find space and move things, get rid of things, um, but for now it's just. My focus is just going to be on the photobooth. So, if you guys have an event coming up, if you want to know about pricing, if you want to know any questions it has to do with overlays or templates or you want me just to create something for you for an overlay, uh, for a photobooth or something. Um, I could totally do that.
Speaker 2:
If you want to reach out, it is Spada Siambe de Photobooth on Instagram. You can reach me there. Or I want to even say Raquel Diaz Designs, like and subscribe If you could just take a moment of your time and subscribe now. Like, comment, share. It doesn't matter whatever you want, um, but you guys have a great weekend, have a great day, look out for our new events that will be posting or coming up. I'm going to try to do a little bit more, um, uh, blogging, blogging or blogging, whatever you want to call it, um. So keep an eye out, guys, and remember to like, subscribe message. Bye. Love.