Excerpt from Dayton Daily News
When Fairborn resident Jake Prichard started a photo booth company with his brother as a 21-year-old student at Wright State University, he never expected it to take off.
But the company now operated by Prichard and his wife Jayme has seen double and triple digit growth every year since it launched.
“The expectation was to just get one photo booth and have fun with it, but so many phone calls kept pouring in and so many people kept inquiring about it that we saw an opportunity to keep running,” Jake said.
While Jayme, a 20-year-old psychology major at the time, had helped with graphic design and logo work, she didn’t fully step on board until about six months after Picture Perfect Photobooth Rentals was born.
“I saw my parents’ company grow and that was exciting for them,” Jaymee said. “I was kind of forced into it and I liked it…It’s something I want to do all my life.”
She enjoyed crunching numbers and working the books, she said, sparking a return to Wright State where she’s now working toward a Master of Business Administration, while also serving as the vice president of the company.
The Prichards attribute their success to staying ahead of the competition when it comes to new technology and industry standards, trying to “stay one up on the competition,” Jake, a Milton-Union graduate, said. The six-year-old company saw triple-digit growth during its first three years and double-digit growth during the next three years.
He added that the company forecasts renting photo booths for more than 1,800 events this year, up from 1,500 last year. With 10 full-time and 50 part-time employees during the busy season, along with 115 photo booths, the company could operate up to 65 events in one day.
“Maybe it was a good time because we started the business when photo booths started getting popular, so everyone was inquiring for their wedding, corporate events…it’s just really cool to see how that kind of industry grows and gets popular,” said Jayme, who went to Centerville High School.
The company now takes photo booths to events in Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo, Columbus, Indianapolis and Kentucky from its Fairborn office. They’ve also expanded into an office in Colorado, where one of their first employees wanted to open a photo booth location when she moved.
A typical event includes four hours of photo booth rental for about $500.
“We’d like to keep growing our territories as fast as we can to keep that double-digit growth up because we want to maintain that excitement up within the company,” Jake said.
They’re open to organic growth as well as acquisitions, as they’re currently looking into acquiring a photo booth company for sale in Florida.
