Day: May 10, 2023

Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Spotlight interview at OutsourceSchool.

My name is Connor Gillivan. I’m the CMO and an Owner of Outsource School.

We’re on a mission to help 10,000+ business owners master hiring virtual assistants and freelancers, and industry partnerships is a big way that we’re able to make it happen.

We’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce, agency, SAAS, and online space.

 

 

Connor: Hey Josh, thanks for taking the time to chat with us here. We love getting to know our partners better so that our community can benefit from what our partners are offering and doing in the industry. To get started, can you give us a high level overview of Photo Booth International and how it got started? 

 

Josh: My name is Josh Pather, I am founder and CEO of Photo Booth International. We manufacture photo booths and sell them to people who want to start a successful photo booth rental business. We started as a photo booth rental company back in December of 2012. During this time I worked at a call center during the week but I also used to DJ on the weekends. One day, a friend and I went to a wedding and saw a photo booth for the first time and thought it would be a great addition to my DJ services so we decided to make our own.

 

After some brief research, we drove to Home Depot and spent $300 on all the materials. We made our first photo booth out of wood, we made the cut outs to fit the monitor, sanded it down, painted it black and spray painted the words “Photo Booth” in white on the side of it. We didn’t have a lot of money to invest in professional high end electronics so we went to Walmart to get our printer, computer and monitor. That first photo booth wasn’t perfect by any means. It was slow to print, the software was difficult to use, and the monitor wasn’t even a touch screen but it made us our first ten thousand dollars. We knew we were onto something so we did even more research and optimized our photo booth with better equipment and a better outer shell. 

 

Fast forward one year later, our fleet of photo booths quickly grew to 15 booths and we were booked out every single weekend. At this point I had already left my 9-5 job and was 100% invested in my photo booth rental business. My wife Jazmine even left her job to help me because I couldn’t handle all the bookings myself. Within the first two years of business, Photo Booth Dallas made over $1million dollars. It was so awesome to see that this was a profitable and high demand business. Everytime we went out to work the events, people always asked us “how can I get started doing this? It looks like a lot of fun”. This is when I realized that there was a demand for turnkey photo booth packages and that’s how Photo Booth International was born.

 

I launched Photo Booth International in 2015 and since then, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and made over $18million in revenue. We were also named #63rd fastest growing company in Texas and #1239 fastest growing company in the country by INC 5000.

 

Connor: Love that! Can you dive a bit more into the photo booths and other services that you sell to entrepreneurs? I’m sure our audience would love to know exactly what problems you could solve for them.

 

Josh: We help people generate their own income and provide all the tools and resources they need to succeed, all in one place..

The majority of our customers are brand new to being entrepreneurs. Many of them are working a regular 9-5 during the week and want to make extra income doing something fun but that will be a great return on investment. We do also have customers that are already in the entertainment and wedding industry looking to add more services to generate even more revenue to their business.

 

We also offer a cutting edge online training platform, Photo Booth Sales University  where we teach business, finance, sales & marketing strategies so customers can grow their photo booth business & create generational wealth. 

 

Connor: Jumping off of that…if there was one problem you’d say that Photo Booth International solves best for your clients, what would it be? Why?

 

Josh: Many of our clients are looking to escape the rat race of their 9-5 job, seeking financial freedom. Starting a Photo Booth rental business gives them the opportunity to earn extra money while spending time with their family and loved ones. They can do this part-time or full-time. 

 

We do this by providing them a road map to a successful Photo Booth rental business. They get a PBI Global App, lifetime technical support, business resources and library, marketing photos and videos, sample contracts, event checklist, website templates, e-books, training videos and many more when they join Photo Booth International. These are the things I wish were available for me when I was starting in this industry that’s why I simplified this for our customers.

 

Connor: As the company continues to grow over the next year, what are your plans for expansion? Any new products or offerings or enhancements to your current products?

 

Josh: Yes, we are looking to expand and open a new office/showroom in Houston. We are also always designing new Photo Booths. One good thing about Photo Booth International is that we constantly look for a way to innovate and improve so you can expect that in the coming year. We also have Throne Chairs for sale that we just started selling. 

 

Connor: And how specifically would you say that Photo Booth International and your team is different from other similar businesses in the industry?

 

Josh: The main difference is that we really strive to provide all of the knowledge and resources that I didn’t have when I was running my own photo booth rental business. I learned a lot of things through trial and error and I want our customers to have a fast pass to success. This is why we provide a wide range of resources such as our PBI Global App where customers can find all the set-up videos, marketing content and business resources they need to get started. We also want to continue to support our customers as they begin to work events so we do a live monthly tech call where we answer their tech questions live. On top of all of that we also have guides on  How to Make their first $100K, we have tons of educational Youtube videos , we also have a healthy and helpful Facebook community. Aside from all of the resources we provide our customers, our team is 100% invested in helping make our customers dreams of being entrepreneurs come true. They go through training and Masterminds on a regular basis. Our team is extremely dedicated to seeing successful photo booth businesses take off. 

 

Connor: What’s your outsourcing story? We find that everyone has a different experience when outsourcing and hiring online. What is your first memory that comes to mind?

 

Josh: My first hire was a graphic artist that was just starting his VA career around 2015. He was inexpensive but we both didn’t really have any real knowledge of how we should really be optimizing our work together. I didn’t have any SOP’s in place nor did I qualify him enough beforehand to make sure he was the right fit for the job. Ultimately I let him go so it didn’t end up working in the long run but I sure did learn a lot about it. After that, I took what I learned and applied it to my next VA hire and the rest is history. Years later, Outsource School played a large role in helping me hire quality VA’s and I’m super grateful for it!

 

Connor: Love it! Talking more about outsourcing, what advice would you give to yourself if you were just about to start outsourcing and hiring online?

 

Josh: Take the time to write out SOP’s and follow a course like Outsource School that can help identify some of the things to keep in mind when outsourcing jobs. Don’t just hire anywhere. Find the right platform to outsource people. Look at freelancer’s profile reviews.

 

Connor: How about this one…how do you communicate with the people you hire online? What’s your best practices there and how has it changed over time?

 

Josh:  My biggest lesson has been to conduct a chat interview before a video interview. I wish I would have done my interviews this way when I first started hiring VA’s. If I like how fast they are composing their sentences and how good their grammar is I then pass them onto a video interview. I want to know if they are punctual and I want to see their personality as well. What I’ve learned overtime is that you should always ask them to perform a task that is in line with their job duties. If you are hiring a graphic designer for example, you want to give them a graphic task and see how fast they turn it in and check the quality of work. This has saved me from hiring the wrong people so many times.

 

Connor: Finally, this is one that I think our community will love, who’s been your best online hire? What do they do for you? Why are they your best hire? Tell us all about them and that story!

 

Josh: My best hire has definitely been my Team Lead, Maria. She started off as a social media VA but very quickly I realized she could take on much more. She showed exceptional skill, motivation and needed very little guidance when it came to a lot of projects I handed to her. For this reason, we promoted her to team lead after just 6 months of being with the company. This shows the importance of acknowledging one’s skill set and giving them the right role. 

 

Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today?

Answer: Our website is photoboothint.com You can follow us at our Instagram account and Facebook page. Please like and subscribe to our Youtube Channel – And yes, for anyone who’d like to learn more about Photo Booth business or already on the business, we are offering $1 for 3 days access to our Photo Booth Sales University – click here to register

Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Spotlight interview at OutsourceSchool.

My name is Connor Gillivan. I’m the CMO and an Owner of Outsource School.

We’re on a mission to help 10,000+ business owners master hiring virtual assistants and freelancers, and industry partnerships is a big way that we’re able to make it happen.

We’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce, agency, SAAS, and online space.

 

 

Connor: Hey Sabah, thanks for taking the time to chat with us here. We love getting to know our partners better so that our community can benefit from what our partners are offering and doing in the industry. To get started, can you give us a high level overview of Sabah Ali Coaching and how it got started? 

 

Sabah: Totally! My coaching business started about a year after I graduated college. I built a social media management business while I was in college in 2018 and did that for about a year until I realized the business model I was creating wasn’t the vision I had in mind. I started to pivot into more of a consulting role by 2019 and then in 2020 I fully immersed myself into being a coach. I first started coaching people in how to build their brand, be more confident, and use their voice to share their message. Then slowly I pivoted into a business coach because I saw the need in the market and I became obsessed with marketing and sales.

 

Connor: Love that! Can you dive a bit more into the business coaching that you offer? I’m sure our audience would love to know exactly what problems you could solve for them. 

 

Sabah: Yes, after I signed on one of my first ever coaching clients for $4,000, I immediately asked him “Why did you choose to work with me?” and his response was, “I’ve watched you show up so confidently and powerfully within the past few years, I want to do the same thing.” At that moment I realized, the reason why people buy is because of YOU, not the product you are selling. Most people don’t have a ‘sales’ problem, they have a connection problem. I help business owners scale their biz to multi 6-7 figures by identifying their values, strengths, unique factors, and voice to create a connection FIRST with their audience and then help them sell their offers organically through attraction marketing. I focus a lot on energetic attraction, social media strategy, and a simple sales process. In a world where there are thousands of people selling the same thing you are, the product is no longer the differentiating factor, it’s you.

 

Connor: Jumping off of that…if there was one problem you’d say that Sabah Ali Coaching solves best for your clients, what would it be? Why? 

 

Sabah: Knowing how to build a brand people love to follow and buy from. Once again, I don’t believe businesses are selling products, they’re creating brands. When I think of a real brand, like Nike or Chanel, it evokes a feeling for the clients; something that can’t be replicated from some other store they buy from. Any marketing, sales, or messaging problem goes away when you have a brand people love.

 

Connor: As the company continues to grow over the next year, what are your plans for expansion? Any new products or offerings or enhancements to your current products? 

 

Sabah: We recently launched a monthly membership for business owners and creatives who want to get access to daily support to grow their social media and sign on clients every single day in their business. Monetizing Social Membership is a vision I had for quite some time. I built my business by refining the basics and knowing the correct actions to take. In the membership, I give people a daily and weekly action plan to go out and implement so they are scaling in a linear way. Current clients have been loving it and I plan to expand this to thousands of people! We also just launched our first in person live event in South Florida later this year in October and are excited to start hosting in person experiences. I see my business going way beyond just the online space.

 

Connor: And how specifically would you say that Sabah Ali Coaching and your team is different from other coaching businesses in the industry?

 

Sabah: My business is a part of my lifestyle, people always ask me “HOW”? How do I show up daily, post content, be active on social media, sell offers, etc. I’ve created a relationship with my business where it’s something that I do. What I teach is my life, it’s not separate from it, so if you are fully embodiment with what you teach or are selling – creating content, marketing, and selling should come extremely natural to you too. I don’t just give you the strategies of what to do, I help you become the person who is able to implement and get results from them.

 

Connor: What’s your outsourcing story? We find that everyone has a different experience when outsourcing and hiring online. What is your first memory that comes to mind?

 

Sabah:: The first person I ever hired in my business was a virtual assistant that helped me with client support, admin work, and basically was my go to person anytime I had a problem in my business. I found my VA organically through my network, which was amazing, because she stayed with me for over a year! As I started to scale, I hired assistant coaches to help with delivery, sales reps, and other VAs who basically all came from my network. I personally always felt comfortable hiring people from trusted friends and peers in my industry. It felt amazing growing a team because it was no longer just me, I had people I could rely on and they could rely on me. 

 

Connor: Love it! Talking more about outsourcing, what advice would you give to yourself if you were just about to start outsourcing and hiring online? 

 

Sabah: Hire someone you trust the minute you speak with them. I remember going through the process of interviewing so many people for various roles and I always listened to my gut about who to hire. Of course, I had some bad hires throughout the years, but I never spent too long going back and forth between people or interviewing dozens of people. Knowing exactly what I needed and who I needed (in terms of skills and personality) made it easier to hire! 

 

Connor: How about this one…how do you communicate with the people you hire online? What’s your best practices there and how has it changed over time? 

 

Sabah:: Before I speak to anyone on the phone now, I have them fill out a form so I know they could be a fit for the role I have. Just like filling out a job application, I qualify them. I need to know they understand my industry, personality, what I need, and if they know what they are doing. Many times I see people get on the phone with SO MANY PEOPLE and are unorganized. Don’t do that, because it wastes your time (and theirs) and makes it hard for you to choose the right fit for the role. Luckily, I did have the support from mentors to guide me with this process so it always felt super smooth for me.

 

Connor: Finally, this is one that I think our community will love, who’s been your best online hire? What do they do for you? Why are they your best hire? Tell us all about them and that story!

 

Sabah: My executive assistant, when you scale your business you obviously cannot do everything. When I hired her, it honestly felt like a weight off my shoulder because I was doing so many small things in my business that took away focus from the big things. When someone stays with you for so long, they get to know you better – so she would do things for me, without me even having to ask her! Self led team members are something I highly value, especially since I am always innovating and creating new projects in my business. One again, she came through my network and the first time we chatted it felt like a super organic connection!

 

Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today? 

 

Sabah: The best place to stay connected with me is on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesabahali/. That is where I am most active and love to connect with new people. 

 

Yes I have a free 20 page content guide that helps you create content that connects with your audience and gets them buying, you can download that here: https://www.unforgettablebysabah.com/content-that-converts-2023