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Revenue Model Comparison
Comparison of typical revenue per event between private and corporate bookings.
Primary Sources
I Make $6,000 a Month From a Photo Booth Side Hustle ... - Business Insider
Michael Sim. Courtesy of Michael Sim 2026-04-16T09:05:02.434Z Michael Sim is the cofounder of Future Flicks, where he earns $6,000 a month renting out photo booths. Sim and his business partner focus on brand activations, earning $4,000-$7,000 total per event. He aims to expand into multiple cities, quit his corporate job, and become a seven-figure business. This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Michael Sim, a 33-year-old founder in New York. It has been edited for length and clarity. Four years ago, I started Future Flicks, a photo booth side hustle to bring in extra income. Living in New York, where everything is expensive, relying on a single paycheck wasn't cutting it. My wife works full-time as a pharmacist, and I'm a director of paid search at a media agency.The idea came while my wife and I were planning our own wedding, and we saw firsthand how expensive the industry can be. Photo booths felt like a fun, relatively simple way to break in, so I partnered with my friend, Jazz Singh, and gave it a shot. Now I make around $6,000 a month from the business.The advantage of a photo booth business is its low operating costsOur main expenses were upfront: equipment, insurance, and software. Once upfront costs were paid off in the first year, about 60-70% of revenue became profit. We rent a storage unit where we store our seven booths now. After we launched during the 2022 holiday season, I quickly fell in love with it after our first few events. Many of our friends were getting married, which gave us an early batch of leads and supportive first clients.My wife helps with behind-the-scenes things such as logistics. We built our social media presence and grew through word of mouth, and that momentum quickly snowballed. We got married in 2023 and used our photo booth at our wedding.I enjoy that the business centers on celebrating joyful moments. Problem-solving clients' needs is deeply rewarding, and the connections and creative work bring a strong sense of personal fulfillment.We earn $4,000-$7,000 per brand activationEach event lasts around four to five hours. I don't have to be at every event. Jazz handles most of them, and we also have some drop-off events. On non-event days, I still have tasks as the primary point of contact.In the first two years, we mostly did weddings, but we leveraged our connections to land our first corporate client a few months after launching. One of the first corporate clients we landed was KITH for its holi...
5 Side Hustlers Share Their Advice for Getting ... - Business Insider
Courtesy photos 2026-04-11T09:32:02.433Z We spoke to dozens of successful side hustlers to find out how they got started and then scaled. Several advised experimenting first, while others described leaps of faith that paid off. Lean into your age and experience, a side hustler told us — and be wary of chasing trends. Side hustles are often sold as quick wins — easy money you can make in your spare time. In reality, they're usually messier. Some ideas flop, some bring in a little extra cash, and a few grow into something much bigger than expected — even replacing a full-time career.So what separates the ones that work from the ones that don't? Business Insider has spoken to dozens of experienced side hustlers to understand how they got started and what helped them scale.Below, meet five entrepreneurs whose paths look very different. We asked them to get candid about what it actually takes to turn a side hustle into something lucrative, and for their best and hardest-won lessons for success.Here's what they told us. 1. Don't believe the hype — test and verifyTom Blake, 29, started experimenting with side hustles in college for a simple reason: He needed to pay his bills. In the years since, he's tried more than 100 of them — everything from AI website generation to crypto reward programs to paid shopping. Tom Blake. Courtesy of Tom Blake "Many just didn't work as advertised," he told reporter Elle Hardy. The frustration led him to start a blog documenting his side hustle tests — which he eventually turned into a content business that generated over $1 million before he sold it.Along the way, he learned to treat side hustles like trial and error — and to do careful research before committing time or money."Before trying anything, I always recommend reading reviews and checking forums as part of basic due diligence. If someone online is promising massive hourly earnings with no downside, that's a red flag," he said.Read which side hustles Blake found the most lucrative and low-lift.2. Focus on more evergreen ideas instead of trendsMichael Strahl, 41, has also tried many side hustles. The gig he found most profitable for minimal effort is one he squeezes in around both a full-time job as a lineman and his family life as a husband and dad of two."My full-time job keeps me on call 24/7," he told reporter Kaila Yu. "If a storm comes through, I have to be out there in the middle of the night working on fiber optic lines and putting networks back together. T...
How I Went From Side Hustle to 7 Figures in 12 Months ... - Entrepreneur
I'll walk you through all four, with free prompts you can use to build your own pipeline toward 6- to 7-figure revenue.
I Built a Photo Booth Business: Natalie Resendez's Journey with ChackTok
Texas entrepreneur Natalie Resendez shares how ChackTok's photo booth software helped her launch and grow Hi-Rez Solutions with low overhead and simple setup.
