We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Drew Williamson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Drew, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?
I’ve been very fortunate to have a decently big network here in San Diego. I spent about a decade in the downtown nightlife industry and what I lost in brain cells from drinking 3-4 nights a week, I gained in acquaintances, colleagues, and friends. So when word got out that I had purchased a photo booth company, there was no shortage of inquiries.
That being said, I still paid my time. There were many events where I’d setup for free, just to get my name out. I’d do this at nightclub mixers, hair salons, and even the very first Blended festival. I could search for my first paying client but I’m about 99% sure it was a friend’s birthday party at their house or something of the sort. The first year of business was mostly that, friends, and friends of friends. I don’t think I spent a single dollar on advertising that first year, because people were happy to refer my new business. I wasn’t making a ton of money doing events for friends, but it was fun. And it was something that belonged to me.
Drew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I actually worked for this business for a bit before the opportunity arose to buy the company. As mentioned before, I was the nightlife guy with the connections, so the previous two guys wanted my help to get their booth into those types of events. It was only a few month later that they approached me with the opportunity. One of the guys got a job up in Washington State, and the other just had a kid with his wife. I actually turned them down the first time they asked me if I wanted to buy it. They lowered the price and my business partner (at the time) and I agreed to pull the trigger.
My favorite part about what I do is that I get to be creative with it. There are so many other photo booth companies out there that will present you with stock templates for the photo strip borders/welcome screens/etc. I actually design 100% of my events individually, and I love bragging about that. I had one bride ask for a Harry Potter themed wedding once, so I designed everything with HP font, the START/STOP buttons on the screen was a lighting bolt and the Quidditch Snitch; things like that. I love them just telling me what they want, I’ll send over what I come up with and they get so excited. That’s the best part.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I worked with John at Omnia. He was a bartender there and I managed the promotions team and directed the bottle service presentations. He’s since moved away and I bought him out of his share of the company, but we still keep in touch. Couldn’t have done all the stuff in the beginning without him.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Oh man. There are so many people that act like they want to see you to succeed, then when it comes down to referring your business, writing a quick review, or even throwing you a quick Like, Comment, or Share on a business post, it’s crickets. Lots of people are all talk and they want to see you do well, but not THAT well. But that’s ok; that’s just the way it is. And I feel like I’ve been extremely lucky with the amount of people that do show support for me and have done those things for me, sometimes without asking. I’m very grateful for those people, and try to show the same love to my friends that own businesses. This is not so much a complaint as much as it is- just a lesson.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.booth12.com
- Instagram: @booth12ent
- Facebook: facebook.com/booth12ent
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/booth12-san-diego-2