May 1, 2017

Meet Mega Hermin of Fantastic Snap Photobooth in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mega Hermin.

Mega, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It all started when I and my co-workers were on assignment waiting on our company booth at an outdoor festival, back in the spring of 2014. It was very hot and dusty that day barely anybody came. So, we walked around and found this booth. They offered a polaroid (that’s what we thought at that time) pictures with the event logo for $1. So, we got excited and get several of our pictures taken with variety of poses. It was so much fun! The photo strips printed immediately.

Picture quality could be better with basically no design, just logo. The cut of the photo strips was off center. Overall the quality of the prints was kinda a letdown for me but hey, it was just $1. Interested, I went to their website that night. Judging from the photo prints I was so surprised to find how nice their website is. More surprised was I to see their pricing was actually high. They even have some awards for the many good reviews clients gave them. But most clients gave good reviews because they had so much fun… this got me thinking either they don’t care about the quality or they thought they couldn’t expect more. Curious, I shop around and found many of the same kind.

Personally, if I was to hire a photo booth service, besides the fun of it, I certainly would look for one who provides great picture quality, good design and precise print cuts, with straight forward affordable prices. Those are the basics. Wouldn’t anybody? But then again, many people still don’t know what to expect, just like I did.

Long story short, after encountering a few more photo booth services, I talked to my husband and both of us agreed that this might be something that we would enjoy doing. A few months later we got into the business. We work hard giving the clients our best, putting ourselves in their shoes, while having so much fun doing it.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
First few months it was a slow hike to the hill, but then suddenly it was like crazy. People finding us and we got booked rapidly we need to turned down many requests. Then as suddenly as it started, a few months later the calls stopped.

Since we were fully booked weekend’s day and night until 4 months ahead, I didn’t think much about it. But strangest thing happened, we did not get a single phone call in 2 months even though the click rate to our website going up! Not. a. single. phone. call.

After much investigation, I found out that it was because all these high-priced photo booth companies been rock bottoming their prices left and right. Moreover, obviously, they were upping their advertising funds higher and higher so they would be on top on the search engine. (We were always on the top of the search page before this happened). I was stunned. If this is really because of our company taking their jobs, we should be proud as hell…but if they planned to do it until we were out of business, then it would be not good. Especially if they planned to go back to their regular prices once competitions were gone. We should start finding other ways for customers to find us and fast since our marketing funds is not unlimited.

Many prayers later, we decided to just give it up to God. And then it started again. Slowly people started finding us again. Not by the search engine but by finding our few reviews. If not by God giving us the chance to keep existing and show us the way, we will not still be here by now.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Fantastic Snap Photobooth – what should we know?
We pride ourselves by providing beautiful photo booth with excellent service and high quality pictures at affordable prices. Other than the regular unlimited pictures, table full of fun props and free set up and break down, rather than charging more money, we believe in including these stuffs to any photo booth package with no additional charge: free delivery (within 40 miles), free USB flash drive with all the digital images (at the end of the event, NOT long after), free online hosting, free FULL custom design for the photo lay out (not just adding wordings), free full custom design for the welcome page inside the booth. And last but not least…free service from a professional and courteous attendant to guide and wait on the guests. At the moment, nobody I could trust doing it better than my husband J.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I will eternally be grateful for our mentor Brian Krauze who designed our beautiful photo booth and showed us the rope to the business.

And for my best teammates ever in everything, my accomplice, Chandra, my dear husband. He took care on-site businesses while I deal with bookings and designing.

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