Meet Armando Estrada of AG Photobooth in Montebello

Today we’d like to introduce you to Armando Estrada.

Armando, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
While attending a retirement party, my girlfriend (Gaby) and I saw this little tent that would take pictures of guests and decided to try it. We were immediately hooked on the experience and made a few trips to make sure we got every silly pose possible! A couple of weeks went by and one day the thought came, “If we had this fun with the photo booth, why not provide this service ourselves?”

It was beyond our belief that as many parties as we had attended, from weddings to baptisms to quinceaneras, we had never seen this featured in the parties. We began our research as far as equipment, design, and target clientele, This was something that had to be affordable, fun, and of course memorable for the client. When we felt like it was time to put it all together, the adventure of AG Photobooth had officially began. The reason “photobooth” is used as a compound word rather than two separate words is simple, as stated above, we needed this booth to be an affordable, fun, and memorable experience and those components should be together.

Getting clients… oh boy was that nerve-wrecking. We started with events for family and friends, and eventually craigslist. Slowly the references and inquiries started coming. The rest is history.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There are times we thought “my goodness what did we get ourselves into?” simply because one needs to develop the stomach for the competitiveness of the photo booth business. There are so many nowadays that it feels overwhelming having to convince clients that your equipment, quality, and customer service is better than the lower rate competition. Inclusive to this, there are so many new skills one must learn and master (rather quickly at that!) For example, learning how to set your camera for the best setting possible might seem easy and for professional photographers this is no rocket science, but for us, this was a new art which we highly respect.

Getting to know and feel comfortable with our equipment was by far the most difficult.

Following this is booking events, the competition is fierce! How do you compete with others that are basically doing this for free? Oh, that is just not fun. Well, you trust your plan and promote your heart out, network at every event, and TRUST your plan and business some more. There are months we are swamped versus others that are much more relaxed, but we have learned this is the game and you cannot lose faith. If anything, you keep educating yourself on the ever-changing industry and show you are truly worth the investment.

AG Photobooth – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are beyond a photo booth business. Our goal is to make sure your event is memorable. When you book AG Photobooth, you are booking a business that understands this rental was an added expense, you are booking a family-ran business that prides itself in FAMILY and will treat yours as such.

We custom make your props. Want something in specific? We’ll make it happen. The quality we provide can be seen instantly when compared to others. This is because we want you to continue booking us for events to come. When you think of a booth that is willing to go the extra mile for you and your guests, that’s who we are.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is definitely in the eye of the beholder but to us, it means we made a lasting imprint on our clients. When we hear “everyone loved your booth” is when we feel the most accomplished.

Booking events is awesome, meeting people and hearing about their future events gets us excited but when we are actually there making this a memorable event for them, we feel blessed. Our name is still getting out there, we are still growing, and we want to make sure our success continues from positive feedback and references.

No event is too big or too small, but when you get those events that have never seen what a photo booth is or have pushed the “start” button in one, you are the first experience and that’s when we know we’re definitely up to something good!

One can only hope to be the household name one day.

Pricing:

• $140 an hour with a two hour minimum.

Contact Info:

• Website: agphotobooth.net
• Phone: 323-377-8125 or 323-360-4423
• Email: info@agphotobooth.net
• Instagram: instagram.com/agpbooth
• Facebook: facebook.com/agphotobooth
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ag-photobooth-montebello

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.