Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriel Beeler.
Gabriel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started my technical journey when I was 16, recording bands in my garage. I went to school for recording engineering and then worked in the audio / visual field. I moved to LA in 2006 to attend Grad school at Cal State Fullerton, and starting doing photography in 2010. I started out doing the Red-Carpet circuit in Hollywood, and other various events around town. Back then, I sold my photos for $3 apiece, and I would be fortunate to earn enough for gas money. In early 2013, I watched a YouTube video on creating a DIY photo booth, and pieced together some studio gear for an event. The booth was really popular but I had no customers or business model. Honestly, I just really liked doing photo booths and kept trying to improve each year. Although there is a lot of competition here in LA, my motto was just to focus on my own business and look for ways to improve it. Being great at something takes time and repetition, and focusing on getting better each and every day.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I had many struggles along the way, as do many who succeed in the creative field. I had no business skills, sales experience, never built a website or any those things. Photoshop has a really long learning curve, and so does most photo booth software. Facebook was a great resource, and I joined groups to read about common problems that other vendors faced.
I owe a lot of my success to my friends at All American Case Company, who have built and designed all of my gear, and took the time to encourage my success, other friends that helped me along the way are GG from Litrato: The Booth and Ricko Flores from Graphix Photo Booth. I also started attending Wedding Wizards events last year, and met a lot of wedding industry professionals.
Please tell us about Lucky Frog Photo Booth.
Lucky Frog Photo Booth specializes in Photo Booth Rentals around LA and OC, and this is the 5th year of doing business. We are known for high quality photos, great customer service and having a lot of unique Inflatable Photo Booths. As with any small business, our focus is on providing a quality product and paying attention to our customer’s needs. We have lots of high quality props and backdrops, and try to provide a truly unique experience. I believe that each customer and photo booth will be unique and special. It is our job to make sure that the creative vision of the customer is realized, and that they get the best possible photo booth service.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have outsourced a lot of the things that I know little about. When you have a business, your time is very valuable. I also would have focused more on marketing, and less on the technical aspects of the business.
Contact Info:
- Address: 15700 Belshire Ave, Norwalk, CA 90650
- Website: http://www.luckyfrogphotos.com/
- Phone: 562-303-9926
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbeeler33/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luckyfrogphotos
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/luckyfrogphotos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lucky-frog-photo-booth-norwalk-7
- Other: https://www.gigsalad.com/lucky_frog_photo_booth_norwalk
