• 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.

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Now I make around $6,000 a month from the business.

The advantage of a photo booth business is its low operating costs

Our 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 activation

Each 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 holiday party, and we've continued working with them every year since.

We quickly expanded into brand activations. Breaking into that space was our biggest hurdle. By refining our offerings and introducing more bespoke, experience-driven photo booth concepts, we began to stand out, leading to opportunities with agencies and brands working on product launches and activations.

Nowadays, corporate and brand activations are our main focus

Brands are willing to pay thousands without negotiation, unlike weddings, where pricing is often heavily negotiated. These clients are more focused on whether we can help achieve their goals. An extra $1,000 or $2,000 isn't a major concern, which is why I focus on events that help companies build product awareness.

We're one of the few companies in our area offering a high-angle photo booth experience and vintage booths. Our newest product is an AI photo booth — we recently worked with Garnier to transform guests' photos into custom hair-dye box designs they could take home as gifts.

My goal is to grow 10 to 20% each year, and I aim to replace my 9-to-5

I've worked in digital marketing and media for about 10 years, specializing in Google Ads and SEO, and have advanced to a senior role where I make six figures. I plan to replace my full-time income within the next six to eight months.

My goal is to grow Future Flicks Photobooth into a seven-figure business within five years by building strong industry relationships, scaling with a team and systems, continuing to innovate our offerings, strengthening our brand, and expanding into multiple cities.