Q&A talks with Jonathan Johnson who is the owner of SnapSeat, a photo booth rental company based in Hartford.
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Q&A talks with Jonathan Johnson who is the owner of SnapSeat, a photo booth rental company based in Hartford.
Q. What is SnapSeat and how did you start the business?
A. SnapSeat Photo Booths provides professional photo booths and photo activations to corporate events, festivals, weddings and parties throughout New England — based here in Hartford. I started with a lifelong interest in photography. The first idea and attempt at this business started with portrait stations at a few festivals in 2010. After I was laid off from an accounting job, I launched SnapSeat in 2013.
Q. Technology is impacting most businesses these days including photo booth companies. SnapSeat has a live social media marketing offering for its corporate event photo booths. What is it and what's unique about it?
A. SnapSeat generates live social media impressions at events, which allows guests to create instant posts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email and text. Guests make a memory, post it to their social accounts, and put a photo strip in their pockets. At larger events, we generate thousands of social media impressions and email lists for remarketing.
Q. What's the next technological innovation for photo booths?
A. When I started in 2010, we had a low-tech, “old school” photography concept that included a digital camera, tripod and a couple small printers. As the industry developed, improved hardware and software became available when we relaunched in 2013 and continues to improve.
We've reinvested in technology for the first three years, upgrading to improve our systems, computers and software. I'm on my fifth model of photo booth in just three years to find the right mix of aesthetic, size and function. Now we have upgraded our entire fleet from one booth to five photo booth setups.
Our software developer also continually improves, rolling out new features and trending options — video booths, live slow-motion video, animated GIFs, boomerangs, green screen, live slideshows and more.
Q. You recently testified in front of Congress' House Education and the Workforce Committee on a hearing about the sharing economy and the opportunities it provides for innovation and flexibility. Why did you testify and what was your message to the committee?
A. I'm passionate about entrepreneurship and we need to help people who want to risk their time, talent and resources to start a business.
I represented the everyday business owner at the committee hearing. There were three industry experts who testfied on the sharing economy. The message I shared was that regulations and taxes are burdensome and difficult to navigate for new entrepreneurs. I believe we need to create an environment on a state and national level to foster success for startups.
That could include giving tax breaks to new and small business, and making the business registration process easier for startups.
Q. In your testimony, you said social media sites like Thumbstock.com helped grow and establish your business. How?
A. I've found that in the sharing and gig economy there are numerous tools that make the marketing and selling of products and services easier. It seems to me that we have perhaps the most freedom and least barriers to entry to start and grow a business in history. Anyone with an idea and a phone or computer can buy a domain name, build a website, create content on social media, launch a product and advertise to specific segments on multiple internet channels.
One marketplace I've had tremendous success on is Thumbtack.com. This site gives customers personalized quotes on projects and services they are looking for — plumbers, website designers, photographers, and more — from local professionals. As a pro on this site, I can view the specifics of a job and then quote the ones I'm interested in. I was getting requests from local customers the day I signed up. Thumbtack clients were 80 percent of my business in the first year, and I've been hired over 200 times just on this one site in the last few years.
Q. You currently operate out of a co-working space in Hartford. Why?
We've tried to keep overhead low and avoid debt since we started SnapSeat, and a co-working office space is a great solution for a small business or new venture. We can maintain an office in Hartford at a fraction of the cost of needing to rent space, sign a lease, have insurance on that space, pay utilities, etc. For us, being in Hartford means being in Connecticut's Capital City, which we feel is important for how clients view our business, both locally and in New York City and Boston, and both building SEO of our website and relationships with local businesses.
