This Automated Business Management System Has Given Me My Life Back!
I didn't get into the Photo Booth industry to become a glorified receptionist, but that's what seemingly happened.
When we started this booth journey almost two years ago, we thought picking up 2 bookings per month would be a nice way to supplement the income we were making from our other businesses. .
We didn't think it would become our main source of income, and we certainly didn't think we would be dealing with over 600 bookings per year!
As our booking sheet quickly grew, the little excel spreadsheet system wasn't working so well anymore. I was entering in the booth hire details onto an excel document, then onto an invoice, then on an envelope for the booth attendant. Way too many chances for this tired mum of two to make a mistake!
My husband Dan and I have always run businesses, and our primary driver has always been the freedom that running your own business provides. Not only the financial freedom, but the freedom to spend lots of time with our two kids. As our business rapidly grew, I felt like I was almost chained to my computer, and that was not what I wanted - thats not what life is about. I wanted to continue to make the money, and grow our business, but I wanted to enjoy my life in the process.
I had heard about Tave from a few other photo booth owners, but I felt so snowed under that I just didn't have time to try out and learn a new method of running my business.
Then came one weekend, that was insanely stressful, my mum was in hospital in the lead up, my kids were on school holidays and I made some mistakes. Simple mistakes that meant the weekend was an absolute nightmare, and had me screaming that I wanted to "sell this f**ker"
On the Monday that followed the weekend from hell, I called my friend Brenton at Melbourne Photobooth Hire and said "Ok I need to try Tave NOW." There may or may not have been a lot of swearing thrown in to that sentence but thats the clean version and you get the gist.
Brenton gave me a quick rundown of how it works, how it saves him time and eliminates human error.
I grabbed his referral code and I quickly signed up.
Here's What I LOVE So Far!!!
Tave allows our clients to directly input their booking details into our system, including the address which is then aligned with Google Maps. Screenshot below:
You can tailor the booth hire form to include anything you want to know about the upcoming booking such as are there any stairs, loading zones etc.
The client also inputs the start time and finish time, and at the end of the form - they pay their deposit to secure the booking. BOOM!
No more chasing deposits, or none of that awkward, "we may have one booth available as this person hasn't paid their deposit yet" moments.
Spend Less Time Creating Invoices!
When we first started out we were creating invoices on Microsoft Word. Then we upgraded to Wix invoicing to accept payments via Paypal, bank transfer and credit card payments.
This was such an easy, usable system but not as detailed and comprehensive as the Tave system. I was reluctant to change something that was so easy to use.
So to begin with I simply started using the data input/booking side of Tave, in conjunction with my Wix invoicing.
Once I found my feet with Tave, I was ready to tackle the invoicing side, and it really is super easy to run. Although the Wix system is visually more appealing, Tave is just so much more comprehensive and the ability to automate the system so well, overrides the visual simplicity of Wix.
One of my favourite features of the invoicing, is that you can set up any timeline that you like, for instance, we have called ours " Photobooth Payment Schedule"
So when I create an invoice and select "Photobooth payment schedule" as the payment term, it will automatically create two seperate invoices, one for the deposit, and one for the balance.
The deposit is payable when submitting the booking form, the balance is payable 14 days before the hire date.
The client can access these invoices online at any time. So no more emails saying "Could you please resend my invoice?" "When is the final balance due?" "How much do I owe?"
Automated Client Emails - Efficient Contact With Minimal Effort!
Another feature that I love is the email scheduling. I have used this to set up an automated email that is sent to the client 14 days before the event, as shown below:
This confirms all details are correct.
I then have another email template set up to send my booth attendant:
The bonus of this is that they can then click on the email and add directly into their phone calendar.
They can also click on the address link and it will open in the Maps app, and direct them to their destination.
Save Time Creating Templates!
As Tave questionnaire's can be customised to include pretty much anything you want, I decided to make choosing templates even easier for our clients. (and me!)
Now they get an automatic email after paying their deposit, personally addressed to them with the following "questionnaire' included.
It shows our most popular template options, along with a simple radio button selection and a question stating "What would you like written on the strip?" There is also the option to upload an invitation or logo for a custom created printstrip design.
This is then kept in their job file in Tave so I'm no longer searching through emails, facebook message and text messages to find their template choices. (another huge timesaver for me!)
This article post only touches on some of the features Tave has, there is so many more. I am just talking about the simple changes I have used to save so much time. I'm looking forward to learning about what else Tave has to offer!
Want To Give It A Try For Free?
Tave's price point ranges from $24 to $49 per month, which is so affordable, particularly when you look at how much time you're saving every week.
You can try it for free for 60 days by using the referral code below when you sign up.
(double the normal trial period)
Tave Referral Code:
This is not a sponsored post of any kind, I know there are quite a few other software options available, however this is my experience with Tave, which I thought may help others.
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