If you're still manually chasing leads at 11 PM, copying and pasting the same email for the fifteenth time this week, or worse, forgetting to send invoices because you're just too busy, this might be the most valuable article you read all month.

I'm about to tell you something that sounds incredibly unsexy.

It's not about pricing hacks. It's not about landing dream clients or going viral on Instagram.

It's about a CRM.

I know. Your eyes just glazed over. You came here for strategy, not software lectures.

But stay with me, because this one system has saved me over half a million dollars in staff wages over the past ten years. And if you're drowning in admin work right now, this might change everything.

The $500K Mistake I Almost Made

Let me take you back to 2014.

I had just started my photo booth business as a side hustle while working full time in insurance. Somehow, and I still marvel at this, we did six figures in our first year.

Which sounds amazing, right? Goal achieved. Pop the champagne.

Except I was drowning.

I was managing everything from my personal Gmail account and a Google spreadsheet. Every single inquiry came into my inbox mixed with spam, work emails, and those random newsletters I never unsubscribed from. I'd manually copy each lead into a spreadsheet. I'd email them back. I'd set a reminder in my phone to follow up in three days. And then I'd forget about it because I had an actual day job to do.

I was working through lunch breaks. Evenings. Weekends. Responding to emails at 11 PM because that's when I finally had time to catch up.

And even then, leads were slipping through the cracks.

I had no idea who I'd quoted, who I'd followed up with, who ghosted me. Zero visibility into my pipeline. I didn't even really know what a pipeline was back then. I had no clue if someone was about to book or if I'd just wasted two hours on a lead that was never going to convert.

It was absolute chaos.

Then one of my booth attendants—shout out to them—introduced me to Pixifi. They were a photographer and used it for their photography business. "Cat, you need this," they said.

So we set it up.

And all of a sudden, I could manage my entire business on my one-hour lunch break at work.

No exaggeration. One hour.

Everything was in one place. Contracts. Invoices. Email templates. Lead tracking. Payment reminders. I could see exactly where every lead was in the pipeline. I could automate follow-ups so I wasn't manually chasing people down. I could schedule tasks so nothing fell through the cracks.

It was like someone handed me back 20 hours a week.

And over the past ten years, that system has saved me over $500,000 in staff wages for that one admin person I never had to hire.

The CRM did it for me.

Why Most Photo Booth Owners Get CRMs Wrong

So when I tell you that your CRM should be doing more than just storing contact info, I'm not being dramatic. I'm telling you that the right system, used the right way, can literally replace an entire employee.

Let me say that again: The right CRM, used the right way, can replace an entire employee.

And if you're still using spreadsheets or a basic CRM that doesn't do automation, you're bleeding time and money every single day.

Here's what I see most photo booth owners doing wrong.

Mistake Number One: They Buy the Cheapest Thing They Can Find

You see a CRM that's $15 a month and another one that's $40 a month and you think, why would I pay an extra $25 when they basically do the same thing?

But here's the problem—they don't do the same thing.

The cheap CRM might let you store contacts and send emails. Great. But does it handle contracts? Invoices? Payment reminders? Email segmentation? Lead automation? Event management? Scheduling?

Can you attach a picture to an email? Because some of the biggest CRMs out there don't even let you put a picture in an email.

So now you're using three different tools. One for your CRM, one for invoicing, one for contracts. Maybe a separate email marketing platform. A separate scheduling tool for staff.

And every time you get a new lead, you're manually entering their info in four different places. You're copying and pasting between systems. You're toggling between tabs. You're increasing the chance that something gets missed or forgotten.

Maybe you automate it with Zapier. But now you've created a tangled web that only works in perfect conditions. And heaven forbid AWS goes down, because Zapier will go down with it.

If you want to see your full pipeline and track leads through your sales process, can your CRM even do that? Because now that data is scattered across multiple platforms and you have no visibility.

You're paying $15 a month to save money, but it's costing you hours every single week in wasted time.

And if you've ever wanted to hire someone to help you with admin? Good luck training them on your Frankenstein setup of five different tools that don't talk to each other properly.

Mistake Number Two: Not Using Your CRM to Its Full Potential

I can't tell you how many photo booth owners I talk to who have a CRM but only use it as a glorified contact list. They're not setting up automations. They're not using email templates. They're not automating payment follow-ups or lead follow-ups.

They're basically using a $50-a-month tool to do what a free spreadsheet could do.

And here's the painful truth: If you're not automating, you're going to stay stuck at whatever revenue level you're at right now. Because you physically cannot handle more leads, more clients, more bookings without drowning in admin work or hiring more people.

Automation is what lets you scale without adding headcount.

The Five Workflows That Changed Everything

So what should you actually be automating?

Here are the five workflows that matter most, the ones that save me hours every single week.

Number One: Lead Follow-Ups

Every lead that comes in should automatically get a response. Not in an hour. Not when you get around to it. Immediately.

And then they should get follow-up emails on a schedule—three days later, a week later, two weeks before their event. Whatever cadence you decide, the point is that it happens automatically.

Most leads don't book on the first contact. They need nurturing. They need reminders. They need to see that you're professional and on top of things. If you're manually trying to remember to follow up with every single lead, you're going to drop the ball. It's not a matter of if, it's when.

But when your CRM handles it? Every lead gets the same level of attention. Every time.

Number Two: Payment Reminders

Your CRM should be sending invoice reminders without you having to think about it. Deposit due. Balance due. Overdue. All automated.

This one alone will save you so much stress because chasing down payments is the worst. It's awkward. It's time-consuming. And it makes you feel like you're begging for money you're owed.

But when your system sends automatic reminders? It's not personal. It's just business. And clients pay faster because they're getting consistent reminders without you having to be the bad guy.

Number Three: Proposal Delivery

When someone requests a quote, your CRM should be able to generate and send proposals automatically. You're not copying and pasting into a Word doc. You're not manually emailing PDFs. You build a proposal in your CRM, and it gets sent with one click.

Even better? Your CRM lets your clients sign the contract and pay the deposit right from the proposal. Because now there's zero friction. They can book immediately.

For us, a lot of our corporate stuff is custom, so we don't always send pricing right away. But for weddings and private events? Completely automated. The pricing page goes out immediately. And that's the beauty of a good CRM—you can customize the automation based on the type of lead.

Number Four: Post-Event Feedback

After an event, your CRM should automatically send a feedback request or review request. This is how you get testimonials without having to beg for them.

And the timing matters—you want to send it within 24 to 48 hours while the experience is still fresh. If you wait a week, people forget. If you wait two weeks, you're never getting that review.

But if you automate it? It happens every single time. No exceptions.

Number Five: Event Reminders and Questionnaires

Your CRM should be sending clients reminders about their upcoming event and collecting the info you need—design preferences, event details, backdrop choices, special requests. All through an automated form.

So by the time the event rolls around, you have everything you need. No last-minute back and forth. No scrambling for details the day before. No "wait, what backdrop did they want again?" moments.

These are the workflows that save you hours every week.

And once you have these in place, you can start automating other stuff—email list segmentation, lead scoring, marketing campaigns. But start with these five. Get these running, and you'll immediately feel the difference.

But What About the "I'll Do It Later" Excuse?

I know what you're thinking right now.

"Cat, this sounds great, but I don't have time to set all this up right now. I'll do it later when things slow down."

Let me tell you something. Things are never going to slow down. There's always going to be something more urgent, more important, more pressing than setting up your CRM.

There's always going to be a reason to put it off.

And every day you wait, you're losing money. You're losing leads. You're losing time. You're working nights and weekends because you don't have a system handling the basics for you.

The best time to set up your CRM was when you started your business. The second best time is right now.

Not next month. Not when you're less busy. Not when you have more time.

Right now.

Because here's what happens if you don't: You're going to keep working nights and weekends. You're going to keep losing leads. You're going to keep missing follow-ups, forgetting invoices, and drowning in admin work.

And eventually, you're going to burn out. Or you're going to plateau because you physically can't take on any more clients without hiring more people to help you with admin.

And now you're stuck.

But if you automate now, you can scale without adding headcount. You can handle more leads, more bookings, more revenue without working more hours.

That's freedom. And that's what we're building toward.

So Which CRM Should You Actually Use?

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Cat, which CRM should I use?"

Here's the honest answer: It depends.

There's no one-size-fits-all solution. What works for me might not work for you. It depends on your business size, your budget, and your needs.

What I will say is this: Pick a CRM that can grow with you. Because there's nothing more painful than having to switch CRMs down the road.

And whatever you choose needs to be able to handle contracts, invoices, and automations. These are non-negotiables. If a CRM can't do these three things, it's not the right fit for a photo booth business.

For us, we used Pixifi for ten years. It was built for event businesses and it did everything we needed—contracts, invoices, proposals, automations, scheduling, event management, email marketing, all in one place.

Is it perfect? No. Is it cheap? Absolutely not. But it saved me over half a million dollars in staff wages over the past decade.

Sadly, they stopped developing it. So now we're actually building our own CRM. Pray for me. But I'm not recommending everyone go build their own—we got here for very different reasons.

For booth-specific CRMs, I'm a really big fan of Booth Book V2. And no, this isn't sponsored at all. They have no idea I'm even saying this.

If I were starting over today, I would start with them. Their newest version is absolutely amazing. The only reason we aren't switching to it is that it's just not ready with all the things we need yet, although it will more than likely be at some point this year. Unfortunately, we need to move now.

Whatever you choose, just make sure it's actually solving your problems. Don't pick something because it's cheap or because someone told you to. Pick it because it does what you need it to do for your business.

And then actually use it.

The Foundation of Everything

Here's what I want you to walk away with today:

Your CRM is not just software. It's not just a tool.

It's the foundation of a scalable business.

You can't scale if you're doing everything manually. You can't scale if you're the bottleneck. And you can't scale if every lead, every follow-up, every invoice requires your personal attention.

You'll hit a ceiling. And you'll burn out trying to break through it.

But with the right system in place, you can handle more clients without working more hours. You can build a business that runs without you. And you can create freedom.

That's the whole point, isn't it?

So if you're still using spreadsheets or a basic CRM that doesn't do automation, this is your sign to upgrade.

And if you already have a CRM but you're not using it to its fullest potential, this is your sign to actually set up those workflows.

Because the time you invest now will pay you back for years.

I promise.

The right CRM, used the right way, can replace an entire employee. It can save you half a million dollars over a decade. It can give you back your nights and weekends. It can be the difference between you running your business and your business running without you.

Don't wait another day.

Ready to scale your photo booth business with systems that actually work? Learn more about working with Catalina at Photo Booth Mastery or connect on Instagram.