Last Updated: February 23, 2024, 9:00 am by TRUiC Team


Photo Booth Business Insurance

Getting business insurance for your photo booth is essential.

Insurance coverage can shield your business from a range of risks, including property damage, bodily injury, and financial loss. 

For example, an employee may accidentally damage a customer’s valuable property when delivering a booth to a venue. If something like that should happen, insurance can cover the cost of legal fees and compensation.

We’ll help you find the most personalized and affordable coverage for your unique business.

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Recommended: Next Insurance is dedicated to matching small businesses with the right policy at the best price.

Best Insurance for a Photo Booth Business

General liability insurance is — generally speaking — one of the most important insurance policies for photo booths. 

Some of the risks general liability insurance covers are:

  • Bodily injury
  • Property damage
  • Medical payments
  • Legal defense and judgment
  • Personal and advertising injury

While general liability insurance can cover a wide range of risks, it may not be adequate to cover all of the potential risks that your business may face. In order to ensure comprehensive coverage, it may be necessary to obtain specialized policies that are specifically designed to address these unique risks. These specialized policies may offer additional protection, such as: 

  • Equipment insurance: This type of insurance is specifically designed to protect the photo booth's equipment from damages or theft. It covers the cost of repairs or replacements in case of accidental damage, loss or theft of the equipment.
  • Professional liability insurance: This type of insurance protects the photo booth owner against claims made by clients for errors, mistakes or negligence that result in financial loss or damage to reputation. For example, if a client claims that the photo booth's software malfunctioned and ruined their photos, the professional liability insurance can help cover the cost of damages.
  • Business income coverage: This type of insurance provides financial protection to a photo booth owner in case of unforeseen circumstances that disrupt the business operations, such as natural disasters, fire or other catastrophic events. It covers the lost income, additional expenses and other costs associated with the business interruption.

Getting business coverage involves a choice between the following two types of insurers:

  • Traditional brick and mortar insurers: Traditional insurers, such as Farmers and Nationwide, tend to rely more on manual processes and expert judgment. As such, their speed and efficiency may suffer. Policy premiums are generally higher due to increased overhead.
  • Online insurers: Insurtechs, like MetroMile and Next, use advanced algorithms and machine learning to analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately. This enables them to assess risk and price policies more efficiently than their traditional and more expensive counterparts.

Let's Find the Coverage You Need

The best insurers design exactly the coverage you need at the most affordable price.

Cost of General Liability Insurance

On average, photo booth businesses in America spend between $400 - $700 per year for $1 million in general liability coverage.

Compare the average cost of general liability insurance for a photo booth business to other professional industries using the graph below.

Several factors will determine the price of your policy. These include your:

  • Location
  • Deductible
  • Number of employees
  • Per-occurrence limit
  • General aggregate limit

You may be able to acquire general liability insurance at a discounted rate by purchasing it as part of a business owner’s policy (BOP) rather than as a standalone policy.

A BOP is a more comprehensive solution that includes multiple forms of coverage, such as business interruption and property insurance.

Graph showing average price of general liability insurance prices per industry

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Find the Best Rate

Discover the best coverage at the lowest rate in our cheapest business insurance review.

Common Situations That General Liability Insurance May Cover for a Photo Booth Business

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Example 1: When an employee fails to properly secure the background, someone trips and knocks the set onto two guests. General liability insurance would cover the guests’ medical bills, your legal fees, and any damages they file in a lawsuit.

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Example 2: You used the incorrect cord on the picture printer, causing it to overheat and explode at a wedding. The wedding venue wants repayment for fire damage and its lost revenue for the time it closed for repairs. General liability insurance would cover your legal fees and payouts awarded by the court.

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Example 3: A cord comes loose, causing a guest to trip and fall. They sue you for help covering their medical bills. General liability insurance would cover those bills.

Other Types of Coverage Photo Booth Businesses Need

While general liability is the most important type of insurance to have, there are several other forms of coverage you should be aware of. Below are some of the most common types of coverage:

Home-Based Business Insurance

Many photo booth business owners handle administrative tasks out of their home, storing all equipment on site. If your home suffers a loss or a client has an accident during a meeting there, you may find you’re underinsured or uninsured through your existing homeowners insurance policy. Home-based business insurance fills in those gaps, protecting against losses a standard homeowners policy excludes.

You can typically purchase home-based business insurance as a part of a business owners policy (BOP). For an additional premium, some homeowners insurance providers offer this coverage as a rider (extension of coverage).

Commercial Auto Insurance

If you have an accident while traveling to or from a customer venue, your personal auto policy may exclude that loss. A separate commercial auto policy helps fill that coverage gap, and each state mandates the minimum levels of auto coverage for all vehicles that operate on public roadways. Most often, those minimums only offer basic protection, leaving you underinsured in the event of a loss so consider purchasing limits greater than those required by state law.

You can typically purchase commercial auto insurance as part of a business owners’ policy (BOP).

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Most states require businesses to carry workers’ compensation insurance for their part-time and full-time employees. This coverage protects your employees if they become injured at work or fall ill after a work-related accident. It not only covers an employee’s medical bills and lost wages if they need time to recover but also any disability or death benefits stemming from a work-related accident. While your state may allow exemptions for business owners, you should consider including yourself in your workers’ compensation policy if you engage in the day-to-day operation of the business.

You can typically purchase workers’ compensation insurance as a standalone policy.

Professional Liability Insurance

Many of the events your business serves are exciting, emotional times for your clients. Unfortunately, you may not always capture every moment a client expects. Professional liability insurance, also known as “errors and omissions” insurance, provides protection for negligence claims brought on by human error and/or misunderstandings between you and the client.

Additional Steps To Protect Your Business

Although it’s easy (and essential) to invest in business insurance, it shouldn’t be your only defense.

Here are several things you can do to better protect your photo booth business:

  • Use legally robust contracts and other business documents. (We offer free templates for some of the most common legal forms.)
  • Set up an LLC or corporation to protect your personal assets. (Visit our step-by-step guides to learn how to form an LLC or corporation in your state.)
  • Stay up to date with business licensing.
  • Maintain your corporate veil.

Photo Booth Business Insurance FAQ

Yes, absolutely. You will need to first get a quote from an online business insurance provider like Next Insurance. Next allows you to then purchase a policy immediately and your coverage will be active within 48 hours.

A typical business owner’s policy includes general liability, business interruption, and commercial property insurance. However, BOPs are often customizable, so your agent may recommend adding professional liability, commercial auto, or other types of coverage to your package depending on your company’s needs.

"Business insurance" is a generic term used to describe many different types of coverage a business may need. General liability insurance, on the other hand, is a specific type of coverage that business owners need to protect their assets.

In a word, yes; it's very likely that a photo booth will need business insurance coverage right from the start. Insurance can offer protection to your business against various risks such as financial loss, personal injury, and property damage. Additionally, some types of insurance are mandated by state laws, making their purchase essential for compliance. 

Not necessarily. Certain exceptions may be written directly into your photo booth business insurance policy, and some perils may be entirely uninsurable.

Yes, an LLC is meant to create a legal barrier between your business and your personal assets and credit. If you haven’t formed an LLC yet, use our Form an LLC guide to get started.

An LLC doesn’t protect your business assets from lawsuits and liability– that’s where business insurance comes in. Business insurance helps protect your business from liability and risk.