Meet Irma Montes | Truck Driver and Photobooth Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Irma Montes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Irma, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
While I have my routine job as a truck driver. I got my idea about starting a photo booth side job trying to earn some extra money on the side from watching videos from Instagram and Facebook. Initially I started off by purchasing the Photobooth camera system and printer with backdrop support system. After practicing the camera at home, I got my first client and first paid event. Event went well and after some trial and errors, soon after I started getting more clients. I started to invest more items to add more variety to future clients. After a year of doing special events, Quincerneras and weddings, I know have several bookings for my services throughout the year.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Currently I work for JB Hunt as a full time truck driver. I’ve had many different jobs over the past years, but in the last few years I thought about getting my class B license to drive buses. I worked for 1st Transit in Irvine as bus driver. After working with them I worked for MV Transit in Los Angeles. Reason for leaving MV was due to safety. Having been assaulted by passengers it was no longer worth it. I got another opportunity to work with Greyhound, but that did not work out so well. Too many issues with the company. Being a female driver is not always so easy having to work in a male dominated field. I moved on wanting to get my class A license to be a truck driver. Swift was offering truck driver training but upon graduating I had to work with Swift for a year in exchange for the Class A license certification. While working with Swift was a good start they were not really know for treating employees very well. After my year I looked into other companies and found that JB Hunt has good reputation and I’ve been working for them for over two years. Its been a good experience cause it allowed me to work local and I got to do over the road driving state to state.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my friends were to come visit for a week long adventure. Some of the things we like to do when we get together are visit theme parks such as Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm or Universal Studios. In the summer time its always nice to visit our favorite beach as Santa Monica to spend time on the beach as well as wall the pier area and enjoy the day. For more of a night life atmosphere we enjoy going to movie theater, or find a nice restaurant such as Cheese Cake Factory or Bocca De Peppo and enjoy a nice meal and drinks. Getting together to catch up on our lives is what we like most.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
If there is any one who deserves a shout out is my daughter Anna. She has been instrumental in supporting and encouraging me not quite on myself or quit my idea of having a photobooth business. There are times when it seems to much work to get things done and my daughter is always there to help or offer guidance on what needs to get done or explained so that what I am confused on is understood.

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