What else could we sell?

[Hayles]

I want to maximise our sales at the functions we hold at our premises. The functions range from 21st birthdays to weddings to 50th wedding anniversaries,etc. Obviously we have a captive audience (of 60 - 100 people, all ages) for about 5 hours. At the moment we offer the usual range of bar drinks and there is almost always a buffet on offer.

Could we sell anything else behind the bar? My thinking is that even if 20 people per function bought something with a £1-2 profit margin, we're up £40-80 per weekend for no extra effort and over a year it would be very worthwhile.

I'm thinking of things to improve the guests overall enjoyment of the night.

I've come up with : childrens party bags (colouring pens etc) for when they get bored.

Those 'flashy' things you get at bonfire night (the rods that light up when you snap them one??)

Masks - are they called venetian masks? (The ones on sticks!)

The ideas have to be environmentally friendly to our cleaner, no bubbles as they make the dance floor slippery, and not noisy as the bar staff will complain! Oh, and no chocolate as we always eat it before it gets sold.

(And apologies for so many posts..... blame Matt!!)

[clairemackaness]

Throw away cameras, scholl party feet gel pads, lighters with your company details on them

[Hayles]

Excellent Claire! Cheers.

ps. love the banner :lol:

[clairemackaness]

Thanks Hayles, I'm going up in the world oh.......and................I PAID FOR IT!!!!! Shock horror, the crowd goes wild!

Well actually Darren c's deposit for his painting went some of the way towards it! LOL

[directmarketingadvice]

It's not just about what you sell. You could joint venture with other busineses.

e.g. if you have fancy dress parties, you could have the name of a fancy dress shop on tickets/invites in return for a fee/profit split.

Steve

[Jayne]

Do you do wedding cakes etc Hayles, not a bad little earner.

Jayne :D

[clairemackaness]

When a client books you, you could offer an info pack of recommended suppliers and work out commissions.

i.e. If I did invitations for them I'd give you 20% of final sale etc.

[Hayles]

Got most of that covered. We recommend a few suppliers and are supposed(!) to get a commission on the bookings they receive.

We don't organise events ourselves, all our venue bookings are private functions. It's a lot less hassle that way. (Although we had an empty venue New Years Eve which won't be happening again!)

We recommend a cake lady, but so many of our venue brides now buy theirs at M&S or Tesco, and decorate it themselves that I'm thinking of doing something along those lines. (Most of the wedding bookings we have at our venue are young couples on a tight budget.)

Its a different story with the outside catering we do, we cater for all sorts of weddings and parties, with all budgets.

Am definitely going to offer more 'all in' packages for both the venue and outside catering this year.

[Jayne]

If you need any cake advice Hayles, give me an email, i'll give you some of my secrets :wink:

Jayne

[mattk]

Those 'flashy' things you get at bonfire night (the rods that light up when you snap them one??)

Glowsticks?

Oi, oi. Reach for the lazers. Safe as f**k.

[clairemackaness]

I can do invitations, placename pebbles etc if you get any requests

[SillyJokes]

Helium balloons - you can get some that you can write the person's name on with a simple pen. You could offer a range of bouquets and inflate them on the evening - it wouldn't take long and a minimum of training. - could be a very good profit margin in this.

Inflatable things like guitars, saxophones

Cheap spectacles - can be very visually funny

Tinsel and Pop wigs - very cheap and reasonably funny

Angel wings, wands and boppers, sombreros - cheap but good fun for parties.

Plastic Crowns for the birthday boy or girl

Party poppers - big ones - we do some major party cannons and lets face it they have to sweep up afterwards anyway.

Blow tubes and balls. Throw balls

Roses - a rose for the lady?

[MarkPearson]

All in all you have a huge range of add on products and services you can add to your room hire.

A brochure or folder with photographes and prices would increase your profit margins 500% easy.

You have to think, most of these people will be shopping around anyway for most of these party/celebration accessories so why not be a one stop shop. And you don't actually need to stock any of it... :-)

[clairemackaness]

Yeah, they can pre order it all to be ready at the venue. No hassle party shop

[daveashton]

why not ask the people who attend?
the old idea of asking people still works!

[bitsnstuff]

I know you said 'no chocolate', but chocolate fountains seems to be the thing of the moment and you could maybe offer to set up a large fountain with things to dip in as an added attraction for an event? I am sure it would pay for itself very quickly and you would only need to get chocolate, fruit, marshmallows, etc. each time.

Just a thought.

Kate :lol:

[Hayles]

Thanks for all the ideas! Some we already do, but others we're going to give a go.

My initial reaction to the chocolate fountain was no way because they're so messy (and we have a nice carpet!), but on second thoughts it could be a good money earner.... and there's always plastic mats.

We're looking for disposable cameras at wholesale cost, but if not we'll look out for the BOGOF offers in Tesco, and are collating some kids goody bags tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the ideas, they have really helped :D

[clairemackaness]

Chocolate fountains are really in. You could avoid the mess by doing them like they have in the markets. Skewers of bits that you do the dipping of and then hand to the customer. It's when the drunken ones dribble the choclate themselves that the mess happens.

Trust me I know, I was the one to spill chocolate all over the lovely table decorations at my friends wedding recently!

[Copyqueen]

Friend of mine is selling glo-sticks really cheaply, if you wanted to give them a try!

http://www.soglow.co.uk

[Hayles]

Thanks for that - I'll give them a go!

Hayles