I currently run a successful event 'Altitude' in Bridgend. I also regularly DJ for large brands.
It's been a little quiet recently as I had some time off because of illness. And full time work has knocked me for six.
I'm about to launch my own company which wil cater for your events, promotion, websites, pr, artists etc... and get local DJ's from different area's into different events across the country.
I'll explain more once i've got to learn a little more about yourselves.
but any advice, idea's, artwork etc. hit me up.
if you want stuff designed for your events (ie logos etc) i'l do them for free (i need a portfolio for my business too)
Im glad there are like minded individuals here...
UKBF is a good place to get involved!
It's been a little quiet recently as I had some time off because of illness. And full time work has knocked me for six.
I'm about to launch my own company which wil cater for your events, promotion, websites, pr, artists etc... and get local DJ's from different area's into different events across the country.
I'll explain more once i've got to learn a little more about yourselves.
but any advice, idea's, artwork etc. hit me up.
if you want stuff designed for your events (ie logos etc) i'l do them for free (i need a portfolio for my business too)
Im glad there are like minded individuals here...
UKBF is a good place to get involved!
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G
gogojonny
- Original Poster
- #6
I only have limited experience of ents industry, but I believe this is the formula.
Come up with a night - 60s night, movie songs night, ABBA night etc. Something popular people want.
Look for a suitable venue.
Venue will listen (unless their have their own events team) - bar takings are key. Anything that gets people into their bar is a winner.
Negotiate terms with venue. Set ticket price. Maybe a % goes to the venue, maybe a % of bar takings go to the promoter.
Advertise your night.
Good luck with it all.
Come up with a night - 60s night, movie songs night, ABBA night etc. Something popular people want.
Look for a suitable venue.
Venue will listen (unless their have their own events team) - bar takings are key. Anything that gets people into their bar is a winner.
Negotiate terms with venue. Set ticket price. Maybe a % goes to the venue, maybe a % of bar takings go to the promoter.
Advertise your night.
Good luck with it all.
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Ian,
I'm not too far away from you - Blackwood?
I'd love to have a conversation with you sometime or talk via e-mail to discuss how I can channel my enthusiasm for business in to something as exciting as a events company.
Honestly - I've not got the first clue of how to go about things. However I wouldn't need much directing in terms of how to get going however if you could advise on where to start possibly? I could be a good customer in the future!
[email protected]
or pm me a telephone number and an appropriate time to call.
Exciting stuff!
I'm not too far away from you - Blackwood?
I'd love to have a conversation with you sometime or talk via e-mail to discuss how I can channel my enthusiasm for business in to something as exciting as a events company.
Honestly - I've not got the first clue of how to go about things. However I wouldn't need much directing in terms of how to get going however if you could advise on where to start possibly? I could be a good customer in the future!
[email protected]
or pm me a telephone number and an appropriate time to call.
Exciting stuff!
Upvote
0
Currently in work at the moment. So can't do much or commit too much time to these threads.
But www.facebook.com/djskizm if you wish to find me on there and I'll be able to discuss things with you shaun. i'm hoping to start spreading a few events out from bridgend.
GoGo hit the nail on the head though. So long as there will be a benefit to the bar (ie so long as you can show them how you will get punters in) and you have a decent amount of support (ie a big group of friends who will be willing to help out on the promo and bring a few) then you just got to get the ball rolling initially.
what kind of dj'ing do you do?
But www.facebook.com/djskizm if you wish to find me on there and I'll be able to discuss things with you shaun. i'm hoping to start spreading a few events out from bridgend.
GoGo hit the nail on the head though. So long as there will be a benefit to the bar (ie so long as you can show them how you will get punters in) and you have a decent amount of support (ie a big group of friends who will be willing to help out on the promo and bring a few) then you just got to get the ball rolling initially.
what kind of dj'ing do you do?
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WHO said negociate a percentage of the bar takings. You have got to be kidding. No publicam anyway is going to wear that and many are pulling out of putting on events because by the time you add it all up the bottom line isn't much greater than having a few good spending regulars in.
As for staring out now SIX PUBS IN LONDON are closing every week.
The only good news is that most DJ's have got greedy deamnding over £150 a night. Go in with £100 and you might get what little of the business there is around.
Robert
As for staring out now SIX PUBS IN LONDON are closing every week.
The only good news is that most DJ's have got greedy deamnding over £150 a night. Go in with £100 and you might get what little of the business there is around.
Robert
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Ive just started out in this field running my own events as well as hiring promoters after helping promote alot of big events through facebook. If anyone is interested in a partnership in the Berkshire area let me know. Ive got many contacts e.g. Venues, DJ's, Printing Services and I am also a website builder and hosting provider so can cover all angles. Most venues I promote for make £1600 turnover a night only doing guestlists for 400 people, with staff, promoters, venue, leaflets and DJ taken off the profit works out at £600.
If anyone is around the Berkshire area I would be interested in a partnership.
If anyone is around the Berkshire area I would be interested in a partnership.
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JASON. Are you for real. NOT according to your own figures.
On £1600 taking a night and paying for entertainment and extra staff a publican or club owner woundn't even break even.
BTW. Where do you get this 400 from and £1600 quid takings. Most mediem sized venues like pubs cam only accommodate around 100 which coindentaly produces the same sortof takings.
I suugest that you get behind the bar because publicans in particular are begining to realise that as far as the bottom line is concerned they make just as much with just a few good spending locals in without all the hassle.
On £1600 taking a night and paying for entertainment and extra staff a publican or club owner woundn't even break even.
BTW. Where do you get this 400 from and £1600 quid takings. Most mediem sized venues like pubs cam only accommodate around 100 which coindentaly produces the same sortof takings.
I suugest that you get behind the bar because publicans in particular are begining to realise that as far as the bottom line is concerned they make just as much with just a few good spending locals in without all the hassle.
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J
Jerry D
- Original Poster
- #18
Hello we got our first event on in London got my business partner running it for us to start with due to my new property business. I took everybody advice got on th phone had a meeting and we got our first event in a months time cap of 1200 . Fingers Crossed really we got our own street promo team the lot so you will hear about it everywhere
we got our own street promo team the lot so you will hear about it everywhere
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Not that I need to prove anything as I am doing it, broken down:
A Venue, in our case called Spin Bar holds 400 people in it.
£4 entry each x 400 = £1600 - £100 for a DJ who is also a friend - £400 for the venue - £400 for the guestlist (£1 per person on guestlist that turned up) - £100 for leaflets being developed for promoting = £600 left over.
All other advertising is done through facebook, picking the most popular people in the student unions. You can make more money than this by agreeing 50p per person on the guestlist but I dont feel the promoters give there all into this.
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UPDATE :
Held my first club night last night! Made a loss! Due to several reasons! Only £200. But still a loss
Event deposit : £200
Which was returned as soon as we hit £500 bar spend
DJ Costs £350
£100 marketing costs.
We took in £450 at the cash desk entry. Bar spend was £750.
So by the time paid the deposit ( which was borrowed at the time )
We ended up with a loss!
Our main competitor for the night closed at midnight with 4 people when we had over 70+ of their customers! For a launch night for a brand new club night, we did good!
Our next night is already getting planned!
Reasons for not enough customers : Lack of student marketing, 95% of marketing we did was online. Rest was flyers on the night, and promo cd's.
Door staff were not the best, turned down around 20 people for no reason! Which was mentioned to management which was then sorted.
Students were not fully back and exams were on for some. So lack of student crowd.
Held my first club night last night! Made a loss! Due to several reasons! Only £200. But still a loss
Event deposit : £200
Which was returned as soon as we hit £500 bar spend
DJ Costs £350
£100 marketing costs.
We took in £450 at the cash desk entry. Bar spend was £750.
So by the time paid the deposit ( which was borrowed at the time )
We ended up with a loss!
Our main competitor for the night closed at midnight with 4 people when we had over 70+ of their customers! For a launch night for a brand new club night, we did good!
Our next night is already getting planned!
Reasons for not enough customers : Lack of student marketing, 95% of marketing we did was online. Rest was flyers on the night, and promo cd's.
Door staff were not the best, turned down around 20 people for no reason! Which was mentioned to management which was then sorted.
Students were not fully back and exams were on for some. So lack of student crowd.
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L
localbusinessmarketing
- Original Poster
- #25
ok so you paid to much for your dj or djs .DJ'S ARE 10 A penny most people can dj now.However the value in a dj is in their crowd pulling power.
so pay a dj say £50 and then pay them 50% of entry fee of anyone that comes from their guestlist.If they cant supply a guest list of people that want to come they are not much use to you
Lastly you should be on the door with your guest list making sure everyone gets in .don't leave it to the bouncers they do not care whether you make money or not. if you cant spend all your time on the door get someone who can.control the door its your door!
so pay a dj say £50 and then pay them 50% of entry fee of anyone that comes from their guestlist.If they cant supply a guest list of people that want to come they are not much use to you
Lastly you should be on the door with your guest list making sure everyone gets in .don't leave it to the bouncers they do not care whether you make money or not. if you cant spend all your time on the door get someone who can.control the door its your door!
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I agree the DJ Fee may of been too much! He is BIG up in Sunny Scotland in the Urban scene! So i felt he was worth it! But defo look at a better deal with him for next time!
Didnt help the fact of students being off/exams too! And today is pay day for most folk so again people having lack of funds to go out!
Not giving up! next event planned is a month away, so learn from the mistakes!
Didnt help the fact of students being off/exams too! And today is pay day for most folk so again people having lack of funds to go out!
Not giving up! next event planned is a month away, so learn from the mistakes!
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Brave man for publishing so I am not going to rub it in that I told you so. Far from it you did well to get 100 in and pay £4 for the privilage. Most DJ nights certainly down here are free. Only bands usually command a ticket price.
You would do well to few lessons however and a few tips.
1) Sudents are not the best of customers when it comes to typical spend and with bar takings of only £750 the venue would have made a bigger loss than you. I am surprised that they gave you the deposit back. I would have wanted an absolute min of £1,000 and got it given a typical spend of working customers. My typical take per customer for example was £15 - £20.
2) On-line promotion is great if you can target and you have a great attraction. Personally I have always found from running a big city centre pub that the public are pretty demanding and if the atmosphere in one place on that night isn't rocking they will move on.
Posters all around the town then can pull the crown in and if it is a weekend get them out by Thursday at the latest. BTW. Have a chat with the young guys in all the local offies and give them a free tcket voucher code say £1 quid off for their customers code. We had one young lady worked in THR -----s used to generate around 20 customers every week.
3) Insist - and I do mean insist that the DJ or band do their bit on promotion. I had a great Karaoke act at my place. 2 young girls who claimed that they had a good following. First time they appeared they must have really worked hard at self promotion and brought about 50 people along so I was well pleased with their calim..
3 months latter it was an average of 10. Solution I cancelled the weekly booking and got another act in alteranate weeks. Both teams then made damned sure they pushed all their friends for support up every time they went clubbing.
4) Beit students and particularly girls don't forget incentives to bring friends. Their own ticket free for instance if they bring along 3 or 4 friends. You may lose a few quid but providing your making expenses in the early days the important thing is to get a reputation for making a venue rock.
As LocalBusiness mentioned it is absolutely essential that you work the door.
And finally OP. You and our friend Will P may think different but personally I don't think you will ever make any real money at this because you would need the bar takings as well to make a deent profit on the night. As a paying hobby however it can be great fun.
Be careful of the 40 year + women however if you ever put on a Hen night. Make sure you wear a 'cricket box' then it's only them pinching your bum that you will have to worry about.
R
You would do well to few lessons however and a few tips.
1) Sudents are not the best of customers when it comes to typical spend and with bar takings of only £750 the venue would have made a bigger loss than you. I am surprised that they gave you the deposit back. I would have wanted an absolute min of £1,000 and got it given a typical spend of working customers. My typical take per customer for example was £15 - £20.
2) On-line promotion is great if you can target and you have a great attraction. Personally I have always found from running a big city centre pub that the public are pretty demanding and if the atmosphere in one place on that night isn't rocking they will move on.
Posters all around the town then can pull the crown in and if it is a weekend get them out by Thursday at the latest. BTW. Have a chat with the young guys in all the local offies and give them a free tcket voucher code say £1 quid off for their customers code. We had one young lady worked in THR -----s used to generate around 20 customers every week.
3) Insist - and I do mean insist that the DJ or band do their bit on promotion. I had a great Karaoke act at my place. 2 young girls who claimed that they had a good following. First time they appeared they must have really worked hard at self promotion and brought about 50 people along so I was well pleased with their calim..
3 months latter it was an average of 10. Solution I cancelled the weekly booking and got another act in alteranate weeks. Both teams then made damned sure they pushed all their friends for support up every time they went clubbing.
4) Beit students and particularly girls don't forget incentives to bring friends. Their own ticket free for instance if they bring along 3 or 4 friends. You may lose a few quid but providing your making expenses in the early days the important thing is to get a reputation for making a venue rock.
As LocalBusiness mentioned it is absolutely essential that you work the door.
And finally OP. You and our friend Will P may think different but personally I don't think you will ever make any real money at this because you would need the bar takings as well to make a deent profit on the night. As a paying hobby however it can be great fun.
Be careful of the 40 year + women however if you ever put on a Hen night. Make sure you wear a 'cricket box' then it's only them pinching your bum that you will have to worry about.
R
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B
Billmccallum
- Original Poster
- #30
DJ costs clearly way too high, thats what cost you any chance of breaking even... why not do percentage deal?
We are running 12 events over six months with live bands, most are on percentage split after expenses (one or two are on fixed fee).
Our first show (in April, but we are in a small seaside town, so we can't expect larger crowds until summer) we didn't get a full house, but we still managed to break even.
Our next show (on bank holiday weekend feature STACKRIDGE, who were a top band in the 70's. W got a call from a Canadian band who were coming over for their first UK tour, they wanted to play support for Stackridge and offered to play for free!!
see http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Legends-Return-To-Lyme-Regis/277536398677?ref=ts
We are running 12 events over six months with live bands, most are on percentage split after expenses (one or two are on fixed fee).
Our first show (in April, but we are in a small seaside town, so we can't expect larger crowds until summer) we didn't get a full house, but we still managed to break even.
Our next show (on bank holiday weekend feature STACKRIDGE, who were a top band in the 70's. W got a call from a Canadian band who were coming over for their first UK tour, they wanted to play support for Stackridge and offered to play for free!!
see http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Legends-Return-To-Lyme-Regis/277536398677?ref=ts
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I've just read this over again...
Now, the refundable deposit was returned to yourselves, leaving you with an outlay of £450 for DJs and marketing, and £450 taken on the door for entry...which to me looks like break even..unless you haven't included a hire fee which may have applied?
Now, the refundable deposit was returned to yourselves, leaving you with an outlay of £450 for DJs and marketing, and £450 taken on the door for entry...which to me looks like break even..unless you haven't included a hire fee which may have applied?
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No Hire fee applied.
But because i borrowed the deposit money from a good friend it went to the DJ. So i am down money!
Im not bothered about making a loss. The good thing is people came, our competition that night closed mega early. So we did good!
We have to establish our name in this game, and we have BIG idea's and guest appearances coming very soon! Which should bring a tidy profit...
But because i borrowed the deposit money from a good friend it went to the DJ. So i am down money!
Im not bothered about making a loss. The good thing is people came, our competition that night closed mega early. So we did good!
We have to establish our name in this game, and we have BIG idea's and guest appearances coming very soon! Which should bring a tidy profit...
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£100 for promo on top of the £100 for marketing you mentioned earlier? Or is this the same £100? Photographers are ten a penny and I'm surprised that at your first small event you paid out well for one (when I worked small venues we always had three or four keen teenagers, many of them photography students) who would turn up with top end cameras that they'd saved for months for and snap away (and the results were easily good enough to use ourselves). As for "pr staff", what exactly did they do?
I hope you don't feel like I'm asking too many questions, it's just that when I started out I trod very carefully and saved money wherever possible. It's the only way to go, build up a decent amount of money behind you and then further develop a really successful night/s off the back of it. If you have any questions on costing or anything for the next one, do drop me a PM.
I hope you don't feel like I'm asking too many questions, it's just that when I started out I trod very carefully and saved money wherever possible. It's the only way to go, build up a decent amount of money behind you and then further develop a really successful night/s off the back of it. If you have any questions on costing or anything for the next one, do drop me a PM.
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We paid £40 for the photographer for a local based company that posts all club night pics online. So it was more for exposure than anything!
Next event is booked, sunday 30th may, bank holiday weekend!
So mistakes to learn from :
DJ price
More Student flyering
Exit flyering at the end of club nights seems to work well, so visit competitior clubs...
Next event is booked, sunday 30th may, bank holiday weekend!
So mistakes to learn from :
DJ price
More Student flyering
Exit flyering at the end of club nights seems to work well, so visit competitior clubs...
Upvote
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M
MoonlightEnts
- Original Poster
- #39
Hi Guys
I work in this field as a full time nightclub and events promoter.
One thing people trying too get into this business make the mistake of is thinking thats its going too be easy. Its not !
A number of things too think of:
RESEARCH
1. Researching the market the fun part
2. Sit down and research your findings + Look at websites
3. Talk with your friends about your towns or cities nightlife
4. Speak with other promoters How did they start off?
YOUR IDEA
5. Putting your rough idea together
6. What music policy are you going to offer
7. Naming your event This is very important
8. Branding .
9. Entertainment you want too offer
10. What price would you like to charge
11. Dress codes
12. What venue would you like?
DISCUSS THE VARIOUS FORMS OF PROMOTION
13. Promoting your event Discuss various methods of promotion in detail
IN DETAIL
14. The Club proposal
SOURCING THE VENUE & ENTERTAINMENT
15. Arranging a meeting with the manager
16. Presenting your idea to the manager
17. Contracts
18. Booking the entertainment + CONTRACTS
THE PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
19. Beginning your promo campaign
20. Flyer & Poster literature
21. Design + Print
22. Web information
23. Web promotion
24. Flyer + Poster distribution
25. Updates
26. Email marketing
27. Q Jumpers , Guest lists & VIP list
28. Event Management
29. The aftermath
30. Developing the night & Moving forward
Thats before your first night, maintaining an average crowd of 1000+ is the hard part !
Im in the process of putting together the Club Promoters Handbook, ill let you know when its complete. Shouldnt be long
I work in this field as a full time nightclub and events promoter.
One thing people trying too get into this business make the mistake of is thinking thats its going too be easy. Its not !
A number of things too think of:
RESEARCH
1. Researching the market the fun part
2. Sit down and research your findings + Look at websites
3. Talk with your friends about your towns or cities nightlife
4. Speak with other promoters How did they start off?
YOUR IDEA
5. Putting your rough idea together
6. What music policy are you going to offer
7. Naming your event This is very important
8. Branding .
9. Entertainment you want too offer
10. What price would you like to charge
11. Dress codes
12. What venue would you like?
DISCUSS THE VARIOUS FORMS OF PROMOTION
13. Promoting your event Discuss various methods of promotion in detail
IN DETAIL
14. The Club proposal
SOURCING THE VENUE & ENTERTAINMENT
15. Arranging a meeting with the manager
16. Presenting your idea to the manager
17. Contracts
18. Booking the entertainment + CONTRACTS
THE PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
19. Beginning your promo campaign
20. Flyer & Poster literature
21. Design + Print
22. Web information
23. Web promotion
24. Flyer + Poster distribution
25. Updates
26. Email marketing
27. Q Jumpers , Guest lists & VIP list
28. Event Management
29. The aftermath
30. Developing the night & Moving forward
Thats before your first night, maintaining an average crowd of 1000+ is the hard part !
Im in the process of putting together the Club Promoters Handbook, ill let you know when its complete. Shouldnt be long
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0
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