How to make 15-20K in 4 hours..EVENTS!

[sWALK90]

So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...

While in high school-2009 and college-2013 I stayed in the small city of Beaumont TX. I was well known around the town and i used social networks to my advantage. When i started it was just Facebook and twitter. I think i have 3 Facebook profiles with about 5000 friends on each. One personal and the others were for my group in which I added the people in the cites around Beaumont.

My group had about 4 key players including me and a bunch of people who just wanted to be apart of it because everyone knew us. The key players were all older than me by at least 3 to 5 years older so i kind of looked at them as my mentors. But we had a group of people similar to me as far as being known. We had the age groups of my age +6. We threw mostly parties but also a few events and this actually help me meet a lot of people and pay my way through college while learning how to market stuff.

All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful

 

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[ZeroTo100]

Hey,

Just wanted to chime in as I know a lot about this business..

Couple of things...I was in this business for a LONG time in NYC. Anyone who has ever been in this business and taken it seriously by building an actual business in it knows you never layout a dime. Venues are secured through proposals that include deal structures. Usually, my proposals consisted of the entire scope of production and how the venue owner would benefit. If I was bringing on other parters, i've always maintained control of the venues that I had deals at and took care of my team and any subs that hustled for us. My deals would normally include the full door and around 20% of the entire bar. Venue owners would provide security, venue, and liquor. (Sometimes deals would be just flats for us to show up, sometimes they would include marketing budgets, all depends)We would also produce the event such as bringing in big name DJ's (I've worked with everyone from DJ AM to Jonathan Peters - these guys were huge at the time). One night we did a circus theme and had clowns on stilts and little people walking around. It was wild. We did 5,000 people and had girls paying $100 each just to walk in the door. That was one of my biggest and the bar did 184k. You do the math. I brought on 13 teams that night. There is a boat load of money to be made but you have to be good, have a quality following (good looking, middle to upper class mature crowd that is willing to spend money). Unfortunately there will be a few people that won't make any money on nights - your goal is to not be one of them. Thats just the nature of the business and that's why you have to get and stay in control of the deal. How do you do that? You bring on subs and you build an email list. You make your subs have their clients sign up for the list but don't abuse it. Never throw a bad event. One shitty party and you will be ruined. Always make sure the owners security team is familiar with you and your team. LINES ARE GREAT! You want to have a line at the door even if the entire place is empty. Trust me. The other thing is, in your proposal, clarify how many comps you want. That's bottles. For comp tickets, if you have control of the door, you decide how many comps you want. Also, you have your own door guy. Make sure he is a real prick. Some of your subs people aren't going to get in. Again, thats the nature of the business. Before I shut down everything we were doing events like fashion week and hotel venues. I think I had collected around 250k emails over the time. I'm over that business now and I got out of it a few years ago but I made some serious money. I paid for my wife's engagement ring, wedding with it and I bought a home with it. I took care of my team - that was always priority to me. I've been through a few new ventures since being in that business but I do know a lot about it. Things changed now a bit but if you need any help, feel free to drop me a message. I'm planning on my next business - who knows what my creative juices will lead me to.

So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...

While in high school-2009 and college-2013 I stayed in the small city of Beaumont TX. I was well known around the town and i used social networks to my advantage. When i started it was just Facebook and twitter. I think i have 3 Facebook profiles with about 5000 friends on each. One personal and the others were for my group in which I added the people in the cites around Beaumont.

My group had about 4 key players including me and a bunch of people who just wanted to be apart of it because everyone knew us. The key players were all older than me by at least 3 to 5 years older so i kind of looked at them as my mentors. But we had a group of people similar to me as far as being known. We had the age groups of my age +6. We threw mostly parties but also a few events and this actually help me meet a lot of people and pay my way through college while learning how to market stuff.

All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful

 

[sWALK90]

Oh.... @sWALK90 ... I forgot ... The reason I clicked on this thread was to give my opinion on the Title. Sorry, but I don't like it one bit.Which makes me wonder if they really are effective. But...I could be wrong. I was thinking "No..this IS B.S. You don't make that much money in that amount of time."

Hmm....the idea was to pull people in to read ..bait....and it worked...1,027 views and i posted this yesterday morning.So did the other guy @The Rom Cam . Look at the other threads dates vs views..we did pretty damn good compared to the others. .. seems like the words How and a number amount makes people view your thread!

Now....after reading your posts, I get it...but...it's still a bit misleading because it doesn't take into account all the work you had to do to get people to your venue.

Hmm.. i dont consider that work..
1.book venue\cops\dj 20 mins (can be done off text)
2.send money\idea to designer to make prints 10 mins.
3. Go pick up flyers from Houston 45-1hour drive
4.Pass out flyers while going to class....2 seconds im in route to class so only takes a couple seconds to hand a flyer to someone.
5.The other people who just wanted to be apart of it gladly passed out flyers for me so i didn't really spend to much time on campus
6. All i did was post the flyer or pic on my social networks 3 times a day..that only takes 5 mins thanks to copy and paste

Really it was less than 2 hours for majority of the partys.

( btw...I don't care if I'm wrong or right. It's all about learning). I'm only giving you the 'targets', or potential customer's point of view. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination in copy.

Im no expert myself ,we are all here to help...
well im sure some are,and some are just trying to take and not give...

Business wise: So if i were selling a product,or placing a ad on a site, i would of had 1027 views just from the title...so no telling how many i could convert into sales...probably just a few but just a few is better than none. (just thinking out loud) Trying to practice what i have learned since i've been here before i start on my fastlane project.

This is only my 2nd thread besides my new member intro. My first thread was only 266 views in 15 days so..ive made progress!
Hello from HOUSTON,TX

 

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[Mac]

Well, the event was last night. We had extensive media coverage and a lot of people showed up, but me and my partners took a big loss financially. It's our own fault though for choosing the venue, which required us to pay 50% of bar after the owner made $1,000 on the bar (bar cap) and 50% of door sales with the owner. We split the costs of alcohol, mix, sound, the sound technician and cups, but we had to pay the artists n DJ out of our own pocket. We had about 8 artists which costed us $2,500. So we each lost around $200 and I was the one doing all of the planning for the most part so it's kind of a let down. But it's all part of it I guess.

 

[sWALK90]

So i havent been on the forums for a while ,but i am back doing parties the past couple of months...its so much more money out here than my last city. This weekend is superbowl weekend and i have a few famous people booked, lets see how it goes..

 

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[randomnumber314]

@MJ DeMarco this might be gold in the making here...

@sWALK90 what you did took some cahonies, and from it you got results.

Everyone popping in here to ask questions about the minutia of this or that and glossing over the details in the OP, think about what's happening here. You're getting caught up in the details, before you even start doing anything, then you'll think about it, maybe tell a friend or two about how "you're thinking of trying to maybe do this" and a shiny thread will divert your attention and you'll start asking that OP questions...

Reread the OP as many times as you have to until you can discern between why this guy's mindset is intensely more tuned to getting results than most peoples.

 

[sWALK90]

FASTLANE maybe? (Not my pic)

I haven't done numbers like this but just imagine if everyone paid at least $15

 

[randomnumber314]

FASTLANE maybe? (Not my pic)

The Papa John's guy is worth billions from selling pizza. Anything is fastlane if you try hard enough.

 

[sWALK90]

I didn't see any pictures (I saw them now. Must have added recently, thanks!), but I'm looking forward to your future writings!

I'm off to bed now. I have one final in about eight hours and several assignments to get done, haha.

Good luck,i just finished all my finals last week! Yea i double posted and dont look like the pictures were here but I edited it and they show now.

I was going to ask about this. Violence would be a major concern if I do eventually host events. The ones I went to seemed to have had about the same number of people, but way more cops.

You know alcohol and a lot of people dont mix...hell even without alcohol i have seen people argue over dumb stuff..so yes always have cops/ security...normally about 30 mins before the event is over the cops call for backup ...being that they are doing their job and making sure everyone gets home..its no cost to us ..

QUESTIONS:
Do you use Eventbrite for your ticket sales? If not, how did you do it?

No ....the few times i did printed tickets,(not through eventbright) people made fakes and i had to make everyone show receipts-disaster. We were able to find a place to make plastic like credit cards and we used those as tickets sometimes. Get around 20 made and say we had 100.

-"all presales sold out in less than a day!!...jam packed event"..then we see the people start posting them on Instagram and twitter ..free promotion...

Most of the time we just made everyone pay at the door..Eventbrite,stub hub,ect would be a way to fastlane it....and reach more people..

How do you find vacant venues?

GOOGLE will find you anything...also being from the area i was familiar with a lot of the places ...

How do you find and get cops or security?

You can call the police station and request them at whatever they charge ,or you can get cards and numbers when you just see them walking around..
-"hey would you mind working a event for me...i need a total of 2 or so cops, do you know anyone..?"
just build a relationship with them that way if you need them they will always be there...i normally give them extra at the end of the night.

Did you get a DJ from within your college (fellow student) or a "professional" DJ? How did you find and hire them?

Depending on the occasion. We normally used fellow students but one of the people i started with actually became a DJ so we used him most of the time.(why i said we paid him more) Sometimes we could call people from other schools and get them to come down to ours. All dj's have booking info in their bios...

 

[Bigguns50]

@sWALK90 .... Providing some great inspiration here and a nice contribution to the Forum ! Congrats on success in doing your thing. Everything you posted is solid.

I have some experience in this area and I understand why you got out of it. In order to continue, you need to stay close in touch with your market, and preferably you are your market. It's a tough business to run long term.

Love the raising the rates at the door as the night went on. I experienced this and it was crazy.

When I was involved...we ALWAYS had problems with fights. Security was serious.

Again...good job and contribution !

 

[Draven Grey]

So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...

While in high school-2009 and college-2013 I stayed in the small city of Beaumont TX. I was well known around the town and i used social networks to my advantage. When i started it was just Facebook and twitter. I think i have 3 Facebook profiles with about 5000 friends on each. One personal and the others were for my group in which I added the people in the cites around Beaumont.

My group had about 4 key players including me and a bunch of people who just wanted to be apart of it because everyone knew us. The key players were all older than me by at least 3 to 5 years older so i kind of looked at them as my mentors. But we had a group of people similar to me as far as being known. We had the age groups of my age +6. We threw mostly parties but also a few events and this actually help me meet a lot of people and pay my way through college while learning how to market stuff.

All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful

Good concept, and close to how it worked for me. Me and my partner put on our Rock Circus Masquerade event at a similar cost venue, with $18 tickets, and it worked out similarly. Overall, we spent $1200 up front, hired a cast and crew of over 40 people (not including the venue staff), had a full stage set, synched light show, and a full house.

The marketing is where it was different. Flyering did absolutely nothing for us, and that's where most of our up front costs went. We even had an 8-foot creature (tied into the event) that we walked around with at extremely high-traffic and targeted places, including Comic Con, and in front of Cirque Du Soleil (who made us guests of honor the next day!). People flocked to us for pictures, and were eager to take flyers. But in the end, for the 3000 flyers we handed out to people who wanted them and seemed excited, we only had a handful of people show up from flyers. Granted, colleges were empty that time of year. We plan on testing it in colleges next. I imagine that will make a huge difference. In fact, we'll even considering renting college auditoriums for the events.

Facebook ads for a well-tested event is what filled the place; that is, with proper lean canvas, interviews, and split-testing. FB Ads won't always be the best way, but they proved to be best by far for us right now. If we had poured more money into FB ads instead of flying, with our cost per customer, we would've easily sold out. Throw in FB conversion pixel to help help with further targeting, as well as taking control over the things we had difficulties with the venue over, and we would've sold out very quickly.

After more testing, we plan to up the ticket price at the next event too. First, we've teamed up with our acrobats to rewrite the whole event based upon feedback from the first, test event. Then we'll be running a few more test show next Summer before going full force.

And just to be congruent with your post, here are some pictures and video:
http://thesilentstill.com/rockcircusmasquerade/

 

[ZeroTo100]

First of all, thanks for sharing your experience @sWALK90 & @ZeroTo100 !

Before I found this thread, a friend of mine and me were contacting 4-5 clubs in our home city (city in Europe, population approx. 700k) with the intent to organize an event like you did.

Since we only got one reply (which was negative), my question is how you first approached the venue owners.

Hey man, when I first got into the business I was working with a few people so I got to know a lot of owners. Relationships help. I won't lie though, there were plenty of venues where owners took a chance with me. There were also plenty of venues in the early years where I took a crap deal but I proved myself after about the 3rd or 4th week of blowing the doors off - then going back with a drafted proposal on my terms. Take it or leave it and your place is empty! Don't forget, there are 7 days in a week. What you don't make there for a few weeks, you'll make it on another day.

Go there in person, call them, email them. Find out who it is that you have to speak to to get a deal. Research what other venues they own - chances are they own more than 1. I've worked with plenty of hotels that had nightclubs in them - best deals to get (make sure you have them throw in a couple of hotel rooms for you). You have to bring something to the table though - drop other venue owners names/venues that you've worked with, drop how many local users are on your email list, etc. You always want to have a discussion with them before actually drafting up a proposal so meet them in person. Make sure you don't look like a slob because if you look like a slob, they'll assume your patrons will also.

The very best to you.

(P.S. I'm out of that business now for a few years. I am in the process of closing on a RE deal in April but my true goal is to build a business that can be run remotely.) Thats all I want and thats what I'm going to invest my blood, sweat, tears, and money in next.

 

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[sWALK90]

[edit]moved to this posting- Now i graduated i have moved to a bigger city, Houston TX and started working my slowlane job and kind of left it alone. I just turned 25 and sort of tired of it. +I drink almost every weekend now ..all the free drinks i kind of got use to alcohol

Now i just go out and party like a regular person in which i see other ways people are doing it. A lot of people have turned this into fastlane by themselves or with teams. You have the solo people who utilize malls with their flyers and radio ads and stuff for not only events but for their fastlane businesses too. Like i have a buddy who sells hair and does hair expos and then there is car shows in which people use the same strategy.

i was going to go more in detail with it ,but i think that is enough to get the picture. You know like throw in a bar,and sections,and over priced items..theres a lot more ways to bleed money out of people before a event an very easily when they are intoxicated but i think i have typed enough for tonight....

I will hopefully be able to use this and my experience to transition to the FASTLANE!
-I know how to get people to a place
-I still have all my social accounts..i mostly just use IG now tho
-I know how to build a social account...and how to promote it
-I am your all around IT person..program,web design,web development..repair...ect

Just need to figure out how or find a product/niche..im thinking eCommerce,,
Im 3/4 through the book..i will start my progress thread when complete.
Any questions?

so You're kind of like a promoter? i would like to be apart of one of these events.....im willing to put in money and see how it goes

Yes you could say promoter/event planner ...but I don't really do it any more since I've graduated and moved ...unless it's homecoming at my undergrad school

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[Ninjakid]

So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title .

Nah, but it worked. I clicked it.

 

[sWALK90]

I love how simple this is, yet most people are too afraid to fail to try it - which is our opportunity.
What are some ideas for taking this idea and doing it for something outside the college/bar scene? You could do it for a 1,000 different things.

You can do this with anyyyythhing...weddings...book seminars...summits..shoe conventions....concerts.....comic conventions..sports...ect... its being done all around but no one notices. When you go to sport events....shows...concerts and pay $40-$90 a ticket ...its the same concept..

 

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[sWALK90]

I've recently got involved with this type of business. I've invested in a couple concerts managed by my friend's company overseas. He began with doing little concerts at night clubs. Then did edm events. Now he's doing events over seas. The little I know is, the goal is to find the the right artist to book, find the right venue that will sell out (not too big and not too small). From what I know, it's tough to do it in the US because Live Nation or companies like Live Nation have some type of exclusivity rights to big artist so no one else can book them for concerts.

This all depends on the artist...its best to book them early in their career before they get big record deals in which i was successful in doing so quite a few times.(keep contacts for booking managers) So we could bargain down prices if we needed them to come back...after they become really famous.. ill post more details and pics of this later..

You also have to remember to pick the right venue to accommodate the amount of people to actually make you money...price the tickets right also

 

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[iAmAttila]

Nice post. I used to organize raves on a way bigger scale with budgets up to a quarter million. Fun to see another event guy here.

 

[sWALK90]

Computers are a magical invention. Everything can be tracked.

I remember a well known owner of a megaclub here that used to design a system to weigh the beer / stack of glasses so nothing could go missing. It was all done automatically and could be followed in real time. Also, work with a small circle that you can trust.

They think the same thing with taxes right?
If you pay with cash at some places it comes out cheaper?

Im sure it could be done, im not saying you are wrong or anything but after a while it just gets old.... Just like @iAmAttila said I have done that and been successful at doing so...sooo whats next...im sure im not the only one that would pass up what they know to find a new opportunity ...there's so much to learn out here ...im not here for the money..im here to learn....maybe once im retired(hopefully soon)...i just turned 25 and making 80k+ slowlane since 23..which is good for my age but im searching for more....but if it wasnt for this i would'nt have made it to where i am now....maybe i will go back to doing this on the side but it just no longer interest me any more.. So im just dropping my knowledge for the next person to use...

 

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[ZeroTo100]

This thread inspired me to start my own rap festival. I've got six artists confirmed (as well as a DJ) and I'm in the process of confirming the venue. The performers are up-and-coming artists. We're going to set up a site with our name, throw up a poster on the site, along with a plugin for ticket sales, which will send money straight to our bank accs. We drew up contracts for the artists so that they get paid after the event, meaning our initial overhead is low. We're in the process of creating a poster for the event, which we will post in university facebook groups and have it promoted on Twitter. It's going to be a lit event in Toronto. If all goes well (or not so well), I'll share my experiences in this thread in an effort to help others.

Two things that you have to know about the event planning game are:
1) Music is a cut throat industry with a lot of ego. Being too nice can get you F*cked over. Negotiating skills come in handy.
2) It's stressful to say the least.

Very good. It is a cut throat industry when your on the bottom in a pool full of sharks. We are talking about party/nightlife promotion and marketing. Avoid that by being the man on top. Like I said in some of my posts, I've hired doormen to be complete pricks to people waiting on line. I've had places literally empty with a line down the block.

If you plan on doing a music festival, things are totally different than nightlife promotions. Promoting/selling tickets is still the same but strategy is totally different. You're talking about more artists, a larger budget, a larger space, and many other variables. Many with no experiences will fail so if you can partner up with someone that has experience in this, do it. I recommend you securing some major sponsors to bring your costs down. Think alcohol sponsors for the simple fact that they may just be willing to hook you up with...alcohol. Keep in mind, you'll need a big budget set aside for the space, the artists, and whatever type of experience you wish to provide. People love that shit - you want people to talk about the experience because it's the thing that will sell your next one. They love experiences so provide something that no-one else is doing. I don't care if you're spraying people down with neon paints, tossing out beach balls, or posting up adult size bounce houses to jam to the beat. This is called your "product" and you should focus on your product before anything. Also, you definitely need a few serious names on your rundown to help sell some tickets - they will sell themselves basically. Nobody gives a shit if you're doing the event, they want to see who they want to see.

Good luck my friend

Heres a great idea for you - Adult day camp with live DJ's. Now sign me up lol

 

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[sWALK90]

That's true. Our event is happening on a Friday.

Just an update:

Right now we're at 16 tickets sold (presale). The event is on April 22, 2016. So me and my team decided to start approaching people Downtown Toronto at Dundas square (picture it as a mini version of Time Square). To my surprise, tons of people were saying they've seen the poster for our event before, which means word of mouth is really driving our advertising. Social media has had little gains so far. We've invited over 800 people to our event page and only about 20 have opted into going.

When we were handing out flyers around the Eaton Centre (a huge mall) and on different university campuses, tons of people were saying they were going. We even met a couple of music bloggers that said they'll write about our event. It's amazing how small the world is when you get out and start prospecting, I even share mutual connections with some of the people I was pitching to. Plus it's a great opportunity to get over approach anxiety when reaching out to really hot girls.

I even mustered up the courage to start walking into random shops and pitching. I think I've got a solid lead for a sponsorship from a barber shop (this is a huge barber shop, not just a small one). The owner told me to make sure that I sent them an email with all the information about the sponsorship, they seemed very eager. We've also landed two clothing vendors for $250 a piece.

Today I'm going to go pitch to more clothing shops in the Downtown core and I'm going to hand out more flyers. This might sound a bit taboo, but I've also been taping flyers over top of ads on the subway (ha-ha). Handing out flyers on the subway has been great as well, since people have no service and are forced to look at something.

Tell me what you think of our website, www.staywavieent.com

With social media promotion ,most wont click attending but they seen it and thats what its all about. Learn how to mass select and notifiy them over and over. Looks like you have it down. Just keep putting the word out....the more you let know about it ,the more chances people will come...you might want to look into radio advertising and advertising on social networks using Instagram and Facebook ads based on the location.

 

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[ZeroTo100]

I love it!

What made your events stand out/worth paying that kind of cover for vs just going to a bar?

Don't understand the question but I'd say clientele/demographic. Some people are bar people and some people love nightlife - thats simple. In terms of door covers, the most we have ever charged was 100 per head including charging women that and that was on Halloween. We scaled the ticket price based on how close we were getting to the e eat. I remember doing 5,000 people and $185k at the bar. We had total control of the door and 20% of the bar. 30 sub promoters filled the room for us pumping the event. That was a long time ago and nightlife changed a bit. You don't make the party, you just curate it. Who your patrons are is important. You get 6 girls to 1 guy and you'll get guys willing to pull out the check book to get in. There's a lot of detail involved not just your contract structure. You really have to build your network and be somebody out there. It will help you get better deals and get better promoters to work for you. Best of luck!

 

[ZeroTo100]

Completely not taking it the wrong way, I appreciate that you take the time to help, this is worth gold to me : )



Fair point regardng the security hiring, makes a lot of sense.

The friend of ours is a fairly good DJ, but I think we should have more than 1 DJ because otherwise it will be a very long night for him.

While I agree that there should be good music playing, I'm not quite sure if the DJ is the main reason why people decide to come to a party around here. In our local club scene the successful parties are the ones where the "story" is good, e.g. "Golden 20's party"/"Wolf of Wallstrett Party" etc.
The reason is that the DJs may be good but not so famous around here. So my impression is that the point people look at is the story/description of the party and not the names of the DJs.

When you organized an event, what was the average rent for a club with a 600 - 900 capacity?


We're located in Graz, Austria.

We had an office in NYC and did party's mostly in NY but also have held events in Miami and Vegas certain times of the year.

Yes, if you're doing weeklys it's definitely not a bad idea to put a theme together. We've done white party's, circus themes, foam parties, all sorts of stuff. It definitely helps to market your event but from my experience, your product isn't exactly how you promote your party but what will help people have a good time AND KEEP THEM COMING BACK. It always comes down to music. Trust me, the first time you charge people to get into your place and they are all excited about the idea of a "mascarede theme" pay the $25 dollar cover and get in there and the music blows they will never ever come back and your reputation will be destroyed.

We have worked with big DJs that have helped in pushing the party as well. DJ AM, Jonathan Peters to name a few. House music blew up back in the day and we kind of were lucky enough to be in the middle of it. DJs have followings - they still do. We always structured our deals a certain way knowing that the DJs would bring a decent enough following and in turn pay for themselves (usually with some of the door money). PS Some of the big names will cost between $5k to $20 for a few hours though you can get someone who is up and coming for $600 bucks. Cut a deal with them and make them a resident DJ and you build relationships that way. One day when they blow up they will do you favors in return like charge you half the rate they charge everyone else.

We never paid rent to any owner. A few times we bought our way in to a partnership with other promotors that had secured the deal before us but never paid rent to an owner.

Hope this helps and good luck. Build your list, you will need it!

 

[ZeroTo100]

Looks like a really cool gig for a young social butterfly! My only question is, what about an "expiration date" on this line of work? Will these kind of parties be unrealistic for someone to throw once they leave their 20's? (If you say your age I missed it, this looks a lot to me like what I've seen as appealing to folks in college and a few years older.)

The goal for anyone entering this market would be to eventually own a venue, restaurant, festival, or event production company. It's a market that will help build your relationship development skills, your marketing skills, and your negotiation skills as well.

 

[ZeroTo100]

@sWALK90 @ZeroTo100 @Mac @iAmAttila and @Stevo1 thank you all for your contributions to this thread. This is a pure gold mine for me.

I've recently moved into a position as the "events guy" for a big bar/restaurant and of course I've thought about organizing my own events, so this thread really gets my juices flowing!

Just turned 29 and done with the party scene so looking for other industries though. What are some other spaces you guys have looked at or got experience with? Concerts/live music? Food events? Career/business events?

Also, while reading TMF I was thinking this road violates the commandments of entry (anyone can decide to throw an event right?) and scale (you can make a couple grand, but can you make a couple million?), and wondering about time (how do you detach yourself from operations?).

What are your thoughts on this guys? Know it's an old thread, but hopefully you guys are still out there and active Thank you for all the insights already shared!

At least for me, I learned a lot from this business. I learned a lot about the web(web marketing, funnels, building sites, ecomm, branding, promotions) grassroots marketing, negotiations, proposals, sales, project management - I mean I really learned a lot.

Think about how you can apply those skills. I’ve looked at all that you have mentioned above minus food - read my intro in my first post.

No - not everyone can throw a good event. Not everyone has the network or the following to make it happen. Not everyone has the budget. We had worked deals where we brought big DJs in who had followings already and would basically push the event for us. We knew their managers so we would get that special price. If someone who didn’t have the network reached out, they would be paying them the money they saved us. Nature of the beast. Events changed though so keep that in mind. Club scene is different these days.

For your comment on violating skills - get your business going before you worry about any of the other stuff. I didn’t worry about time because when I was doing events I loved it. I was so involved that I didn’t really care about anything else in life. I really enjoyed it and to be quite honest, I never felt that way about a new business as I did about that business. So In a rare case like this - time didn’t matter. All my friends worked for me and we were pretty much living the dream. Things change and you grow up. Now, I am focused on being a dad and a husband. After that I’m focused on business.

PS there were a lot of times where I had deals with venues where my team and I would show up and we would get a $2k flat on a Thursday night just to walk in the door and drink for free. We were suppose to run a few campaigns for them but we would just show up. Our people knew the deal. Lots of times we never even showed up and our money was always there. Hotel deal, only place to go on a Thursday night.

Any questions I’m always here.

Keep in mind if I don’t get back it just means I’m trying to pack up my house or I’m out finding a new pad. I have a pregnant wife and a baby too so you know that isn’t easy to deal with. Just hit me up here.

Ciao

 

[El Príncipe]

At least for me, I learned a lot from this business. I learned a lot about the web(web marketing, funnels, building sites, ecomm, branding, promotions) grassroots marketing, negotiations, proposals, sales, project management - I mean I really learned a lot.

Think about how you can apply those skills. I’ve looked at all that you have mentioned above minus food - read my intro in my first post.

No - not everyone can throw a good event. Not everyone has the network or the following to make it happen. Not everyone has the budget. We had worked deals where we brought big DJs in who had followings already and would basically push the event for us. We knew their managers so we would get that special price. If someone who didn’t have the network reached out, they would be paying them the money they saved us. Nature of the beast. Events changed though so keep that in mind. Club scene is different these days.

For your comment on violating skills - get your business going before you worry about any of the other stuff. I didn’t worry about time because when I was doing events I loved it. I was so involved that I didn’t really care about anything else in life. I really enjoyed it and to be quite honest, I never felt that way about a new business as I did about that business. So In a rare case like this - time didn’t matter. All my friends worked for me and we were pretty much living the dream. Things change and you grow up. Now, I am focused on being a dad and a husband. After that I’m focused on business.

PS there were a lot of times where I had deals with venues where my team and I would show up and we would get a $2k flat on a Thursday night just to walk in the door and drink for free. We were suppose to run a few campaigns for them but we would just show up. Our people knew the deal. Lots of times we never even showed up and our money was always there. Hotel deal, only place to go on a Thursday night.

Any questions I’m always here.

Keep in mind if I don’t get back it just means I’m trying to pack up my house or I’m out finding a new pad. I have a pregnant wife and a baby too so you know that isn’t easy to deal with. Just hit me up here.

Ciao

Thank you so much for the feedback @ZeroTo100 it's appreciated more than you might imagine!

Congrats on your kid and the other one on the way, I hope they and your wife are doing amazing!

I've gone back through this thread and your first introduction thread and noted down everything valuable in a pad. Thanks for all the insight.

How is your current business doing? You commented on a big RE deal but also wanting to build a remotely run business?

Also, how did you exit your event business exactly? Did you sell it? (if not, why not?) Find someone to operate it for you? (if not, why not?) From your posts I get the impression you just pulled the plug on the whole thing.

This last week I've been thinking a lot about venturing into this business and wrote down a to do list. One thing keeps nagging at me though.

You wanted out of this life once you met your wife and got serious with her. I want out too. My reasons revolve more around health and lifestyle. But basically I don't want to create a business for myself where I have to be in and around clubs at late hours on a regular basis.

Apart from that I love events though. Planning and setting them up, meeting with different parties, talking deals, etc. Also I love Hiphop and I'd love to contribute to the culture in my city, country and even whole of Europe (I love Spanish rap, and one idea is taking Spanish rappers to Amsterdam, but I'm doubtful whether there is a market for it here).

That's why I'm thinking more of maybe festivals or something involving live acts, maybe a block party, or some sort of indoor event. Day time/evening events basically, not night. There are events being done in this space (I'm visiting all Hiphop festivals this summer), and I think they're not bad. But neither are they really pushing boundaries I feel (except for one). And here the demand still outweighs the supply in this space. There is room for another player.

Some sort of food festival geared towards vegans could be interesting too (turned vegan for aforementioned health reasons). This market is taking off here, the first players have arrived, but everything is still up for grabs. Also this demographic has more money to spend.

Mentioned business events because that's where most of the money is. But I got very little affinity with that market.

I guess the first order of business in front of me, is figuring out how to start off a small, day time event in the Hiphop space. How to make it different or better than what's currently out there. And how to get people to know about it. Would you say that's about right?

If you were to start out with (small) festivals instead of night clubs, how would you do it?

 

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[USN-Ken]

This thread got me thinking about how little entertainment there is in my hometown (pop. 23k)...so, i went to a local facebook group (a 'community chat group') and created a poll, asking people what type of entertainment they want to come to town. I was surprised....

Of course, you have the goofballs who suggest mudwrestling (got 3 'likes'/votes) and 'midget wrestling' (2 'likes'), but in the end, the top two were: comic conventions and ...the winner by far....stand-up comedians.

Thats right -- comedians won by nearly 60% over the next option.

I guess the folks in my town need a laugh. There used to be a funnybone nearby but it closed down long ago.

So, then a flood of questions popped into my head...

How do you choose a comedian (Based on their price? Based on their availability? Based on their following? Based on which ones have historically drawn a large crowd in this area?)

How far out do you book the event?

How many pre-sales does one need before realizing the show is going to be a flop and canceling it?

What other unexpected costs will be incurred? (sound system? Hotel for a comedian? transportation of comedian to/from airport? license to put on show in someones venue?)

Will eventbrite work to sell tickets? How about at the door (can you sell eventbrite tickets through cell phones using stripe or something similar?)

I don't expect anyone to answer these questions here, but my point is that it would be great if there was a one-stop shop to learn all of this stuff.

Holy moly! Business idea: someone should start an events coaching business. Id pay to have someone walk me through some events, help with negotiation strategies, developing pro-formas/budgets for shows, etc.!

 

[ZeroTo100]

I lived for a while where the bowling alley & pizza place had open mike comedy night once a week. That would be a dirt cheap way to find out if people will actually show up for comedy, and if so to build a list. As you talk to these people, you can start to gauge whether it would be worth your while to move up to rent some kind of venue (movie theater perhaps?) once a month for some pro comics you bring in. Who to bring in? Whoever's in your audience's top 10 list, which you get from asking them! And, available and affordable for your event.

If there is someone else in your town who puts on any kind of events that bring in people from outside, you should be able to pick their brains about logistics like the trip from the airport, sound system, etc. Ask whoever puts on political rallies, concerts, seminars, etc. in the town. Add event insurance to your checklist. Someone else has produced an event with comparable logistics. Maybe you could get an operations manager on a project by project basis by splitting the revenue with them, until you see how to do it yourself. Or maybe you'll find a strong team where you're the idea man and work the crowd, and your ongoing business partner runs around with the clipboard!

Eventbrite has some of the easiest to follow "how to use this service" guidance I've seen from any site or company, ever. It's what I plan to use for some events I might want to put on this winter. Go explore on their site.

You can see a lot of logistics details (along with snarky remarks) for comedians here: Backstage: Comedy | The Smoking Gun

I never ever rented a venue. You have something to offer, owners have something to offer. Deals are the best way for everyone to make money and not lose money. Sometimes, if you don’t really have any contacts and you’re new in the business you may have to come up with a float Incase your event bombs.

All deals are structured differently but most usually the were 80/20 deals with full door ours. That means the owner earns 80% of the bar and the 20% plus the full door was ours. We paid the DJs, promoters, and anyone else that contributed to the party. Sometimes we would throw in things line 30 comp bottles, 150 free drink tickets, on top of the deal. Maybe push for a small marketing budget.

Point is don’t rent. Start with a proposal and get yourself an attorney to look over the deals. Forget the list for now. Build that list by getting out there and connecting with real people. Focus on the business and the list will follow.

 

[Cmilll6]

So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...


All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful

so You're kind of like a promoter? i would like to be apart of one of these events.....im willing to put in money and see how it goes

 

[sWALK90]

I am also very glad you brought this up. I have tried to set up an event for much fewer people and it didn't work. Maybe you can give me some feedback?

Why didnt it work?
Didnt profit or no one showed up?

In your opinion, is it a deal breaker to make them pay in advance? I notice you and your friends took all the risk up front. Now that I think of it, $350 is not that much to lose (well, right now that is a lot of money to me, but putting it in perspective, it's not a big amount at all).

No i have seen alot of people go the pay in advance route with presales,event tickets,ect to pay all the cost up front and then charge double for the people who pay at the door because that is all profit after you paid it all with presale money.

-The more people taking the risk the less you pay out of pocket but the less you take home after the event because its more people to split it with.
10 people pay 100 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses are paid and you leave with $1000 a piece
- The more risk you take the less people you split the money with at the end.
2 people pay 500 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses you both leave with $5000 a piece.

Did the venues make you guys pay in advance? Where you always sure that people would show up? In my case I was doing it alone and I would have had to put some $600 up front and then pray for them to show up. How do you guys handle that risk, or be so sure that just flyers are enough to get people to come? Do you do anything else besides sharing it around social media?

-Its a lot of shady people in this business...i always paid in advance. You pay after and they might give the venue to someone else that night or try to charge you higher once they see what you made. If you do pay after i would ensure you have everything in writing!
-Yes i was always sure....if you always keep your customers happy they will always come back. We had nights with rain and freezing temperatures and we have made money.
-If you do something alone it will be hard but possible....you would have to use social networks,radio(costly),event sites,free before certain time,uh contest..word of mouth ...flyers up everywhere..ect to your advantage.
-I have tested everything..we did a party off only radio,one of only socials,one of only flyers in person and all have been successful. For just flyers we went everywhere and tagged every car in parking lots and everyone inside with flyers .

 

[Rawr]

Nice hustle. I was doing this with college parties/keg parties at my house sophmore/junior year. Best time of my life.