How To Book A Venue

WAYS TO RESEARCH AN EVENT:

How to book a venue!

When booking a venue for your next gig there are several ways to go about it. If you know that your going to put a lot of time into promoting this night you may wish to view multiple venues to fit your style. Figure out exactly what you want, imagine your crowd in the venue, take note to where the sound is. What is the quality in speakers, where does most of the sound hit, look for a booth or stage where you can see what you need to make the show happen with the right equipment.

Another big tip is size. You really want to earn your stripes by playing small venues first. Don’t go for your favorite club right away, lets just take note of that goal and build up to that. Have you ever packed a small club before? What about had a big venue with double the amount of people but still way to much standing room? It’s not worth that trouble to have a large venue that feels empty. So sell out a small space first!

Now that you’ve looked around and have some ideas where, go during a slow night, ask for management, let them know that your good at what you do and can pack their place if their interested. If the management team isn’t available get an appointment to come back. It’s good to say you have other venues your working with and that you need to know rental fees as soon as possible. You can do this with a phone call, but again it works best to go in to follow it up. You sell yourself better in person always! Follow with a firm handshake! It builds trust!

When you get those rental fees you are now in a position to negotiate. Do you want to do one show at this place or build a monthly or weekly event? Remember they don’t know you and haven’t heard of you so you really don’t have much pull yet. Ask if there are specific nights with lower fees and higher fees in the month, based on successful parties they do. For example they may have a Thursday that really lifts off with a specific promoter so it’s out of the question, or a Monday for that matter. It has been done in smaller spaces, and you may wish to go that route if it’s open. Fridays and Saturdays are obviously the money maker nights so they will cost the most. If you have access to a daytime crowd, Sundays are good options for cheap rates.

Take the numbers you have and compare them to other clubs and do this little formula. If you have done other shows you should be telling them that you will pack their place and they will miss out on a great night of business because Club B is only going to charge them $300 for the night. Ideally speaking you should go for multiple hits, tell them you want it for free! You will do all the promoting and you have access to the crowd anyway so money comes from them any how, not the performer. If you pay a few to rent out the night then you get the door and a cut of the bar after the bar hits a guarantee. Ticket sales can’t always be the only way to make money if you pack a small spot. Ask for 10-20% of the bar sales after the guarantee if you want to do a weekly or a monthly. That’s how you know you know that the bar will make money and be packed. It’s the confidence that sells!

So you are looking at that club, you got a rental quote, you got a bar guarantee and after that guarantee you get a cut, great! Now they know you know what your talking about! Don’t disappoint by getting lazy now! You may also want to ask about drink specials. Is this a one-time event? If you say no, even more reason, let’s say it’s a monthly event or a weekly. You want to advertise their club, tell them you are going to get flyers designed and printed and show some example of what your flyers may look like. Easy to find that isn’t it? Now say that the drink specials can easily bring more people in early and we can promote that liquor. Ask what reps they have the strongest reputations with, those that are open to cover cost of flyer design and printing once we do the special and show them the proof of the flyer as well as that liquor logo on the flyer. It’s the proof that your not just taking money, make the flyers now for free or use the money to get it done and bring receipts.

So now you have your venue owner excited about your party, you got a great deal or it’s free, you got flyers being made, you checked out the sound… what else?

Get your band together and start a plan of promoting and your on your way to making this take off! If you are a DJ then get slots out and fill them with the hungriest promoters/DJ’s you have! It’s time to turn that club out and make it a new hot spot! As you get closer to the night make sure you keep in touch with that owner so he knows your on top of things! Don’t let him book someone else on your night because he lost faith in you. If you paid for it, less to worry about.

 GOOD LUCK!

Some places to check out for hints

SanDiegoClubs.com
DanceOrlandoClub.com
FindRentals.com
ClubRentals.com