Help with business strategy to get customers
2little2late
subscriber Posts: 1
Hello all! I am new to SUN & found some realy valuable advice on here already so I`m hoing you can help me. I just recently started a social networking group which will host business networking parties, make new friends events, singles events etc. Basically my plan is to build my database of people by building a profile on all the netowrking sites such as myspace, facebook, meetup, linkedin etc & send my invites out through email distributions or through their profiles etc.
My question is, what is the best strategy for where I should request the funds from to pay for the event...& make some money . Should I negotiate with the place where I hold the event & if I bring in X # of people then they pay me a certain pre-determined amount of money in addition to getting a certain percentage of the total alcohol consumption based on the business I brought the location? And then not charge my clients to attend? If I do it this way, I`m afraid I can`t guarantee they will attend. Or should I charge my clients & have them pay in advance using a registration service via the email/invite I send out? If I do it this way, it`s hard to pre-determine before people register/pay what size location I will need. And if the event falls through because nobody registers, then I`m sure I`m out a deposit. I`m not sure which strategy would work better for me to guarantee the most attendance. And I`m wondering to what extent bar/restaurant owners will negotiate to bring additional business into their location. Any feedback is greatly appreciated & if you have a better suggestion, I`m open to that as well! thanks
My question is, what is the best strategy for where I should request the funds from to pay for the event...& make some money . Should I negotiate with the place where I hold the event & if I bring in X # of people then they pay me a certain pre-determined amount of money in addition to getting a certain percentage of the total alcohol consumption based on the business I brought the location? And then not charge my clients to attend? If I do it this way, I`m afraid I can`t guarantee they will attend. Or should I charge my clients & have them pay in advance using a registration service via the email/invite I send out? If I do it this way, it`s hard to pre-determine before people register/pay what size location I will need. And if the event falls through because nobody registers, then I`m sure I`m out a deposit. I`m not sure which strategy would work better for me to guarantee the most attendance. And I`m wondering to what extent bar/restaurant owners will negotiate to bring additional business into their location. Any feedback is greatly appreciated & if you have a better suggestion, I`m open to that as well! thanks
Sign In or Register to comment.
Comments
I don`t know if I am necessarily looking for overall tactics to run my overall business as I am very familiar with this as well. I guess what I am looking for is sales/marketing tactics & ways to gain customers to attend my events, ways to negotiate with venue owners so that I am not financially risking much for each event I organize.
I hope this makes this a bit clearer.
Thanks
Scenario 1: I go to X bar & tell the owner I want to use their location for my next event & intend to invite a certain # of people mostly in their 20`s & 30`s. But I want X bar to myself during this event for a few set amount of hours. X bar might want to do this because maybe they are either slow during those hours or even closed normally. How do I make money on putting that event together? Do I negotiate with X bar that I am bringing new business they would not have had at this specific time or more business than this usual time & therefore ask for some sort of kick back from X bar depending on the # of attendees that show? In addition can I ask for a profit from the total drink consumption from the group I bring in? Would X bar want to do this & how do I come up with the estimated cost based on the # of people I bring.
Scenario 2-I need to book a separate room at X bar because X bar is already popular & can`t afford to close down to the public. But having an event at X bar could be worth while since it already has a reputation for being a great place therefore, holding my own event inside a room at X bar geared towards a particular interest group i.e. singles, would probably draw more people.
Either of these scenarios would involve me seeking a location for an event, prior to sending out invites. So essentially, what I envision, is building my database of people/emails & organize the people based on interests/age etc. Then booking X bar for a certain date & time, creating an invitation & sending out blast emails & using word of mouth & my website to get the word out about my event. So, I now have an event location on hold & invites out & essentially I am waiting to see who registers to attend.
I`m wondering to what level of negotiating a restaurant/bar owner is usually open to & are their estimated standards for something like this? Additionally, I`m wondering if it makes more sense tomake my profit by charging the location I do the event at or the people who attend or both.
I hope this helps explain things better. I know I am at fault for not being more clear. I appreciate any help you can provide! thanks again!
Craig-Yes, now you`re "seeing it" or better yet..I explained it better All of this info has help me greatly.
I guess I should be charging the attendees for the event I organize. Initially I was assuming I would, until I heard of another very successful person doing a similar business in another state & not chanrging the attendees to attend. So that got me thinking.
I still don`t think I know exactly what my set guidelines should be though for negotiating these types of deals with the owners. I agree that a bar owner is mostly just interested in having a packed house..they can care less where I get the people from. ie. the bar owner tells me he will give me 1% of the total bill from the alcohol consumption of my party as my profit is that considered a lot or a little? Additionally, if a location charges me $5 per person for example, what % do I tack on as my profit? Is there general standards or guidelines I can follow to help in determining this type of stuff? I can`t base it on my comeptition because nobody else in my state is doing this right now.
Getting the restaurant to "share" a portion of their revenue may be a challenge in more way than one. It might be difficult for them to track and it`s impossible for you to monitor. Some places are more open to providing teh place at no charge in return for a minimum number of folks.
Also, as you work out your business model - you might think about sponsors for each event.
robertj2008-6-19 19:42:59