How to Promote Yourself As a Party Entertainer
If you are looking for work as a professional entertainer you are probably wondering what you can do to get noticed.Some entertainers have ‘it’ some just don’t… but why are a few of the really bad ones get work regularly and other genuinely talented artists are scraping together a living?I run an entertainment agency called Totally Talented, from my experiences the answer is very simple. Some people advertise (for free) in the right places and some are getting it all wrong!Here is a list of popular methods of self promotion
Word if mouth or circles
Advertising
Entertainment agencies like Totally talented
Charity work
The web and your own website
If you don’t have a large promotion budget here are some free or very cheap methodsWord if mouth or circlesThe number one way to get regular streams of work is word of mouth, every time you have a gig think of the potential of getting all their friends, associates etc. If you are a children’s entertainer ask the parents to recommend you to their friends.. before you know it you could be the number one entertainer in that school. Make sure you give out business cards or flyers at the end of the event.AdvertisingTargeted advertising can give you the start you need to break into the lucrative world of entertainment. Word of mouth is the number one form of free advertising but there are other ways, they just need you to invest some time and effort. Send out some flyers, put a card up in your local news agency or advertise in the local press. Newspaper advertising starts from as little as £25 and can cost up to several thousands. Whatever you choose to spend make sure it is targeted, that’s why the local press is the most effective. If your a musician consider advertising in press related to music not just random places. Think about your add too make sure it is worded well and gives all the right information.Entertainment agenciesThere are numerous entertainment agencies that will find work for you. Some of them charge money for their services and some of them are free. Search the net for the free ones. Totally Talented is free to signup.Charity workIf you have some free time, why not do some voluntary work? Not only will you get the opportunity to show off your talents and get potential future work but also that satisfaction of helping a needy cause. Just don’t forget to give out your business cards at the end!The web and your own websiteThe web is a very powerful tool for self promotion – use it! There are countless sites where you can advertise your services for free. For example YouTube, Gumtree, blogs and Totally Talented. Totally Talented gives you a personal space where you can upload videos, sound clips and pictures – the next best thing to a personal recommendation! If you were looking for an entertainer, you would want a recommendation or to see them for yourself first, that’s why uploading videos to the web is one of the most effective things you can do.There are lots of free ways to get yourself noticed just remember to try. See what works for you and don’t be afraid to self promote.
Franchising Can Continue to Be the Greatest Business Format in History If Regulators Lay Off
As a former franchisor I can tell you this; I love franchising, and I love everything about it. I do believe with all my heart that it is the greatest business model ever created in the history of mankind. And I can show you examples of this near and far, as proof. Not to mention the fact that I enjoyed my time franchising my company around the country and into international markets. Now then, can franchising continue to be the greatest business format in human history? I believe so, with a caveat, and if you have a few moments I’d like to explain this to you.You see, one thing that had always bothered me was the burdensome regulations in the franchising sector. They were completely unwarranted, and from an entrepreneur’s standpoint outrageously unacceptable. It seems absolutely insane to have such onerous regulations and the requirement of over 300 pages of disclosure documents before you sold a franchise to a new franchisee when in fact there is very little fraud in franchising. After all, why would a franchisor wish to induce a buyer to buy their franchise just to make money in the near term, when they’d have to do business with that individual for that duration in term of that franchise?It seems to me that regulators don’t understand this principle, that is to say that franchising is a win-win situation. Those franchisors who use fraudulent sales tactics don’t last for a long, and they are generally sued into oblivion, we hardly need the hard-core overregulation that exists in the industry today. Now then, it would be different with business opportunities where a business model and format is sold to an individual, and once the business opportunity company has sold the business, they walk away never to talk to the individual again.In that case they would have an incentive to overhype their business model, and perhaps that’s why there is more fraud in the business opportunity sector than in the franchise opportunity sector. One thing that equally bothers me now in 2011, nearly a decade after I had franchised my company is that on one hand we claim we want jobs for Americans, but we make it almost impossible for companies to grow big and strong and franchise their operations. A new franchised outlet could hire as many as 10 to 20 people.Therefore, the more franchises which are established, sold, and started the more people will have jobs in our workforce. And yet, we go right along over regulating the sector and losing out on all those future jobs. It just makes absolutely no sense to me, and I have study this industry for about 35 years now. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.