Oct
19
5 Steps to Better Clowning: Plan
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Apparently I forgot the order I was doing things in so this week you are getting 5 Steps to Better Clowning: Plan and next week you will get 5 Steps to Better Clowning: Marketing. Sorry, my bad.
–The Usable Clown–
Today we are going to cover the basics of planning for your business. Just a couple of simple ways to make your business run smoother for you allowing you to spend more time focusing on entertaining. We will cover: Cue Cards, Scheduling and Price Lists.
Cue Cards
The first step is going to be analyzing your skills and the entertainment market in your area. The bigger the area you live in the more specific you are going to want your niche to be. Your niche could be weddings, car dealerships or any type of event. You probably don’t want your niche to be birthday parties because regardless of the type of parties fit your niche you will get calls for birthday parties.
If the city you live in has a lot of entertainers, check the yellow pages to find out, then you will probably need to classify yourself as a clown amongst those entertainers. If you live in a town where there are only one or two other entertainers, you should be good just advertising yourself as an entertainer. When you are first starting out you might want to list yourself as an entertainer and see how it goes.
After you have analyzed your area you need to make a list of your top five skills in order of your talent with the ability. Keep in mind that clowning does not need to go on this list. You need to put things like juggling, balloon art, unicycling, magic, etc. on the list. This list will become your focus page of your marketing plan. The top one and two skills will be your main points with the three, four and five being the icing on the cake. This list will be constantly evolving as you learn new skills or get better at one skill so don’t be afraid to adjust it accordingly
Now you need to take that list of skills and brainstorm selling points for each skill. What makes that skill different and better then all others, what makes that skill better then other entertainer’s skills. Make sure that you can communicate these selling points to a non entertainer in a way that makes sense to them, don’t tell them that you are a master at site swap juggling as you will only confuse them.
Once all the brainstorming is done you want to plan out exactly what you are going to say to someone planning different types of events. Take ten 3″ x 5″ cards and write these on the top of them:
- Birthday
- Grand Opening
- Wedding
- Company Picnic
- Office Party
- Non-Profit
- Restaurant
- Church
- Festival
- Other
The reason for this is that you will be filling these cards with talking points to use while on the phone with a potential customer. By having them broken down by type of party you will be able to give them a better idea of what you offer specific to their event. Using these Cue Cards in conjunction with the other tools we will be talking about makes booking jobs so much easier.
Scheduling
When talking to someone on the phone one of the first things that you should ask prior to giving any information is the date and time of their event. This will give you an idea if you are available to work the party as well as giving you some solid information about their party. Of course this information will only do you good if you have an accurate way to schedule these events in you calendar.
The best way to ensure that no party is forgotten is to have a desktop monthly calendar, and a daily calendar. The easiest way to do this is some sort of electronic calendar system such as Palm, Outlook or iCalendar. What you need to do is when someone calls and gives you the date you mark it in pencil on your monthly calendar. Then as you get more information and confirm the party you can rewrite the info in pen.
Also make sure that you allow yourself enough time to get to and from your parties. I would say to give yourself thirty minutes between parties. Another thing to have by your phone or on your computer is a map of your area so that you can check locations, allowing you to plan for more travel time as necessary. Remember that if you have an open time slot between to clown jobs a free show in a park or library is a great way to spread the name of your brand.
Always take your day planner out with you when you leave your house, that way if you get a call on your cell phone or talk to someone about a possible clown job you are able to check right away your availability and possible book the job right there.
Price Lists
Having a comprehensive price list written out is one of the best tools you can have. This is not the price list that you publicize or even show to potential customers, it is just for you to be able to see what you want to charge for a job. Creating this list is fairly simple just follow these steps.
- Categorize- Take all of the different types of parties you do and place them into categories. These categories will be: Parties, Picnics, Festivals and Other. Decide what types of parties go where as well as breaking them down by the skills that will be applied at that party.
- List- Using a spreadsheet program, make a three column list with the headers being: Type of Party, Cost of Party and Price of Party. The price of party is what consumables you typically use at a party such as balloons, gas and makeup. You might also include wear and tear on any other props you use.This will make it easy to see a profit when booking a party.
- Use- Make sure that you don’t just make this list because The Usable Clown told you to. Really use it, the better you become at sticking to your price list the more consistent you will be at pricing. This will allow you to make a steady amount of money as well as treating everyone the same.
Now that you have your Cue Cards all ready, your Schedule setup and your Price List figured out, you will find that you are on your way to a more focused booking process making it easier for you to book gigs and get out the door faster.