talkmagic.co.uk

Hello everyone,

This is mainly aimed at full time entertainers, I was wondering how many bookings or hours you do each year, on average?

From my business plan, I've come up with a standard figure i'll have to keep up with, which is 375 worth of hours of bookings a year.

Ricky Gibson

Why 375 hours, just out of interest?

What sort of work are you planning on doing? Kids, Stage, Close up?

Are you including your travel time in your 375 hours of work?

Who's doing your accounts, Ricky? Or are you doing them yourself?

During the good years (pre-recession) 400 gigs a year. Now that the recession is ending, it is coming back up.
Unfortunately kids stuff pays less than adult stuff, so lots of gigs are necessary.

Say on average you get £200 per gig that means you're aiming to get £75,000 in a year. Fair play. The tax man will love you.

If you are doing kids work you won't average £200 per gig. But adult work pays more.

TonyB wrote:During the good years (pre-recession) 400 gigs a year. Now that the recession is ending, it is coming back up.
Unfortunately kids stuff pays less than adult stuff, so lots of gigs are necessary.

More than one a day including xmas and new years? so how many a day, since you do not work every day?

Dr Todd, an average of four working days a week. Two gigs most Saturdays and Sundays. In the good pre-recession days two to three every day of the two month summer holidays. Five on a good Saturday in May (communion season), and four every Saturday and Sunday coming up to Christmas. Small sums, but it adds up to a living.

I would much rather do two good adult gigs a week for big fees, but Ireland is a small market.

What sort of work are you planning on doing? Kids, Stage, Close up?

I'll be doing all of them, Children parties, stage, close up, even skills workshops for schools and childrens play centres.

My main market will be entertaining children, but i'll be open for corperate events, weddings and other close up events.

Are you including your travel time in your 375 hours of work?

That is without travel. If they book me for half an hour, one hour or two hours, the accumulated total of bookings I have done a year in hours, would be 375.

The West Midlands seem to have enough gigs for me so far, although it does have a population of over 5 million, 683,346 of them are age 5-14, which are the target audience.

Who's doing your accounts, Ricky? Or are you doing them yourself?

I am doing my own accounts.

Ricky Gibson

TonyB wrote:Dr Todd, an average of four working days a week. Two gigs most Saturdays and Sundays. In the good pre-recession days two to three every day of the two month summer holidays. Five on a good Saturday in May (communion season), and four every Saturday and Sunday coming up to Christmas. Small sums, but it adds up to a living.

I would much rather do two good adult gigs a week for big fees, but Ireland is a small market.

Thanks Tony. Sounds like a guy I know in this area.

Cheers

Dr T

Starving Stu wrote:Say on average you get £200 per gig that means you're aiming to get £75,000 in a year. Fair play. The tax man will love you.

And the VAT man. Keep the receipts!

Tomo wrote:

Starving Stu wrote:Say on average you get £200 per gig that means you're aiming to get £75,000 in a year. Fair play. The tax man will love you.

And the VAT man. Keep the receipts!

From now on the excuse I'm using at the geek meets is that I can claim back to VAT on the pints I buy for myself, but not on the ones I buy for other people; I will therefor not be getting a round in.

I went from 350 shows a year (5 years ago) to 50 a year (now). This may sound like a bad thing but, in fact, my sales revenue has kept going significantly up each year while my expenses have drastically gone down. My target is to keep it at 50 while steadily increasing pricing as demand goes up over time. Makes for a profitable business with tons of free time to spend with my family and take long vacations. Everyone has a show number that makes sense given their situation and target market (not sure if it makes sense to survey others).

Scott, you have done well. I would love to go that way! Fair play to you.

Fay Presto wrote in her lecture notes, Tears in Rain (or something to do with Bladerunner) that the way she worked out her rate was to get fully booked, then halve the bookings and double her fee. Same income, less work.

The rates don't look too horrendous, tin pan annie for example charge £110 for an hour's singing and songs (http://www.tinpanannie.co.uk/parties.html). I expect that many parents' expectations are probably (and wrongly) about the £70 to £80 per hour though: for £200 one can hire a trampoline party for the whole afternoon. Here is a mage who charges £100 per hour http://www.kids-magic-kent.co.uk/childr ... t-prices/; or 40 minutes for £80 (eg http://www.magic4children.co.uk/childre ... shows.html) . But parents can be strange creatures and often it's not just about keeping the children quiet but keeping up with the other parents.

To be honest, whenever I have looked for a children's entertainer if the website does not have clear pricing then I tend not to bother with them. I don't really like the idea of bartering and having to engage with people just to find out the price: just my opinion, I realise it's not a popular one with the trade.