Three reasons, you just shouldn’t do it.
People suck
- People will tell you that they will be at your next event, for every event:
The day is always not the best, “Ah I can’t make it out on Thursday, let me know when you have one on Friday!”
After you work hard to get a Friday event, “That’s awesome! Sorry every 1st, 3rd and 4th Fridays I have another commitment. Maybe if you have one on a 2nd Friday.”
- Everyone wants to be on the guest-list:
The venue, the labor, and the talent has to be paid for. If everyone is on the guest-list, how is anyone going to be paid? We are not asking you for unnecessary service fees, we are simply asking you for $8 to see talented individuals and hometown heroes.
- People have options:
Weather, laziness, Netflix or a combination of peer pressure plus free entree to a club event will make the strong among us weak.
Being a promoter, sucks
I saw a tweet once that wrote, “If you want to be a promoter the first step is take a million dollars…light it on fire and see how you feel.”
Think about it: you are trying to convince entitled up-and-coming artists to come perform on your stage because you can bring out a crowd, on the other hand you are trying to persuade a crowd to come enjoy talent that you and a few of their friends may know about.
You are the entertainment version of a used car sales man.
Hence you put your money and reputation on the line in “anticipation” of an amazing event.
Performers, suck
These days, some up and coming artists can be so naive with what they presume is the right way to market a show.
“I’ll put up the flyer, a couple days before so that people don’t forget.” WRONG.
I am sorry but unless you are Jay Z, I will need more than three days of promotion from your end. Your network needs to know that you are excited for your next event.
What if we both tried not promoting the event at all, until three days prior?
But if you want to be a promoter,
You will learn to measure success differently
- Make sure that even if there are only ten people in the crowd, they are having the time of their lives. If those 10 people have a great time, your event was a success and they will most likely come to your next one.
Know that your events, aren’t for you
- But know that event promotion is something that requires passion. If you are not passionate about seeing things come together and just want free alcohol, save yourself the trouble and ask to be a club promoter.
Keep grinding.