Building a business

[stitches]

I would really like to increase my business this year and have read many, many ideas from various clown resources and I'd like some feedback on some of them.

First, offering a referral incentive.
(Reminds me of my Tupperware days when hostesses got extra prizes for each party that booked off of theirs). Do referral incentives work? What kind of incentives would you give? Cash back? Future discounts? I definitely wouldn't give anything until the parties were held, in case of cancellation.

Second, websites, yellow pages, ads, etc.
Do they really help customers to find you? or is word of mouth better? Are newspaper ads worth the money? Are websites worth the money? Where are the public bulletin boards that used to be at every grocery store? Where can we post flyers and business cards?

Lastly (for now), volunteering.
Is it worth volunteering to get your name out there? How much is too much? Should volunteering be restricted to a time limit? Should we be reimbursed for our materials (balloons and face paint)?

Well, that's all for now. We could all use sound business tips! What effort resulted in the most business for you?

[stitches]

Awwww! Come on!!!!!!!

No one wants to share their business tips?!?!?!?!?!

<<sniff>>

[Ritz]

I would but I know nothing about business.

[Hopper]

First, offering a referral incentive.

I tried that. It worked to a degree, people used it, but didn't increase business a whole lot. For people to take notice, you need to offer enough of an incentive to make em go "wow...I'll do this". That's not cheap. (People are pretty blase about "5 bucks off your next party") You don't want to end up offering huge discounts for every party either.

Second, websites, yellow pages, ads, etc.

Yellow pages ad, yes. But don't go hog-wild with a big splashy ad. Make sure you get an ad in the yellow pages of any center that you'd be willing to go regularly for birthday parties. But just get a little box ad. And prepare to deal with a lot of people who are just looking for the cheapest...DON'T get caught up in that. Be prepared to let the odd gig slide.

Website, yes (though I haven't gotten around to taking my own advice yet) The popular wisdom seems to be that while it won't generate sales by itself, it WILL help seal the deal. You can direct people there to see what you look like and get a better idea of what you do...its a visual meduim, people like that. So make sure the website is on your business card. Try to get a domain name like stitches.com or something, and stay away from free pop-up sites, they're annoying and make you look cheap.

Newspaper ads- forget it if you live in a big city, your ad will get buried. (Might as well have flushed my money down the toilet.) But it can be effective and reasonably priced if you go into small town weeklies and such that are closeby.

And actually, I always had pretty good luck with bulletin board ads. One of the best uses of my cash was to pay the 10 dollar a month fee to put a small poster up on a bulletin board at some local ice rinks. Hockey moms are always scanning the boards while waiting for the kiddies to get suited and unsuited for their peewee games. (may not work outside of Canada) Only do this if you want to do a lot of birthday parties.

Another option, if they do this in your area, is those companies that make newsprint placemats for truck stops/diners/restaurants with ads on them.

I think the best investment though is a nice photo business card or even a postcard. (I actually like the ones that look like pseudo-baseball cards.) And give them out, give them out, give them out. Pay to get LOTS of them and give them out everywhere. Everytime you meet someone, give them a card. Everythime you use a payphone, leave one there. Everytime you read a magazine in a waiting room, tuck one in there.

Lastly (for now), volunteering.
Is it worth volunteering to get your name out there?

Volunteering: I would say the best way to get "exposure" is to get a regular weekly gig or two somewhere. Get a job working "kids night" at the local pizza shack, or get something for your local minor league ball team's home games. Firstly, these things are usually in the evening, and not during your prime business hours. Secondly, when you're there every week, folks tend to feel they know you and will look for you in particular when their kid's birthday comes up.

I wouldn't do one of these regular gigs for free, but you could always make some kind of arrangement. (Part of the arrangement is that you can freely give out stuff like coloring pages.) I used to do the pizza restaurant thing where they paid me my fee in vouchers. They got a clown, and I got a nice night once a week to go out for dinner with the mrs. (it was a nice place with a lot more on the menu than pizza) We both won. It got me a fair bit of birthday party business too.

As far as actual volunteering goes, the bottom line is to only do things you want to do for charities you like. Just don't become a doormat. If theres a band playing, and the band's getting paid and you're not, that's the last time I do that event for free. Ditto if they've asked me and I get to the event and there's another clown company there as well that I didn't know about. (thats happened to me a lot)

When you volunteer as a clown, YOU specify what's what, not them. You entertain the way YOU like. When they call wanting you to come, you say "Here's what I do/don't do for charity events like yours and here's what I require" I personally don't do balloons or face painting for charity, just walkaround, because thats what I like doing most and is essentially what I'm selling. If they need facepainters, they need to keep looking.

I do personally believe that we all have to do some free/charitable work...I think it keeps you honest about why you're clowning.

ANyway, thats enough out of me. Hope this helps a bit.

[stitches]

Wow, Thanks Hopper!

One question about Domain names: My business is "The Hem & Ha Fun Company". Is it better to use something people will remember, like my clown name, or would my business name be just as good? like HemandHa.com?

I think I answered my own question. People remember my clown name, not my business name.

[Hopper]

Well, registering a domain name is fairly inexpensive. You could work it so that you have both "Stitchestheclown.com" and "HemandHa.com" opening up to the same site. I know of a couple of non-clown related sites that have a few different domain names opening the same site.

Maybe someone a little more website savvy can chime in here.

[ashes]

Yes, you can point multiple dimain names to the
same website.

I have Just4LAFS. (.com, .net and .org) plus
LifeAndFireSafety (.com, .net and .org)
all pointing to the same website.

That way, a user gets to us whichever they use.

This organization _used_ to have the Just4LAFS moniker,
but then it lapsed and someone else grabbed it.

So we registered the LifeAndFireSafety domain names.

Then, by twist of fate, the original came available again
so I grabbed it up because there were so many old users
that knew the original name.

I use Network Solutions to register my domain names, and
I host them on my own server, so I use their utility to point
the DNS info to my server.

If you use a hosted solution, be sure to contact their support
and read the fine print about domain names - some are
rented by the month and if you miss a payment, then
you lose it.

I highly recommend going to Network Solutions and purchasing
your domain name for whatever period of time you feel
you can - 1 year through 99 years, I think.

Ashes

[ashes]

Oh, and you should be able to have a hosted solution
that uses your domain name. They can edit the
DNS records, or give you the info you need for those
records.

By hosting the domain myself, I run web, ftp and mail
servers so I have the option of using myname@mydomain.com
as an email address, instead of myname@yahoo.com or whatever.

Good luck!

Bryan

[ashes]

Oh, and Stitches -- I didn't answer your original
poll. I'm a "Life And Fire Safety" clown and I don't
do birthday parties, or run my own business.
The only "bookings" I do come from my Fire Department,
and/or City requested functions.

So, We (our group) don't advertise. However, we do have
"trading cards" made up to give to the kids. They're
similar to baseball trading cards, with a color photo on
one side and contact info and safety message on the
back. You could just do a little advertising blurb on
the back along with your contact info, including web
site.

Ashes

[jellybeanz]

I live in a smallish town of 25000 people. I do one volunteer gig each year raising funds for the local nursing home. From this I was picking up 3-4 new gigs a year. Last year the local shopping mall booked me for 2 hours and now I have to refuse some bookings as I'm too busy.
If you also work full time it can be hard to keep up.