Image

How not to run your business...

Anything that doesn't fit in another category.
Post Reply
Bigdog
Posts: 2937
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:15 am

How not to run your business...

Post by Bigdog »

OK...I have been doing this 20 years. At one point I had three systems working and had 14 jobs a week. Probably played in over 100 different bars. Some are still open but many have closed and changed hands many times.

My main objective was to make money for bars. You do this by drawing a crowd. The better you are the bigger the crowds.

With the three systems running I had certain booking rules that I stuck to and made promises to the bar owners whnever they hired me.

My biggest rule was....I NEVER booked a job closer than 10 miles to another one on the same night.

I did this to maximize my potential customer base. I didn't want to rob one job to pay for another.

If the bar owner has a successful karaoke night ....I get paid full money and keep my job.

Even if I had the opportunity to take a job within the 10 mile limit on the same night ...I didn't because I gave my word to the bar owner. But I would try to talk the other bar owner into taking a different night.

This was in the good old days. I no longer have 3 systems...I'm down to one. And keeping it booked is becoming a real challenge.

Now the reason for this story....

My competition (one of them) tried to start another night in one of his existing bars....On a night that I work and another KJ works. Our two jobs are about3-4 miles tops apart. This makes our nights a little sparse for singers. His new job was about 4 miles from mine and about 6-7 from the other guy.

Well it didn't pan out because nobody was going and they stopped after 4 weeks. Now in todays busineess climate 4 weeks isn't nearly enought to establish a good night. In the old days before the economy flushed down the toilet....it would have been enough.

The pool of potential singers has dwindled to extremely low levels on week nights. Weekends aren't that great sometimes...

So What did Mr Smart Guy do? He booked a job 1-2 miles from me and 4 miles away from the other guy. So he has not only hurt our nights but he isn't giving the new bar owner much of a chance at having a good karaoke night. The pool of singers is now spread between 3 shows in about 5 miles... If anything he should have sold a different night or looked farther out of town. That's what I would have done.

Now maybe he's thinking he can save gas money. Sure we all want to work 1 mile away from home. But I also like getting full money for my efforts. Which isn't happening much lately...

He has also hurt the other guy and his own chances of getting full money.

At this point all I can hope for is his night to fail. This place I have has had karaoke for about 18 years I started in here years ago and was let go for other KJs....and I started the other guys job too. Mostly becasue of smart bar owners and smart managers...that thought they were making a good business move to save money with a cheaper KJ.

So do you as KJs think you should give your bar owners the best chance at making money or screw them and I take what I can get for however long it lasts...

My longest job lasted 14 years and they fired my once and brought me back after they woke up and their karaoke night was dead. I finally quit them because of the smoking issue.

I have seen a lot of KJs advertising how many different places they have played like it's a great thing.

It is if you're in business 100 years.... and the jobs last for years....but these guys have jobs listed to their credit that lasted a month or two....that tells me several things....The bar owner didn't want to wait for a crowd or the KJ couldn't draw one....

You can't fight an idiot bar owner.....but you can give them a fair shot at having a successful karaoke night. Which in turn helps your reputation and gets more jobs...

Now I know the other KJ is thinking he can steal our singers and hurt our nights....That's good for him if it works....But if it doesn't work he screwed his bar owner and us and he won't have that job long either..

You should be thinking about how to maximize your nights to their full potential. Not thinking about how close to home you can work. Most of my jobs were out of town. I only recently have worked this close to home. I found out that the money for me was always out of town. Bigger towns have more opportunity and a bigger demographic of singers and listeners to fill many competing karaoke nights.

If a smaller town seemed saturated to me I looked for greener pastures...and these were out of town. I tried to target areas that didn't have shows yet or very few. I wasn't about to book jobs next door to other shows just to get one...for a while. I always had the objective to book long term jobs. Less work for me to do by not constantly having to sell a new bar owner on having karaoke,.

We'll see what happens with this situation but I don't think it is going to help any of us. It could cause us all to lose our jobs....Your show might not always be the most popular show in town on any given night. But I want to try and get the most I can for my bar owners....

Karaoke saturation was always a big factor in where I looked for jobs. 10 miles between other karaoke shows is a fair distance to help you gain that advantage. I know that isn't always posible but 5 miles or less can really hurt you...


Post Reply