By Steve Rawlings
So you’ve got your act together and you’re ready to hit the road. Now I think it’s time to tackle one of the most important things you’ll ever need to know about in your career as a performer: MONEY!!!!
What am I worth and how much should I charge?
The straight answer to this is that you’re worth whatever people are willing to pay for you, pure and simple. (Irrespective of how much better you feel other people are).
When I first started I was awful at this. If someone wanted to book me I always recommended someone else as I felt they were so much better than me, but overtime you realise the client liked what you did, not someone else. They want to book you and once you get over the shock of that, let’s get down to pricing.
Luckily for me my lovely wife Rita was really good at dealing with people and pricing and she taught me the skills I needed to deal with bookings so now it’s time for me to pass on her wisdom to you.
Every type of work in this business is different and has its own pay scale. Starting probably with walkabout juggling and going all the way up to corporate events. Pricing is also affected by how much time you can fill, i.e., are you doing 1or 2 sets, a longer spot, or are you the only entertainment of the evening doing a much longer set?
As a beginner you need to know the top and bottom fees of every avenue of work that’s open to you and price yourself according to how well you feel you work in that market. Obviously as a beginner you’d come in near the bottom and as you get better and build your reputation you can raise your price accordingly.
So how do I find out what these prices are?
First of all you can ask around amongst your friends and contemporaries to find out what prices they are going out for, but be aware that some may not be truthful with you. They may inflate their real fees to make themselves sound better, or to make you bid too high so that you lose the gig. It’s a cruel world sadly and competition can be intense so you need to be careful.
Nowadays you could probably get good genuine advice from a reliable Facebook group that deals with your subject or if you’re working through an Agent you could simply leave them to arrange your fee. They know the market and stand to gain by getting the best price for you. It will also help you develop your relationship with them by showing your trust. If all else fails and you’re completely stuck just contact someone in the field you need with a fake booking enquiry to see what they charge. It’s a little bit sneaky but you’ll get the answers you need.
So now you’ve got your list of prices and a good idea of your worth, the last thing you have to do now is learn how to take the phone call from a prospective booker and on the fly work out what the show is and quote the best price.
Here’s a few helpful hints before we deal with the call.
It’s better to go out all the time for £500 per show, than twice a year for £10,000
If you quote too high you can always come down in price, quote too low and that’s where you stay
If they agree your price straight away you probably came in too low
Always leave the opportunity for negotiation on the price.
I want people to know that even if they can’t reach my normal price I’d like to have the choice of taking the show or not (if I’m really busy I’d politely turn it down or pass it on to a friend, but if work is slow, I’ll take the booking and be happy to be working).
If you get stuck and need time to think, tell them you have a possible booking in the diary that you have to check on and you’ll call them back ASAP.
Get all the information you can before you quote the fee. It’s nicer to say you’re already booked than just not interested.
Occasionally with corporate shows the agent will raise your quote themselves to get you the show as many corporate clients feel the more they spend the better the act.
So here are the magic questions you’ll need to quote the right fees
What’s the event? Establish which price category this show falls into and we start to develop a price
Where is the event? Home or abroad? (if flights are involved you’ll have to price for two days travel), size of venue and how prestigious it is will help with pricing. Location means adding travel costs and possible overnight hotel
How many people? The bigger the event the more you can charge
How long is the spot? Am I the evening’s entire entertainment or a part of a bigger show
What time am I on? This one is not as important but may mean you can fit in another show on the same night if you’re lucky and could go out cheaper and hope to get lucky with another show
These questions should enable you to work out and quote a price during the course of a phone call or an online chat and make you look organised and professional.
As you progress in your career you’ll probably be dealing with Bookers mainly through Agents or Managers who will know how to price you properly, and it is certainly nice to have a buffer between you and the client so that they can do all the hard bargaining and you get to be the good guy.
The downside is that they will obviously be taking a percentage of your fee for doing it.
If you’re anything like me you’ll find all this quite difficult at first, but the more you do it the easier it becomes and it’s always very satisfying when you close a deal successfully.
Steve Rawlings has been a successful professional entertainer for 42 years . With a career beginning with street performing and across many other venues, he is now mainly working on some of the biggest cruise ships in the world. He’s broken eight Guinness world records and has been lucky enough to meet and exchange ideas with amazing performers from all around the world.
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