When it comes down to it, people rarely buy what they need. They always buy what they want. Part of our job as creative entrepreneurs is to make sure that what our niche market wants is what we have to offer. The best way to convince them is by telling our story.
Over the years as I've been an artist, author and marketer, I have come to believe one thing passionately - people buy the story. I remember working as a marketing consultant for a nonprofit in Atlanta when one day a patron came to me and said, "Wow, you make this organization look so much bigger than it really is." I replied "Thanks, I'm just telling the story in the best way I know how."
The same has held true with selling fine craft. I'm a basketmaker and I've been doing that for about twenty years now off and on. When I finally got serious about pursuing my craft, I did a little research on the field and began referring to myself as a contemporary basketry artist. I also started to notice that the pieces I had always made - functional Appalachian-style baskets - were no longer selling like my other more sculptural, one-of-a-kind pieces. I could make those sculptural pieces in half the time and make twice the money. I enjoyed the process even more and so guess what I started making more of? You guessed it, sculptural, non-functional art baskets.
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As a working musician who is also a working music journalist I've made friends in both fields of the music industry, so I feel I have something to offer to this topic outside the traditional methods.
In today's festival & event industry, the need for strategic sponsor partnerships is greater than ever. In order for festival organizers to obtain these high-value partnerships, sponsors are constantly requesting to see research data that demonstrates a quality match between festival and event attendees and their product or service. Survey research is one of the most effective ways to obtain that needed data.
Have you ever told yourself "I'll do that when I have this" or "the timing just isn't right but when it is I'll start doing insert dream here." Problem with these good intentions is that they are just intentions. The perfect time usually never comes. The stars don't align and the damn ducks just won't line up! This is ultimately how we get stuck lives we don't love and avoid taking chances.
Following your dreams doesn't get any easier the longer you wait. Talking yourself out of the things you really want to do gets super easy as more and more time passes. Then you get to a point when you let the dream go because you have successfully convinced yourself you couldn't have even done it if you tried. *Big sigh*
This is sad. You have SO much potential and so much amazing creativity to share with the world, that to squander is not only bad for you personally, it's also selfish to the rest of us. Think about your favorite musicians, artists, writers, designers, dancers, and performers. What if they decided that the timing just wasn't right, or that they needed to do this, that and the other thing before they went for their dreams? Our world would be a grim, dark place and not very much fun.
Guests will appreciate a nice cold drink, and it's even better spiked with a little jolt. Here's a fantastic summer drink from our friends at Feastivities Events (
I think every food concessionaire remembers his or her first event. Mine was with a stick joint made of scrap barn boards, screwed together on sight by my dad and me. It took all day and lots of hand tools to have it standing straight enough to throw a tarp over it and call it a food booth. Inside I had a folding table, folding chair, stack of napkins, cash box, and, a tall stack of coolers full of my one and only menu item: sliced loaves of banana bread. I knew it wasn't the perfect menu for a five-day Fourth of July event, but, since I was already baking loaves to sell to restaurants, it was easy to bake extra. Besides, what's not to like about banana bread?
The absolute, number-one, most important thing to remember when playing live music in front of an audience is this:
Moving people and stuff around in a festival environment can be a challenge, and the larger the land area the event occupies the bigger this problem becomes.
For many years, this writer has been an enormous fan of Gordon Ramsey's show, Kitchen Nightmares. It is a show that keeps the audience captivated with both real life drama and built in suspense. For those unfamiliar with the show, the premise is that Master Chef Gordon Ramsey travels around the country to save various failing restaurants from certain bankruptcy. Ramsey literally has one week to turn a failure into a success. Every week, Chef Ramsey, like a skilled surgeon, must overcome tremendous odds and breathe new life into an almost moribund patient. Amazingly he is successful almost every single time turning water into wine. How does this wizard of the kitchen do it? What lessons can you learn from him to reanimate your failing business?
Entrepreneurs are artists, and artists are entrepreneurs. Artists need to express their art, entrepreneurs need to exploit their art. Problem is, Art is always on the battlefield with Commerce:
The absolute, number-one, most important thing to remember when playing live music in front of an audience is this:
The spring and summer seasons are the busiest times of the year for us, and hopefully for you too. Warm weather blankets the entire country and everyone wants to be outdoors in the sun and fresh air.
One of the myths that is still prevailing in the wholesale business is the "business license and tax I.D need" in order to achieve wholesale success. It is a big mistake to get such an opinion as a fact and then making such message viral all across the Internet.
The absolute, number-one, most important thing to remember when playing live music in front of an audience is this: