Hello All!

Its been a while since I have posted here on Puppets and Stuff.  I hope everyone is doing well.  A few months back I took a new job in tech management at a manufacturing company  and I have had little time for anything else. *SIGH* I have checked in from time to time just to stay up to date.  Anyway,  Things here are not looking as stable as I would like and I am thinking about performing puppets full time.  I have a few questions I would like to bounce off some working puppeteers before I decide if this is feasable.  Don't get me wrong, I will always be performing puppet shows, but I think I might have an opportunity to fulfill a life long dream.

First, I think I should include some info:

1.  I am living alone and I own my own home.
2.  My only debt is my mortgage and car payment
3.  I already have a stage, amp, lights from doing shows in the past.
4.  Clients I have done shows for in the past have been for nature centers, special events, library...ect.
4.  I have about 4 months of income saved up.
5.  I can live lean for a while but my estimate is that I need to make at least $30,000 to cover my bills and have money for food, gas, taxes, website, and of coarse build some puppets.

Here are my questions:
1.  How long (and i know this is just an estimate at best) does it take to have enough clients to make a living at this?
2.  I don't know if I want to do "the birthday party" thing.  How important is that to your income?
3.  How far do you travel to do shows and how are you coping with the gas prices?
4.  Once I take the plunge, What is the best way let possible clients know that I am going to do this full time?

Thanks in advance for the help.  I know everyone is busy but any insite is appreciated.  It feels good to post again! After 9 months of my new job one thng is certain, the people in the puppetry community are the ones with live hearts and soles and I would rather be poor with a living sole!

MArk

Well, Puppets are just a hobby for me so I'm not going to try and give you advise.  Just want to wish you well as your figure out how to take the next step.  I have seen some threads that have talked about different aspects of the puppet business.  If you dig around you may get some ideas and I know the professionals among us will be along to give you the low down on what you can do.

In my dreams I sometimes imagine being in puppets full time but I'm not ready to think about that seriously.  That being said I am interested in following this discussion.

Best wishes

If your looking to book everything under the sun, then you need to reeeealy promote yourself. Every way and anyway. You need to let the world know you are available to entertain. Booking kid shows could start a chain reaction with happy kids and mothers. Once you book a gig and one mom tells another how fun it was, expect more calls soon. There is a downside also, once you loose the child attention, its like parachuting without the parachute...not fun.
Dont "kid" yourself, there can be alot of money made doing parties....even adult parties.

Hospitals, Old folks homes, grand openings, educational school shows are some venues of bookings.
You might even want to look for a local agent. Agents do get a percentage, but their overall knowledge of show opportunities can really make you a living....God willing.
If you can get an agent to book you at a corporate show, you'll really see some cash there.

Business cards: Make some eyecatching cards...leave them everywhere. Give them to everyone

Advertise in the local papers. Even those little adds in the classified work.  See if the local paper does interviews of local artists. Have them do a story on you. Thats a huge promotion and for free. I had an Improv show and we used to have about 20 each show. The paper did the interview and our next shows sold out 100+. Media can be a help...sometimes. Have a very happy website. Have pictures from previous shows, show the client how enjoyable your performance is. Maybe even some footage of a show of yours. On the site list all your previous gigs and appearances.

Work on Holiday oriented shows and shop them to clients all year round. Sooner or later they will - 1. book you or 2. put a restraining order on you.  No blood, no foul...lol

All I can really say is its up to you how much you want to promote yourself.

--Even if you want to drive around with a magnetic sticker on your car promoting yourself, I know there is tax exempt thing that goes with that, it might help you with bills. Check with your accountant or tax preparer.

Hope all goes well.
Sonny

That's great advice, thanks Sonny.

Most of the shows I have done are educational shows for kids and you are right, if you loose them...you loose them, not much you can do.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to work with care givers and educators when creating a show and that has helped me avoid that but it does still happen.  I imagine it happens to everyone at least once or twice.

Hospitals and  retirement homes are two venues I did not think of! 

MArk

At the yearly income you mentioned you would need to do 25 shows a months and charge $100.00 a show. To get that many shows in a month you well more then likely have to do birthday parties.  Depending on the market you are in $100.00 per show might be a bit high for a birthday show so you might have to increase the amount of shows per month.  It well take some time, perhaps even months to get up to that many show per month. I don't want to discourage you but do want to show that it can be an uphill battle.  Birthday party shows can be 15 - 20 min long but you also need to include other activities that you do with the kids like walk around improve with puppets or a body character.  A client well normally want you to keep the kids busy for about an hour in some way.

I would say that the best way to move into this is to start trying to build a client base for these smaller birthday party shows while you are still working your other job.  Also work on some larger shows you can charge more for. As Sonny mentioned holiday shows can sell well and you can charge more for them even up to $500.00 or more depending on the type of show.  Also think seasonal shows.  When I say seasonal I mean something like "Summer Fun".  These types of shows can sell well to festivals, arts and craft shows etc. and again you can charge more them.  They well normally be looking for 25 to 45 min shows.  Big corporations or businesses well often look for entertainment for the employee parties. Christmas is the big one here since often that is when the employees families are included. These types of shows can come at an average of every couple months although at Christmas you could book several in the month.  Halloween seems to be a big month in some markets. We used to do about as many Halloween gigs as we did Christmas gigs.

I think you first have to decide what you want to do and what you want to be known for (this is called "brand positioning" in marketing-speak). I would personally avoid the birthday party thing because you are not going to make much money at it. I don't know of a single puppeteer who is well off financially (even after years of work) from doing birthday party shows. Many people do scrape by or make a modest living at it, but that's about it.

Doing shows in theatres is much more profitable. Let's assume you can book a 400 seat theatre at a cost of $1000 and you sell tickets for $10 each. If you sell 50% of the seats in the theatre you'll make roughly a $1000 profit. Most theatres will handle all your box office sales (usually this involves a fee of $.050-$2 per ticket) so all you all have to do is promote the show and provide it. If you travel and do a show three weekends out of the month using that model you're potentially making $3000-9000 a month (less travel expenses and the cost of the show) which sounds and awful lot better to me than the birthday party circuit.

I don't want to create the impression this is easy. It's a lot of work creating a show that is 55 or so minutes and suitable for theatres, especially if you haven't done it before. The marketing is very challenging and it costs some money up front to get started (you are probably looking at a $500 deposit to book each venue). But I have worked for companies that do this successfully and know individual artists who have done it.

The thing I would think about is not just how much you'll make when you get started, but what the long term potential of what you're doing is. I don't want to sound dismissive of puppeteers who do birthday parties, but I personally believe that sort of work can be a financial dead-end. Whatever approach you take, as everyone else has already said, it's the marketing that will probably make or break you and I think that's what needs the most thought and attention.

If you are serious about wanting to do this for a living you should take some small business courses at a local community college (or small business centre, if there is one in your area) and learn how to write a business plan. That process will help you a lot.

Thanks Shawn.

Does anyone have any idea if 25 shows a month is a reasonable goal to achieve in, say 6 months?

Looks like clowns and magicians get around $200.00 for a birthday party around here and there are no puppeteers as far as I can tell (looks like the closest one is about 50 miles away). I thought about building up clients and doing shows while still working my 9 to 5 job but that means I can't do any shows from 9 to 5.  Do most puppeteers do birthday party shows on weekends?

With that said, I do think Andrew has a point in that I would like to have a reputation as a puppeteer and performer and not a bithday party entertainer, I don't think there is anything wrong with performing at parties, but looking down the road, I think I might be better off performing shows for businesses, schools, nature centers...ect.

does anyone do shows for colleges? I was thinking about doing shows for college students in a "coffee house" type setting.  there are a number af colleges fairly close to where I live.

So.....marketing, marketing, marketing... I am getting it! 

I think corporate events are a good idea too!

you guys are smart.

Just thought I would put in my "two cents worth". I do charge a mileage fee, I make mine a couple cents less than what the IRS allows so the people think they are getting a good deal. I do do birthday parties and I really enjoy them - but you have to know your area.  If I charged $200 for a party here in my rural midwest area I would not get a single booking. Even libraries may vary in what they are able to pay a performer. My experience has been that the higher priced performers may only get invited once  whereas the more reasonable priced performers get asked back several times per year. You have to do some marketing questions to find out that magic number for your area. I will be giving out packets of information to my local businesses for their family picnics that they tend to do in the summer.  They like to have entertainers for children at those functions. You sort of have to start somewhere to establish yourself and get your name out there. GOOD LUCK and keep us posted. (having said all this I do not do my performance business full time yet, but I will be quitting my part time preschool teaching job because I cannot do both performing and teaching - some weeks I have had three bookings on top of my three day a week job and I can't keep up!! Of course preschool teachers are not paid very well even though I have as much education as any other teacher so I actually make more with my performances than I do as a teacher!)

Like everyone said, it depends on the area for how much to charge for a show.  Here in Hawaii, first birthday parties are HUGE!!!  Parents and extended families pull all their money together for a huge party so $100 for a show is a drop in the bucket.  There are always gigs to go around.  These 1st birthday parties are like weddings...no joke.  But it is very hard work and pleasing the mom is like pleasing the bride!!!

Another option for you to gain popularity would be to join an entertainment group.  I'm talking about businesses that specialize in birthday parties and events.  There are a lot of companies in the yellow pages under entertainment that are always looking for new acts to add to their menu.  They supply the clients, you do the shows, they get a cut of the money.  That might be a good option for you to start and build up clientele.  You can try looking on craigslist, yellow pages, and local family magazines.

Promoting is the best thing like everyone stated.  I have huge car magnets with my logo and information on it and it is very eye catching.  I get a lot of pull from that.  The cost is pretty minimal for that as well.  I paid like $60 for mine.  I always ask where the client has heard from me so that I know where I can focus my promotions next.

Good luck to you! 
Nikole

Alot of good info on this post.

I myself would say you should go for the theater.  it sounds more attractive. I know where I live in the next door city of Minneapolis Minnesota there is a puppet theater called In the heart of the beast, they put on there own shows and even do a may day parade every may first. so yeah you could even create a puppet theater of your very own.

http://www.hobt.org/