Let's Work this Thang,......

I have seen all sorts of threads; stuff about starting your own business, opportunities to work at restaurants, bars, wedding receptions, lol. These are all great places to work, but what about an event? What about a fair? What's involved and what if you have to pay a bunch of money out or worse, what if you have to give a percentage of your take?

Soooo,.....what if you decide to put on your own event?

The purpose of this thread is to discuss and exchange ideas good or bad, about how to organize an event; how to put it together from start to finish.

No one idea or way of doing things is the absolute correct way. The main thing is that as a learning forum, we need to share the wealth of knowledge and experience that is out there.

I am gonna to use my own experience as I am currently organizing readers/practitioners for the NJ/NY area to form a co-op. We are still in the organizing stage; most of the speed bumps have already been worked out by my colleagues out on the West coast, who have a very successful co-op out there. We will go through this step-by-step together.

All comments are welcome.


*If anyone wants more detailed information about this, you can PM me or email me; that you can find on my profile.

In the beginning,...

Was the Word and the was,....oh wait a minute,....wrong book. Sheesh!!

I was thinking (scary), that for the most part I really do like reading. I really do like being out there. So,...how to get out there on a more permanent basis.

An opportunity was presented to me, to start a co-op. So what's a co-op?

It's exactly what you think it is. A bunch of people working together, sharing the workloads, planning together, and working.

So okay, that's nice. But where do you find people? Hit the shops, find the new Agey newspapers with the classifieds, even better ask your friends. You know the gal that does the palm readings and also numerology? Or the guy that's a Reike master? Oh did you think this was just for Tarot readers? Anybody in a discipline, who wants to work, can be in this co-op. So where else?

OOOOOOO I'm in for this discussion..... as we are considering the same thing in the central California area....

So what are the speed bumps & obstacles? Can I use anything from my food Co-op experiences? How are expenses shared? Who chooses venues, how by vote, ballot, dart in the map?

How do we advertise? Soooo many thoughts & questions ... but those should get the ball rolling....

Mac22

Hi Mac,

I would say, you could use the same idea and concepts from food co-ops. What we are doing and what I want to do is have everyone kind gravitate to what they know. For example, I know scheduling, bookkeeping, itineraries. There's alot of other stuff I know, but there are others who know marketing, advertising, etc.

Expenses? Well there is the rent for the venue, the place you are going to use. Say you have a place and it rents for $500.00 for the day, you have 15 people; about 33-34 dollars per person. The other expense would be advertising. Now there you need to be shrewd and know about that. Some places will share the cost of advertising with you. When I was in the boat business, we had the various boatlines that we carried give us what they called co-op dollars. They paid for half of the advertising we came up with. Granted, we're in a different type deal, but no so.

The main thing is to keep in communication with everyone in the co-op. Everyone has their special niche that they fit into, but it is a joint effort.

mac22 said:

OOOOOOO I'm in for this discussion..... as we are considering the same thing in the central California area....

So what are the speed bumps & obstacles? Can I use anything from my food Co-op experiences? How are expenses shared? Who chooses venues, how by vote, ballot, dart in the map?

How do we advertise? Soooo many thoughts & questions ... but those should get the ball rolling....

Mac22

Click to expand...

Baroli said:

Hi Mac,

I would say, you could use the same idea and concepts from food co-ops. What we are doing and what I want to do is have everyone kind gravitate to what they know. For example, I know scheduling, bookkeeping, itineraries. There's alot of other stuff I know, but there are others who know marketing, advertising, etc.

Expenses? Well there is the rent for the venue, the place you are going to use. Say you have a place and it rents for $500.00 for the day, you have 15 people; about 33-34 dollars per person. The other expense would be advertising. Now there you need to be shrewd and know about that. Some places will share the cost of advertising with you. When I was in the boat business, we had the various boatlines that we carried give us what they called co-op dollars. They paid for half of the advertising we came up with. Granted, we're in a different type deal, but no so.

The main thing is to keep in communication with everyone in the co-op. Everyone has their special niche that they fit into, but it is a joint effort.

Click to expand...

Good points Baroli thx

Mac22

And don't forget something to read on. Let the venue know that you are going to do the work. You provide the furniture, the flyers, they don't have to do anything except provide you with a room. You in turn provide them with rent and customers for them Coffee and tea houses are great.

Baroli said:

And don't forget something to read on. Let the venue know that you are going to do the work. You provide the furniture, the flyers, they don't have to do anything except provide you with a room. You in turn provide them with rent and customers for them Coffee and tea houses are great.

Click to expand...

So the same locations I've read before..... great...

Mac22

So why a co-op? Why not just sign up and work at a bunch of local fairs, coffee shops, etc.?

When the idea was first presented to me about doing the co-op concept, I thought it was a great way of having something work where was no middle man involved. You're not paying to the venue owner 50% of what you are making because he is doing you the favor of letting you work. You are also setting your own prices for your services, not the other way around. You're not (in some cases, this can occur), paying a table fee, which basically is paying for the privilege of setting up a table and chairs in your work space. To me, all of this is nickel and diming the reader. So eliminate it. You bring your own tables and chairs, I understand you can get a deal on a card table and folding chairs at Staples, or the Dollar Store, or any variety store (remember Woolworths?) You can also bring your own business cards, flyers, whatever you may need to make your event a success. You set your own fees. You know what your services are worth, not the venue owner. All he has to do is sit and relax and enjoy the fact that your event is bringing in some much needed revenue for him and for you.



So let's say I have a rostrum of 20 people, all of who would like to work at an event of some sort. Great. Hey, it can also be a rostrum of 5 people. From little eggcorns, giant Oak trees come from. What would you do next? Get the venues, I would think. You have a promise to come and work, now you need to provide the place to work. That's what myself and Franniee will be doing on Tuesday. Checking out and canvassing the area for a place to have an event. We have two possibilities we are going to visit. There may be others, we wil see once we get there.

Well my expertise is in advertising layout. I can construct (typeset etc) the ads so that they are print ready. And You know I am in.

I like the idea of bookstores - large ones that hold lectures and special events. Or even outside venues.... I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for a space. As Baroli mentions we would all contribute to the cost and the more the merrier.

I went to one psychic fair a few weeks ago to see what the story is and it was scary! I don't want to be a part of anything that is dark and tawdry. I read to help people see the light in the dark that is around them. So this is a big thing for me.... we need to find like minded readers. Not dark ones.

We should even find people who want to sell crystals, jewelery, candles - that sort of thing...even tarot decks and such. Just like at the reader's studio - it goes hand in hand with what we are doing.... as long as we aren't at a venue where these sales would be in conflict - like a metaphysical store or bookstore.

franniee said:

Well my expertise is in advertising layout. I can construct (typeset etc) the ads so that they are print ready. And You know I am in.

I like the idea of bookstores - large ones that hold lectures and special events. Or even outside venues.... I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for a space. As Baroli mentions we would all contribute to the cost and the more the merrier.

I went to one psychic fair a few weeks ago to see what the story is and it was scary! I don't want to be a part of anything that is dark and tawdry. I read to help people see the light in the dark that is around them. So this is a big thing for me.... we need to find like minded readers. Not dark ones.

We should even find people who want to sell crystals, jewelery, candles - that sort of thing...even tarot decks and such. Just like at the reader's studio - it goes hand in hand with what we are doing.... as long as we aren't at a venue where these sales would be in conflict - like a metaphysical store or bookstore.

Click to expand...

You bring up some very important points, 1. You want a positive flow of energy. When everyone is positive, the energy flows and is great for reading, for customers who are getting the readings, for the venue owner. You don't want a negative person involved in your co-op that is going to throw up what in the sales trade is called a fence. It becomes an energy stealer and you spend all your time overcoming and knocking down the fence. Once you remove the negativity, everything begins to flow once again.

2. You don't want to compete with the venue that you are working in. I have noticed around here that a lot of stores have their own "psychic faire" going on on Saturdays. The reason being that there was nothing around in this area. Well, this can be a good thing or your worst nightmare. If you work along with some of these guys, it can be a very profitable arrangement, provided you don't step on their toes. So if you have a fair say on the last Saturday of the month, in a metaphysical shop and you have some people with you who also sell crystals as well as the shop who does also, it might behoove you to switch out those people with someone else (if you have that many to choose from) or perhaps in the one place you don't sell crystals that day.