Piggybacking on someone else's business

Hey everyone! Just looking for some ideas here. I'm thinking about approaching a local pub/restaurant about maybe doing a night of readings there, hopefully on Halloween. Why not? It's a win-win-win for everyone involved. My question: if you have ever done anything like this - setting up shop in someone else's establishment - how did you work out the sharing of earnings? I can't expect to just set up and take in all the money without making it worth the owner's while. Any suggestions? Would you offer a percentage? A fixed amount per reading? A flat rate for the night? And what amount do you think is fair?

Thanks in advance.

intuition897 said:

if you have ever done anything like this - setting up shop in someone else's establishment - how did you work out the sharing of earnings?

Click to expand...

In my community, the standard is one-quarter to the house, three-quarters to the reader. It's fair.

nisaba said:

In my community, the standard is one-quarter to the house, three-quarters to the reader. It's fair.

Click to expand...

25% was my first guess. It's a healthy cut, considering they don't have to do anything but let me do my thing. And it might even bring in more business for them.

They have to cover the costs of the rent, lighting etc for your corner, out of which they can make no other money. If it's food-related, they potentially lose business on that table on full days when there is nowhere for customers to sit.

And they don't get it at all on days when you have no clients. It's not too generous. It just happens to be the accepted cut in my community. They carry *all* the costs, it's only reasonable.

I would definitely discuss this with the owners. An acquaintance started something similar on a slow night and it has turned out to be so popular the owners do not charge her anything. She's bringing in revenue for them so they're happy!

I used to work at a restaurant where they had always had a paid musician in the corner. The musician left, and they asked me to come in. I offered them the traditional cut and they said no, I was already saving them money by not being a paid act <grin>. And I'd pretty up my table, come in on their usual "slow" day, and before long I was very busy indeed.

But only where I was replacing a paid act, would I think of not giving them a cut. When I haven't actually had a readings-gig in a café but had just chosen to do a paid reading in a café over coffees, I always make a point of giving them the percentage of the fee that I would have given them if it had been a proper gig, into the café tip-jar. It's only fair.

I thought I would try this as a one-off event and see if it goes well. If it's popular and the manager is interested having me in on a regular basis, I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.

This place often has live music and events, so I figured they might like to add some (relatively) spooky entertainment to their Halloween event, whatever that might be. I say relatively spooky because for most of the people in this area, it's kinda up there with ouija boards and seances and such. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I just mean most people believe it's all tarred with the same stick of 'woo-woo'. I tend to be a little more pragmatic about it and don't subscribe to 'woo-woo'.

But I digress. I'm thinking of maybe doing quick 5 minute spreads for $10 each. I remembered my first party: nine 30-minute readings in a row. Oh my God I drank so much water. And had to visit the bathroom between each reading! By the time I was done...exhausted is an understatement. If I'm going to do unlimited impromptu readings, I'll need to keep them quick & dirty. Any thoughts on this? Am I charging too much? Too little?

And another question about reading management: should I get myself a sign-up sheet? Has anyone else had luck with this method?

intuition897 said:

And another question about reading management: should I get myself a sign-up sheet? Has anyone else had luck with this method?

Click to expand...

This is another 'play it by ear' situation; you may not have to, but if you suddenly get popular it tells people they have a turn to wait, and also lets the person you are reading for know they don't have your attention for the whole evening, that someone else is here for their 9:30 reading so we have to brush this up fast, etc., etc.

If you have an old broken deck or just don't mind buying a cheap one, you could give out cards as a sort of "take a number" ticket. The Tarot To Go set only costs a few bucks and has the cute little Hanson-Roberts minis.