Book High Schools Yourself: Question 1.

Advice on Booking High Schools by Yourself


Question from Mike in Cleveland, OH.

"I work during the day but I want to book stage hypnosis shows and enough of them so I can quit my day job." "Do I call schools myself or send out mailings?"

Mike, Thank you for writing.

I have found the most productive way to book is to call and book, regardless of the market.

That being said and you with a limitation of a job, here is what you should expect with a mailing.

First of all, the only way to find out who to send your information to, is by calling. If you cannot call what I would do is send the information to the Principal of the school. You can find out names of principals from Greatschools.net or your state education Websites.

The principal will act as a clearing house to the organizations within the school that are crying for money. He or she are bombarded by club sponsors daily.

I would do split the gates and just focus on fundraising. All school assemblies are performed during the day, and the student council usually has a budget for speakers. Since you are working during the day all contacts and performances for assemblies will be during the day, thus not your market.

Fund raisers are almost always held at night when parents can attend. A few will be held on Saturdays during the day, but usually are never held during the week days.

A fund raiser should be able to bring in at least 300 people at a very small school and for a well publicized show, more that 1000 people. If the ticket price is only $6.00 a ticket that should bring your split around $3000.00

If you are going to have the school buy your program, let them pay you $3000.00 up front for your appearance rather than $800.00. $3000.00 is more logical.

I wouldn't offer a buyout for schools. They won't have the money upfront to pay you for fundraising. A 50/50 split with no upfront costs by the school sounds like the best approach for you. List no other option on your flyers.

In your offer letter or postcard, make sure you mention that the contact leave a night time number they can reach you.

A mailing of 1000 sounds like a lot but mailings usually only get about a 1% return. You can increase the return by mailing to the same individuals 7 or 8 times over the year. That is a huge expense and time consumer.

In any event a 1 percent return means you will be getting 10 people to call you back. If you book half of those that only means 5 gigs. 5 gigs at $800.00 is only $4000.00 to you. After the time, effort and cost of the mailing that is not a good business decision. At the most you could only mail the school 7 times during the year as most schools have two or three months off. They only have 180 working days.

If I had the limitation of working days and only 1000 addresses to mail to 7 times a year, I would opt to sending my information, (not mentioning fee) to corporations in the same geography.

5 gigs a month for major corporation quarterly meetings or conventions would net you anywhere from $12,500 ( for a minimum fee of $2500) to $50,000, for a fee of $10,000 which most midsize companies expect to pay for banquet entertainment

($2500.00 is considered a "beginning speaker" in the corporate world. Your worst performance as a hypnotist will outshine a beginning public speaker by leaps and bounds) A corporation will spend more than $2500.00 on the flower arrangement at the dinner. Try to get flowers to hypnotize people.

You will send out the same amount of flyers and reap tremendous rewards. At $50,000 a month, you may consider eliminating your day job, and then you will be able to book school assembly programs at $800-2500 per show if you still want to do them.

I offer hypnosis marketing consulting in person, not only in Phoenix, but right in your hometown!

Click here to find out how to work with me on your marketing plan.


I wish you success

Wayne F. Perkins