That seems strange that a venue would have an entertainment budget not affacted by the return on investment, and I wonder if you could approach the person who set (contgrols) the budget, and negotiate this.

If the venue says it has an entertainment budget of, say, $400 for karaoke, this would seem to mean a $400 dollar spend irrespective of the return.

Therefore if the return increases, so should the budget.

If you charged them $400 when you started, and achieved maybe a bartake of $1500 - but now their bartake is $2000, their budget should increase to $500.

There's obviously a case for their saying that they paid $400 on the basis that the bartake would increase to $2000 - and thus you are being paid what they budgetted - but this will not be valid if they expected, for example, an increased bartake to $2000 but you are now succeeding in getting them a $3000 bartake. In these circumstances any 'we only have a budget of' answers from the venue are just excuses (and they leave themselves open to being dropped when you find another venue that will pay you more for working on that particular night).

But I do think the proper time for price negotiations are at the up-front agreement stage, so it may be that, with a great reference from this venue, you can get a better deal from the next venues.

When I have secured gigs for hosts, I have asked the venue:
1. Describe the type of karaoke night, and host, that you're after?
2. Tell me what sort of budget you wish to spend?
3. And what bartake do you need to achieve to justify this price?

Unless the price has been in the $400-$500 bracket, I suggest the venue try a few cheap hosts, then call me back when they have more of an idea of what they don't any longer want in their karaoke.

I know you're an experienced operator and business person, but maybe this debate will help the others who are following it...
Submitted by David on 11-10-2005

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