BIG Money

Numbers, numbers, numbers—they’re as annoying as flies slamming into a glass window.  Even in the world of Christian entertainment, numbers still have relevancy.  Faith without works in dead (James 2:14-17).  In other words, mastering the art of Christian entertainment management does not mean loads of dinero falling from the skies to take care of all the money troubles.  Yes, yes, yes…believing and speaking plays an enormous roll in our faith as Believers and entrepreneurs, but there’s still some practical effort we have to employ.  Proactive faith versus passive faith.  (We’ll save that for another blog entry…)

Analyzing and forecasting gross sales, costs of goods sold, and net profit is a balancing act.  In fact—this is an area that requires an abundance of proactive faith.  Even with a strong business model to prevent failure, there are still some things that need to be done to multiply the opportunity for enormous success.

Take a fashion show, for example.  It’s not uncommon for organizations and charities to use fashion shows as fundraising means.  Lots of companies like to attach their names to charitable efforts.  After all—it’s cool, right?  Well…maybe.

But what about when you need to turn a huge profit for non-charitable event?  What do you do?  You can solicit donors, but chances are they’re much more interested in the charitable recognition.  Here’s where the number-noggins have to start moving.

A fashion show can be 100% profitable if there are investors (not to be confused with charitable donors).  A wise man once told me that in order to produce revenue-generating opportunities, you have to make your business commercially attractive.  Here are three ways to turn an event that needs to be 100% profitable into an opportunity for investors:

1.    Research investors that share the same target audience as your event. 

2.    Mildly assume that a potential investor is looking for a way to get face-to-face with its target audience in a concentrated area within a small block of time.  This is way more important to you as the solicitor because it takes most of the pressure off of pitching an opportunity that (you think) only has a 50/50 chance of being accepted.

3.    Explain the opportunity and illustrate how the opportunity can be a marketing advantage to the investor.

Easy-peasy, right.  Not so much. This approach does; however, alleviate some of the stress and worry involved in finding a company or organization to fund your event.  Go ahead…try it.