Branching Out

Each year the New York Post does a special "Hampton's" section focusing on what's new and hot for the upcoming summer in the Hampton's. For those of you that don't know, the Hampton's is an ultra exclusive area out on Long Island, NY about an hour and a half outside of Manhattan, where many of the hippest and wealthiest people spend their summers. It's filled with beaches, clubs, and multi-million dollar homes owned by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Joel, and Howard Stern, to name a few.


It's also the location of P. Diddy's world famous "White Party" each summer...

In this years issue, the main article focuses on the new trend of "concierge services". These services basically provide clients with access to the hottest clubs, restaurants, or anything else that they want.

The people that run these concierge services basically know the right people and have pull at all the trendy spots to get their clients on the right list or into the hottest restaurant without a wait.

I happen to know the guy featured in this article, Tony Abrams, from back in the day when he was the door guy at Suite 16 in Manhattan. He was working the list when the club was hot and made some great connections from doing that. He then went on to work in other areas of nightlife, including promoting many of New York City's hot clubs and bars, eventually opening his own business using these connections.

According to the article, Tony has 15 clients already, each paying him $7,500 a year for his services. That means he's made$112,500 this year if he doesn't add one more client. That's not a bad living...


The reason i bring this up is because lots of people ask me if promoting is a dead-end job. I can tell you with 100% certainty, that it's NOT!

Promoting can lead to many other careers or jobs such as owning your own bar, club or restaurant, a job in Public Relations (P.R.), you could venture into concert/event promoting, or even run your own concierge service.

So, if you're worried about trying out promoting because you don't think it's a job that can lead to any real career, or you're afraid that making money in this business is only short-term, think again.

...You'll never know where this business (or any business) can lead you until you give it a try!

3 Tips to Picking the Right Venue

Since the release of my "Party Promoter Guide, I've been exposed to THOUSANDS of new promoters that are eager to go out and make some cash promoting parties. I literally get hundreds of emails a day from guys and girls that are looking to start their very own promoting business...

Something that I've noticed is when you're new to throwing parties, new promoters can be VERY quick to jump on a deal at the first venue that offers them a chance to start promoting. (I can't blame them for this at all---I was the exact same way because I wanted to make so cash, FAST)

But many times this can be a mistake because they haven't taken the time to chose the RIGHT place and then they throw a party at some bad venue and it bombs so they think they are bad at promoting....when it was really just the fact that they picked a bad place to promote.

So before anyone else picks a bad spot to promote or agrees to a deal at a crappy location, I thought it would be wise to share my "3 Tips to Picking the RIGHT Venue" (*Right, being the Key word)

1) See the Spot in Action:
Make SURE you always see the spot "live" before ever agreeing to a deal.

A place can look amazing, have a huge bar and a cool set-up, but be total bust when it comes to the night of the event. If you've found a place you like, and are thinking of promoting it, make sure to check out the place on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday to get the feel of the place before you start promoting it.

Often times the crowd that is there on a Friday might be totally different than a Saturday.

If you don't have time to see it on all 3 nights, make sureyou to at least see the spot "live" on the night of the weekthat you are going to promote it.

When you do check out the location, you want to get an idea of how the place is run overall, but you are also looking to see:

a) What is the vibe in the club? (are people having fun? Is it a late arriving crowd? etc.)

b) how good is the DJ? (Is he/she interacting with the crowd? Are people into the music? Are people having fun anddancing?)

c) How is the bar run? (Are there lots of bartenders? Are people waiting forever for drinks?)

d) What does the crowd look like? (You want to make sure the crowd that is already there will mesh well with your crowd)

2) Don't just promote a place that offers you the most money:

I know this is much easier said than done, but trust me from myyears of experience, the places that are offering you the mostmoney, aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts or because you are the greatest promoter in the city (even if youare).

Typically there is a reason WHY they are offering a lot of money to promote their spot and you should try to investigate why, before jumping at the money and agreeing to a deal.

I normally like to find out who was promoting the venue last and I try to speak with the previous promoters about their experience. I ask them things like such as:

a) Why did they leave the venue?

b) Is there a reason why the spot is offering such a good deal?

c) Are the owners/managers trustworthy?

From there I'm usually able to find out of this is a legit spot or if the deal is just too good to be true...

***Be suspicious if the deal seems too good to be true***

3) Size Does Matter:

Don't pick a space that will look empty if it's not completely full. Don't over extend yourself.
Start off with smaller places that you can pack the people in. (Without over-crowding) It's better to have people wanting to come in than have it so big that everyone is in there, but it looks empty. (That's a quick way to KILL the vibe of your party)

If you see that you can consistently pack a smaller place, look to find a bigger venue for your next party that will allow you to grow with your crowd. If you start off with a huge place, you put more pressure on yourself to fill the place. If it's not totally full, it will look big and empty and that sends a negative vibe to your party goers and they will not want to come back.

(You could have 200 people in a 200 person venue and it will look like 1,000 people but if you had 300 people in a 500 person venue, it'll look like 50 people are there--appearancesare very important)

It's always better to pack a place in (within reason) and give off the impression that this place is a hot spot. Your crowd will feed off that vibe and impression and this will only benefit you in the long run.

***Start with a smaller place and work your way to the bigger spots as you see you can fill each size venue***

Unitl next time...

DG