The Business Master (3rd Edition)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Business Master (3rd Edition) / The Business Master (3rd Edition).iso / files / busition / beautypg / chap4.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-01-02 | 21.4 KB | 384 lines

CHAPTER IV MONEY MATTERS I will stress again that you are entering the world of Beauty Pageants to make money. It is a legitimate business and if you are going to make it earn you money you should treat it as such. There are unscrupulous promoters who will greedily grab for every penny. It's not necessary. There is enough income from a well run Pageant to give you a considerable income. If you want to extend your business it is a very simple matter to build your next Pageant while you are building your present Pageant, but more of that later. * Sources Of Income The major sources of income from Beauty Pageants are: 1. The Contestant Entry Fee 2. Audience Admission Fee 3. Program Sales 4. Sponsorship. Additional funds may be expected through: 5. A fee charged to the photographer (usually a per centage of his gross income from the Pageant). 6. A fee from the video company, (again, a percentage). 7. Advertisements in the Pageant program. 8. Incidental Benefits. (Prizes and Awards). We will deal with each section separately and in de- tail. It is probably the most important part of the book. * The Contestant Entry Fee Although each Pageant can be broken up into various age and sex divisions, we will consider our Pageant to be a community project featuring every class from very young babies through teenagers to married adults and including both sexes. The Contestant Entry Form will request the contestant's age, (except in the case of married adults), and it is by age that the contestant will be placed into one of possibly eight or nine divisions as determined by you, the Pageant Director. The divisions may be: Babies (To 6 months) Tiny Tots (6 - 12 months) Tots (12 - 24 months) Child (2 - 8 years) Young Teen (9 - 14 years) Teen (15 - 19 years) Miss (20 - 25 years) Mrs (All Ages) These age divisions are very arbitrary and I show them here to better illustrate how Entry Fees may be determined. I should mention that there has to be some psychology ap- plied to this. It is a good policy to award every baby up to the age of two years a trophy, win or lose. To be fair to the judges, it is almost impossible to say that one child is more adorable than another. If you want to award First, Second and Third prizes you can be diplomatic and make special awards for 'Cuteness', 'Prettiest Dress', 'the Biggest Smile' and so on. I leave it to your imagination. The reason I mention it here is because if you are going to award each baby a trophy, the cost of the trophies must come into your cost calculations. The divisions of Teen, Miss and Mrs require a different approach. These contestants seek something more than a strip of ribbon and a plastic trophy. It may open your eyes if I tell you that in a recent Beauty Pageant each of the top ten winners received a brand new, medium sized automobile, and I am not talking about one of the major Pageants such as Miss U.S.A. or Miss Universe. This partic- ular Pageant was quite a few steps away from being among the very big Pageants. With this thought in mind, we have to start looking around for substantial prizes. The bigger the prize, the greater the number of contestants and the larger the Entry Fee for those divisions. This will appear to place you in a Catch-22 situation. In order to advertise to get the contestants, you have to advertise the prizes, but how can you offer anything like a substantial prize if you don't know how many contestants will sign up? There is an answer, and discovering it is one of the reasons you are reading this book. The answer is that the prizes you will offer - the prizes you will advertise - are sponsor donated prizes. In a recent Beauty Pageant we were able to offer a ten day trip to Sydney, Australia or a seven day trip to London and Paris; a gold watch to the two runners-up plus trips to New York and New Orleans. In that same Pageant was an assortment of other prizes including a six month course in a major modeling school, an interview with one of Holly- wood's top model agencies and a complete portfolio of modeling photographs. Our cost? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. They didn't cost us a penny. All these awards were donated by the companies who received considerable air and newspaper publicity. For instance, the jeweler who supplied the gold watches re- ceived more newspaper and radio advertising for the whole- sale cost of the watches, than he would have received if he had bought the newspaper advertising space himself. The Beauty Pageant was held in the center of a Shopping Mall and the advertising funds for the newspapers and radio were provided from the Mall advertising budget. Not only was the Shopping Mall crowded to capacity on the day of the Pageant, but many of the Mall merchants were able to direct their merchandising towards the contestants and the rela- tives of the contestants prior to the Pageant. I was sur- prised when I was told by one of the dress shop owners, how many party dresses she had sold to Pageant participants. So, with regard to the matter of Entry Fees, when you know what prizes you have to offer, you will have a better idea of how much Entry Fee to ask. With this in mind, you will be better equipped to calculate how much other Beauty Pageant Directors are justified in charging for Entry Fees to their Pageants. At the end of this book, you will notice that on regis- tration, you are eligible to receive an up-to-the-minute assessment of Entry Fees across America. To do so at this time, the time of writing, is pointless. You will also find further in the book, tips on where to find and how to ap- proach prospective sponsors. * Audience Admission Fees and Program Sales These two sources of income will work together. Under some circumstances it is impossible to control the admission of spectators - at a Shopping Mall or Public Park for in- stance. On these occasions program sales will be your best source of Audience Fee. At other times and at other loca- tions, a charge for admission may be made at the door. Places such as Local Theaters, College Auditoriums, Church Assembly Halls and Hotels lend themselves well to spectator control. Under these circumstances it is better to dispense with an extra charge for the program. Remem- ber, there are business people paying to advertise in that program and they want it to be seen by as many people as possible. While we are on the subject of programs and sponsors, I should mention that some Beauty Pageant promoters make quite a nice income by encouraging contestants to have their photographs printed in the program. The contestant will pay the regular program advertising space rates, and I have known some contestants buy several full pages with photo- graphs of themselves in various poses and costumes. The contestants use these programs when applying for work with model agencies. * Contestant Sponsorship All potential contestants should be encouraged to seek a sponsor to finance their entry into your Pageant. Even parents and grandparents fall into this category, and are usually the first to finance young contestants. When the entry fee is three figures, business people are the primary source of sponsorship. Contestants participating in a Beauty Pageant for the first time are sometimes naive when it comes to approaching business people for sponsorship. Your pre-pageant litera- ture should give some examples of typical businesses fre- quently willing to participate in the Pageant through direct or indirect funding. Samples of pre-pageant literature will be found at the end of the book. Banks, financial institutions and business consultants will frequently support contestants. So will local grocery markets, children's clothing stores, limousine services, book shops, health clubs, restaurants, building contrac- tors, hair dressers and beauty shops as well as many of the service clubs and Civic organizations including, Moose and Elk Lodges, Chambers of Commerce and J.C.s. It will be of help to your prospective contestants in their approach to different businesses for sponsorship if you inform them that all sponsors will be given free adver- tising in your program. A space in your program, the size of and in the form of a business card, is usually accept- able. * Pageant Sponsors This far we have only been looking at contestant entry fees, and these of course provide a solid financial basis for the Pageant, but the greatest source of income is from Direct Sponsorship and from sales of program advertising space. You will be making personal representation to var- ious businesses selling advertising space in your program. After you have run your first Pageant, this 'beating the bushes' will be much easier because you will have a genuine program to show them as a sample. The first time out you, or a member of your staff, will have to show a 'mock-up', a folder showing how you intend your program will look when given to the audience. The folder, (Computer prepared?), should have a typical events schedule and ruled spaces for advertising. It is often a good idea to clip and paste advertisements from telephone yellow pages to present a better visual impres- sion. Mark them SAMPLE. Don't try to fool a prospective advertiser into thinking his competition has already agreed to advertise with you. A typical program with suggested advertising rates will be sent to you free on registration. * Added Income As I mentioned earlier, funding for your Pageant can take a more indirect form. Many bottlers and manufacturers of soft drinks will provide a free supply of their product for the benefit of your staff and the contestants. Florists will provide stage and foyer decoration, as will balloon and party suppliers. Even the local do-nut shop will fre- quently supply hot coffee and do-nuts for your staff. In return, these people will expect a recognition of their assistance. This you can provide not only with space in your program, (The more pages in the program, the more impressive it looks for your next Pageant), but also by announcements from the stage during the course of the Pageant. Free admission tickets to these people should be another indication of your appreciation. Until this point, we have been looking at pre-pageant activity, but there is an aspect which most Beauty Pageant promoters usually overlook. The winner of your Pageant, the person who is awarded the ultimate crown, should be available through the rest of the year for publicity ap- pearances. These personal appearances are particularly effective in smaller communities. The owner of the local automobile showroom will be very willing to have your Queen, even if she is very young, posing with one of his showroom automo- biles for newspaper publicity pictures. The opening of a new store or business center is anoth- er opportunity for your Queen to make a personal appear- ance. Ground breaking ceremonies, Arbor Day, Library Day, New Housing Tracts, Political Rallies all provide opportu- nities for you to present the Queen of your Beauty Pageant. The more your Queen is seen in public and newspaper photo- graphs, the greater your status in the community and the bigger your next Pageant. It will be part of your business to find out about these opportunities well in advance and offer an appearance by your Queen. I mention these appearances at this time because every appearance will bring you business sponsors at your next Pageant, and it is also time for me to point out that your entry form should also be a legal contract requiring your Pageant winner to be available for these functions, espe- cially when the prizes are large. One more source of income presents itself. This is a commission on sales from the photographer or video camera operator to whom you have given exclusive rights to make a professional record of your Pageant. Make sure that all sales to the public of photographs of the event you are staging, are made though you. To this end, all material handed out by the photographer should bear your address. You should have a contract with the photographer stating that this commission applies to all sales, both at the time of the Pageant and those made at a later date after the proofs have been approved by the customer. I have found it an advantage to set aside an area, usually in the foyer, where the photographer can set up a small studio. The contestants, and parents of contestants, who have often spent a considerable amount of time and money to ensure that beauty is at its best, appreciate the opportunity of having a studio portrait taken without the inconvenience of having to make an appointment and travel to a regular studio. Before we leave the subject of Money Matters, I should say a word about Entry Fees. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time between the closing date for applications and the actual date of the Pageant. You will need this time to clear all cheques you receive. Nothing is more galling than to hand a contestant a valuable prize only to find out later that the cheque you were given was worthless. It is even more aggravating is when you know that the con- testant is bragging to her friends about not having paid. A number of contestants will put off giving you their Entry Fee until the last minute. On your Entry Application Forms state very clearly that deposits are non-refundable. Make certain that the deadline for full payment of the Entry Fee is stressed more than once. Again, a surprising number will want to pay at the door of the Pageant. Here you may accept the entry but firmly insist the Entry Fee be paid in cash. Threatened legal proceedings at a later date to recover the amount of a bounced cheque, are seldom effective. Here speaks the voice of experience. A final thought on Sponsors: Some local Radio Stations will pick up on your suggestion of sponsorship and run with it. Many stations will be open to the suggestion that prospective contestants call in to the station to receive an entry form to be mailed out by the station. This type of promotion is just about the most effective of them all. D.J.s cast a magic spell. *** THINK *** No one came banging on your door today to hand you two or three thousand dollars. They won't come tomorrow, either. If you want a lot of money - really want it - YOU have to get it. No one will give it to you.