Business Link

[ppentertainments]

Where do you go to for business advise ??
I went to business link when starting but to be honest did not find their advice very useful. Have heard other people with different proffessions who said they were great - grants, vans, advise, you name it.

Has anyone any experience of business link or any other advisors ??

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

What do you want to know? :D :D :D

[501damian501]

theirs loads of places offering business advice, from the likes of business link to your local bank, reguards damian

[ppentertainments]

What do you want to know? :D :D :D

Exactly ! I have learned more in a couple of months using this site than any business advise service. Was just wondering, generally, what peoples opinions are of such services.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I've never really used one. I have nearly always drawn from friends and colleagues in the leisure industry.

[CRAZY K]

Where do you go to for business advise ??
I went to business link when starting but to be honest did not find their advice very useful. Have heard other people with different proffessions who said they were great - grants, vans, advise, you name it.

Has anyone any experience of business link or any other advisors ??

Yes I used them ( free ) some years ago.

I found them most useful--thing is you may think you know it all--but you dont! Nothing personal intended to anyone.

If you did you wouldnt be on here--you would be a tax exile in the Cayman Islands :cool: :cool: :cool:

Having someone else look at things from a prospective customers point of view is valuable.

Im sorry you didnt get any benefit--

CRAZY K

[theoloyla]

They are good but not terribly familiar with the entertainment business in my experience.

[ppentertainments]

My theory has always been though, that if an advisor has such good business sense why is he not working for himself earning more £££ than working for a company for less ??? Maybe I go in with this prejudice which is why I do not find them too useful.

Agree totaly with theo. I think for REAL advise you need people who are very familiar with the territory hence this forum.

[DazzyD]

My theory has always been though, that if an advisor has such good business sense why is he not working for himself earning more £££ than working for a company for less ??? Maybe I go in with this prejudice which is why I do not find them too useful.

Agree totaly with theo. I think for REAL advise you need people who are very familiar with the territory hence this forum.

I saw a Business Link advisor a few years ago. Apparently he was a big player in entertainment and used to work for record companies promoting bands, He examined my business plan, saw the kind of show we do and suggested I set my prices starting at £500 going up to about £1000 for weddings. If you phone other mobile operators round here and get a quote for a wedding disco the average tends to be around £150. At the time, it was less (£120 if my memory serves me right) and this information was included in my business plan. Needless to say, I didn't take his advice and pitched my service prices starting at the average and going up to £300. Even now, it's rare that I get a booking at the top-end of this pricing structure (although we've been getting a lot more enquiries about this package recently).

Like Chris said, the real experts are the contributors to this forum and the best place for business advice in our industry is here!

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

He examined my business plan, saw the kind of show we do and suggested I set my prices starting at £500 going up to about £1000 for weddings.

If he looked at the other businesses in the wedding industry and based prices on that, then we should by rights be charging at least £500.

[ppentertainments]

If he looked at the other businesses in the wedding industry and based prices on that, then we should by rights be charging at least £500.

That will be the day !!
Agree with Dazzy about pricing which is why I also say this forum is the best place for advice then you get a broad spectrum of opinions.

[CRAZY K]

I saw a Business Link advisor a few years ago. Apparently he was a big player in entertainment and used to work for record companies promoting bands, He examined my business plan, saw the kind of show we do and suggested I set my prices starting at £500 going up to about £1000 for weddings. If you phone other mobile operators round here and get a quote for a wedding disco the average tends to be around £150. At the time, it was less (£120 if my memory serves me right) and this information was included in my business plan. Needless to say, I didn't take his advice and pitched my service prices starting at the average and going up to £300. Even now, it's rare that I get a booking at the top-end of this pricing structure (although we've been getting a lot more enquiries about this package recently).

Like Chris said, the real experts are the contributors to this forum and the best place for business advice in our industry is here!

Whilst we all have a wealth of experience in this area I still say getting the opinion of someone outside the industry is very valuable--anyone in the Industry can say --oooh you wont get bookings at that price--we know we tried--thats NOT the way forwards assuming thats the objective.

You will be undervalued, the idea of going to Business Link for me was to be assessed by an outsider and seek ideas of how to move forwards in the profitability area.

Like you they assessed what I did relative to the other services and like you gave me a ball park figure that was well above what I was charging--gave me a plan and some ideas and I certainly can say it worked for me.

I did have 3 meetings.

I think you will find £500 to £1000 is the sort of price that YOUR PARTICULAR service is considered worth relative to other Wedding Services in the frame--such as Caterers, Wedding Dresses, Photographers and the like.

I constantly read Photographers charge several thousand pounds.

After all thats what you need to know. What your really worth relative to other services--not other Discos.

The average Wedding is now over £20,000 :rolleyes:

I have no doubt when you ( like me ) were asked leading questions such as---well can you deliver on your claim that you always get people having a great time at a Wedding Reception-- like me I guess you said---of course:D

If asked I wouldnt say--oh im no better than these other guys charging low prices--otherwise I wouldnt be asking --

Business Link would assess a fair relative price for your service, they wouldnt be interested in what they charge down the road because its assumed your better.

As to what goes on in the marketplace and the fact that others charge low prices for various reasons is not something Business Link can help.

Thats my take--

CRAZY K