Magic: Art and Science
Stop what you are doing right now, and think of one goal or New Year’s Resolution that you have. Health, Wealth, Spirituality(or Self-Improvement) and Relationships (or Love) are the four most common themes or categories when it comes to goal setting. Just about any goal you can think of will fit into one of those categories. Think about it right now. The goal that you thought of a moment ago most likely fits into one of those groups.
What your health goals happen to be is between you, your belly and your trainer. Your spiritual goals are between you and your god, and your relationship goals are between you and your friends and family. Wealth goals, however, are the ones where I’d like to intrude.
In a world where binary code rules, eventually everything comes down to a game of numbers. Just as a for-instance, the company that I work for does seminar events all over the United States. We have a website for people to register for events in their areas. We know, through experience, that for every 100 people who register, 50 will show up (50% attendance rate). We also know that for every 10 people show up, 2 people will enroll in our training course (20% conversion rate). Thus, if 200 hundred people register for the event, we will get 20 enrollments:
200 people register at 50% attendance = 100 attendees.
100 attendees at 20% conversion rate = 20 enrollments.
There are a few ways to increase the number of enrollments.
- First, figure out ways to get more people to sign up (advertising, marketing, etc).
- Secondly, figure out how to improve the attendance rate (incentives for showing up, better dates or times, etc)
- Third, figure out how to improve the close rate (sales training, improve the product, etc)
There are other things, but those are the major ones. Notice, however, that #1 is the only one that doesn’t require any change to the process. Number 2 requires changing the reasons for coming to the event. Well that can be dangerous because the reasons may deter people rather than attract them. You need some educated testing and research, etc for that to work. Same with #3. Changing the product, the price, etc is risky and requires research and testing. Training the sales people is, of course, always on going, but expecting them to suddenly go from 20% to 30% at their next event is not a simple request.
However, running more ads, thus having more people see the ad will, by its nature, get more people to register. Of course, nothing is just as simple and cut-and-dried as that, but for the most part, this is the simplest method and most reliable method for getting more enrollments. We just stuff more people in the top of the sales funnel. We already know that on the other end of the sales funnel we’ll end up with a 10% closing rate (10% of the people who register will ultimately enroll). So if we can just get more people to register, we don’t have to change anything else.
What does all this have to do with No Stone Left Unturned? Well, this column is all about improving the business of your side of your Magic Business. Improving the Magic of your Magic Business is the job of Roots and Branches and other parts of this magazine. So, you need to take a good hard look at your advertising efforts. What is your funnel?
Think through all the angles. Do you know how many phone calls it takes for you to get a gig? Every 10 people who call to ask for a price or other info decide to hire you? What’s the number? If you don’t know, start keeping track. Next question, do you know how many fliers, postcards, ads, commercials, etc you have to make to get X number of calls? If not, start keeping track.
You also should know how much money you spend on advertising. If you don’t . . . SHAME ON YOU! You need to read these articles:
Once I’ve convinced you to start tracking stuff (a simple spreadsheet will do), then you should be able to get this down to a science. You’ll be able to know that for every $1000 you spend on advertising, you’ll get 20 phone calls and thus 4 gigs. Each gig pays, let’s say, $700 bucks. Thus for every $1000 you spend, you will earn $2800 bucks. Subtract out your advertising cost, and your net is $1800. Of course there are other expenses involved (travel, disposable props in your show, etc), but if it’s costing you $1800 bucks to perform those four shows, you probably should reconsider your show structure, travel costs and fee.
I think you get the message here. If you want to earn more money in 2011 than you did in 2010, then you need to take the advice of the great religious leader Thomas S. Monson (President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). He stated that “Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” So step one in your improvement . . . measure your performance as we’ve discussed. Step 2, find someone to be accountable to, someone you need to report to. Your spouse, another magician friend, anyone who has a vested interest in your success; it can even be yourself.
It’s been said that merely writing a goal down and throwing it in the trash puts you miles ahead of 80% of the human race because those 80 (ish)% don’t even take the step of writing things down. Write down your goals for this year. Make one of them to be better at tracking your business. Just knowing where you’re “at” will drastically improve your business. Once you know that, you’ll know what areas need improvement, and you’ll be able to, in a very scientific, manner improve the money you make from your art. Until Next Month . . .