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Re: Alternate Revenue Sources
by
Well, we have been running all sorts of things that can bring in extra revenue.
Re schools outreach, the best way is to send a letter to all schools in your area explaining that you are willing to provide outreach to their schools. In the letter provide various activities/performances that you could provide as well as some sort of hands on activity to further develop the theme of the performance you are doing, you could offer a craft or something as well as a dramtisation. Curriculum is essential you need to develop something that will be easy for you to transport to the schools and to perform that will meet a curriculum need. Staffing, travel and time should be taken into consideration when working out your fee and always sell it that by going to them it is cheaper than them coming to you, you could also add an incentive like a 10% discount on entry into the museum the next time they visit if they book you in for an outreach.
Flexibility and versatility is the key for extra revenue. If you can tap into the adult market through murder mysteries, banquets etc, you can make a lot of money from corporate market and church groups and all sorts of societies and clubs in the area, you can always send out information to these groups advertising that you are going to be running an evening programme. We find that we run about 6 public nights on site usually around the major holidays, like halloween, christmas, valentines night etc and then we offer a selection of about 6 other types of nights that groups can book into throughout the year. Catering is always something to consider, whether to have or have not. And also to have a minimum number of people attending so as to make the evening profitable, this is the reason for doing them, so make sure you are not losing money by doing them.
If you want any further help or to discuss it further you can reach me on my e-mail: robertforshaw@hotmail.com