One of the hardest parts of being a professional entertainer is when the economy starts to decline and people start making the choice to pay bills instead of hiring an entertainer. If this hasn’t hit you yet I hope that it never does. There are a few ways to adjust your clown business model to compensate and adjust to still maintain a prosperous business. It is important to plan these things in advance so that you don’t end up scrambling for business and your over all quality suffers.

The first thing that you need to do is sit down and make a list of all your expenses and income for the past year. This will help you get an idea s to what you can expect for the coming year as well as help you make decisions as to what can be cut. When looking at your expenses really decide what you need and what is just a luxury. We all would like to get a new costume or a new electric balloon pump but it isn’t really a have to have item. What you need to order are balloons, face paints and any other perishable or give away items. When it comes to costumes, learn to sew. That way you can fix any problems that you might have and possibly learn to make you own costumes in the future. When it comes to ordering balloons try to work with your fellow balloon users and try to make your order together so you can get a better bulk price. Also most juggling props can be fixed if broken, plus they are meant to be dropped so they shouldn’t break.

Next you are going to want to change your target market. Most, or at least a lot, of us spend a majority of our time entertaining for families with children and those are the people that are going to be hit the hardest when money gets tighter. Businesses are also going to get hit, but they are going to be trying to instance people into spending money at their business. That is where you come in. Make them see you as an advertising asset. Make sure that they know that you will give 110% to there event and will do additional promotion on your website to make sure people know you are going to be there. This is a good time to get in the good graces of businesses by offering discounted rates on multiple dates, filling up your calendar while giving them a discount making them like you better

The third thing you need to do is increase the area that you are willing to travel. Even an increase of 10 miles broadens the impact of your brand and gives you a new area to work. When broadening your area try not to raise your prices any more then to cover the cost of your car and gas to get there. Increasing your brand awareness will not only help you now but in the future, allowing you business to stay big when the money is good again.

Remember that you want to keep agile in the slowing market. you don’t want to be caught stagnant and crumbling as the economy starts to grow again. Another thing to keep in mind is that good will shows will go a long way to help everyone get through these tough times. So volunteer, help out or just make people smile everyday.

Oh and we’re back to posting, thanks for waiting and enjoy.