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Preface

Although we offer this guide on how to start your own coffeehouse if you are thinking about opening up a new coffeehouse, one thing to give careful consideration to is the number and nature of already existing venues in your area. How many venues are there within a 50-mile radius of your location? What kind of music do they offer? How often? How well attended are they? Will your venue offer a different kind of music--or is there something else that would set your venue apart as unique (atmosphere, food offerings, etc)? If you live in an area that already has a large number of established venues (such as the Boston area) you may find that it could be just as satisfying (and a lot less expensive!) to volunteer your time and talents to work at an existing venue. You can learn a lot about the way things are done--and if you later decide to go out on your own, you'll have gained some very valuable experience. It is also a good idea to get to know the people who run other local venues so you can work together and help eachother.

We also must point out that running a coffeehouse can be a lot of work and requires serious commitment.  Initially, you should keep your overhead low, try to start out with smaller acts, and work your way up to bigger acts only after you have gained some experience.  Keep in mind that the volunteers can easily burn out if you set your goals too high or try to do too many shows.

The following are some thoughts on starting a folk music coffeehouse.
There are many ways to approach it; this is just one way.

• A good sound system and a good sound engineer are critical.  To reduce expenses when starting out, consider renting a trained sound engineer who has equipment.  After getting established, the equipment could be purchased.  It would help to have a person on the staff who can do the sound or can learn from the hired sound engineer.  The sound equipment is expensive, so don't buy any when just starting out.   Good sound equipment and a good sound engineer are most critical.  If the sound is bad, the performers will not want to come back and their booking agents will not want to have anyone there.

• Make sure the acoustics in the venue are good.

• When just starting out, do not look for the most expensive acts.  It can be very risky to book an expensive performer before the coffeehouse becomes well known.  There are lots of great folk performers around that charge reasonable fees.  When the coffeehouse is proved to be successful, then the more expensive and more well-known performers can be booked.

• If the coffeehouse is going to have well known and popular performers, the venue needs to hold a good size audience.  That way the coffeehouse can sell enough tickets to pay the higher fees demanded by the bigger-name performers.   Of course, the ticket price can be adjusted to cover the higher fees, but be careful of pricing the shows out of the market.  If the prices are too high, people will not come.  The coffeehouse needs to decide on the booking strategy and needs to make sure that there is enough of an interest in the community.  Start small at the beginning to get a feel for the interest and minimize the risk of losing money.  Make sure that size of the venue supports the performer.  If the venue is small,  the coffeehouse will 1) need to book performers that have more reasonable fees or 2) raise the ticket price for higher-cost performers.

• Most of the New England coffeehouses are in churches.  If a church hosts the coffeehouse, a business license is not required.  The coffeehouses are all non-profit, volunteer organizations.  Churches seem to be better venues for the coffeehouses then for-profit businesses.  Churches and coffeehouses are not in it for the money; for-profit businesses are.  But, regardless of the location,  make sure that the maximum capacity of the building is not exceeded during the shows.  If the fire department sees it, they can shut the coffeehouse down.

• The performers usually charge a guaranteed fee verses a percentage of the gate.  As an example, a performer might ask for $600 vs 65%.  The performer is guaranteed to make a minimum of $600, but if 65% of the gross revenue is more than $600, then the coffeehouse will owe the performer 65% of the gross gate proceeds.  Some times, the performer asks for a flat fee - say $1000 and no percentage.  If there is a large risk (a performer is relatively unknown, the weather is bad, other big draws on the audience, or whatever) then this approach shares the risk with the performer.  The straight percentage will typically be more than 60-65%; many times it is 70-75% of the gate. But, the coffeehouse can't lose this way.  If the fee has a guaranteed minimum or if the fee is a flat fee and not enough people show up, the coffeehouse could lose money.  Even established folk music coffeehouses need to be prepared to lose money on some shows.  It happens to everyone.  So make sure there are some extra funds tucked away.  Do not be in a position of not having money to pay the performer.  In almost all cases the fees can be negotiated.

• The price of the tickets varies with the cost of the performers.  Make sure the tickets are priced with the break-even point in mind.  Think through what the expected number of people is for each show; what might the low number be if the weather is too good or too bad, if there is another big event occurring nearby at the same time, or if the show was booked on a holiday (it is not a good idea to book a show on a holiday weekend), or if people simply do not come.  Be aware that some artists dictate the price of the ticket.

• When booking a show, pay attention to the contract and rider.  Terms can be negotiated and many times the detailed requirements are for larger venues.

• If the coffeehouse has a piano and the artist is to use it, make sure the piano is tuned the day of the show.  Do not tune it even one day ahead of time.  The tuning will drift and the coffeehouse may have one ticked-off artist that demands the piano be tuned - at 5:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon.  Trying to find a piano tuner at that time is near impossible.  Schedule the tuning for the day of the performance.

• A major task is finding and booking artists. Start booking well in advance.  The good ones book up fast.  The question is: where to find the performers and their agents.  A good place to start is the WUMB web site (http://www.wumb.org/ ).  Just about any performer can be located from this site.

• Set up a web page and direct everyone to the coffeehouse URL in all the PR-advertising-flyers.  The WUMB web site has a list of all the Greater Boston coffeehouses.  Check out the links to the coffeehouses to see how they do their web sites.

• Most performers have web sites with streaming audio and lots of PR-bio material.  The material for the coffeehouse's web site can be copied from the artist's home page.  They have bios, PR, streaming audio, photos, quotes, and lists of CD/music.  The coffeehouse's web site should link back to the artist's site.  The material can be used to generate the schedule web page and the coffeehouse flyer.

• Start collecting names of attendees so that flyers can be sent to customers to tell them about upcoming shows. The schedule for sending out flyers varies with the coffeehouse.  Some coffeehouses send them out every few months or every month.  Some send flyers out twice a year, some do it once a year, some may not even send flyers out.  But, flyers are a key component of the marketing and PR strategy.  This is a very important way to keep in touch with the customers and, if the flyer has a ticket order form, a very important way for the customer to order tickets.   Remember that the flyer is a piece of direct mail and the ticket order form is a direct response.  Many customers will tape the flyer to their wall or refrigerator.

• Keep in mind the printing and mailing cost for the flyers.  The schedule and question about sending flyers revolve around the budget available and how far ahead the bookings are made.  If the bookings are done well in advance, the flyer can cover all the shows.  If the bookings are done a few months in advance, then the flyer will have to be sent out more often.  Assuming that the coffeehouse is in a church, use the bulk mailing permit from the church if possible.  The mailing costs will be cut in half.

• About 10% of the mail list turns every year, so a way needs to be found to keep it clean. By putting "Address Correction Requested" on the front of the flyers (near the address), the US Post Office will send the flyer back if the address is wrong or the people moved.  It will cost 34 cents each time they do that, but the mail list will be clean.  The addresses can be changed or deleted.

• To make sure that the mailing list is built as fast as possible, do the following.  Use a raffle to give away two tickets to the next show.  But, in order to get the free tickets, customers need to fill out a perforated ticket stub with name, address, and phone number.  The customer rips off the perforated stub.  On this stub, they write their name, address and phone number.  Pull a stub from a basket at the beginning of the second set and give two tickets away to the next show.  Using the information on the stubs,  enter the names and addresses to the mail list.   This is a highly effective way to quickly build a good mail list.  A sign up list should be put out for people to sign up, but only a few will put their name and address on the list each show.  But most will fill out a ticket stub for two free tickets to the following show.  It works great.  Access or some other data base tool can be used to maintain the list.

• The flyers need to be designed and printed.  The flyer can easily be up to 8.5 x 14 inches.  Both sides can be used and folded twice.  Of course the flyer can be any size.  Once the coffeehouse is a going concern and making some profit, a mail house can be used to send out the flyers by bulk mail.  But, in the beginning, consider folding and mailing using coffeehouse volunteers.  This keeps the cost down.  If experience is any guide, the US Post Office bulk mail rules will drive people batty, so lots of patience is needed.

• Tickets need to be designed, printed and sold.  Ticket outlets will need to be identified that will sell the tickets for the coffeehouse.  Music stores are great outlets.  It would be good to find at least one that will take orders by credit card.  Take orders by mail.  Have the customers mail the ticket orders, along with a self-addressed and stamped envelope.  Have an order form for tickets on the flyer.  The tickets have the performance date, the artist, the venue address, phone number, web site URL, and the ticket price.

• A good idea would be to offer a season pass. The customers pay up front for the season and they get a break in the price.  This can improve the cash flow considerably.

• A good suggestion is to book the entire season BEFORE the season starts.  That way, the coffeehouse can get the performers desired and not have to settle for second or third choice.  Having all the performers lined up before the season starts allows the coffeehouse to list the complete season on the web page, on the flyer, and on the season pass. If all the acts are not booked, the season pass will have TBDs.  If  there are many TBDs, the season pass will be a hard sell.  Make the total price for the season pass quite a bit less than the total price of the sum of all the shows.  This gives customers good incentive to purchase the pass.  For the passes, print them up with all the shows listed and number the passes to keep track of who shows up and to keep track of  how many passes are sold.  Laminate them so that the passes can be put in wallets.

• Get an answering machine to take messages.  Have an outgoing message (updated after each show) about the shows coming up, with directions to the coffeehouse, and how to order tickets.  Call the information line of some of the coffeehouses listed on the WUMB web site and see how they have their information lines.

• Send out a PR release to the radio stations and local papers about 3 weeks before each event.  Consider advertising only for special shows.  Advertising is expensive.   Most coffeehouses do not advertise; they do just as well sending PR releases to local newspapers and radio stations.  Also send the flyers to all the PR contacts.

• A good kitchen crew is mandatory.  Most coffeehouses serve coffee, tea, soda, water, (hot mulled cider in the fall), pies, cakes, cookies, cheese and crackers - not necessarily at the same time. Open the kitchen before the show and at the intermission. The kitchen can make $150 -250 net on the refreshments on a good night.

• A set-up and tear-down crew for the sound, stage, lights, chairs, etc. is required.

• Someone to take and sell tickets at the door is required.

• It would be good to have some sort of banner or sign out front telling people that there is a coffeehouse performance tonight.

• An MC is needed to announce the performers.

• An overall manager is needed to make decisions and make sure everything is being done correctly and on time.

• Usually the performer will do two 45-minute sets with a break in between.  Sometimes they will want to do only one long set.  If there is an opening act, it is usually 30 minutes max.  Some performers are selective with opening acts and it's wise policy to pass any opening act by the main performer to get their okay.  If there is an opening act, it needs to fit with the music and mood of the main act.

• Before the first performance, do an article for the local paper announcing the new venue and maybe put a one-page flyer in the paper to help get the message out.

• The typical coffeehouses in the greater Boston area do 1-2 shows a month.  If the coffeehouse does too many shows, the volunteers will wear out. Most or all the coffeehouses are closed in the summer (July- August).  The reasons being 1) it's too hot to be indoors, 2) there are a lot of music festivals like bluegrass, etc. and a number of free music events that the towns put on and 3) everyone need a rest.

• Last but not least, make sure the coffeehouse has a great crew of volunteers and make sure they have fun!  Don't stress them out.