I have been where you are man, and it is rough. I am in Dallas (also a large, very hard to crack market) and I began in theater lighting. But, as I am sure anyone will tell you, unless you are a large regional or a Broadway designer (or both, here in Dallas probably 75% of the regional work in lighting are guys with Broadway pedigrees), so I had connections in the
house of worship market and we went that way. We got an electrician, a physical engineer, an electrical engineer, and an audio engineer/designer on contract and set out to be an all
in one AVL lighting consulting and design/
build company. In 2008 we were probably 60%-75% theater with a small touch of live music. This year we will be 60% or so
house of worship, and 5% or so theater. We also went from being 100% labor to now 75% sales and 25% labor. We do about $250,000 in gross receipts every year, so we are still a pretty small company but are trying to grow. In 2008 we did $34,000 in total receipts. The
point being we found our market and attacked it with a purpose. We even got to the
point where we just launched our own
line of
LED fixtures.
Just some observations.
1. Find where you fit and knock it out of the
park. I am a Christian and I speak "church". I don't mind the lower profit margins of dealing with houses of worship. So we jumped in with both feet. We are trying to lock down our share of the worship market here and have made huge inroads. We go to trade shows, sponsor events (free gear for advertising) we support the worship community with free knowledge (though demos, seminars, speaking engagements, and message boards like Control Booth). We also use focused advertising.
Once you find your niche and lock it down, THEN begin expanding.
Now, as far as that, it was easy for us to get into audio because of staffing and the trust our clients had in us.
That being said, we are moving into new markets and I will tell you a few things.
Weddings - First off they are VERY difficult to get into. I have been trying for 6 months and gotten NO returns. It is such a cliquish
system that until you find that one inroad you are shut out. But once you get an in if you pull it off you are IN. That being said weddings are a VERY different gig. A few things (from all the wedding guys I supply equipment to). You will often have to
load in/loud out in polos and slacks (or in a suit from time to time), you will have to work with demanding people who have NO idea what you do or the problems you
face, and they don't care, you will need ironclad contracts (which we already had because of our other work) and people will try to break and wiggle out of them (get a lawyer to write them), from time to time you will not get paid and have to
face the prospect of legal action (my collection rate is 100%, my audio guy who does weddings with his company has a collection rate closer to 90%), and you will need good insurance (we already had $2mm liability from our installs, but doing
one off events added 20% to our premiums, of course you probably already have this since you do live music now).
Corporate events are much the same except that there are FAR fewer of them. Also, the dress code is usually slightly more relaxed than weddings. In addition you usually get paid (but be ready to wait 90-120 days for payment).
We have a general website. We are considering launching a specialized wedding website because they want to see different things. You need to learn the language of the industry that you are trying to break into. You have to talk to wedding clients differently than you talk to rock clients which is different than you talk to corporate clients.
Just some of our experiences.