Need thoughts on expanding my offline business

I would treat it like a franchise, that is kind of what you are already geared toward. Upfront initiation fee then monthly/per show franchisee fees. Sounds like your reputation is worth some money and you are headed down the right path.

Yes as said before, treat exactly like a franchise. Guarantee a certain number of people to an event for them and spend a bit of marketing to make that happen then let them go on their own. Obviously you help with other stuff too but you get the idea.

Now that you have this huge membership list of buyers who are fanatics...what else are you selling them?

What's documented?
Can you hand over a manual that tells someone new to this how to run all aspects of the convention?

The real money would be to do everything for them as a complete packaged service. You book everything, make the calls, send out the e-mails to your list of dealers/booth renters/companies/attendees. Of course, they pay for everything (site rental, direct mail, your fee, celebrities).

The difference in fee is immense. You may be able to sell a manual and "do it yourself" kit for $2,000. But if you do everything for them? If you can show that you regularly make $200,000 a show, you can sell the service for $70,000. And they pay you before you do the work. So there is no risk on your part.

Why wouldn't you just put on all the shows yourself? Cash flow. But eventually, you would put them all on yourself. Your best prospects for this might be some of the companies that have exhibits at your shows.

The only reason I suggest this is that there are a very limited number of people able and willing to put on a comicon, even if you teach them how to do everything. How many comicons a year can there be in Ohio?

Have a hard time believing your customers are paying less than 1 cent per customer.

I think you're saying less than 1 cent per interest...or view...or walk through which doesn't mean they're a customer. When you say customer...most assume you're talking sales.

If the 1 cent per customer were true you wouldn't be asking about expanding because you'd be hiring people to manage things.

So my guess is you're saying based on what they pay for inclusion in your event, they're having the customers walk by and based on that divided by cost and traffic it's less than 1 cent.

Problem with the license thing is you're gonna have people who would do it...but they're not probably gonna want to share. So you need to narrow the license deal to one organization that gets results.

Trade shows get a ton of viewers but they're not called customers.

So if I'm reading your post right, you're saying you do what they do in San Diego with the comic con thing? (or you are the one that puts that on)

I've done a lot of license deals (should say a few), but I've found it can be a selfish thing among those that will agree to a license agreement...they aren't willing to share.

My own belief is that without doing this yourself or having a lot of involvement, you won't be able to expand. Just having a hard time believing the less than 1 cent per customer with what I know from your post.

As far as the book thing...you would have a very limited audience that would buy...as already said, you'd have to charge a lot to make it profitable.

We do have those events at the fairgrounds here in Ohio where I live. Kinda like the gun shows, etc.

Maybe I'm just not reading your post right...not sure.

My thought is: you have something more valuable, but are limiting your market. Consider this: offering your expertise as a SUCCESSFUL Conference/Event/Seminar PROMOTER.

You don't need to limit yourself to Comic Book Conventions. The event you've held successfully has the step-by-step information which could be used by anyone who wants to put on a conference.

And I suggest you become a conference consultant. Fellow Warrior Marcia Yudkin, has a good book you might want to read, it is 6 STEPS TO FREE PUBLICITY 3rd Edition. The reason I recommend it is, it has chapters on CONFERENCE PLANNING.

There are thousands of conferences, big and small, and more every year.

With some twists and marketing, you can collect some pretty large fees for sharing your knowledge, and if you want to expand, you TRAIN some licensees to be the Conference Go To Consultant in their region. Sure, you can include comic books.

But the organization and EXECUTION of the event can be done with Sports Cards/Memorbilia.

Antique Shows.
Bridal Shows.
And down scaled to individuals who just want to do their own regional conferences but are clueless as to how to do it.

Your manual could be like those old ENTREPRENEUR manuals. You probably qualify for designations like CMP Certified Marketing Planner or CSEP a Certified Special Events Specialist, and if not, start your own ASSOCIATION.

The ComCon & Event Specialist, and YOU do the certifications at 1500 bux a pop for a 100 people a year, renewable year by year.

My point is, you have EXPERTISE, because you have done it, and done it successfully, you know how to contact venues, do the contracts, get the vendors, arrange the place, get entertainment, blah, blah, blah.

And that is VERY VALUABLE how to info, which probably could be leveraged to bigger ongoing profits without the slop and mess of what you proposed to us.

License your expertise, train others how to become Conference or Event Promoters. Just one of several ways you can leverage your expertise and do so with avoiding some headache and heartache down the road.

Mine the gold in your brain, but don't break your back while doing so, eh?

GordonJ

Ok, so I will need to create books and how to videos on doing this. I did not intend to do it, but see that I will need to in order to properly sell it to potential promoters.

I helped organize and run many conventions in the past around the 10k attendance.

I think you have some great potential here. I liked Claude's done-for-you package the best.

I also wonder if you screened applicants and then got some buy-ins that you could offer hands on training as part of the package. You could have 2 or 3 people shadow you for the day before and the day of the event. There are always little things that come up that have to be dealt with on the spot. It might seem frightening or beyond their skills until they shadow you. It really is much simpler than it looks from the outside at least once you have run an event or two.

Once you have trained them you have a steady licensee that will continue to use you.

The idea of bringing in smaller promoters under your umbrella sounds somewhat like what Century21 did with real estate brokers back when. Perhaps look at their model for ideas. I believe it was revolutionary at the time, expecting established real estate agencies to keep their businesses but work under the Century21 umbrella in exchange for co-op marketing, advertising and branding advantages.

So for you it could be simplified down to you giving that one or small handful of features, not necessarily having to handle all facets of their operations from A to Z.

In other words what you make possible for the smaller promoters MAY be the information/support they need to organize a larger event, but if you do anything at all I'd suggest the easiest and biggest profit maker for you would be your ability to put together several of those out of state shows in one or more packages to offer to your existing vendors/advertisers list, where now they can participate in shows across several states. If they're already travelling to do shows throughout the year, this seems a natural sell for you.

For which you receive not just a one time fee but that one time fee PLUS ongoing consistent fees/percentage of revenues. Some of which might be prudent to spend on local advertising to bring in crowds and more vendors/advertisers and grow your list.

Ya, they are called franchises. Someone else will do the donkey work and you reap the benefits of them using your name. One important thing before you pursue your dream. Have you patented your business?

Be careful with saying "franchise" due to the fact that there are strict legal requirements a business must meet in order to be able to offer franchises. Do the legal footwork and get legal advice before deciding.

Personally, I would set up a course type funnel for all the basic and introductory stuff and then upgrade the graduates to a coaching engagement with development of their respective events.

You'll want to limit availability to increase urgency and enjoy higher perceived value pricing.

I am already running similar funnels (different niches) and I know that you're sitting on a goldmine but you need to think this out carefully to ensure you have an effective plan to make it all work out well. Good Luck and expect to bump into you in the near future!