PRICING YOUR EVENT PROPERLY or, HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY
Simply ASK FOR IT!
Don’t be afraid. This is your day. If you don’t ask for it, who will?
I see it every day, committee’s afraid to ask for money or raise pricing due to what someone on the committee believes will be a problem.
The economy, gas prices, the cost of kids going back to school, people just paid their taxes, if we raise prices we will not have as many people, etc. All are incorrect.
Well, after 44 years of watching charity events and fundraisers trying to do the right thing, today was the ultimate in watching a charity actually losing a ton of money because they all feared things like I just listed above.
You see, the golf course was charging the charity $110 per player which included golf, lunch, 2 hours of open bar, dinner, and a forced 20% gratuity.
The charity was charging their golfer/guests $105 to play and only $20 for extra “dinner only” guests when dinner actually cost them $22.50 per head.
They called me three weeks ago concerned, like all of you are, that there were only 80 players registered and asked what they should do.
When I heard the cost vs. what they were charging, my immediate reply was: “Stop inviting people! You can’t afford to have anyone else register for this event.”
Their belief was that the guests would buy into raffle tickets, silent auction items and games on the course.
Today the rain was so bad that the creek that runs through the course flooded 80 feet outside its banks, the course closed and the event was not only cancelled, but the golfers all received the courtesy of a rain check to come back and play at their leisure. The lunch & dinner was cancelled but the terms of their contract didn’t allow for a refund.
So, the golf course was paid by the charity and the golfers, like every event on the planet registered in droves.
136 golfers and 20 extra dinner guests. But nobody hung around during the ensuing monsoon.
Because the charity DIDN’T simply ASK FOR THE MONEY they needed, they ended up losing $680 on greens fees and $50 on the extra dinner guests for a total of $730 lost with NO CHANCE of recovery as the golf course gave away gift certificates for each player to play on their own, some other day.
To say nothing of all the shirts, gifts and baskets and stuff that had to be loaded back up and hidden away in some committee member’s basement for another year.