SCAVENGER HUNT - KIDS AND ADULTS

This traditional game is a real winner for both adult versions and kids versions. Enclosed in this manual, you will find sheets that you can use for these games.

Make your announcement for everyone to gather at a certain point to get the sheets and pens. Fill in the sheets with the proper ending time (5:00 pm or whatever) on them or custom print them in advance of the picnic. You can try to just announce the ending time repeatedly throughout the game, but be prepared for someone who says they misunderstood or someone else told them a different time.

This is a great game because it gets everyone involved in a fun game that requires mixing and passive participation. This and the Ice Breaker game are both wonderful events to get people involved in a game that doesn't require athletic participation.

CLOWNS

What's a picnic without a clown. Nothing is more popular. Try to find one that can do a variety of things such as facepainting, balloon animals, puppet show, magic, mime, etc. The more they can do, the more work you can give that one individual. This puts you in a better bargaining position when negotiating price. Don't ever settle on regular prices if you can help it. If you are going to be giving someone a great deal of business, that warrants a discounted price. This is true for all performers and all vendors in general.

Being a clown that does facepainting and balloon animals is easily done by buying a clown outfit at any costume shop and learning to apply clown make-up. Then teach yourself or your staff to do the things I have mentioned. Learning magic is also fairly easy if you learn just the basic gags and only make it a part of your clown's array of shenanigans. A few good laughs helps a lot. You can probably have a local magician teach you a few gags for a few bucks. They should also be able to tell you where you can buy magic tricks and props.  (Passing out candy or other small treats is a natural to have your clown do.)

MINI PICNIC PACKAGES

Many times, customers will have a very limited budget or they already have most of their picnic plans made already. They need just some basic picnic needs at a low cost. This is when you can provide what I call a Mini Package.

Enclosed in this manual is a sheet of Mini Packages I used here in Cincinnati. It consists of the most popular elements of fun for picnics. Most of these elements except for strolling performers can be done by one of your trained staff people, however, I just subcontracted with a clown company here in town.  They did everything for me without any hassle.  Then I also contracted with a magician to do an hour of strolling magic.  No effort on my part at all.  However, it is more profitable if you train a staff person to do it all except the magic.

You should have them learn how to do facepainting, balloon animals, the field games (what I call Picnic Games on the Mini Package sheet), Kids Fun, etc. These should be done back to back so there is no dead time that you are paying a staff person to be there when they are not doing anything.

Ten to fifteen Mini Packages per year can put thousands of dollars in your pocket without you having to do any real work. However, always have a backup plan ready if your staff person doing the Mini Packages gets sick. Have another trained staff person ready if need be to take over for the sick person.

If you are in a climate where summer, or at least weather warm enough for a picnic begins in late May, you should start your marketing and promotion in January. I would mail your brochures on January 1st. If you begin calling prospective customers before that, mail their brochures immediately after speaking with them. Many people won't even want to think about their picnic before January. For that matter, many won't want to think about it until a month in advance.

It doesn't hurt to call before January, but I have found it to be a duplicity of effort because you will just have to call most companies back again later when the picnic date is closer. However, some companies make their plans for next year immediately following their picnic. One of the most important things to find out with your phone calling is when each company starts making their picnic plans. You want to make sure you have taken your best shot with them prior to that. The best sales effort in the world won't make any difference if they have already made their plans before you reach them.

PARK SYSTEMS AND PRIVATE PICNIC GROUNDS

Contact your city, county and state parks in your area. Introduce them to your services. They may be in a position to steer some business your way. They might even be willing to have you provide picnic services for the lessees of their picnic sites. Offer them a percentage of your profits from picnic services they refer to you. You may run into some problems with bureaucracy. They might have to open this service up to open bidding from anyone else who would also like to supply this service. It doesn't hurt to ask though.

You will have a better chance of working out some kind of privately owned picnic grounds. This is a business owner you would be dealing with instead of a bureaucracy. He or she would not be bound by the same red tape as a public park system. Offer to provide picnic services to their customers.

SALES IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Your sales effort is the most important element of being in this business. If you do your job correctly, the picnic itself practically takes care of itself. Not much can go wrong if you do your job as I have outlined. The sales is the real key to success. Nothing can replace it. It's really not that difficult. It just takes a certain amount of discipline to stick to your sales calls every day. You should make yourself a promise to stick to a daily schedule of making a certain number of sales calls every day and stick to it religiously. You can make ten calls in a half hour easily. Maybe longer if you hit pay dirt and have an extended conversation with a customer.

BROCHURES

Assuming that you mail your brochures before you make personal phone calls to your potential customers, your brochure will be the first impression your customer has of your company. Your brochure and a professional video will be the most important marketing tools you will have. It will pay to have the most professional brochure you can afford. If you can afford full color with pictures, go ahead and do so. It pays off handsomely. Full color will sell much better than black and white or even two colors. Full color just leaps off the page. However, it is very expensive and you have to order in large quantities to get an acceptable per unit price. It is not likely that you will be able to afford this in the beginning.

ACQUIRING A LIST OF ENTERTAINERS

Most people think all you have to do is look in the Yellow Pages under Entertainment to find a complete list of performers and entertainers for your picnics. That is certainly the most obvious place to start, but it is hardly the complete list of what would be available in your area. Start with the Yellow Pages though. Call every performer listed. Explain your company and ask their prices. Find out how long they perform for that fee. Most performers will have one fee, say $100.00 for the first hour and a slightly lower fee, say $75.00 for each additional hour.

After you find out what their normal fee is, ask if they would give you a discount for the volume of work you could give them. Sometimes, these performers are booked to capacity already, or if they can't get their regular price, they would prefer not to work at all. Most of the time, these will be part time entertainers, so you won't always be successful in negotiating lower prices. It is better, however, to pay full price for excellent talent than to get a cheap rate for second rate talent. Always send out excellent people regardless of the price. Of course, if you have several magicians who are all excellent and one of them is less expensive than the others, there is no reason to spend more than you need to.

After you have exhausted all of the listings in the Yellow Pages, go out and attend all the festivals, carnivals, fairs, downtown celebrations, grand openings and special events that you can. Take a pencil and paper. A camera is sometimes helpful, too. You will see many talented performers that are not listed in the Yellow Pages. Get their name and number or their business card and call them later.

CONTRACTING WITH VENDORS

The term "vendor" is used for anyone you hire or subcontract to provide a service or product at your picnic. This would include performers, pony rides, catering, ice delivery, Porta Potties, rides, etc.

You should always have your attorney check any contract. My contract should only be used as a guide line. Don't make it intimidating with legal jargon and lots of involved language. You don't want people afraid to sign it. Be very adamant about performers, and others passing out their own business cards. If the public knows how to get in touch with the performers directly, they will call them instead of having to go through you. You lose your commission or "markup" when this happens. Ice companies and caterers will usually have their logo on the sides of their vehicles. There's not much you can do about that, although some caterers do have unmarked vans as well.

The main purpose of the contract is to make sure the vendor is going to show up and provide the services you require. Don't ever accept a mere verbal agreement. You need paper work to substantiate your agreement. Having everything always in writing avoids the vendor backing out of the agreement and avoids confusion or memory lapses with regard to price, times, locations, etc. You will need this paper work in your files to show you the status of each vendor. Contracts are a must.

HIRING YOUR STAFF

Your staff can be hired in a variety of ways. One way is to place an ad in your daily paper. This will get the largest number of calls, but many of the respondents are people that you won't want to hire. You can usually tell over the phone after some discussion whether it's worth meeting them in person.

If you have a college in your city, the college newspaper is a great way to recruit people. College kids are not in school during most of the summer. They are usually clean cut, wholesome types that are in good physical shape for your manual labor.

Neighborhood newspapers are good also, because you can get people that live near you. This comes in handy in a variety of ways. If they live nearby, it's no big deal if you need them to help you load the truck for an hour or any other chore that won't take long. If someone lives farther away, they aren't going to be receptive to driving over to your place for one hour's work.

Also, if you are having staff people meet you at your storage facility to caravan out to the picnic site together and someone's car breaks down on the way to your storage facility, it's easy to go pick them up without much inconvenience to you. If they lived farther away, this would be a problem. I'm not saying you have to have all your staff people live near you, but certainly some should.

Contact coaching staffs at your local schools and colleges and ask if they know of anyone eighteen years old or older that is a good, responsible person who may want to earn some extra money. These coaches many times have assistants or sports fanatics that are really into recreation type activities.

Many schools and colleges will have work co-op programs that can bring you some good people. Acquaintances at church and community affairs are good prospects. Your own family members and personal friends are great also. In fact, they are usually the best because you can rely on them. Make sure you only hire them if you know they are good workers. It's going to be awkward firing a friend because they aren't willing to work.

You want to hire All American, outgoing, well groomed people who relate well to children. They should always wear one of your company's shirts with your company name and/or logo on it. I always used the polo shirts with a collar. I think they look more professional than ordinary T-shirts.