THESE ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE MANUAL..............


 "HOW TO START AND OPERATE

 A CORPORATE PICNIC BUSINESS".....

 (THESE ARE BITS AND PEICES OF INFORMATION EXTRACTED FROM THE MANUAL IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER AND ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTEXT. IT'S JUST TO SHOW YOU SAMPLES OF THE TYPE OF INFORMATION YOU WILL FIND IN THIS MANUAL.)

INTRODUCTION TO THE PICNIC BUSINESS

 
Hello, my name is Jim Miller. In 1987, I started a part time business to provide services to corporations having company picnics. At first I started with just an hour of organized games for adults and kids. As the business grew, I saw many more services that could be provided for very little cost. I started adding services through the years as the business grew and grew until it blossomed into a full time, full service business that was more profitable, more fun and less work than anything else I've ever encountered.

I discovered that there was a basic need among corporate America for a specialized company to handle all the time consuming details involved in producing a company picnic. Usually, the person handling the details was plenty busy doing their regular full time job. The last thing they wanted to do was to have to handle the mammoth undertaking of coordinating dozens of elements prior to the picnic. Then, in addition to that, they had to spend the whole picnic day working to direct the picnic instead of enjoying themselves like everyone else. Plus, the results were usually lackluster compared to what a professional company who had the right equipment, supplies, staff and experience could achieve.

Basically, what we do is find out what the customer's budget is and put together a package of equipment, performers, services and staff at that price. We lay out the day's picnic schedule, contract with all the vendors (entertainers, caterer, ride people, etc.), set up the equipment and supplies on the day of the event, direct the day's activities, pack up the equipment, collect your check and leave. I also discovered that there was not a great deal of competition. I also learned little tricks of the trade that helped me underbid my competition and gave the customer a great deal more for their money. When I gulped and invested the big bucks in the deluxe brochures, and promotional video, I found that proper advertising and marketing really paid off. The whole picnic business concept came together during those years.

What I was providing was convenience and service to a barely noticed need. I realized that this concept could be done in any city, anywhere. So, I decided to help other people learn this easy, fun concept and make a living for myself at the same time. In this manual, you will learn all about this exciting concept. I have attempted to condense all that I've learned through the years into this manual. I'm sure you will find this business rewarding if you approach it in a professional manner and apply all of the marketing and sales techniques I outline for you. I think you will find it's not like any other kind of work you have done in the past. I think you will have more fun at this than any other work you have tried.

I remember so many times being out on the picnic site eating a delicious, fresh cooked meal, playing volleyball, listening to music, laughing at the Tug of War competition, watching children having the time of their lives, being entertained by a multitude of live performers and thinking to myself, I can't believe I'm being paid to have this much fun! It's certainly not all fun and games, and there is work involved, but compared to a regular nine to five job, I think you will absolutely love this business!

SOME GAMES INFORMATION....................

PICNIC FIELD GAMES EQUIPMENT

The field games are the traditional picnic games such as Tug of War, Egg Toss and Sack Races. There are literally hundreds of these games that you could substitute for some of the ones you will see listed. Most of them are a variation of each other, but they are all fun. Of the following list, the games with an * next to them are very popular and I would not recommend substituting them. These would be the favorites or most fun. There are books at the library that will probably list many of these types of games.

Things to consider: How much space does the equipment take up in your vehicle? A tricycle race for adults is great fun and lots of laughs, but if you need twelve tricycles, they would take up an enormous amount of space to transport. If your startup transportation is going to be a van and/or trailer, the tricycles would take up the space of an entire van. You wouldn't have room for anything else. Also, tricycles are fairly expensive. Do you want to spend that much for twelve of them?

There are dozens of other games you could do instead that take up a fraction of the space, cost peanuts, and are great fun. Tricycle races are merely an example of a great game that requires space and dollars to accommodate. I only discourage this kind of game in the early startup period of your company when space and dollars are at a premium. I strongly encourage this type of game when you can afford it for several reasons.

Your customers can gather supplies for games and do games themselves if they choose to. You would lose money if they did that. They are less likely to want to do that if they see that a major portion of your games require specialized equipment for a game that is unique and not practical for the customer to do themselves. It's not likely that the customer is going to go out and spend the kind of money required to buy twelve tricycles for one game, one time at one picnic. Sure, they could merely substitute some other game, but it's not going to be as dramatic, unique and fun as your tricycle race.

The more elements that you have that the customer cannot do for themselves, the more likely you are to get their picnic in first place and the more likely the customer is going to have you back next year to do it again. The professional can do it better than the customer can. The tricycles are an example of what you can provide as a specialist that the customer cannot.

Your ideas, equipment, staff and services are all a convenience to the customer, but your customer can still duplicate much of it themselves. Again, the more elements that you have that the customer cannot do themselves or the greater your ability to do something dramatically better than the customer can do themselves, the more likely you are to get the job.

Also, the more creative you are and the more you are willing to spend on specialized equipment, the less likely your competition is going to be able to duplicate or imitate your services. Try to come up with games that only your company can do because you have been willing to invest in or create something special. It's not always easy because due to the very nature of picnics, the customer can duplicate most elements themselves. You've got to create a niche for yourself that is unique. Set yourself apart from the competition by coming up with ideas and equipment that is unique to your company. In your startup stages, you will need to conserve dollars and space. Therefore, all of the games listed below will be with that in mind. You can get almost all of this equipment in two thirty three gallon plastic trash cans, plus your water containers. The cost for this equipment is inexpensive.

I STARTED MY BUSINESS WITH ONLY TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS IN PICNIC FIELD GAMES EQUIPMENT AND SIMPLY ADDED EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES AS NEEDED. DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY THE TOTAL COST OF EQUIPMENT YOU WILL SEE LATER IN THIS MANUAL. THAT'S ONLY IF YOU HAVE A COMFORTABLE BUDGET AND DESIRE TO START LARGER. IT'S NOT REQUIRED, HOWEVER.

BINGO EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

(You should check out the legalities involved in playing bingo at your picnics. States vary with their regulations.) There are many different types of bingo calling equipment sets. I have yet to see a reason to get anything beyond the most basic of these. You will be sending away for many catalogs that will have bingo sets listed. The basic cage with balls and the master card that you put the balls on that you have just called is what you need. This is available for between $55.00 and $80.00 per set. The cards you need are called push tab cards. Most cards, you have to put a marker of some kind on the number that is called. It could be plastic buttons, a magic marker mark, corn, beans, or whatever. This is quite cumbersome and a great mess, and you always have to provide more markers for the next time.

Another kind is the kind that has a small sliding window over the numbers that you slide when your number is called. These are fine except they are expensive and thick. By the time you buy several hundred of these, they take up a considerable amount of space and it's costly, but they are professional and last forever. I have found the push tabs to be fine. These are ordinary sized cards that have a tab cut into the middle of the numbers on the cards. When your number is called, you simply push the tab back through the card and fold it down out of the way.

When the game is over, you just fold the tab back up into place and you are ready to play again. You can use them for all the games at one picnic. Throw them away afterwards. They are paper thin so they take up virtually no space. They are dirt cheap, so you can throw them away and not worry about it. (Make sure each player only gets one card though.) You don't need any markers so you won't have to put up with all of that hassle and mess. They work wonderfully although many players won't be familiar with them. Once you explain over the microphone how to use them, they are great. Although the bingo cage, balls and master card set are in the catalogs you will be getting, the push tab cards may not be. You can probably get them at your local bingo supply house. Look under Novelties, Bingo or Carnival Supplies in your Yellow Pages.

The other route to go is to buy the heavy duty stitched cards that have the sliding windows. For these, you don’t need markers of any kind. You just slide the little window over the number when your number is called. After the game, you just slide all the windows back, exposing all your numbers and you’re ready to play again. They cost a little over one dollar each, so they are far more expensive to buy three hundred or so. However, I ended up going this route because the public is more familiar with these cards than the push tabs, they look more professional and you never have to keep buying more cards. They will last you forever. I would only use the push tabs if budget is a concern, but they will work fine.

COLORING SHEETS AND CRAYONS

This is the other element of KIDS FUN. The coloring sheets in this manual can be printed with your company name and/or logo at the bottom. Or you may find your own that would work just as well. Use cheap paper to keep your costs down. Have your printer "pad" them. That is, make them into a tablet. If they are in loose form, the kids and the wind will have them all over the picnic grounds. If they are in tablet form, the child (or your staff person directing the fun) will have to tear the sheet off the tablet to color on it. One sheet for each child is standard. In tablet form, the wind will not affect them and they will always be neat and orderly. Crayons can be purchased anywhere.

Keep the crayons in a plastic container the size of a cigar box. I found these at Toys R Us and a $1 store. Even though they snap shut, don't trust the snaps. In transit they always come loose and you will have crayons everywhere. Always put thick rubber bands around the crayon boxes. Get three boxes to hold the crayons and enough crayons to fill them. You should also get three different inexpensive prizes for the kids. They will get their choice of one after they are done coloring their picture. The three different kinds are so that they will have a selection to choose from. The cheap prizes are sometimes less than a penny a piece. Your catalogs will have hundreds to choose from.

FOOD CONCESSION INFORMATION..........

COTTON CANDY MACHINE

This will be an important piece of equipment for you. This and the snow cone machine will be the most popular concessions that you will be using. Until you can afford to buy these machines, you can rent them as needed for around $40.00 or so. The brand I recommend is Gold Medal Products. That is not just because they are located in my home town of Cincinnati, but because they sell almost every type of concession equipment you are likely to ever need. Plus, they have distributors all over the country. They are certainly the overall leaders in the industry.

They have some competition with popcorn machines and hot dog machines, but with your limited usage, I think Gold Medal is the way to go. Their catalog is a supermarket of concession equipment and supplies. You can start with their smallest, most inexpensive model of Cotton Candy machine, but you will find that when you have fifty people waiting in line, it really doesn't have the production capacity to accommodate lots of people quickly. If you can afford the next larger size, you will be able to get through the line of people quicker. You may do as I did, start out with the small one and add the larger one later.


COTTON CANDY SUPPLIES

You will need cones and floss (sugar). The lesser expensive white cones are just fine. The floss or flossine is simply colored sugar crystals that the cotton candy is made from. It comes in a milk carton type package that makes it easy to pour. It is available in many colors. I suggest pink which is the most traditional. (If you are ever hired to provide carnival services for a corporate Christmas party, regular white sugar will produce white cotton candy which looks like snow.)

SNOW CONE MACHINE

This will be your second most popular concession. On an unusually hot day, it will be your number one concession. Just as with the cotton candy, I suggest a machine from Gold Medal Products. In the start up stages, if you can't afford to buy a machine, you can rent one. Buy it when you can afford to.

SNOW CONES SUPPLIES

You can get your supplies from Gold Medal or one of their distributors in your area. You should get a metal tray that holds snow cones, so you can make a few up in advance and hold them. You will need the syrup, pumps, paper towels, extension cord, ice scoop, and ice baller. The scoop you will use to put ice into the machine. The ice baller you will use to scoop a ball of ice from the interior of the machine and put into the cone. Figure on three snow cones per pound of ice. This can vary quite a bit though, depending on the temperature that day and whether the ice is in the shade or not, spillage while putting the ice into the machine, etc.

******************************************************
Sources for food concession equipment:

Gold Medal Products
513-381-1313
800-543-0862
They have distributors all over the country.
www.gmpopcorn.com

*****************************************************

BITS AND PIECES..........

LENGTH AND DAY OF THE PICNIC

The typical picnic is four to six hours. We have done them as little as three hours up to twelve hours. Three hours is tough to get enough of your elements in to make your usual profit. The longer ones are usually a factory that has several shifts and they want to make sure that everyone gets to come to the picnic regardless of what time they get off work. Saturdays are a little more popular than Sundays. When a park is not available on the Saturday the customer has in mind, or you are already booked on that date and can't handle another picnic on the same day, I try to talk them into another date that I am available or on a Sunday instead. I explain that the turnout sometimes is better on a Sunday anyway because Saturdays are an errands day. The kids have to be shuttled to soccer practice, dentist appointments, shopping, etc.

Whereas Sundays are more of a relaxed family day. When everyone gets home from church, they change clothes and come to the picnic and spend the whole day with the family. Sometimes this will change the customer's mind. Sometimes just explaining that the best parks are available on Sunday, but not Saturday will change their mind.

Once in a while, you will get a call for a weekday picnic, which is gravy because it doesn't interfere with your weekend schedule. You might consider giving the customer a discount if they would be willing to have the picnic on a weekday. Do this only if you run into a schedule or park availability problem. Having staff available on weekdays may also be a problem.

The most popular times for a picnic are noon to four or one to five. Any other time frame is fine. Much earlier than noon though, you won't get much of a turnout until later, so you are wasting hours. This is especially true on Sundays because of church. Don't start a picnic earlier than one o'clock on a Sunday if possible. Two o'clock is perfect. That gives the quests time to get home from church, change clothes and drive to the park without missing any of the picnic. Try to steer away from the picnic going until dark, if possible. Loading up and cleaning up is tougher in the dark.

WATERMELON EATING CONTEST

Cut a watermelon in half lengthwise. Cut the ends off the two halves. Slice each half into two inch thick pieces. They have to be pretty large pieces for the contest to last more than ten seconds. This is a big sloppy bunch of fun! It works for kids and/or adults, but do not mix kids and adults in the same contest. Just call the participants over to the play area.

Give each person a piece. Before you start the game, show them a rind with the fruit eaten away to the extent that you require to win. Count to three. The first person to eat it all (never mind the seeds one way or the other) wins. They have to take the fruit right down to the rind though. Have paper towels available to everyone after the contest. Have someone judge this game. This will make a big mess if you do it on a table(s). A stuffed animal is a good prize. Let people eat any leftovers.

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.

If someone turns in all the items first, they are the winner. Usually this does not happen though. Wait until the end time and call in all the participants and their items. Count them as they are returned. If there is a tie, have a number written on the back of a piece of paper between 1 and 100. Have the people who tied each guess a number also between 1 and 100. The one who comes closest wins. A prize should be awarded. Ask for your pens back.

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.

If nothing more than having a staff member dress up as a clown and doing their regular work is involved, it is still a good idea. A clown giving out cotton candy, for example, is far more special than an ordinary person doing it. Even if the clown can't do balloon animals, facepainting or magic. The costume alone, along with a great personality with the kids, does it. You really can't go wrong. Plan on the staff person dressed as the clown to have to continually pay attention to the kids. They may not be able to do their regular staff type work as easily. Just plan accordingly as far as the number of staff people needed for that picnic. (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.

You should train several staff people to do this. In fact, you can send a team of staffers out in the beginning so they can both learn this fast. Make sure they are great with kids and have a good personality. Your staff person would do the majority of the packages. An entertainer such as a magician would do an hour of strolling and maybe a clown or puppet show would round out the larger packages. I would pay the staff person more than your regular salary for this because they are assuming the full responsibility for entertaining these folks and they won't get to log as many hours doing this as they would if they were working your regular picnic.

You want someone who is extremely reliable and very punctual. If they are late, it throws your customer into a panic, plus it makes everything else you do from then on late as well. They should also have the ability to take charge and run the events without supervision. You may not want to offer Mini Packages until you have trained enough staff people and learned how to do all these things yourself. None of them are difficult at all, but you should know your stuff before you go out to do this by yourself.

Most of the equipment will take up a fair amount of space for a regular car. You need to use a station wagon, van or hatchback that has sufficient room. If your staff person doesn't have such a car, rent one or loan the staff person yours.

Although you don't see these elements in my Mini Packages, for the larger packages, you can offer volleyball, horseshoes and more since your staff person is going to be there for virtually the entire picnic. This is easy money for you even if you are paying your person ten dollars per hour.

Always try to sell the largest package you can to make the most money. Establish a minimum profit and don't offer anything less than that. You can, however, book individual performers for customers such as magicians, jugglers, clowns, mimes, etc. Schedule them any way the customer wants since it doesn't involve any of your staff. You can also book your caterer for them. This is just a phone call and mailing two contracts.

You can also offer another picnic service for low budget picnics. Rent them equipment packages. Offer equipment to do their own field games, volleyball setups, horseshoe setups, Kids Fun equipment and supplies, cotton candy machines and so forth. This is easy money for you and economical for your customer.
When scheduling the events for your Mini Packages, remember that it will take ten or fifteen minutes for the staff person to put away the equipment and supplies for the field games afterward. The same is true for Kids Crafts, Kids Fun, etc. Allow time between the events for this.

Booking 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.


START MARKETING EARLY

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.

If you live in a climate where you have much more year round weather for picnics, you will have to follow your records you will acquire regarding when each customer should be contacted. If they say they are making plans in April, call them in March just in case their time table has moved up since you last spoke to them. Tell them you are just calling to confirm that April is still the appropriate time to contact them. Remember, each full service picnic could mean thousands of dollars in your pocket, so each and every potential customer is very lucrative and worthy of you staying right on top of things with 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.

Explain that you would not want to compete with the services that they already provide, but merely supplement what they don't provide. Since you will be providing picnic services at other parks and locations, they may consider this to be a conflict of interest. You might also try to work out a commission arrangement for when you bring one of your customers to them. It may not work out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.


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.

Make this task your first duty every day when you start to work. It becomes second nature after a while. Doing it first thing every day gets it out of the way early, plus, many people won't be available when you call. Calling early gives them the rest of the day to return your call. It's a healthy habit to get into. Don't be afraid of sales calls. All it is, is telling people about your services. This is not like selling other commonplace products. People planning the picnic are naturally interested in seeing what you have to offer and seeing if you can make their job easier.


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.

Plus, you won't have pictures to be able to put in the brochure. Make it a habit of taking pictures at all of your picnics with a good camera until you have an ample supply of photos that can be used for your brochures and/or a photo album that you can use for promotional use. You may use the format of my brochure for your own if you like or you may come up with another if you prefer.

Since printing my brochures, however, I have learned something. If you enumerate all of your services that you provide in your main brochure, it's a very simple matter for any competitors to get a copy of the brochure and instantly know everything that you can provide. It's a simple matter for them to list the same services in their own brochure and appear to a potential customer to be just as creative, ingenious and experienced as you are. I had this happen to me. This new competitor copied my brochure almost exactly word for word and element for element except for the layout and artwork being different. If I were you, I would make a generic brochure that speaks only in broad terms of the services you can provide such as entertainment, games, food, drink, prizes, recreation, etc.

Concentrate on the convenience of your service, your professionalism, the fact that you own most of your own equipment instead of having to rent and this enables you to charge low prices, and that your "associate" (me, as your consultant) has years of experience at producing picnics. If you concentrate on these broad terms in the brochure instead of the specifics, anyone obtaining a copy of it that wanted to compete with you wouldn't have any specifics to copy from you. They really wouldn't have a clue as to what events or specific elements you offer.
This obviously makes it far more difficult for someone to blatantly steal your specific ideas. If you only mail a generic brochure to all of your customers at first through your mass mailing or other advertising, the information contained in it will not hurt you very much if a competitor is investigating your company. However, when you get a response from a customer who has received the generic brochure, they are going to want to see a proposal with specifics in it. Then and only then would I send them a follow-up brochure or sheets with the specifics.


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.

One of the best ways to find out about performers is to ask other performers for referrals. Most magicians, for example, know most of the other magicians in town and may belong to the same magic club or other organizations. These performers are constantly hired by the same agencies for special events, so they all work together a lot. They don't mind referring you to other performers, especially if they are not direct competitors. Always, when asking a performer for a referral to someone who is a direct competitor, say "In case you are not available on a certain date I would need you for, do you know of anyone else you could recommend?" Unless you word it that way, they may hesitate to refer you to anyone else because they are afraid that you will call their competition instead of them. Most folks are pretty good about helping out their fellow performers though.

Magic shops sell magic props and equipment to all the magicians in town. They can refer you to all the magical gremlins in your area. You can't call other talent agencies in town because you are one of their competitors, but you can ask other people who regularly hire performers for referrals. Marketing directors of malls and shopping centers are excellent. Sometimes they get their talent from entertainment bureaus, but many times they work directly with the talent. They can also give you excellent leads. I have also tried ads in the papers to recruit talent. I didn't get many responses, but the ones I did get were good.

One last idea, if you have any amusement parks in your area, call them and tell them you are planning a party and want to hire some entertainers. Don't tell them that you are a picnic company because you will be a direct competitor of theirs. Amusement parks will be your biggest competition for picnics. They certainly won't help you if they know you also produce picnics. That's why you should tell them that you are using the performers for a party or something else. They hire all kinds of performers for their park.


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.

Instead of having the TERMS & POLICIES sheet be a separate sheet from the contract sheet, have it printed on the back of the contract. Make reference to this on the contract that the customer has read and understands the terms and policies on the reverse side of the contract.


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.

I wouldn't use your children for this work unless they are old enough to handle themselves in a professional capacity. There is certainly nothing wrong with making this a family business as long as you don't have young children doing this work. The customer will think you are too cheap to pay adults to work. It's really a bad image. Plus, children don't know how to deal with people and really can't do an adult job. These are corporate people who are your customers. They expect and deserve professional, adult staff people.

Another problem in having your younger children at the picnic is that they demand your attention when you are supposed to be serving your customers. You can't do both at the same time. You may think, who would ever dream of taking their kids on the job?. Believe me, it's done. I personally know someone who does this. His child participates in all the kids activities such as the candy scramble, balloon animals, facepainting and so forth as if he's a guest. He also has his young son staff the miniature golf table at times. He apparently feels that because picnics are family affairs that it's no big deal to have his youngster there playing and enjoying himself like all the other kids. I strongly disagree. You can draw your own conclusions.

Having husband and wife teams working for you works out fine if they both prove to be good workers. If only one of them proves to be a good worker, it's difficult to not use the other one without both of them being offended. Then they will quit on you. It also presents a problem when you need the husband earlier at the picnic than you need the wife.

At the risk of sounding sexist, some women don't have the physical strength required to lift some of the equipment. (Women can handle the overwhelming majority of your equipment as equally well as men. It's only the heaviest of the equipment that will prove to be a problem for some women. Many women, on the other hand, can handle anything most men can.) For this reason of physical strength only, men will be a bigger asset to you earlier in the picnic and at the end of the picnic because that's when the unloading, setup and reloading of the equipment is done.

If you feel you don't need the wife to work the same schedule as the husband, they may feel unhappy with this. They don't want to have to drive separate cars to the same picnic. They naturally would prefer to come together. The only alternative is to tell them that if they want to come together, that's fine. However, the wife won't start on the clock until you need her to at her normal scheduled time.

Most couples understand this and prefer to come together and go along with this arrangement. I had a wonderful couple work for me for years and we had this arrangement. Other couples I have tried agreed with the schedule arrangement, but only one of the couple proved to be a good worker. This was very awkward. Use you own best judgment.

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.

The advantages to hiring people for this type of work is that it's fun, your outdoors, you get a nice meal, it's not hard work, it's an enjoyable environment, you're working with other fun people and you still have your evenings free. The disadvantages are that it is only semi-regular work for a limited period of time. Most people looking for part time work need regular work with more hours. You will be looking for people who just need a few extra bucks or are just looking for something fun to do to stay busy. I started people at minimum wages for the first three picnics to see if they were going to work out.

PROPOSALS TO BE SENT OUT TO CUSTOMERS.........

EXPLANATION OF SAMPLE FUN PACKAGES

The Sample Fun Packages are to be sent to customers who have no idea as to what their budget is. Rather than saying, "Call me when you find out what your budget is.", you send them these packages that act as a reference point for them. This is something they can take to the boss or their committee to make a decision. The packages allow you to give them a well balanced array of services, yet still making it a profitable event for yourself.

It's also less work for you to sell them a package since everything is already pre-priced and ready to present to the customer. If you let them pick their own elements themselves, many times your roster of services will be lopsided with perhaps nothing for the adults to do, no sound system, etc. This won't happen too often though. If it does, point out these weaknesses to the customer. If they don't want to change it, roll with it as best you can. Provide a sound system for them for free if you have to though.


SAMPLE PICNIC FUN PACKAGES!

All Star Services has been providing complete picnic services since 1987! We are not a rental company where you can rent individual items. We only provide packages of services for picnics such as what you see below! However, we can mix and match, or substitute elements of each package to give you what you want.

PLEASE NOTE: 1) These prices are based on All Star being able to schedule the events throughout the day at their discretion. 2) If your site already has Volleyball and / or Horseshoes, we will substitute items. 3) If electricity needs cannot be confirmed as to sufficient power, we will add a generator at an additional charge. 4) All day soft drink service available for any size group. 5) Prices quoted are for groups of up to 300. There will be a small additional charge for larger groups. 6) For an additional charge, we can stay longer than the number of hours quoted for each package. A picnic schedule is submitted for each package. 7) Prices below DO NOT INCLUDE meals, soft drink service or travel fees outside of Indianapolis or Cincinnati. We will be happy to give you a separate quote for these elements. TRAVEL FEES RANGE FROM $50 - $350


PACKAGE #1 FOR 4 HOURS - $1795.00

- PICNIC DIRECTOR & STAFF

- CHOICE OF 3 ADULT GAMES:
- SOUND SYSTEM & TAPED MUSIC

- LIMBO CONTEST
- COLORING CONTEST

- MUSICAL CHAIRS
- TWO HORSESHOE COURTS

- ICE BREAKER GAME
- KIDS FUN (Game for kids)

- GOLF CHIPPING CONTEST
- TODDLER CRAWL (kids under 5)

- SCAVENGER HUNT
- RECREATION EQUIPMENT

- ONE VOLLEYBALL COURT
- ADULT HULA HOOP CONTEST

- MOONBOUNCE
- CANDY SCRAMBLE

- TEMPORARY TATTOOS

Remember, we can modify these packages any way you like. Want a substitution? Just ask.
It may or may not affect the price, depending on what new element (s) you decide to substitute.


PACKAGE #1B FOR 4 HOURS - $2115.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGE, PLUS:

- MINIATURE GOLF (Or elements of equal value.)


PACKAGE #2 FOR 4 HOURS - $2490.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- SPIN ART (Squirt drops of paint onto a spinning card and create a work of art.)
- ONE POP-A-SHOT BASKETBALL GAME (All day fun for the kids.)
- (We delete COLORING CONTEST & 1 ADULT GAME and substitute the more
   popular PICNIC GAMES AND AWARD RIBBONS.)


PACKAGE #2B FOR 4 HOURS - $2805.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- AMAZING INFLATABLE MAZE (20'X20' with tunnels & windows)
  OR THE BALLOON TYPHOON  (12' high inflatable Clown Head with whirling balloons inside.)


PACKAGE #3 FOR 4 HOURS - $3180.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- KID'S HIGH STRIKER (Swing the mallet and ring the bell just like at the fair'!)
- AMAZING INFLATABLE MAZE AND BALLOON TYPHOON ( For one half day each .)


PACKAGE #4 FOR 5 HOURS - $3810.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- COTTON CANDY OR SNOW CONES
- FOUR CARNIVAL GAMES
- FOUR CARNIVAL BOOTHS
- 25 CENT PRIZES FOR CARNIVAL GAMES (Based on one prize, per player, per game.)


PACKAGE #5 FOR 5 HOURS - $4375.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- SNOW CONES AND COTTON CANDY
- SAND ART (Multi colored layers of sand in a plastic bottle. Fun to make & take home.)
- MINI PING PONG


PACKAGE #6 FOR 5 HOURS - $4785.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- BINGO - 1 HR.
- BINGO PRIZES (12 Prizes total - ask for list.)


PACKAGE #7 FOR 5 HOURS - $5285.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- CHIPS AND PRETZELS
- 2ND POP-A-SHOT BASKETBALL GAME (Total of two.)
- BADMINTON COURT & EQUIPMENT


PACKAGE #8 FOR 5 HOURS - $5620.00

INCLUDES ALL ELEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PACKAGES, PLUS:

- TABLE GAMES (10 Decks of cards, Uno, Jenga, Rook, Trivial Pursuit, etc.)
- WELCOME BANNER
- ADVANCE PUBLICITY POSTERS
- FESTIVAL FLAGS (Adds a festive flash of colors to the atmosphere.)

- ONE GENERATOR (For extra needed electricity. More may be required at extra cost.)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS MANUAL, CLICK HERE