Most people have had or been to an event or party at which they had entertainment. How did they find it? Was it any good? The answer to the first question is they probably used their local telephone directory, the Internet or had seen the act or service personally. The answer to the second question is sometimes yes and sometimes no.
So why use an entertainment agency to find what you are looking for? Well first it takes the hit and miss out of finding what you are looking for, a good entertainment agency has access to lots of different forms of entertainment and will save you the problem of locating it. Secondly a good entertainment agency lives on its reputation, so it is in their interest to make sure that the entertainment they supply is of good quality. As the saying goes, you are only as good as your last event. Imagine you are looking for a band, you can spend ages searching the net only to find that what you want is already booked, and searching can take hours, and do you have that time to spare? If you use the phone to contact entertainers and lets say contact 10 at an average of 3 minutes a call, that is 30 minutes of calls on your telephone bill, it may not seem much but it adds up especially if the contact number is a mobile one. And if you do manage to find what you are looking for how do you know it will be any good? Contacting a reputable entertainment agency takes away all the headaches, as they will do all the work for you.
There are things to bear in mind, a reputable agency has quality acts and services which will be in high demand, so make sure you start looking at least 3 months in advance of an event, don’t leave it until the last minute. Only contact one agency, many top quality agencies work with each other to source your needs, contacting 3 or 4 of them means they are duplicating work, time which could be spent on another client. If you were that other client ask yourself how you would feel, if the agency you were using had lost time they could have been using to help you. Running an entertainment agency we often used to get enquiries from people and start looking for their requirements only to have another agency contact us looking for the same thing for the same person. Nowadays we ask if any other agency is being used and if they are we polity refuse to waste time looking for the same thing, if we are told no other agency is involved and find out otherwise then we will drop the client. Many quality agencies act likewise, so you could find yourself back at square one or using a less than reputable entertainment agency.
The next question many people ask is how much will it cost, the answer is nothing unless you cancel, then you may have to pay a cancellation fee. An entertainment agency makes its money in the form of commission from the acts it represents, in other words they pay us for finding them the work. If you cancel the agency makes no commission, which pays for its time and effort on your behalf, therefore most agencies will make a cancellation charge, after all they have staff to pay just like any business. Similarly you might also have to pay a cancellation charge to an act or service in addition to the agency charge, if you have booked them then they are unable to take on other work for the date in question.
The other question is how long will it take? This can vary, many acts and services are registered with numerous agencies and don’t always keep them informed of availability, secondly each act will charge a fee depending on the factors of the event such as getting to it, possible overnight accommodation etc, so a reputable agency will make contact with them to find if they are available and at what cost. If an act or service is on holiday or working away it may take a while for them to get back to the agency, so allow for this. If you haven’t heard anything from an agency within 3 days then give them a call and ask for an update. A good agency will always tell you if they cannot find what you are looking for or if they have been unsuccessful. If that is the case then you can try another. Remember that with an agency you will get a contract, which will state all the relevant details, and you will have a legal document to give you peace of mind.
