Work with Hireaband

An Introduction to hireaband.co.uk

From a standing start in August 2001 hireaband.co.uk have become the fastest growing entertainment agency in the country. An incorporated, VAT registered company since August 2002, we have experienced a massive increase in turnover – handling well over £1.5 million worth of entertainment business in the last 12 months alone. (more than double our previous year!)

Q: Who buys entertainment from hireaband?

A: Our clients include many of the top hotel chains, privately owned quality establishments, Blue chip corporations and major sporting organisations as well as government and local authority departments. We also supply very many private individuals for their various functions especially the wedding market. (For a list of some of our more prestigious clients see the appendix at the end of this publication.)

We plan to continue our expansion and to enhance our position as leaders in the supply of first class entertainment to the quality end of the market. Demand for really high quality entertainers has never been higher resulting in a shortage of good acts that can provide the essential mix of talent and business sense.

Hireaband are now actively engaged in improving our service to both our clients and our entertainers in order to keep our edge over our competitors. As innovators and market leaders we are introducing some revolutionary ideas, which we are sure, will continue to win our superb entertainers the business they deserve.

Our Proposals

We are aware of the unease experienced by some acts when dealing with agents. There can often be a “them and us” culture between the two groups, which, though unfortunate is, in some cases understandable. As members of The Agent’s Association of Great Britain we are committed to a strict code of conduct and are aware of all the new regulations affecting our industry. We feel that a close, open relationship is the only way ahead for an ambitious agency and ambitious entertainers.

While determined to represent only the finest talent available, we also require from our entertainers an awareness of good business practice and in return we promise a level of service and commitment to our acts unparalleled in the business. The solution to the age-old agent/entertainer conflict we feel is…

Entertainment Partnership

In the U.S market, agents are seen as “the sales force” for entertainers and we want to be regarded as such for our acts. You can make our job much easier and our sales efforts more successful by complying with the following requests:

What we expect from you

Only acts with a photograph and a demo CD (where applicable) will be considered as partners. For acts new to hireaband we may also require referrals or testimonials from previous clients. At the very least we will require dates which one of our representatives can attend to see you in action. It is impossible in good faith to recommend a band that we have never seen or heard, although in certain circumstances good reputations may precede you. Also many of our clients are based outside The U.K and will not be able to see their entertainers first hand, for these clients a good promo package is essential.

• From a practical point of view we will require our partners to have good, reliable transport and PA equipment.
• If in a band, we prefer to deal with one designated member who has sole control of the diary to avoid double bookings. This person should also preferably have a daytime contact number.
• In the event of a cash pickup we expect to receive our commission within 7 days of the event. As in any business cash flow is essential to continued growth.
• If you are booked as a result of your appearance at a hireaband engagement we expect to be informed and we will be entitled to 10% + VAT of the fee as commission. We will supply you with business cards with our contact details for every event.

We won’t insult your professionalism with a long list of do’s and don’ts. If you’d like to see our tips for new bands see our web site. After every engagement we send out a questionnaire to our clients to get feedback on an entertainer’s performance, these make valuable testimonials and can highlight any room for improvement. They also show our commitment to customer satisfaction.

What you can expect from us

We will always negotiate hard on your behalf for the best fee and conditions possible. This is one reason why we don’t pursue pub and club gigs as they are notoriously underpaid. We would rather not embarrass ourselves by asking a band to play for four hours for a little over £100.00, and you know we’re not exaggerating, we’re asked daily for acts at this budget!

• In the event of a non-pickup, buy and sell (sometimes known as nett deal) engagement we always pay our acts within 7 days of funds clearing or within 28 days of the event, whichever comes sooner. Even if we haven't been paid or are paid late , we will still pay our partner entertainers within 28 days.
• We will provide clear instructions of each engagement in writing, with realistic set up times and detailed instructions for a smooth running, stress free gig. We’ll supply directions and info on any venues new to our entertainers, with a contact name and a suggested travel time.
• Our terms and conditions are available to view on our website and contain many other safeguards designed to ensure a smooth running event. Our fair cancellations policy is also available to view.
• We actively promote our entertainers both directly to our existing clients and through our heavy media presence and excellent web site. This neatly brings us to the main point of this publication.
  

The hireaband.co.uk web site

Hireaband.co.uk is unique among agencies in that our company name is also our web site address. Hireaband.co.uk also describes exactly what we do in a short and memorable way and directs interested parties straight to our site full of information on our entertainment partners.

How do we promote our site?

We promote our site and therefore our partners in very many ways. We advertise extensively in the wedding press, particularly in the two main Scottish publications, “I Do” magazine and “The Scottish Wedding Directory,” where we buy half and full page adverts. On occasion we also sponsor the entire entertainment section! As we expand into England via our Nottingham office we will seek out the best media for that area.

In the last few years we have advertised on Scottish Television using their micro regions scheme, which brought us massive coverage. As far as we are aware we are the only agency in the U.K to have used this media. We have plans to follow this up with local radio advertising.

We have been featured and have advertised in the national press, with articles in The Glasgow Herald. (See our web site)

We advertise in many local publications and with local authorities at registry offices etc.

Finally, and we’ve saved the best till last, we are ranked incredibly high on the world’s top four search engines. This has resulted in an average 500,000 hits to the web site every month, a vast number of potential buyers!

The costs involved for this level of promotion are staggering and run into tens of thousands of pounds, but we plan to continue and in fact increase our position as major buyers of advertising, actively promoting hireaband and our partners. This is where you can help….

Development of hireaband.co.uk web site

With the wider availability and uptake of broadband Internet connections we can finally see some major advantages in an online presence for our partners and ourselves. We have bought serious bandwidth and web space and invested heavily in some major new developments for our site in partnership with Bob Gray and his team of specialists at “Web Integrations.”