Welcome

Entertainment Agencies – The Best Way To Find And Book
Entertainment
By Paul Sims

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.

Remember entertainment agencies live to provide clients with a
service, make use of it and save your time and a possible
headache.

About the Author: The author is currently the CEO of CEE
Worldwide Entertainemnt Agency and has over 30 years experince
within the entertainment industry. http://www.cee-worldwide.com