Administration: Finance - Hints and Tips

Fundraising?
Live & Local is funded by Arts Council England, and a mix of county council and district/borough funding to enable people to enjoy quality, affordable live entertainment that takes place in the heart of their community. It is not meant for direct fundraising! However, over a certain audience level (approx 35) you can retain some of the box office receipts and many Promoters run a raffle or have other fundraising opportunities as part of their events, such as running a bar or providing food.

How the Finances Work
Artists' fees cost us between £350 and £1,250 per performance. In addition to this are the costs of providing the marketing support, tickets, travel, accommodation, raising the funds, researching the Menu and running Live & Local office. Shows cost you from £250 including Vat

Fees are set so you can cover your costs and usually make a small surplus for your funds assuming approx at least 33 sales at the average ticket yield. They vary from show to show and for different days of the week and there are speciall offers and incetives for booking Priority Shows.

Standard Fee Format
We do not ask for any money up front. Our standard fee format is a minimum guarantee of £250-£450 plus a percentage of the remainder of the box office receipts (including Vat) after you have achieved the minimum guarantee.

Example: If the fee is £330 + 70% including vat and you have a total ticket yield of £600, you will be charged £519. (The invoice will say £432 + vat)

Not all fees are in this format or these precise figures.

Events Support Fund
We also have an Event Support Fund (Not in Notts, Lincs or Leics). If your ticket sales do not cover our minimum fee, we may offer to support you to a further 50% of the minimum fee. It is not automatic and you usually have to apply for this additional support. Any additional support that is offered is usually applied to the next performance you book.

What’s your Target Income - AND Ours?

There are two targets:

• Your break even point is the Live & Local minimum guarantee (which varies from £250 - £450 including Vat according to the show) plus any local costs (e.g. room hire);
• However Live & Local has to recoup more than the minimum guarantee for each show in order to run the scheme.

In order to achieve this we ask you for a percentage of the remainder of the box office takings after the minimum guarantee has been achieved.

Other costs that you need to consider include heating, lighting, hall overheads, equipment or hall hire, licence fees and any additional publicity you decide to pay for.

Ticket Prices
Please refer to the 'Setting Ticket Prices' section.

Additional Performances
Please request more than one show if you want to, as we may be able to subsidise additional shows to the maximum level as detailed in the "COST TO PROMOTERS" details in our Menu.

Many venues now take additional shows with less subsidised fees or pay the full Company fee as detailed under "COST TO LIVE AND LOCAL" + Vat .

There is an option on the Show Request form to indicate that you are willing to consider a less or an un-subsidised fee. Selecting this option does not guarantee having a less subsidised show(s) allocated or equally that they will not be allocated and still fully subsidised.

We will contact you to discuss a less subsidised fee for any of your shows if demand in your local authority area exceeds available funds to fully subsidise all requests from that area. Many Promoters successfully promote shows without the full or any subsidy towards the cost of the artists.

These are the alternative fee formats that we could then discuss with you:

• Minimum Guarantee Plus Box Office Split: As with the Standard Fee Format detailed above but with a higher guaranteed minimum fee. The minimum guarantee would usually be at least £450.
• MIN/MAX FEE: Minimum Guaranteed Fee up to a Maximum Fee: A guaranteed minimum fee plus the remainder of your gross box office up to a maximum fee. This maximum fee is usually the "COST TO LIVE & LOCAL" figure for each show. Again, you pay the minimum guarantee to Live & Local regardless of how much you take at your box office. This would be at least £450. We will discuss options for smaller venues.

NB: Several promoters have successfully used this formula in past years.

• Guaranteed Fee Only: You pay a fixed fee to Live & Local regardless of the box office income. You keep all the remaining proceeds after paying the fee. The most this is likely to be is the artist's full fee (i.e. that detailed under "COST TO LIVE & LOCAL" + Vat ).

Before embarking on a less or an un-subsidised performance, you need to think carefully about your income target and likely sales. Generally as a rough rule of thumb we suggest you work on sales of about 60.

However, there are other sources of income which can be taken into account to make it possible:

• Retained earnings from other Live & Local performances;
• Income from your raffle, bar or catering;
• Raising your ticket prices;
• Local sponsor;
• Grant or guarantee against loss from the Parish Council or another organisation.

Nb: (1) Live & Local cannot guarantee allocation of performances to a promoting group (2) Performances, shows and subsidy are allocated with a view to the success and sustainability of the whole network and programme.