Over the years, Power Pair Marketing has run into its share of hobbies masquerading as businesses. 

This is an interesting dynamic. Someone has an idea, and they think it’s a good idea. But they pursue it without any structure or processes. And week after week, month after month, the venture loses money. 

This is a hobby. 

Naturally, Glen has a story. Years ago, he had a friend whose boyfriend wanted to be a nightclub impresario. He was trying to make himself a rainmaker in the club scene, so he would befriend and bring to America techno music disc jockeys from Europe. He talked a nightclub owner into allowing him to feature the entertainment for a cut of the door. There were several problems with this.

First, he notoriously underpromoted the shows. He left this mostly in the hands of his girlfriend, who was working a full-time job and didn’t have the hours to do this effectively. 

Second, he never did a reasonable analysis of his sunk costs. Although they let the DJs stay at their home, he still had to shoulder the cost of transport, the cost of feeding the DJ, any equipment rental costs, door personnel costs, flyer printing costs, etc. 

Third, when you have sunk costs like this, unless your business model can tolerate a one-off show, each visit should be a series of shows with adequate promotion in local arts papers, on relevant radio shows, and in other outlets. Having the costs spread over two or three shows, not an unreasonable booking for a mid-level techno DJ, would have made the enterprise profitable. Or having a cut of the beverage bump above the average for that night. Or having a sponsor for the event itself, for instance Power Pair Marketing presents Techno Guy. All of these could help create profitability. Instead, the shows lost a lot of money – about 25 percent of total expenditures. 

The only thing that worked out was the guy got an ego boost and felt like a big shot. In our book, this is a hobby. Eventually, the shows petered out and the couple broke up.

This is where a firm like Power Pair Marketing is so valuable. We look at the overall scope of what your business is proposing to do and consider its commercial viability. Then, we help to guide you to the area where the business can grow and build a marketing plan for that business that can scale as you begin to experience success. And success and paying for your overhead, sunk costs and gaining clients is how you will have a business, and not just a hobby. 

We hope the Men Without Hair podcasts are helpful. If you have any questions or would like to talk with the Power Pair Marketing team, just fill out the contact form that can be found at the bottom of our main page.