Thread: What business value to we offer restaurants?

OK, so recent events have caused me to ask myself what real, monetary value we offer restaurants. I have my ideas, but I want to hear others because I want to be more confident in selling my value to restaurants.

I'm not talking about art or any intangible thing, I want to know how we increase business at restaurants. Is it really that we bring in more customers?

So we're getting paid a fair rate for our performing, it is reasonable to expect that owners make the money back in sales?

One of the reasons I ask is because I was working with a restaurant who was trying to decide how to cover her cost of having a belly dancer upfront. I see it as something that builds over time. She first suggested offering a cover charge of $5 to $10 and then spliting it. I told her that that wouldn't work a) because people don't want to pay to go into a restaurant and b) there is no garauntee that I would get my fair rate.

Her next idea was to do a special fixed menu of $60 per couple and that didn't work either because people can't afford that right now. So really the only option would be to have a standard menu and pay the dancer a standard rate...but how does the restaurant benefit from this?

Concrete examples would be appreciated. Thanks!

interesting topic. I am interested to see what others say.

Sorry I don`t have concrete numbers. Just presuming that guests would stay longer to see your live performance, and might be that your friends or students come to see you and dine before the show.

Originally Posted by Michaela

might be that your friends or students come to see you and dine before the show.

At the restaurant where I danced a while ago, they really counted on the dancers to bring in customers who would normally not eat at their establishment. We were expected to bring in students, friends and family if we wanted to keep getting booked. There were nights when there wasn't a single stranger at any of the tables!

Most restaurants I've seen get an increase in traffic on nights they have the dancers.

Two things I've noticed though...

if the place has dancers too often it seems to lose any sort of special event flair that I think it normally gets...also people seem less likely to tip at these places and to find dancers consistently, sometimes they have mixed quality, which doesn't help the image of the dancing there.

The other thing is having it at a smaller place, I've seen them fill up to capacity; but there is no turn over for the restaurant b/c everyone eats, then hangs out for the dancing; esp if there are two dancers, so you have all these people holding up tables for the next hour in a half after they have already spent an hour or so eating. So I think the restaurant, depending on its size has to be careful in planning when the dancers go on.


That being said, some restaurants might fill up for dinner and then be emptied out by 8; so having a performer come in after 8 might give them some additional business after the dinner hour. Having a theme night can come off kinda like a party too and be something that gets some word of mouth going.

No matter what though, the right promotion by the dancer and restaurant is key to getting it to work out right.

I don't readily have hard numbers available, but there are some tidbits I can offer based on anecdotal feedback from staff at the restaurants I dance at and my own observation. It is important to note, though, that to really make it work/get it started, it helps if the dancer(s) involved have some marketing cache and/or following of their own (and then you build from there.) Also, restaurant size will matter (e.g. turnover may be more desired in smaller dining rooms...)

* (This came from staff at a restaurant where I started the dancing after they'd been open for a little while.) On nights with dancing, more customers stayed longer, ordering another drink or dessert, waiting to see the second show.

* Dancers drew in customers who might not otherwise come in/discover the restaurant (dance enthusiasts, dancers' students, dancers' fans.)

* Dancers helped create cross-promotional marketing (for example, if the dancer had a good/well-used website and links to the restaurant/lists it on her calendar, local bd organizations listed the restaurant, dancer included the listing in info she gives her students about where to see dancing, etc.) The specifics of this will depend a lot on the size and nature of the audiences the dancers regularly reach with their materials, but if you have some idea of what your numbers/reach/search rankings are, you can extrapolate.

* Dancers potentially increase in larger party reservations at the restaurant on nights when there is dancing--dancing creates a festive atmosphere for family, b-day, women's night out, etc. (Again, I've not really tried to quantify this, but I know I talk to large party/tables all the time who say they chose to come in part because of the dancing--it made the restaurant more of a "special event" destination. And if/when they like the place, often we'll see people from the group back in smaller individual/family clusters.

Wanted to add one more benefit a dancer can bring...if they have a mailing list. Even though restaurants might have them to send out coupons and such; I think that a dancer's mailing list is going to be made up of fans and students and are probably more loyal to wanting to see that dancer; than just someone who signed up at a restaurant for coupons. So I think that even if their list is smaller than a restaurants, they will get a better percentage of turnout from it.

I recently started dancing weekly at a new hookah lounge near my house on Sunday nights. When I went in to speak with the owner about dancing, there were two customers at the lounge (literally just 2) and he was concerned about how he would pay my fee.

I marketed my ass off for him, and when I had my first show two weeks later, there were about 60 customers crammed into this tiny lounge. With the exception of one table, they were all there because of me. I have a mailing list of over 300 people (students, clients, and random inquiries) that I sent mailings to, I sent out invites on both my facebook pages, and handed out his promotional flyers in my classes. I packed the house - so the owner could clearly see why it made very good business sense to have me there.

I'm hoping for just as good a turnout this Sunday!

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

I recently started dancing weekly at a new hookah lounge near my house on Sunday nights. When I went in to speak with the owner about dancing, there were two customers at the lounge (literally just 2) and he was concerned about how he would pay my fee.

I marketed my ass off for him, and when I had my first show two weeks later, there were about 60 customers crammed into this tiny lounge. With the exception of one table, they were all there because of me. I have a mailing list of over 300 people (students, clients, and random inquiries) that I sent mailings to, I sent out invites on both my facebook pages, and handed out his promotional flyers in my classes. I packed the house - so the owner could clearly see why it made very good business sense to have me there.

I'm hoping for just as good a turnout this Sunday!

Good luck! I have a hard time getting my friends and students to come out to my events, but I'm still building my network.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

Good luck! I have a hard time getting my friends and students to come out to my events, but I'm still building my network.

Thanks! I have a hard time too - if you think about it, I reached out to 300+ people on my mailing list, 150+ people on each of my facebook accounts, and about 100 students, and only around 55 showed up. So, you are on the right track - the key is building your network. Then you can show a potential venue that you have more than enough people that you can get to follow you when you perform.

* Dancers potentially increase in larger party reservations at the restaurant on nights when there is dancing--dancing creates a festive atmosphere for family, b-day, women's night out, etc. (Again, I've not really tried to quantify this, but I know I talk to large party/tables all the time who say they chose to come in part because of the dancing--it made the restaurant more of a "special event" destination. And if/when they like the place, often we'll see people from the group back in smaller individual/family clusters.

My experience too, for what it is worth.

Great thread! I've never done the mailing of coupons or special offers to my lists - is that very common? For those of you who do it, was that your idea or the owners' idea?

I know for a fact that people come out to the restaurant I dance at because they want to see a bellydancer, because I've had patrons tell me as much. But it is really hard to get numbers, and sometimes the owners don't care in any case.
The collective I'm in was trying to promote a monthly performance night at different venue. We worked out the details with the restaurant owner, and we were bringing in anywhere from 30-40 people who would not have been there otherwise with each performance. We did two successful performances, and had the third scheduled-- called the owner two days before to check in and everything!-- and they double-booked us with some lame football party and didn't tell us until TWO HOURS before we were supposed to go on.
This was not enough time for us to tell all of our audience members, naturally. Although we tried to email people, a slew of people showed up asking where the bellydancers were. A few of us stood outside the place telling everyone what had happened so that it didn't look like we didn't care about them.
There were only 10 or so people there for the stupid football thing, but nevertheless we have not been asked to return to this venue.
This griping is basically just to illustrate that sometimes even when you can come up with numbers, restaurant owners, for whatever reason, will still not care.
It might be better to test this idea with a bunch of different people until you find someone that is genuinely interested and excited about the idea of having a dancer rather than someone who will begrudgingly let you perform-- until they change their mind at the last second and you have to send people home disappointed.

thanks for posting this. Everyone has posted great advice :)

Originally Posted by SaraKat

I know for a fact that people come out to the restaurant I dance at because they want to see a bellydancer, because I've had patrons tell me as much. But it is really hard to get numbers, and sometimes the owners don't care in any case.
The collective I'm in was trying to promote a monthly performance night at different venue. We worked out the details with the restaurant owner, and we were bringing in anywhere from 30-40 people who would not have been there otherwise with each performance. We did two successful performances, and had the third scheduled-- called the owner two days before to check in and everything!-- and they double-booked us with some lame football party and didn't tell us until TWO HOURS before we were supposed to go on.
This was not enough time for us to tell all of our audience members, naturally. Although we tried to email people, a slew of people showed up asking where the bellydancers were. A few of us stood outside the place telling everyone what had happened so that it didn't look like we didn't care about them.
There were only 10 or so people there for the stupid football thing, but nevertheless we have not been asked to return to this venue.
This griping is basically just to illustrate that sometimes even when you can come up with numbers, restaurant owners, for whatever reason, will still not care.
It might be better to test this idea with a bunch of different people until you find someone that is genuinely interested and excited about the idea of having a dancer rather than someone who will begrudgingly let you perform-- until they change their mind at the last second and you have to send people home disappointed.

Wow! That owner is unbelievable! That is not how you do business!

Originally Posted by SaraKat

I know for a fact that people come out to the restaurant I dance at because they want to see a bellydancer, because I've had patrons tell me as much. But it is really hard to get numbers, and sometimes the owners don't care in any case.
The collective I'm in was trying to promote a monthly performance night at different venue. We worked out the details with the restaurant owner, and we were bringing in anywhere from 30-40 people who would not have been there otherwise with each performance. We did two successful performances, and had the third scheduled-- called the owner two days before to check in and everything!-- and they double-booked us with some lame football party and didn't tell us until TWO HOURS before we were supposed to go on.
This was not enough time for us to tell all of our audience members, naturally. Although we tried to email people, a slew of people showed up asking where the bellydancers were. A few of us stood outside the place telling everyone what had happened so that it didn't look like we didn't care about them.
There were only 10 or so people there for the stupid football thing, but nevertheless we have not been asked to return to this venue.
This griping is basically just to illustrate that sometimes even when you can come up with numbers, restaurant owners, for whatever reason, will still not care.
It might be better to test this idea with a bunch of different people until you find someone that is genuinely interested and excited about the idea of having a dancer rather than someone who will begrudgingly let you perform-- until they change their mind at the last second and you have to send people home disappointed.

Sara that is terrible!!

the resturants that i dance at pay me the same price whether they have a full house or 1 table.