Thread: Private Parties- How did you get started?

Just curious to hear people's experiences as well as marketing strategies to get hired for private parties. What worked, what didn't, did it take you long to get established in your area as a dancer for private parties? Did you advertise fiercely at the restaurants you danced at or get into it with help from a mentor? Look forward to hearing what you have to say :)

Interested to see what our pros have to say.

I'll be listening in on this....trying a lot of different advertising outlets myself

First! Look up old threads & research private gigs RE: SAFETY & precautions, if you have not already.
Hmmm, well I am old skool, and old. :-) I still do a few private parties as long as the contact has seen me perform:i.e., knows that I am not a spring chicken.
I started in the 80's by referrels from my teacher & troupe director. I had done a lot of public performing before I ever did a private party. I was mentored and guided along. I realize that is not the case so much any more.
When I went out on my own, to market private parties - I did some small newspaper ads, (pre-Internet), posted flyers, cards. Gave discounts for referrals. My area is small city without much "competition". A lot depends on your geographical area.
Networking, word of mouth, referrals still remain high on my list of factors for successful marketing tools.

Honestly, it takes a few years to get "established" in private parties. I was not dancing at a restaurant or anywhere regular when I started (but even when I was, those gigs never led to many private parties anyway). I was with a company where I was not allowed to make a "name" for myself, so I was basically starting from scratch.

I started with a website, and a party pop listing. In the beginning, Party Pop was crucial to getting my name out there because my website did not rank in google searches and I had no word of mouth. I'm not sure how well that would have worked now, being that in my area Party Pop is OVERRUN with dancers and I've actually removed my listing.

I left cards at every gig I did. I also gave cards out to all my students - a lot of my early gigs came from referrals from them.

Once you get a few gigs under your belt, you can let the momentum kind of take over - people will see you and want to hire you, or clients will recommend you to friends.

Also, make friends with local dancers so that they can refer gigs to you when you are not available and vice versa.

But in the beginning, it will be slow. When I started out, I would get one or two jobs a month (and some months, nada). Before I went on hiatus for my pregnancy (after about 6 years of gigging on my own) I was booking one to two private parties a weekend.

Yes, it takes quite a while to get established. Always be prepared with cards and small flyers handy wherever you go, to network and spread word of mouth. It's the same as marketing any self-run business. It's hard. You need nerves of steel and the patience of a saint, and a good sense of humor.

Yeah, what Daniela said. There's no real overnight recipe for success. Just hustle, hustle, hustle!

Get your name on directories like Gigmasters and PartyPop. Get a great website, if you don't already have one. (Almost all of my gigs come from a Google search).

Most importantly, show a vested interest in helping your clients achieve their event-planning goals. Too many dancers sell themselves like "YEAH, I'm awesome!" when really, your customers care less about your awesomimity and more about the possibility that you will bring them one step closer to throwing the party of their dreams. Good customer service and a great finished product are key to generating referrals.

And patience. I've been dancing pro for 4 years. My private party business JUST took off last year. But when it took off, it exploded.

[QUOTE=SatinWorship19;739236]
Most importantly, show a vested interest in helping your clients achieve their event-planning goals. Too many dancers sell themselves like "YEAH, I'm awesome!" when really, your customers care less about your awesomimity and more about the possibility that you will bring them one step closer to throwing the party of their dreams. Good customer service and a great finished product are key to generating referrals.
ABSOLUTELY!

I got my feet wet doing private parties by making myself available to other dancers for multi-dancer gig requests. After about 6 months of that, I did my first solo private party, which was a referral from another dancer. When that was successful, I got a listing on PartyPop and started getting gigs from that. But putting up a website was what really got the calls and email rolling in. It's still where about 90% of my gigs come from.

I danced at a restaurant for about a year, but never got any private party gigs from it.

I started as an apprentice for my troupe leader and worked up to duet partner.

When I started working in restaurants, I made a website and left business cards out at all the restaurants I worked in. Got some gigs that way

I had a phone book ad for a while and got some gigs there (though I'm strictly internet now)

For the most part, I got most of my early gigs as referrals from other dancers in the area who couldn't do it for some reason or got sick. It pays to be nice to everyone!

Now-a-days Google is my best source for booking gigs.

Started doing private parties when I was with my first teacher's dance troupe. There were some regular events that she always got the gigs for. Then one really grand birthday party, several dancers, my husband MC'ed.

Then I did many bridal showers. Those seem to be really popular in our area.

The restaurant gigs are all gone in our area(there may still be one.) There are just a few hooka places here in town, but they don't want real dancers. I have not been impressed with the kind of dancer they hire. However, these "dancer with dinner" never brought private gigs. Why pay for a dancer, when you can come to XYZ restaurant and get a party for free?

We are almost strictly on the web now. And word of mouth has been the best! We slowly get more and more gigs each year. There is constant work involved. Networking is great and haveing wonderful business cards helps.

Good luck!

For now I am almost only dancing in restaurants and a few staged shows. The private contracts I have done were referals from friends who know that I dance (facebook or real :) or replacing local dancers.

I've done barely any advertising for myself so I feel that I'm doing pretty good considering. I do feel its time to start though! Oh yeah! And don't forget to look up what other dancers are charging for private gigs in your area!! ..g.:

Mainly my website, but only when I was ranking on the first and second pages in searches. I have a great, clean, professional, slick site too, so that totally helps.
I work full time as a dancer at maaaaaany hookah bars, nightclubs, and restaurants, always leaving business cards behind, and have only ever gotten one gig out of that, but it was a huge arab wedding, most often I just get alot of calls but ppl seem to expect me to dance for the price of their dinner hehe... (not so much anymore since I have my rates/packages listed on my site) so don't limit your oppurtunities.

When I started taking solo gigs, we were new to the area. My website was actually how I booked my first few gigs, but I left cards and flyers at most of the local businesses I patronized and gave cards to my students. For a few months before the move I had a gigmasters listing that resulted in quite a few gigs, but not much more traffic than I'd had before the economy tanked. I'd say the website was the most important tool and, as Carrara mentioned, EXCELLENT customer service. It's a lot of work and hustle to attract a client, you want to provide the best service possible so they come back and refer you to others. In the long run, that was what built my gig business more than anything else.

Like others, I also started out by doing duets with an established dancer, and working up to being sent out as a soloist by a belly dance school, along with subbing other dancer's gigs. To get to that stage, I had to get out and be seen dancing at haflas, workshops and the like. For me, this slow process was a good way to get established, as it allowed for a more gentle learning curve than if I'd gone 100% out on my own to start.

To be honest when i started, it was after I had a video of myself dancing at my teacher's hafla(my first and second performance)
I would show my friends my video's and people started asking me to dance at various places. Birthday parties, bridal showers, Masjid ladies night out... and eventually people from those events people asked me to dance at the next. I won't even say how much i charged for my first event as I danced for a friend and didn't know to charge much more. But I think i got up to average price very quickly thanks to Fatma's website phillyraqs... what is funny i think i was getting like crazy gigs and offers to teach back then when now i look back i didn't know what da heck i was doing.,.... Maybe i should go back to carrying around my camera with my performances on them....
Ok so What i will tell you to not be redundant is what didn't work for me that i thought would....
Flyers... i posted flyers everywhere and i can't account for one that got me a gig...
Business cards at coffee shops... i thought it was a good idea... but didn't work.

Hey, just realized this is you I'm talking to Mariana LOL. Hey!
Yeah, I think just working at the venues you are working eventually and the website, referrals will be your biggest help. SOME restaurants are really awesome about helping you get private gigs... and some.. seem to hurt you. I know one restaurant where I work, the owners are so unprofessional, idk how they keep it going.. dnt worry... you dnt work there lol....
they keep throwing out my business cards after I leave, even though I get their permission to leave them, or they hide them in very unnoticeable places! They only want ppl to come to *there* place to see a dancer, and they don't want them going to my site to see that I work at a ton of *other* places too. Maybe that's why I've had bad luck getting gigs through restaurants? But most are very helpful.. it just depends.
I'd say keep dancing at normal mideast venues and having cards available and the website that you have will be your best bet. I've never tried gigmaster or anything.

I have gottten private gigs through people that saw me at Fez, Marrakesh, and Casablanca..... but those are far between. I get a ton of inquiries.. but people are shocked I don't danc for the price of their meal hehe. But my website, I get good *legit* hits

My path was similar to LiesaB's.. mentored, then branched out on my own (in a different locale). I'm sure these days it's all about SEO but word of mouth will always help. Leave something behind as well (that is, a flyer, business card) with a photo of course. If you compete with other giggers you have to stand out with something unique as well, like doing kids' parties, or including the "fez shtick" etc. but always keep it classy.

my youtube channel gets us the gigs and students every time! i often tell a client to watch and make sure this is what they want.

I basically made a website and listed myself on google business. I only actually started adverstising about 2 months ago, but I am starting to get calls for private parties at least every other weekend. I think you just have to get your name out there and follow good business practice when speaking with prospective clients.

I started when one of my teachers invited me to perform with her to a wedding gig. Then she got more gigs that I joined her along. Then i began working at a restaurant part time on and off. then about four years ago i decided to bellydance full time and word of mouth has been key. I have gotten a ton of parties through my restaurant gigs where i pass out business cards and always make time after for "a snack" which means endless conversations with fans who later refer me to others. I am now in the process of getting a website and have begun posting videos on youtube and making facebook pages. So far in one week of very very small internet presence I am already receiving amazing and uplifting emails from fellow dance enthusiasts. Fingers crossed