Stephen,

Sorry about that....totally my fault!

"Just curious how do you come up with 4 per day 4 events per day times 30 days in a month=120 not 56?"

Zuki said 56xApril. We all view our jobs differently. I, myself, never count a job until it's actually done. Zuki was stating the # of jobs he has for April and NOT that he did 56 in 12 days (posting date being the 12th).

An honest mistake for me, but still a mistake.

Lucky

One quick comment about the most important thing you can do outside of the performance itself. Before you start, go around the room and introduce yourself and shake hands with everyone. After the performance....mingle with them and do the same thing...shake their hand and ask if they enjoyed the show.

Like Gary said, you'll get a lot of mileage out of using a hand sanitizer. BUT...what's important...until you use the hand cleaner...do NOT touch any opening in your face where germs could enter. Do that and you'll be fine!

But the truth is, as someone above said, there generally aren't any germs to begin with!

Lucky

Lucky,

Good useful info - thanks

Lucky wow ....!

That seems to be so much work just to play NH gigs. There must be a way to simplify some of those tedious tasks. I would think that if someone is good enough way above the others that the facilities would be seeking you out instead of the reverse, especially if the competition is sub par & playing for almost nothing, unless they dont care who performs there.

Most nursing homes and assisted living centers work with a specific annual budget that is dedicated to entertainment. Naturally, they try to stretch those dollars as much as possible. When an AD comes across a top-notch performer/entertainer, one that not only interacts with the audiences but additionally keeps on top of things business-wise, they're willing to pay them more.

I recently had an AD who was giving me a problem. She was new, uncertified, had a "holier than thou" attitude, and until the previous AD left she was nothing more than an unpaid volunteer. She wangled her way into the job, obviously not having a clue about what it entailed.

The first thing she did was to try to cut the prices by 25 percent. I politely informed her what my fee was, and that all the 2008 jobs booked at that facility were booked in September of 2007. And, the jobs were under contract for the specified amount.

Her response was "I can get anyone I want to play for $50 an hour." Then, when the check for my last performance came in and was short, I called and told her that she must have made a mistake. At that point she said "Well, you should be glad I paid you $75 because I only pay the other performers $50." I reminded her that they were not in complience with the contract, at which point she got real bitchy, then hung up the phone.

A day later, while playing another location just a few blocks away, I stopped in at the faclity with a copy of the contract, talked with the CEO and general manager, went over the contract, picked up a check for the balance due, and then cancelled any future engagements as long as the AD from Hell was still working there. The facility's owner called me the next day, applolgized for the AD's inapropriate action and said they were taking steps to have her replaced in the next few weeks. The owner also said she really enjoyed my performances and asked me to please contact them sometime in early July when they anticipated they would have a new AD. Things like this happen--but fortunately, however, they are rare.

BTW: The CEO said they would be willing to pay me $25 more than they did previously because of the professional way I handled the problem and conducted my business.

There's no short-cuts with the paperwork, advertising, bookkeeping, etc.. However, if you organize everything on your computer, you can keep this part of the operation down to a minimum.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy