Just curious...

Good luck getting an answer to this one.

Rates for what? Restaurant, strolling, coroprate work? NObody wants to give their prices.

Well, I'll jump in. In East Tennessee, I get $125 per hour (minimum 2 hours) for strolling or corporate work. Restaurant work, which I don't do regularly anymore, is a lot less because of the long-term commitment.

Yes I had in mind corporate work...

This is a tricky subject....... In the right market and the right client you can charge any price you desire....

This was an idea I had:

Rates Faq

Yea read Jamie's link, it is a good guideline. SO many things enter into it.

Don't forget this thread and this one.

Just two of the many out there on this topic.

- Donald

Yeah, the region, venue, and experience of your work will all effect what you charge, then it will be entirely too little and you will be rediculously undercutting everyone else, who will explain to you, ad nauseum, how you SHOULD be arriving at your price, a formula which will then bring you right back to exactly what you are charging, which will be entirely too little. Bitter? Why would I be bitter?

See the 'neon' sign at the top of each and every page? 'Magicians helping magicians' Well theres your answer. Youve asked a question and the 'magicians' have helped you. Haven't they?

Well have not really helped out much Collin I am afraid.

BUT there is a good reason for it. There is no real way to help. SO many things come into play with the question you can't really give spacific advice on such a general question.
The link to Jamie's thread is a good starting point though.

Your right, not too much help on a subject like this though.

Maybe the sign should read "Magicians trying to help magicians, but their egos get in the way from time to time."

[quote]On 2006-08-04 09:10, JackScratch wrote:


Maybe the sign should read "Magicians trying to help magicians, but their egos get in the way from time to time."

In the particular thread, to which I refer the interest seemed slightly less in helping anyone, and slightly more in making it sound like everyone charged much bigger fees than everyone else. I cite as evedince that I asked a very very very very simple and clear question and got all manner of replies that were not the answer to that question.

Your looking at around £200 an hour or $400.

Well recently I found out some interesting rates. I charge $100/hour for strolling. If doing a restaurant on a regular basis $75/hour plus dinner.

Other magicians in my area are doing restaurants for $40/hour.

How often do you garner this fee just out of curiosity?

Almost NO restaurant in America will pay $400 per hour. I am just curious if you are stating this is what someone SHOULD get, or that guys regularly get.

Danny,

I think he is talking about corporate walkaround for events etc as I find that is an easily achievable price for what he'd be saying. (if he's saying what I think he's saying and not what you're saying with what you think he is saying )

Sad but true......

A side note. A restraunt will pay any fee for a magician. Sky is the limit. All you have to do, is convince them that the additional revenue caused by you performing there will excede the ammount they are paying you, by enough to increase their profits noticeably.

Agreed, acomlishing that gets harder the more you charge, and while the management may be willing to make a leap of faith, the biger the leap, the less faith they are likely to have.

I'm just saying lets not create any false ceilings on this.

Speakinig as one who OWNED a restaurant, you could not possibly be more wrong Drew.

I know this is the popular line of thinking but lets examine the fallacy.

First off on a spread sheet I would like you to point to the line in which you can show me how YOU as a magician have increased my profits by a penny. Let me help you out here, you can't so don't hurt yourself trying. You are claiming to do things that you have NO TANGIBLE PROOF of being able to do.

Lets pretend for a second that the premise is accepted, that YOU increase profits,(which by the way I don't accept) if you can't prove it, it does you no good.

Now here is the reality of the situation. MOST guys working are working in "family" restaurants. So if you are paid $100 in salary for a night, (which is small but lets keep it that way to help you) that means the restaurant has to sell between $400 and $500 in food JUST TO BE EVEN ON THAT SALARY. Now you are talking a boatload of kiddie meals to cover that nut. Where exactly is my profit? At $10 a meal, 50 people a night have to come in ONLY TO SEE YOU to be EVEN. Not turn your touted "profits".

In a better place where you make more money on the night, well then the stakes go up!

Now how exactly are you going to prove to an owner/manager that YOU have caused a sudden leap in profits? See my guess is you don't do a lot of restaurant work, and certainly have never owned one or managed one. In which case you shouldn't be giving information that is not correct.

You describe a recipe for disaster and I have said this many many times. It is a line magicians tell each other and spout off and have NO IDEA the implications of what they are saying.

So what is the solution? Here it is. FORGET ABOUT RESTAURANT PROFITS. It is not your job. Because as soon as they go down because of "weather, or whatever reason" you will find yourself on the outside looking in.

You are part of the "ambiance". A reason for them to come back. A part of the company that makes the customer experience "unique" and memorable. One they will tell their friends about. One that will keep people talking. None of this has anything to do with profits. Simply keeping customers very happy.

I have written this till my fingers are numb and people just don't get it. When you walk in and make claims you can't back up, you usually get laughed at. SO many guys wonder why they can't land jobs and I really think this is why.

Drew you show a fundimental misunderstanding of how the restaurant "business" works. Also the false ceilings you speak of are actually very very real in the "real world". To ignore them is to ignore facts.