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I need some ideas to get people to come in on Saturdays. I am 3 nights in the same place. Wed and Fridays are always good, but for some reason Saturdays are slow. I talked to the owner about doing drink specials for Saturdays and he won't do it. I'll do a theme night once in a while and it will pull people in for the night and thats it. I need something more consistant.

People love Friday nights because they know everyone will be there, so they pack into the bar like sausages. Saturday comes around and it's dead. I try to tell people they can sing more on Saturdays, but that isn't doing the trick either. Any ideas?

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My Tuesday night gig was really struggling to get people to come in consistently. So what they've done is teamed up with their suppliers to offer monthly promo nights. Each month one of the beverage reps will have people on site to give out free stuff, drink specials and we also have a drawing for bigger prizes. The patrons get one entry into the drawing for each song they sing or each time the buy one of the featured drinks for that night. The place has been hoping on Tuesday nights since they started doing that and it doesn't cost the bar a dime.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Most bars and restaurants raise their prices on karaoke nights. I understand that the bars need to turn a profit but sometimes you can make more money when you offer happy hour pricing during karaoke because you get a bar full of people instead of a handful of people. If you have 10 people in the bar and they drink three $5 beers each during karaoke you wind up with $150 in the till....barely enough to cover the expense of karaoke. If you drop the prices to Happy Hour prices, you may wind up with 50 people in the bar and they may have 6 drinks each because the prices are more reasonable. Now the till has roughly $750.00 instead of $150.00---A beer costa a bar less than a dollar. It's better to make $1.75 300 times than it is to make $4.25 30 times a night but bar owners want guarantees and that's just not realistic. There's a place in Hoboken , NJ that has karaoke on Thursday nights and they offer draft beers for ONE DOLLAR. The place is a mob scene every week. Greed will kill a bar. It's all about supply and demand.

If you go to a professional sporting event or a Rock concert, the prices are astronomical because the demand is high to be at that event and if you want to be there and eat or drink, you have to pay the higher prices. If people stopped buying tickets to those types of events or if they stopped buying the food and drinks offered at these events......the prices would drop. If the Yankees had a bunch of lousy triple A players instead of a roster full of superstars, the stadium would be half empty more often than not. The Yankees get away with charging $9.00 for a beer because THEY CAN. They are in DEMAND.

$1 drafts bring in a bad crowd. I have heard this from people that have been there for $1 draft night. They don't like the people it attracts. Bars keep prices higher to keep the cliental higher. Sometimes it's not worth it.

When the giveaways end will the crowd leave too. The beer reps aren't going to keep that up forever. The giveaways attract the same mentality as the karaoke contests. When the money's gone so is the crowd.

We started a $10 drink and drown last Saturday. It's always been a busy night, but now it's going to be ridiculous.

We had a couple cute girls come in last week for a beer company. They gave away free beer and t-shirts for about an hour and left. In my area they make the rounds. To many bars out there to stay very long. They came before karaoke even started, so very few people were there. I asked them to stick around until people came in, but they had to leave.

I'd love to advertise when they'd be in the bar, but they don't give out a schedule. I might know what day, but not the time. And if they'll only be around for an hour it isn't much help.

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Babs

Offering drink specials and or lowering the price can be very dangerous.
Playing the volume game is risky, cause no matter what happens you'll always take 2 steps back before ( less money in the till ) the volume increases enough to make MORE MONEY. I doubt if a few cents off drinks will entice people to storm in if they weren't before. You'll have to get the management on board to understand that it will get worse before it COULD get better.

3 nights of KARAOKE in one week at one place is tough. Specially since you do FRIDAYS and then expect people to come back the next day. TOUGH SELL in todays economy.

My experiance tells me that the crowds on FRIDAYS are different than the SATURDAY crowds. Is you Saturday crowd YOUNGER ? into other things ( dance music / pool / darts / trivia / guitar hero etc)

I'm not suggesting you change your show --just suggesting you think about incorporating whatever it is the SATURDAY crowd is into. You may do well to run a completely differant show on SATURDAYS ? ...dreaded contests ...50/50 raffels - theme nights as you've done in the past. - how about a MOVIE SCREEN were you show a video of the singers singing ? -- just some ideas

OH ..and maybe its not the economy or the karaoke
ANYTHING else change on SATURDAY NIGHTS

NEW BARTENDER
BOUNCER
COOK

??????

Can you ask them if they will be back saturday? They may give you some reason why they won't be there.

Usually the crowds are different on different nights. You haven't attracted everyone that wants to be there on saturdays yet.

Is there any advertising done at all? Maybe take out your own ad in the Friday entertainment section of your local paper. May gain new people that don't even know this place does karaoke Sat.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I concur with Lonnie's point. Maybe not in Babs case but with some type of promotions, people hear about it thru word of mouth, advertising, come check out the bar and atmosphere and like it. Promotions cease or slow down, the people still like the bar and stick around.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

My Saturdays were slow too Babs but have gradually been picking up all summer. I just kept hounding the room. I was relentless. Every time the rotation would get ridiculous on the busy nights I would announce it. "Rotation is currently an hour and a half. All you singers, you can sing a lot more if you come in on Saturdays." And I just kept up the message over and over until I finally got some takers. And once a few started making Saturdays a karaoke night others followed.

I don't know if it will stay good or not but at least for now Saturdays have been holding their own. The singers who want to sing more than once an hour no longer have that option even on Saturdays anymore. But at least they can get more than two or three in.

Unfortunately it seems as if success is the culprit. Your singers come in Friday (I believe you're in the same venue Fri & Sat), they have a great time but there is a large rotation. The next night they (in their various groups) go "Hey I love karaoke and the show last night was fantastic but I want to get up more than once or twice a night. Lets go to Bar B there shouldn't be a big crowd". In other words they expect Saturday to be as busy as Friday. As a result Saturdays tank sometimes.

What we do is invite them back the next night letting them know it may not be as busy. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

When I was running shows two nights in a row at one of my former venues, it seemed that Saturday was a popular party night - maybe you can start a promotion related to birthdays or anniversaries - the venue does the work for the party. For example, they reserve so many seats, your venue order the cake, do all the work including setting up, etc., and they get to party. It worked well for us, but honestly I never had problems with either night. It was different people on Friday than Saturday, though. Friday seemed to be a 'let off steam from work week' night and Saturdays were larger groups who enjoyed the atmosphere and came in 15-20 at a time. It was a great venue.

Does said venue a sports bar or just a regular dive. Even the Karaoke bar I go to does keep the college football on the big screens and karaoke will be starting a little late. But with the football crowd already there they stay to do some songs. And it doesn't hurt when there's free/cheap food on saturdays.

Sat nights in the summer can be a killer. here we have to compete with free concerts paid concerts festivals rodeos free bands at the park etc etc. The venue has to be aware of these events and offer extras with advertisement for those weekends. Some you cant compete with During the stampede here with a week of Straits McBrides and Kid Rocks kill any karaoke. Also this time of year is a change going into a different season and you might pick up an entirely different crowd.

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Thursday nights were slow for us, so we started an ongoing competition. The owner didn't want to put much into it, so we got prize money by charging an entry fee. Thursdays are now busier than week-end nights very often. It has worked out great for us. The competition is a lot of work, but it has really brought in the business.

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

Nekkid Karaoke....er....just kidding. Your venue has a railroad theme. try having maybe a free beer if you do a railroad song. City of New Orleans, Long Black Train, Takin' Care Of Business (song mentions the "8:15 into the city")

This goes to missbebop. I can see that the owner does't want to put to much into this. They can't see spending money. Some bar owners are stupid. They don't know people skills, and what it takes to keep people coming back to the club. I just started saturday nights at a club that had a band on saturday. They let them go because of cost. And too many water drinkers. Line dancers. The first sat that i did was a joke. 6 singers. Of course the bar did not advertise any entertainment for saturday after they fired the band. So Now it seems like it is up to me to get the people in the club. I am offering a 25 dollar bar tab to a lucky winner if they are here on saturday nights. Luck of the draw on their song slips. At least I will have tried to increase business. I don't know what goes thru the minds of some of these club managers.

I don't know what goes thru the minds of some of these club managers.

The bottom line. Never the top one.