Here at Tutti, many of our current hosts are small business owners: they run independent theatres, recording studios, photography studios, dance studios, or even pubs and cafes with extra space for creative activities.
Through our conversations with our hosts we’ve found many are expressing concern over how best to adapt to the current climate.
So we wanted to share 5 ideas that you could apply to your business to create a more stable revenue stream and minimise risk during uncertainty.
1. Repackage your product:
Sell adapted or digital versions of your existing products to your current market.
For you as a venue or space, this could mean thinking about what activities can no longer take place and how they could be packaged to work online. This could be recordings of classes or past performances that people can buy. Think about giving away 1 or 2 for free as teasers for other content. Websites like Patreon are perfect in allowing you to offer both paid and free content.
2. Develop your market:
Sell existing products to new markets.
Perhaps your space relied on ticket sales as its main source of revenue before. Shows are mostly now cancelled but you have a new opportunity in a new audience of creative professionals that still need your "product" a.k.a your space. Services like Tutti specialise in marketing your space to these creatives. This option is great as you already have all the resources you need, you just have to list your space and you’re off!
3. Develop your product:
Sell existing products to your current market via online channels.
Live stream is an obvious one here. You’re offering the same product (a show, mixing session, class) but through digital channels (Zoom, Youtube, Facebook Live, Instagram Live). Alongside this, you could encourage discussion around the stream by using services like Discord, which is built for building online communities.
4. Keep the current business model and go for market penetration:
In other words, sell more product to current markets.
Shows and activities can still occur in your space, just on a much smaller scale. However, there's opportunity as there's less competition. You could really tighten up your COVID secure measures to make your space safe and seize the opportunity to be one of the few places to remain open for live activities.
5. Develop a new business model:
Sell to new markets through online channels.
Your space or venue has the potential for multiple uses: theatres can be used by orchestras or comedians, fitness studios are useful to theatre makers or dancers, even very specialised spaces like recording studios could be used in photo shoots or filming for music videos. However, re-marketing your space for these audiences requires another platform other than your website, as only your current audience visits your website. Therefore, online marketplaces such as Tutti, are invaluable tools to reach this new audience.
More diverse business with multiple revenues streams are always going to be more stable and flexible, giving your business not only a better foundation to build upon but also more opportunities when the time comes to expand.
If you’re looking to market your space to a creative audience then you can list your space on Tutti within minutes.
List your space here.
You can find out more about marketing your space to new audiences online HERE.
