It's the end of the year, a good time to look at how our business is going.

How was 2024 for you? Did you see any growth, or seek new opportunities?

And what are your plans for 2025?

For me, 2024 was good. I leaned a bit into gig services starting January of last year. They did better for me than I had expected.

I also leaned into kinds of events that pay better.

Going into 2025, I've been seeking steady gigs. Working on a few things that I'm hopeful will work out.

That's it for me, how are things in your neck of the woods?

I had a good year for Readings. My family wants me to do much more. It may be my calling at age 70.. Looking into advertising instead of just WOM...............

Good to hear, hope it goes well for you in 2025 Slim.

I'm thinking of attending The East Coast Spirit Sessions. Maybe that will help?

Income-wise about identical with last year and this in spite of two of my booking agents going out of business.

2024 has been a great year. I had decided about 5 or 6 years ago to cut back on my 43 weeks on the road and touring each year. The pandemic just expedited that a bit, so it allowed me to be home more, less time on the road, and to be able to add time and attention to my coaching, consulting, mentoring, and training others on entertainment business and the business behind their performing operations. I have also been able to spend more time working on adding new educational resources on entertainment businesses to my library of industry offerings.

The pandemic caused many people to immediately focus on the business side of their operations so I was crazy busy as you can imagine and it has continued to today. Some had to pivot, others just worked on stepping up and improving their business operations, while they have also used this tine to expand their entertainment business education and learning,

Like always, some possible new things fell through or didn't materialize but other performances have continued to thrive, Luckily, I am at a point in my performing career where I continue to service longtime clients and accounts and can be selective about any new clients I choose to accept. The school market remains strong as well as many other performance markets which is great for 2025.

Fedora, what did you mean by "I leaned a bit into gig services?" What do you mean by gig services?

Glad to hear the school market is still going well for you.

Gig lead services is the thing I talked about at the start of the year in this thread: https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......forum=44

To be more specific, Gigsalad has given me consistent leads. Most aren't a good fit, and obviously I often lose out to others. Nonetheless, I have gotten more out of signing up with them then I had expected previously.

It also isn't bad in terms SEO, it shows up fairly high. The promo kit design is pretty good on their website by the way.

Another one is Yelp, not really a gig lead service, just a sort of phone book listing for the Internet. But surprisingly, it has some of the highest quality contacts. The average person who searches on Yelp makes over $100,000 a year. Not sure why high income folks like it but they say that is the case.

Placing more focus on yelp has gotten good results. This includes some corporate event organizers that use it for some reason. (Probably folks who don't know where else to look)

I just had a repeat booking for a company party a couple of weeks ago.

Believe it or not, someone actually contacted me through Yelp to help at their trade show. I turned them elsewhere as I'm not a trade show guy, but was surprised those folks use it.

Anyway, that is the sort of thing I was referring to.

Ah, thanks. I thought you meant something else like offering additional (entertainment) services to your bookings and entertainment offerings. Thanks for the clarification.

I had a very strange year.

First of all, I had surgery in February and had to take the entire month off. Then there were some rare cancellations and other things that happened that forced me to take time off. On May 1st my business down by 48% from last year.

I think its also important to note the phase of life I am in. I’m 62 years old and I’m not as aggressive as I used to be in booking shows. My travel radius is smaller, and I turn down shows I don’t like to do. I don’t do any advertising, and I don’t send out mailings anymore. My web site fees are my only expenses.

With all of that said, I had the best summer season ever and the best December ever. I ended up down 5% for the year. Considering everything I consider this to be a very good year.

2024 was the year I got back into magic! I took quite a few years off, over 10 ! It started with a small break and then I just got into other things.
But someone asked me to do a party early in the year, I enjoyed it, I think I've still "got it". So have been doing lots of reading and researching and a few shows.
Gee, magic marketing has changed a lot, with social media etc. I'm sure there's a buch of people here who have done the same thing, extended break and then reactivated a "career" . Any tips, tactics or resources. ?

You're sitting on the best magic business resource right here.

I would start with this thread: https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......forum=44

It is always good to see entertainment business being talked about here. This has been the place that helped so many with their performing business, but as we can see from above there is still many that need more knowledge and education. This misnomer that all you need is to create a show then just start marketing it is a (often proven) great recipe for disaster, problems, obstacles, and setbacks.

More and more regularly performing magicians and members here are slowing down, retiring, aging out, and passing on. Less and less magicians are getting into the magic performing business than in many years (decades/generations) which makes this such a great opportunity for those currently doing so and wanting to learn the business properly. This is why those doing it right are thriving right now. Magic is still one of the most universal types of the variety arts and many people have not been exposed to or experienced real, live magic in person. Their only point of reference is from on T.V. or youtube (a terrible way to learn) or amateur family members doing a few canned tricks. If I were an up and coming magician I would really consider the performing business as a career, either part-time or full, with better opportunities available today than in a long time.