I’m in a crisis and would appreciate any help! For the past 3 years, my friend and I have been renting out an abandoned restaurant to operate our band out of. Since then we have been doing well and even started a DIY venue. Unfortunately, one of our band members just left and we are now left in a sticky situation.
We only have around 2 months left of rent money saved up to pay for the building. Also, morale is super low due to the falling out we had with the member who left. We have created a pretty nice local community around our music and this building so none of us want to let this place go.
I am looking everywhere for a way we can make enough money with this building to keep us afloat. I thought the people here could come up with some good ideas so here is what we’re working with: the building we’re renting is an abandoned restaurant with 4 rooms. We have a very large parking lot (Big enough for a farmers market or a trade show). The kitchen does not function. We also have all the necessary equipment and knowledge to run an above average DIY concert. We need to make $800 per month at least. Unfortunately, running a DIY venue makes virtually no money at all. Any help would be graciously accepted!
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Tbh. Just music alone wont do it. This is why venues have drinks, food, and entertainment. I begin to question if entertainment alone is good enough when you say that you’re doing well, but only have 2 months of rent. You definitely need to add more sources of income to the property. Wether it’s parking space, food, drinks, etc.
Definitely try to make money during the gigs and off hours. You can rent the parking lot and have some food trucks park the lot. They can sell food and pay rent. They will also provide food during the gigs. Use the building up as much as possible. Maybe you can use certain areas as storage. Or Make a comercial kitchen, in the kitchen and rent that space out. I dont know the full numbers, but ultimately you have property and exposure, so definitely take advantage of all that
Not sure where you’re located, but some municipalities allow for special event liquor licenses so you could maybe sell keg beer up to a couple times a month. Event halls are a regular need. In my region, quinceañera parties, wedding receptions, and film festivals keep some venues going. EDM / raves are popular in some areas. Drag shows perhaps. LAN parties. Tetris tournaments. All kinds of possibilities.
Offer market days where vendors pay you to set up booths to sell their stuff. That way you can have food vendors too. Some might just hang banners to advertise. It’s all about making money from the space. Y’all could make cute tshirts and hats and sell stuff too.