In a previous post titled how to become a club promoter, we wrote about the proper methods of approaching club owners to promote at their venue. If you read it, hopefully you learned a few things and are now ready to learn the next step – the negotiation.

We will now cover what to include in your contract and negotiations once they’ve agreed to have you as a promoter. It is highly recommended that once you have come to an agreement, you have a lawyer draw something out to cover you in the event of something not going as planned – because we all know that stuff happens.

The first thing you would want to address, and I’m sure is also the first thing that you care about, is the terms of compensation. There are a number of different ways to structure how you will be paid; here are some to give you some ideas:

What you will receive

Door money – you should determine what percentage, if not all, of the money collected at the door you will receive.

Bar sales – a percentage of bar sales is an accepted practice. You may also negotiate a flat fee you will receive if the bar hits a certain milestone (ex: $10,000 in sales in the bar nets you $2500).

Fees/Salary – you can structure a weekly or monthly salary you will be compensated in addition to the others listed above.

Production costs – whether you will be reimbursed some, if not all, of the production costs you have encountered on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

On the flipside, you will need to negotiate your personal costs and responsibilities of the event; here are some more to give you ideas:

What you will pay

Staff/Talent – you might be responsible for paying the DJ’s, bands, dancers, and any other talent performers.

Promotional items – this is where you cover who will handle the costs for the promotional items that will be needed. Items such as club flyers, radio ads, coupons, posters, video promotions, etc. will need to be addressed.

Promoters – you may have fellow promoters, street teams, hustlers, etc. who need to be compensated as well.

Other – you will cover your own time and expenses incurred.

Each and every contract is unique between the club owner and the promoter, so there is no one size fits all solution here. We just gave you some ideas on parameters to include in your contract and negotiations. Good luck.