Mike, if your advice/questions were addressed to me, let me say that I began actively soliciting gigs at senior facilities about 8 years ago, using mainly the Yellow Pages and sending out flyers (initially one typed on a typewriter with a hand-drawn cartoon and then xeroxed). My business grew with amazing speed. All my calendars and bookkeeping were done by hand.Since then I've gone cyber and I now fax most of my flyers (computer generated, with a scanned photo) and playlists. (My flyer has a section for how to contact me; a list of my musical styles; a list of some sample theme programs available; a list of some kinds of programs I do [e.g., 1-to-1 music therapy; group music therapy; dinner and party music; sing-alongs; concerts]; and a brief note about my sliding scale fee structure. One neat thing about a computer generated flyer is that I can customize it easily to fit the client in quetion.) My calendar, data base, and all business records are also done on the computer -- but backed up frequently with hard copies.
Contacting activity directors directly is not really hard--it just takes a lot of time. And, since activity directors tend to be reachable during the hours when I'm usually doing my programs, there's a kind of catch 22: the more successful I am at booking programs, the harder it is to book more programs!
One bit of advice I'd give that's particularly pertinent to senior facilities is to follow up on a successful engagement ASAP! All audiences have limited memory spans. (What was the name of that soloist you heard in church last Sunday?) It's even more so when you're dealing with folks over the age of 75. They can rave about you during and right after a program and, when you call back 6 months later, the activity director will say "We just had resident council and you weren't one of the people they asked me to book again." This is not surprising, given the 6 month lag between their exposure to you and the council meeting in question.
Residents will often come up to ME after a program and tell me that they want me to come back. I've learned to tell them--and emphasize-- that I'd love to, but it's not up to me. I'll say, "I'd love to come back. So-and-so (the activity director) listens to what you folks tell her you want. S/he will invite me back if you tell her you'd like me back."
I would gladly pay 10% to 20% to a good agent, though, if it would take the booking burden off my back and leave me free to develop my programs (and maybe have a life, too). Question is, would anyone do all this work for such a small amount? My schedule is quite complicated, given that I cover a relatively wide geographic area and need to consolidate gigs within close proximity to each other as much as possible. (E.g., on the Friday before St. Patrick's Day, I may do 6 1-hour programs, and having them distributed properly by time and location is crucial.)
Another reason for using an agent: I HATE sales! I especially hate tyring to promote myself. And getting straight, honest feedback from people can be hard. I think an agent is more likely to be given such honest feedback (e.g., "We don't think we'll hire X again, because...") than the performer is, and the agent is also in a better position to tout your strengths than you are. (People who are averse to giving negative feedback can waste a lot of their time and yours by being evasive about rebooking when they have no intention of ever doing so. And being rebooked is not a simple matter of how good you are; it can have to do with your not doing the styles they were looking for or having your amp too loud, etc. Or it can simply be because they've decided to go with another performer as a regular.)
Personally, I'd like to find an agent or agents who could not only handle the PR and booking tedium for my retirement home clients but also get me gigs later in the evening--at coffee houses, bars, etc. , to fill out my calendar, as it were.
I do appreciate your info, Mike. I'll check to see what agents there are in the Portland area and how they operate.
Genie