A guy from Bangalore who worked with me for the Aqeel's show? Who's this? Whats his name? Aziz by any chance?
Well see dude here's my take on it, in all honesty, without trying to sounding too big. I admire your aspiration and will to go all the way. But it is not really a joke. I have been living in Doha continuously for past 19 years and know this place in and out. I also have 3-4 very good guys who are well well connected/networked in Doha. Despite that fact, I still find it really hard at times to do it. Throwing money is never a problem, extracting money out of people's pockets is a huge task, which mainly includes sponsors and tickets sales.
It took me quite some time to find the right resources and best prices in Doha for most entities that are involved in this field. It was a slow learning process, most of the times with mistakes.
I still feel you're going a little too fast, if you are gonna do it all by yourself. You need ATLEAST 3-4 very reliable guys with time on their hands and equal interest and willpower like yours to make it happen. See its your money on the line, not theirs. So it really won't matter much to them even if they pretend to show that they're working hard for you, but all they do is go back home and sleep after the meeting.
I started back in 2001, just like you, with a small new years party at the Oasis Club without under any name. Publicised it like crazy by spamming people by mails and what not. Money was never a driving factor for me it was for the sake of glamor and entertaining people. It gives me immense pleasure just to see people enjoying and having a good time cos of one person, ME! Anyhow, the oasis thing, it turned out to be a good thing, I made 4000 bucks on it, not bad to start with. Things grew from there on. We did another new years party at the Doha club, much bigger this time. And as of now, I have all the contract/formats in place, got a good database of my resources, customers & sponsors. Right now, all that I need to make a few phone calls and people take my word for it cos E4U is known to them, I won't brag that its hugely popular. For all this to happen, I've left my office at 2.30 pm, drove all over doha straight after work to get to know people, giving artificial smiles and taking shit at times. At times getting back at home at 1 or 2 am! I've also had sleepless nights only worrying about if the shows would go right when at times people cancelled their commitments at last minute. Its your reputation on the line. You don't wanna get booted by half the doha for putting up a bad show or a no show altogether. My wife had a major worrying time to see me so damn restless in the beginning.
All in all, you just dont expect all these fall in your lap, you have to experience it and gather it all by yourself.
The important factor here is that my entire idea of doing these shows is not for money, yes if it comes well and good. But I'm more than happy if I break even. I have a steady job here which is my main source of income. What do you have to fall back upon? We are talking about money over a quarter million here.
My suggestion, if you are gonna finance is all by yourself and don't have trusted guys with you who are willing to work their azz off for you, just drop the idea. I can give you packages that are smaller and cheaper to begin with. Go thru the learning curve, establish your name in the market and build your own database.
I didn't mean to discourage you, if it did sound like at all, but that is a fact and I've been thru it. There are always fasttracks available if you have guys to run at your one single call and have really really right contacts in Doha. But those are very rare cases.
Cheers!
-----------------------------------------
1300 QL Points!!!
Yay! Way to go Ray!
----------------------------------------- www.e4u.name.qa
A guy from Bangalore who worked with me for the Aqeel's show? Who's this? Whats his name? Aziz by any chance?
Well see dude here's my take on it, in all honesty, without trying to sounding too big. I admire your aspiration and will to go all the way. But it is not really a joke. I have been living in Doha continuously for past 19 years and know this place in and out. I also have 3-4 very good guys who are well well connected/networked in Doha. Despite that fact, I still find it really hard at times to do it. Throwing money is never a problem, extracting money out of people's pockets is a huge task, which mainly includes sponsors and tickets sales.
It took me quite some time to find the right resources and best prices in Doha for most entities that are involved in this field. It was a slow learning process, most of the times with mistakes.
I still feel you're going a little too fast, if you are gonna do it all by yourself. You need ATLEAST 3-4 very reliable guys with time on their hands and equal interest and willpower like yours to make it happen. See its your money on the line, not theirs. So it really won't matter much to them even if they pretend to show that they're working hard for you, but all they do is go back home and sleep after the meeting.
I started back in 2001, just like you, with a small new years party at the Oasis Club without under any name. Publicised it like crazy by spamming people by mails and what not. Money was never a driving factor for me it was for the sake of glamor and entertaining people. It gives me immense pleasure just to see people enjoying and having a good time cos of one person, ME! Anyhow, the oasis thing, it turned out to be a good thing, I made 4000 bucks on it, not bad to start with. Things grew from there on. We did another new years party at the Doha club, much bigger this time. And as of now, I have all the contract/formats in place, got a good database of my resources, customers & sponsors. Right now, all that I need to make a few phone calls and people take my word for it cos E4U is known to them, I won't brag that its hugely popular. For all this to happen, I've left my office at 2.30 pm, drove all over doha straight after work to get to know people, giving artificial smiles and taking shit at times. At times getting back at home at 1 or 2 am! I've also had sleepless nights only worrying about if the shows would go right when at times people cancelled their commitments at last minute. Its your reputation on the line. You don't wanna get booted by half the doha for putting up a bad show or a no show altogether. My wife had a major worrying time to see me so damn restless in the beginning.
All in all, you just dont expect all these fall in your lap, you have to experience it and gather it all by yourself.
The important factor here is that my entire idea of doing these shows is not for money, yes if it comes well and good. But I'm more than happy if I break even. I have a steady job here which is my main source of income. What do you have to fall back upon? We are talking about money over a quarter million here.
My suggestion, if you are gonna finance is all by yourself and don't have trusted guys with you who are willing to work their azz off for you, just drop the idea. I can give you packages that are smaller and cheaper to begin with. Go thru the learning curve, establish your name in the market and build your own database.
I didn't mean to discourage you, if it did sound like at all, but that is a fact and I've been thru it. There are always fasttracks available if you have guys to run at your one single call and have really really right contacts in Doha. But those are very rare cases.
Cheers!
-----------------------------------------
1300 QL Points!!!
Yay! Way to go Ray!
-----------------------------------------
www.e4u.name.qa