Who would not want the best seats in a Rihanna concert or premium seats in the Phantom of the Opera. Watching events live is one of the luxuries of entertainment that a lot of people are willing to pay big money for. Being a ticket broker is simply being the middleman of big ticket suppliers and the audience. It seems to be pretty much a basic ‘buy and sell’ business structure but there is more to it than what you think. Here is a quick guide: 5 steps to becoming a ticket broker
Invest Money
If you want to make big money in this industry, you should have a couple of thousands as investment. You need to buy premium seats and general seats in the first place. You should have enough money to secure these seats. Don’t worry, the amount of money you invest depends on how much tickets you want to sell. When done right, you will definitely get high returns. This business has very short sales cycles and you can see your return of investment in as fast as a few weeks.
Know What’s Hot
If you want to get into the business of selling tickets, you should have a clear idea of what events can sell and what events will flop. Next, you should know where the best seats are. Location is everything, just like in most businesses. You want to buy seats a few away from the stage because you can’t make much money buying seats in row X, Y, Z where no one can’t really see a thing with seats this far out (source: TheTicketsGuide).
Pick Suppliers
If you are selling wines, you should know where the best vineyard is. Similarly, you should know where you can get premium tickets. You can get in touch with big companies like Ticketmaster or any ticketing offices in your area who are direct sellers. This way, you can get premium seats at premium prices. Persistence is the key in getting the best seats. Even if the sign says ‘sold out’, it won’t hurt you to ask a day after because ticketing offices often release the tickets in waves or batches.
Know Where To Sell
Who will you sell to? Where? If you have a large group of friends of celebrity fanatics, then that is a good place to start. But of course, to widen your reach and get the bigger slice of the pie, you should sell to a much bigger audience. The Internet is a great venue to sell your tickets. You can sell them on eBay, StubHub and post what you have to sell in several advertising sites. You can also put up a small website where you can post your tickets at hand. Join in Facebook, create a page and join pages and groups that are related to entertainment and concerts and they are sure to find you when tickets are sold out in major ticket offices!
Keep a Record
Be organize. Keep a spreadsheet of the tickets you have available, reserved, delivered and paid for. Make sure that you don’t give a Miley Cyrus ticket to someone who wants to watch Matchbox 20. Be professional as you can be and don’t waste any opportunity for a sale just because your record is a mess.
Following these 5 steps to becoming a ticket broker can really help you bring the money in the bank. You may not be on the spotlight or on stage, but you have that celebrity status when people look for you when they are in dire need of tickets!
