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This is normally something I'd throw out to my Facebook ThinkTank, but since I've got family on my Friend's list that I don't want throwing their $0.02 in (they're not dreamers), I'm coming here. I've recently come into a small inheritance that would allow me to quit the desk job I hate, and take a job doing anything that makes more than your average fast food worker and maintain my current level of living for the next seven years.

I've recently started dabbling in lots of random things: costuming for a Sci-Fi series (http://scienstars.com/), make-up for Scienstars as well as a couple other places, performing with my Renaissance group (www.Facebook.com/FreshGingers)

I've also got a meeting tomorrow with a man who's basically a local celebrity magician. He also travels and gets hired all over the country with his magic and is very successful. The project we're interested in working on is a restaurant/Vaudeville-style dinner theatre. He's got a huge network of acts and potential investors. I've got entertainment as well as Front-of-House restaurant experience. My husband has 10+ years of Back-of-house kitchen experience. Basically, we have legit skills to make this happen.

I can't continue to work a desk job, because I really, really am out of patience for it. ADD + easily bored. I can't do it anymore, I've been doing it for 10 years.

Someone help me decide what I want to be when I grow up!!! Serious and silly answers welcome!

Congrats! You are so talented and experienced that I never envisioned you in a desk job that you hated.

Your restaurant idea sounds wonderful.

My first thought is doing a themed restaurant that has a sci-fi/art/graphics/anything store on one side. There's a store where I live that sells home and garden stuff and it is really grassy and gardeny outside. But when you walk inside, they sell awesome jewelry, scarves, paintings, wines, foods, desserts, and home decor. It is paradise. During the warm months they do weekly live music and wine parties, monthly ladies night, and you can rent the beautiful lawn and garden areas for parties and any type of event.

It is a really fun place! You would love to own a place like that. You should. :) Good luck.

Are you looking to do fun stuff for sevenish years and then go back to the grind, or are you looking to spend the sevenish years building up some kind of business or career that will eventually be livable?

Ideally I'd use that 7 years to build something "fun" into something liveable. I have a good amount of friends that have build businesses off their "fun" (fairy wing maker, a couple seamstresses, actors, authors etc), but it usually takes awhile of struggling to build a brand/name & client base in your chosen media.

The restaurant appeals to me because I actually loved waitressing, and with it being a performance venue as well, I could perform as well as guiding the direction of the business.

I don't want to blow the money. I want to use it to better my life, however I figure out that shakes out.

Are you going to invest the inheritance into the restaurant idea you mentioned? Or will other sources front the money and you would simply be an employee/manager? If you are investing, I would caution you. So many restaurants do not make it and end up closing. I would hate for you to lose this money and then have no other savings or income to fall back on.

Restaurants have something like a 90% failure rate. That's not to say don't do it, but make sure the muscle behind the project actually knows the restaurant business first hand. If it's you (a creative) and a magician (a creative), you better have someone on your team who's able to tell you both no to just about every hair-brained idea, keeping only the most brilliant of hair-brained ideas. And be prepared to 1-work 80 hours a week, 2-have wait staff steal from you, not show up, show up drunk... 3-have zero people appreciate your vision.

If you can make an investment of maybe 1 year's worth of that inheritance and consider it a gift not to be returned, then I say go for it.

But I think a better use of that money would be focusing a few years on your craft, hoofing it to auditions, getting makeup and costuming gigs, etc. My fear is you'd rock on the project of developing the restaurant and want to stab yourself in the face once it's open.

I've done some work in the arts, both with large, established organizations and total start-ups. Generally, moving too quickly to acquire a physical space is seen as the kiss of death by funders, because it's a huge amount of money that isn't really generating income and comes with all kinds of maintenance and financial issues that are really far from the core mission.

I'd say wait and see what the preliminary commitment to the restaurant would be - in terms of money AND time - before considering that angle. The others, it seems to me, you can take your time and develop while keeping the desk job (maybe for a set time limit - it might be easier to deal with if you know you are getting out in a year or two).

Also, the best way to get consistent funding is to somehow with kids. Can you develop one of your arts hobbies in a way that you are teaching kids or somehow working with them? For example, I know WAY more people who make money teaching poetry in after school and in-school programs than I do people who make money just writing.

What could go wrong? :rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiryTUCtLNA

I totally called it - here is The Producers-esque quote from totaldivaness (since deleted) "It's hard NOT to make money in musical theater these days."

Jinx!

You were singled out because you are essentially a spammer.

Precisely.

But please, totaldivaness, do tell who's involved in the production. I just happen to have quite a bit of money coming from a lovely lady in Nigeria, so I just might be interested.

No, not really. This is a forum for fraternity and sorority members, both collegiate and alumni. This a sub-forum dedicated to career discussions. But anyone who appears to register solely for the purpose of selling something or offering a business opportunity is pretty much dismissed as a spammer.

The difference in the "option" you provided and the advice others provided is that the others have known AlphaFrog on this forum, and in some cases in real life, for years. You, on the other hand, appear to have registered for the sole purpose of trying to nab an "investor."

I recommend staying away from anything that starts with "I don't know how much money you have but...."

This week there was a Catfish about people who invested a lot of money and time in a fake promoter (party/concert/stage play).

Rant/

Then being asked to contact a person or company with which you are unfamiliar almost always results in a loss of time and money on your part. Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes: investing money with limited or no (provable by a third party) evidence of the investment; investing in and selling makeup, kitchen utensils, jewelry, travel packages, pre-paid legal, etc.

Those aren't true investments and I'm so sick of people saying "my business" and "my business partners" in reference to these schemes. You don't have a business. You have a foolish waste of your money and now you're struggling to earn back your money. You will be lucky if you earn back your money, let alone make a profit.

There are 6 threads, 2 threads within the past 2 years, about these schemes.

/rant

Whoa, what happened?

Dear totaldivaness, if you're still reading, I never said you have no right to be here, though I'm sure that if you're a Delta, Dr. Phil and others would like you to introduce yourself. I was, as I said, only commenting on appearances. If you're for real, you need to establish some credibility before you start throwing out investment opportunities. Otherwise, you appear to be a spammer.

Did I miss a post?

Claiming to be a Delta doesn't make a username trustworthy for investments.

She had a long post that started by telling about how she's an alumnus of Delta and therefore has a right to be here, and that she didn't just register to offer investment opportunities. Then I accidentally hit the back button, and when I came back all of her posts had finished. No clue what else she said.

Moderator power? LOL.

Should we delete our posts in response to this alumnus?

Back to AlphaFrog's entrepreneur thread. :)

This isn't a forum for spam.

Here's food for thought to you: A June 2014 username defending another June 2014 username is too convenient. Find other threads that spark your interest and then I will believe you are not totaldivaness or a buddy.

I don’t care about being banned! You can’t keep a good diva down! I’m going to say this and I will be done because unlike Dr. Phil, I DO HAVE A LIFE! First, I’d like to say to `Dr. Phil’, I really don’t give a flying freak what YOU believe or don’t believe! Who died and made you purveyor over what anyone says or does on this forum especially when they WERE NOT TALKING TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! You really need to GET A LIFE!!! As I posted before I was rudely taken down, I am a Delta and I don’t have to `claim’ to be one. I earned my 9 pearls, trust me! I am a professional in the entertainment industry and was offering a legitimate opportunity to the young lady to consider. I do apologize to the moderator if I broke some kind of rule. I’m new to the forum and don’t know all the rules yet. I was actually giving her a legitimate option to consider (SINCE SHE WAS ASKING FOR OPTIONS) in the business I’m in which is the only business I can speak about. I did NOT come on the forum looking for investment opportunities and had no idea I’d run across this post. As a matter of fact, it was the last thing on my mind since this is a college forum. I was on here because my daughter just pledged and asked me to join also to give REAL WORLD advice to those interested in entertainment. There are much better places to go after investments on the web! So, regardless of all the names I’ve been called, scammer, schemer, and whatever else, that is NOT the case! I’m sorry you don’t appreciate professional alumni on this forum with REAL WORLD situations and opportunites. Because of all this negativity, trust me, I won’t be back!

Says the one who has now come back twice after being banned.

Meanwhile, almost everyone who has posted in the thread is an alumna or alumnus with professional experience of oone kind or another. You're missing the point that (1) there's nothing professional about offering business or investment opportunities when you haven't even introduced yourself, much less established any credibility; (2) this is not a site for doing business; and (3) that's why you were banned.

^^^ Violating this rule is forbidden.

Divaness, if you read the OP's post, the OP is not looking for investment options. She is looking for something enjoyable for her to do (in lieu of a desk job). Your "opportunity" doesn't meet AF's principal objective -- unless, I suppose, she gets to star in the revue.

Most importantly, let the world be warned about entertainment options with that email address. :)

Well, AF, this has certainly been a hive of activity!

For all three of you that were wondering what happened with this, I am in the business plan/exploratory phase of creating a dinner theatre restaurant. We're moving verrrrrry slowly to make sure this is the right decision. We're also waiting on the right space. So far, the one that's basically already built to suit is in a terrible location (easy to see, but hard to get to). There are some other great locations, but the cost of upfitting is overwhelming. So, we're waiting and praying for the RIGHT location. This would be my business, my investment, my ship to sail. :)

Very cool!

I'm glad you posted! I was actually thinking about you and this thread the other day, wondering what you were up to. Excited for you and glad you are taking the process slowly and thoughtfully.

Cool. I'll be interested to learn more. When you ARE ready to move forward, of course let us know so we can support it. And you never know when I have clients needing an activity somewhere.

My only question is probably an obvious one: is there a market or demand for this (dinner theatre/restaurant) in your area? These are not popular here in AZ and don't do well. I imagine you're investigating this thoroughly! Big venture.

I just read this thread, and I wanted to say that I'm a big fan of this general type of idea - though the type of act and price point would really sway my actual willingness to attend. I lament all the time that there aren't more "dinner and a something" places, though I think my favorite is dinner and second-run movie.

I like comedy clubs, but the comedy can be hit-or-miss, and they typically have a certain drink minimum without 'real' dinner options. I've been to a murder mystery dinner that we paid a decent amount for (beyond a normal dinner out), and the murder mystery was pretty lame with pretty standard hotel food. I walked away not wanting to recommend it to anyone.

There's a great place in the DC metro area called the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse that has converted an old movie theater into a comedy-slash-second run theater space. They've taken out maybe every other row of theater seats, and spread out the seats to make room for small cocktail tables at each seat. They serve alcohol and bar-type food. To my mind, their only downfall is that they aren't near a metro station and aren't terribly convenient to cab to from DC proper, but they have $2 second-run movies, (used to have) great wine nights, and good headliner comedians.
http://arlingtondrafthouse.com/drafthouse/

I do have a suggestion: is there any way to do a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) test-run? Can you test the concept and ability to make money with the very minimum investment? I'm thinking renting out a restaurant for a short-term run, or setting up a pop-up location. Even a hotel ballroom could be a good location to test the act, and you'd be able to serve food and alcohol through the hotel's licenses.

Other suggestions: I bet you'd need many different kinds of activities throughout the week - comedy, magic, movies, live music, etc. If you stick to one kind of act, I'm concerned that you'd really quickly run through your target audience before they'd want to come back.

Also, the food needs to be at least above average, but preferably pretty good. I would imagine you'd need a small menu (maybe of tapas or gastro-pub items) of items that could be cooked quickly and in large batches if you plan to get food out to everyone at about the same time.

Good luck! I can't wait to hear more.

Oops - had more suggestions! Maximizing the events throughout the week: a Saturday and Sunday morning ladies movie and champagne brunch; weekday mommy-and-me movies, etc.

The model I'm working on is a vaudeville style, where we might have a band one night, comedy another night, a magician another night, and then maybe a full scale theatre production that runs for two weeks. Each performance would be individually contracted. They would set their own entrance price and get a percentage (80-90%, depending - less if we provide technical crew). Entrance charge would begin an hour and a half before show time. From lunch until then, we'd serve a fairly typical meal with the twist that we would require all of our waitstaff to be entertainers of some kind. They would open service with a small sleight of hand trick (my magician has volunteered to teach them) and it would be their job to not only serve, but entertain through the meal. Because of this, we plan to pay 50-100% more than standard servers wages. My goal would to have all of the servers performer's hearts feel fulfilled (since so many performers end up waiting tables). I want jobs at my restaurant to be coveted and held instead of the typical transient waitstaff.

Our menu would focus two places: appetizer heavy FRESH MADE bar food that can be put out quickly, and unique healthy focused entrees that you don't generally find: Ratatouille (cheese optional), Veggie "pasta" with several sauce options, Stuffed Squash, and several salads.

Don't know if this will show up, but this is the general feel we want: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...51836863_o.jpg