Funding solutions for your Comedy Club

Comedy clubs are popular in most cities across the UK. Most are run from existing licensed premises - in the back rooms of pubs and as regular events in established venues that may usually offer music or nightclub entertainment. Whatever the venue, there is an audience eager to spend their time and money on high-quality stand-up.

Taking over a small venue that would otherwise be dark can be surprisingly cheap, and you may be able to call on bar staff and security that serves the venue at other times. Remember, comedy works best when it is personal. A large music venue may not have the right acoustics. You need a room set up so that sound reverberates, ensuring that laughter and applause are emphasised, making your audience more likely to throw themselves into the show.

Try and find a venue with a Green Room so that your comedians have a safe space to prepare, and remember that good lighting is essential. If your venue doesn’t have adjustable lighting, you may need to hire some. Your acts should be able to see their audience and read their reactions.

Discuss what the hiring fee covers. Some venues will ask for a fee to hire the room and then make up their money from the sale of food and drinks. Others prefer a profit split with a percentage of ticket sales. 

Booking comedians

To put on a great comedy show, you will need great comedians. You can bring in some new acts for very little, but you will need some established names to bring in an audience. Established comedians can earn up to £1000 for a night’s stand-up in the middle of the week, and more at weekends, and some with TV expose can even ask for £10,000 plus. 

You will also need an MC. They may well be a comedian themselves, but more important is their ability to deal with difficult audiences and have the energy to hold the evening together.

Marketing and publicity

You need an audience to make the comedy work - and bring in the revenue you need.

Tickets should be roughly comparable with the price of a cinema ticket, but you will need to work hard to sell enough to fill your venue. If you have a good following, you may be able to simply announce your show on social media and create a dedicated event on Facebook. However, you will still need to encourage people to share and invite their friends, and your comedians themselves can be a big help at sharing with their networks.

Create an eye-catching poster and flyer and make sure your show can be found on event listings websites. You could even contact local press. You will need to work hard to promote your comedy club business - but if you are successful, you may be able to make it a permanent fixture of the entertainment circuit - and even acquire your own premises.

Funding options for your comedy club

The first step in securing the funding you need is simply to understand the different types of finance available.

They include:

• Funding to launch your night comedy club business
• Equipping your comedy club
• Funding a comedy club property
• Operating Finance
• Tax Funding

Funding to launch your comedy club business

If you have relevant experience in the entertainment sector and can demonstrate some successful comedy events that you have arranged, it may be possible to find lenders who will advance funding to take things further.

Lenders will see the risk as high, and so lending may only be possible if you can offer security - such as property - which the lender will take and sell if you find yourself unable to repay the loan agreement.

Find out more about short-term funding solutions to help you launch your comedy club.

Equipping your comedy club

If you are renting a bare room, you may need to bring in equipment. Lighting, microphones and a PA system will all be required.  

Asset Finance allows you to spread the cost of equipment - or assets - while those assets are already working for your business. Hire Purchase allows you to hire assets until you have paid for them. These types of agreements commonly last between 12 and 72 months and will often require a 10-20% deposit plus fixed monthly instalments. Leasing is much like a rental agreement. You pay a monthly charge to use the asset. With some arrangements maintenance, repairs, registration will be the owner’s responsibility, giving you the asset without any of the additional costs of ownership. It might be the most cost-effective way to provide a PA system.

You may also need to equip your venue with suitable seating, and even to set up a bar. However, there are Asset Finance solutions which can help.

Our Asset Finance team can help you lease or Hire Purchase almost any type or value of asset, both new and used. Find out more here.

Funding for a comedy club property

Hiring suitable premises can be the obvious solution if you are starting out, but if your club becomes established, you may want to find a more permanent premise of your own.

Large structures such as tramsheds and churches have been successfully converted into comedy clubs, and it may even be possible to turn a redundant pub into a club venue.

Remember that change of use to a drinking establishment will require A4 class planning permission from the local authority and, even when planning permission is obtained, it does not mean that a premises licence will be awarded. You will need to go through a separate application process in order to obtain an alcohol licence. You will also need to arrange all planning permissions, consents and certificates before any licensing applications are made.  

We can help you find the necessary funding for a deposit on leased property with an Unsecured or Secured Loan, and if you are ready to buy your own premises we can help you find the solutions with Commercial Mortgages.

However, it is worth noting that all Commercial Property Finance is always arranged on an individual basis. Get our help finding the most competitive lender.

Operating Finance for your club

It can take months for news of your club to spread, and you may need to arranging funding to help you through until you have the regular customers you want.

You may be able to arrange a Short-term Loan to provide working capital for the initial months. 

But another solution may be to bring in funding using a Merchant Cash Advance. Your audience will be using their cards to pay in preference to cash, and ticket sales and your bar may both depend on your card terminal or PDQ machine. With a Merchant Cash Advance, a lender will work with your card payment company and make a cash advance based on your turnover - which can be repaid automatically by deducting a pre-arranged percentage of the payment every time that a customer pays you by card.

We can work with you to help you find the finance your comedy club needs to answer its Operating Finance requirements.

Insurance cover for your comedy club

Insurance is essential for any business, and the cover for a large comedy can be a significant cost.

Cover for your staff is a legal requirement. You must have employers’ liability insurance  of at least £5m to protect you against the cost of a claim if an employer is injured or becomes ill as a result of working for in your business. You will also need cover in case patrons are injured, and insurance for your premises and equipment.

You should consider speaking to a specialist club insurer who may understand the risks better than mainstream insurers, and offer more suitable policies. There are a number of ways to provide for the costs. Find out more about funding for the premiums of insurance cover for your club.

Tax Loans for club businesses

Your club will be liable for VAT, and a large quarterly VAT bill can be a drain on your cashflow - as can a large liability for corporation tax.

A Tax Loan could cover the cost of your tax demands with affordable monthly payments. It would mean benefits for your comedy club business, including improved control of cash flow, more predictable monthly payments and helps avoid problems and penalties from HMRC.

Find out how a Tax Loan could support your cashflow.

Helping if your club runs into financial problems

Your comedy club business can be very lucrative, but if audiences don’t come in, neither will the cash.

At Rangewell, we understand the most appropriate solutions to help your business deal with this kind of challenge. We can provide funding solution if your comedy club business has run into temporary financial issues - and even if you have a damaged credit history or CCjs, we know the lenders which can help.

Find out more about finance for comedy clubs facing financial difficulties.

How we help you capitalise your comedy club business

At Rangewell, we work across the entire lending industry and we have finance experts with personal experience in the entertainment sector. 

This means we understand the particular funding challenges you face and the financial solutions to them. We can help you to find the most appropriate funding from lenders from established high street banks to alternative funding suppliers. We offer every type of finance including Unsecured & Secured Loans, Invoice Finance, Asset Finance, Merchant Cash Advance, Commercial Mortgages, Bridge Loans, Property Development Finance, Growth Finance and more.

Getting the right kind of finance from the most competitive lender can be crucial for the future of your comedy club business. We will work to help you find it

Call us to discuss your needs.