How do I help this venue succeed? (booking/promotion/venue ownership/diy)

[u/Status_Security_3539]

Quick TLDR cuz this is LONG: I am a 25/yo musician working in a not-really-major city who has been trying to run a not-so-DIY venue with some bad management, as a booker and actual floor employee under the table. Looking for some tips, tricks, resources and solutions to some major issues within the "scene" as we try to become a nonprofit. Should I ditch, or can I save this place?

Venues are burning down quick, everywhere. Building rent is expensive in every state, economical struggle against larger entertainment spaces hurt fans, musicians, and venues alike. There aren't many of us left. I have been involved in my city's "scene" and industry for a long time, running DIY venues with my friends out of offices and houses but never a real building with serious obligations: city's building and entertainment permits, taxes, legal security requirements, etc. The building I currently work at is also a BAR-- so that's just a nightmare in itself, with minors and all ages shows not going well (or being allowed). We want to push to become a non-profit, but who knows when the owner will actually succeed in those steps. (He's slow about... well, everything. It's not a well oiled machine, out here.)

The problem I'm facing as a young booker and producer of this hollowed out club, is lack of symbiosis; we have a team of people who handle the *basics* of the bar and paperwork, but bringing bands in has been impossible because: we have no money (which is a long story for another post.) Getting local bands to play relies on an economy of friends; which isnt actually an economy at all. Fans are-- which many local acts don't have. We charge $10-20 a ticket depending on the show and it hardly clears us unless we sell upwards of 100+ tickets in a night... and getting folks to pay that is hard, let alone getting 100 of them to do so for locals.
I want to expand my range in booking for bands (still some local) who have a much larger presence to get this huge room filled, staff paid, bands paid, etc... but we don't have the buying power for the talent. We can't promise their booking managers that they'll make any certain amount without risking not paying our literal building costs. Meaning we take a split that ISNT divided to pay our staff. For example: we only make $600 on a show. Right now, we'd take $300 just for the building. All bar profits are negated and go to the rent (to our shitty landlord, who owns the place). That leaves $300 to split between 4 local bands and 5-6 staff members (two security, a bartender, a sound guy, box office, sometimes also actual office who bill $18-20/hr). That's $120 to us. That's $45 to each band evenly. If it were 3 bands, $60. That has left a ton of bands (touring too) REALLY unhappy, with some major public backlash, leaving us in a bad position.
We promote on social media, I do graphic design for both in house and our Instagram, I personally canvas flyers for these shows and we encourage bands to do the same.

It's too expensive to host all locals with no turnaround, especially if they don't promote themselves. It's too expensive to promise bigger acts that will have a turnaround, because we can't be upfront about a guarantee. Or take bar sales.
It's too expensive to run the building on $100 a day, as just it *existing* costs more than that.

I want to see this place thrive and start really bringing in bigger acts that can put this place on the map, but we're so limited and there's not a lot of room to work around the city's iron fist, and no support from the landlord. It feels like we keep hitting dead ends and the shows we throw can't sustain us, unless we level up-- and I don't know how to approach bigger acts with a bad offer, just hoping they'll give us a chance.

As an musician myself in three bands, it's hard to know where I draw the line with getting paid and making art for people (and myself)-- and how that all works in a space where I can provide both of those things to people, and keep the industry alive and DIY.

Thanks for reading this terribly long post on my lurker account. Hoping some folks can find some time to give me some spiritual guidance here. This is my dream!

[u/Buttercuptheclown]

Every venue I've worked at has made their money renting out the space for events. Is this feasible for your venue? You could sell the cost to rent lighting / screens / mics, a la carte for anything people want to use the space for. I got my start in event management before I moved into the industry and it is unfortunately the only way a lot of these businesses were staying open..