I don't do things for free

It amazes me sometimes what people expect. The Rabun County Relay for Life is a week from this Friday and PartyWright is setting up their Slide, Bounce House, Boom Blasters and Pitchburst.

The deal with doing Relay for Life is simple...they ask that PartyWright bring as many games and attractions as possible, sell tickets and give 25% of the proceeds to the Relay. Not a bad deal. Having done several Pay to Play, I'm getting better at running a pay to play.

To make things easier on PartyWright, and those that will be working for us that night, I have entered into a deal with a local bank to run the Pitchburst for us. They will line up people to be splurshed, PartyWright will sell the tickets and what they raise, minus the expenses incurred by PartyWright, will be given to Relay. I'll write a check from PartyWright, on the behalf of the local bank, to Rabun County Relay for Life.

Well yesterday I got a phone call from another local bank. This bank wants to run the Boom Blasters at the Relay. Which I think is great. I told them that all the money they raise minus my expenses would be given to Relay on their behalf. And they thought that wasn't fair. I told the banker that their is an expense to these units, that the prizes (ones that aren't donated) cost money and I will take that expense off the top. I'm expecting (if the weather is good) for the Boom Blasters to do at least $250 in business that night. I told her my expenses would probable be around $50 or so dollars. And she's mad.

While bigger companies can give things away for free and call it a write off, PartyWright is only 13 months old and we are not in a position to do anything for free at this time.

Anyway...I think what I may do is have tickets that are either good for the slide or the bounce house be one color, a different color ticket for the Pitchburst and a third color for the Boom Blasters. Then by keeping track of the tickets sold by the number printed in the tickets, we can make a determination and donate the entire portion to the Relay for Life for both the Boom Blasters and the Pitchburst on behave of the two banks. Then I'll add my cost to the inflatable cost and be done with it. The end result should be a bigger donation to Relay on behalf of the banks and a smaller donation on behalf of PartyWright.

AJ