Entri AdminEntrihub chats to Tashinga Mutakwa, Founder of GreenBack Media Group. Tashinga talks about events management as a business.
Question 1: What does event management entail?
Tashinga: Our event side of the business actually started from house parties. We were just trying to be cool, to be honest, and doing events then kind of got me to figure out to realize that we could actually take this to be something that's more solid or that's structured. We started going to clubs, night clubs that aren't really getting a regular clientele, and what we started doing was structuring deals whereby the club would pay us to pretty much-bringing people to the clubs. Every month we'll do one event and through that, we ended up getting a few contracts and now we do weekly events at the nightclub and that's that space. Through the corporate companies that I've worked with we then realized that it's not just one structure doing night club events and corporate events is two different things at the same time but it's one mentality in terms of what's needed to be done before the event at the event and after the event. Through that, we've now started doing things like product launches and book launches and stuff and that's to me, that's where I feel like I really love the business to go to. Another space that we've just entered now, the festival space we have an Arts Festival that we curate. What we're also trying to do with that festival spaces enter the rest of Africa I would say. So we're speaking to someone in Malawi owns a resort and brands in Malawi and that seems to be working out so it's more it's everything if I put it that way. In terms of events but where I'd really want to go to is a corporate event side. I want any brand that wants to release something to feel like we can give them something that's slightly different from just okay there's a brand and that's the shoe were launching or whatever, we kind of want them to feel like if they come to us they can get a whole different experience for the event.
Question 2: Key advice for start-ups in the events business
Tashinga: Okay, not to sound cliche or anything but I think just having an attitude of not giving up is the first thing I think. Nothing is always gonna go as you plan it. In this industry, we're in a space where one wrong thing can cause a chain effect of everything else going wrong or everything else almost going wrong. There will always be things that will almost go wrong at events or when it comes to telling the management or anything. If you're someone who's gonna give up quickly then it's not the space for you. The second thing is sacrifice, as you definitely gonna have to sacrifice a lot of time, a lot of people, relationships, a lot is gonna fall to the side because of the fact that you pretty much putting your life on. Your life depends on the business that you are running and everyone else below you is depending on you making the right decision, the right calls. So because of that a lot of things are going to suffer a lot of things are going to be sacrificed and suffer because of that. Another thing I think based on the fact that my company started through it I would say find your passion and again, that's very cliche but find your passion. Find that thing that you would do if you weren't getting paid. If you could just live for free somewhere and get food and do that one thing for the rest of your life do that and then make that your business. Lastly, I think there's money in almost anything. You just need to find how the money can be squeezed out of almost any situation so you should be very business-minded. I would say you don't have to study business for you to know how to be business-minded. It's just about knowing where to ask am I getting paid for this or can we get paid this.
Question 3: How can you source assistance for bigger events?
Tashinga: Someone once told me that your team is the people that are helping you out before you ask them to help you out. When it comes to my events usually, when I start like sharing them on social media and stuff I'll use the festival for example because that's the one that generally needs more people in terms of people to work. The moment you start sharing if you see the people that react a lot and I mean react the most and if those people are people that generally have time in their lives those the first people that I approach. I'm like listen, I need someone to help me with marketing to work with the activation team or anything. Those people become my first team and then everything else that's lacking, I generally try and find other young companies as well that are working in that space. For PR for example for my events, we do PR for artists so we could do PR for an event but because we're too busy trying to sort out the technical side of things would just give that to someone else who's young and doing PR. I think there's a very big group of people out there who are willing to jump onto things like this. There's also a group of people that are just willing to get free tickets so they'll work for that. At the end of the day if you really need someone to help you out if there's the budget for it you'll find them; if there's no budget for it like I said your team is the people that are already helping you out before you ask them to.