How to Hire, Train, and Keep Great Event Staff (Even If You’re Just Getting Started)

0:00 This is how to hire, train, and keep great event staff. Um, this is also geared for, you know, if you're just getting started. So, um, this presentation is for solar operators who are ready to scale. Um, anyone tired of doing it all. Um, we, you know, many of us have been there. Um, people scared to hand things off. Um, I certainly can relate to that. Um, as an entrepreneur, that's

0:24 something I've had to to work on and grow on. um and people burned by bad hires in the past and so um we you know I haven't experienced the bad hire thing at this point yet but um I could understand how that would you know hiring can be really a pain and bad things can come from it. So uh the goal is really share actionable tips for developing a repeatable hiring system.

0:45 Again if you have suggestions all that stuff feel free to raise your hand comment you know I'd love to hear what other people are doing what's working for people. Um, and then also show share how Check Cherry can help keep you organized. And so I think what we'll do, Matt, is instead of interjecting kind of the features, I think at the end we'll just cover some things

1:01 that Check Cherry does in the staff side. Um, so maybe you can take take care of that part and me and I can I've got a list of a few things and so on. But that's what I was thinking. So um, again, I need your help. Chat, raise your hand, you know, let me know uh, if you have some or let Matt know and we'll we'll have a dialogue and so on. So um I guess one of the questions is like why

1:22 hire anyone right? Um it can be it can be a pain. Um I think of uh a lot of things that you do as an entrepreneur are frontloaded with the work. So the first hire is a lot more work than the second hire because there's a lot of things you got to set up and all that stuff. Uh but I think the reason is pretty simple. It basically it's going to lock you know some freedom for your time. It's going

1:45 to help you scale so you'll be able to service more than one event at one time. bigger events, that type of thing, and overall deliver a better client experience, right? If it's just one person, it's going to limit you in what you can do um in the business and so on. So, I think that's, you know, at the end of the day, really what it's about um is just freedom, scaling up, growing the

2:06 business, better client experience, you know, all that stuff. Um, another thing that I don't cover in this um, presentation, this is really about hiring people that work at the event is really what I'm talking about. We also have, you know, Chuck Tur's customers also hire people that do design work or hey, I've got somebody that just does sales. Um, I've got a VA who helps me manage

2:29 and follow up on leads and stuff like that. So, that's not covered, but those are also things and maybe a future topic if this goes well um, to do. So, um, anybody have a share a story about them, you know, scaling, whatever. I'd love to hear it. Um, kind of growing up to that first hire. Um, you know, that would be cool. I'd love to hear more about that. So, we certainly, you know,

2:50 we see that all the time. People start with just one person and grow over time with us. It's really awesome to see that. Um, so, you know, you've decided you're ready to hire. Um, you know, okay, now what? And so, I think the first thing that I would think about is kind of where to find people. Um, and so one idea, the job boards, uh, Indeed, Handshake. I've never heard of Handshake. Matt,

3:14 have you heard of Handshake by chance? It doesn't. No, I haven't. Yeah. Craigslist is another. Um, I feel like a lot of these, like Craigslist in some cities is more popular than others. And, you know, so it's really going to be regional. Um, so whatever's popular on the job boards, you could post a a job wreck that says, "Hey, I'm looking for somebody to work weekends." and you

3:34 know give some some basic information about what you're looking for. Um you know groups uh Facebook groups, college boards, local event networks. Um you know that's those are all great you know opportunities. Um you know I know a lot of people also do their personal network and they work with family and that can be something that can be good as well. Um I think it depends on your family

3:56 dynamics um on that one. Um, but certainly I could see, you know, family working out or, you know, uh, relatives, that type of thing as people to help out. Um, and kind of what I've seen is a lot of times, you know, students and hospitality, people with experience in hospitality or people that are already kind of in the freelance gig work mentality or have other gigs, that type of thing.

4:20 Um, you know, they also make for great hires. Um, so I like this part which is just basically, you know, just this idea to like always be hiring, you know, kind of like build a bench, not just one hire, you know, and I think one of the things that u is helpful is you're going to want to be able to spread events out to people. So if you just let's say I have it's like two

4:41 people working and and one person gets all the events and then I then I need that third person, you know, they're not going to be as motivated or they're not going to be stick around. It's not going to mean much, right, to them if they can't take it to kind of go out of their way. So, I think kind of trying to find a way to have some stability and hire out and spread out events to

4:58 more than just one or two people or kind of more than you need and to always be in this process of looking for people that you know you think could be a fit. Um, and so one of the things you want to do is define the qualifications. So, um, it's not just about finding the best person, it's about finding the right fit for the job. And so, understanding the job is really important. Um,

5:19 you know, so when we were at hiring at Check Cherry, uh, we did a a higher in customer support and a higher in marketing, and those are two very different roles, and we think we ended up at really good spots. Um, but those are different personality types, if you will, um, that would, you know, be better fits in those uh, those roles. Um, so you're going to want to

5:39 define that. And then also your baseline stuff. So I think this goes for like any job almost, right? So are you reliable? Are you punctual? Are you a good communicator? Can you follow directions? Can you lift gear? You know, do you have availability? So, this is weekend availability because I know most events are on weekends, but you know, does your availability line up? I mean, if you know,

5:58 you could be a perfect fit, but if availability doesn't line up, like it's not even worth it. So, I mean, just I think um you know, if you can get to kind of the the deal breakers faster, it just saves everybody time. It's a good it's a good thing. Um, I think these, you know, the reliability and and somebody who's punctual and a good communicator are a lot harder to

6:18 teach as somebody who's kind of employing them basically. So, I think this is something that they should be bringing to the table. Then you're going to want role specific stuff. So, I've got a few different verticals in here. So, photo booth, you know, are you comfortable with tech and, you know, in presentation, you know, some level of, you know, getting people to use the booth and,

6:37 you know, presentable, that type of thing. Obviously, if you're a DJ, do you have, you know, music sense and very important mic confidence? And I think that's a, you know, it's tough to find great DJs. I know that. And then bartenders, you know, are you efficient? Do you know your recipes? And, you know, can you can you be a responsible service? Do you have you have the appropriate

6:54 licenses? I think, you know, it depends. A lot of this stuff will also depend on the state, local area, uh, that you're operating in. So, um, you know, you got your role specific skills and I, uh, role specific skills and then I think the bonus stuff is just like prior event experience and hospitality. So, you know, social skills, you know, whatever it is that you're looking for. Um,

7:15 stuff that they've already done, which is not required. Um, in my opinion, it's a mistake to just hire somebody who's not a good fit in other work in other areas, but oh, they've done the job before, they must be able to do it. I won't have to put any work in training them is what you know you might think. Um and I think you know it can work but I also think it

7:35 be wary of that because um it's okay to train people and I would say you should be hiring for character and training for skill and I think what that you know if you do that right means you you basically got to be good at training. Um, and there's not a lot in this presentation and I'd be curious to hear what people are doing for training a little bit because, uh, quite frankly, Matt and

7:55 I don't run a photo booth, bartending, DJ or event service company. We we talk to a lot of customers. Obviously, we hire for our business. Um, you know, but this is not an area of our strength uh to, you know, the training for event services basically. Um, so if you have anything you can add to that, I'd love to hear. uh you know the hiring funnel. Um so this is kind of just a you know a stab at

8:21 kind of what you might do which is to say hey let me take five minutes have a phone call. Um what might you do on that phone call? You're probably looking to see like did they show up on time? Like what are those non-negotiable you know basics? Did they show up on time? You know can you have a good conversation with them? Um you know is it does it flow well? Is there a you know is it vibe?

8:41 Is it a personal connection? That type of thing. Um, I think you can learn a lot in a five minute uh call. Um, I think the time on this would depend on how many people you're hiring. Quite frankly, I would, you know, it depends on how many, you know, but if you have a few people, I mean, five minutes is not much time at all. If you have, if you're hiring for four people, I think putting

9:02 15 minutes in there is no problem. Taking an hour of your day um should be no problem. But if it's a lot more and if you know that people are not going to show or whatever it may be, I mean, you might want to shorten it up. I think five minutes you can learn a lot. Um and then the next step would be to have a video call, right? Makes it so easy, you know, and I think with the video call,

9:21 what do you learn? Like are they presentable? Like did they again did they show up on time? Um you know, were they prepared? That type of stuff. And then a next step would be basically to say, okay, uh why don't you come shadow a shift and just kind of see how we do it. Um I think there's also a component which is often uh forgotten about which is it's both sides have to see it's a fit

9:46 right you might find somebody and and I think it's totally reasonable they're like hey man this is not for me you know and the sooner you can get to that the better I would think. Um so a paid shadow shift. Um, so if you do proper training, right, I mean, I think you get to a situation where you do that shadow and then you kind of like, you know, hey, let them lead and then you're just going to

10:04 kind of be there to watch and then kind of just go on their own a little bit more and train them more. Um, SOPs are mentioned here. Uh, it stands for standard operating procedures. Um, you know, have checklists for things, you know, that type of stuff. Check has a checklist feature. Um, that's really helpful in these situations. Um, I also think it's important not to go overkill on

10:26 stuff like checklist, especially when you're just getting started. You know, just set some common sense things in there. Make it easy. Set your team up for success, basically is what I would say. Um, and I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, just how you are as a manager and how, you know, are you if your if your your game's not completely together, if this is your first go,

10:46 be flexible, right? And learn as you go. Um, but I think also, you know, just setting clear expectations about how they should dress and how they should handle gear or that type of stuff. So, um, some legal and compliance basics. So, I think, uh, one of the things that is frustrating with hiring is like there's it's not just as easy as just cutting somebody a check, right? U,

11:09 and so you'll see con, you know, consistently people wonder, you know, are they an employee or are they a contractor? And so if they're an employee, you've got to send W2 documents to the government. And if they're a contractor, it's 1099. And uh it's my understanding, and again, uh you know, depending, this is mainly US stuff, but you want to check the local or regional laws

11:30 of your area, but most event hires don't meet the IRS standards for 1099 contractors. And basically, the you know, the IRS looks at control and not job title. And if you're controlling where and how to work, they're almost always W2. So, you know, and I think with an event, I mean, you're specifically telling them where, when, and how to work. And so, that's uh pretty clear. Um,

11:55 and so you want to have a W2. So, what's the downside of not doing the W2 and mclassifying people? Um, I think that I don't I don't know specifically, but I think there's uh extra payroll taxes, so you could be caught paying back payroll taxes for mclassification. Um, stuff like that. So, it's just something um I'm a fan of trying to get this stuff right

12:19 from the start because once you kind of start fudging it, it's then it's it's never a good time basically to start setting all this stuff up. And so, um, you know, look into stuff like, uh, we use Gusto at Czecherry for our payroll. It's worked out great. Uh, we like them. It's pretty easy. It's relatively reasonably priced. There are a lot of different

12:38 payroll options. Um, customers have asked Check Cherry to put into payroll at some point. Uh, we haven't gotten there uh, yet. Uh, we should have an answer at some point. I think it seems to fit within the scope of what we do. Um but um you know the the the world of having the payroll done and paying a little money for them to do it is it's not that bad basically. Um so definitely

13:02 hire you know hire a service to help you with the W2 stuff. Um and the W2109 stuff gets complicated. I mean I was you know there's situations where if you're you know hiring another company you know that's probably a 1099 situation. Uh but again speak with somebody in your area. Yeah, that I would just add on to that too that you know white labeling where you're hiring another

13:24 company that does photo booth services. Um you're probably safer with with that type of of thing than a a 1099 that's just working for you and just coming doing your events and things like that. Um, you know, so some of the things to think about, and I know, uh, a lot of times we'll have customers that, um, they're they seem overly concerned that somebody that they're going to hire

13:53 and train up is going to become their competitor. And, um, quite frankly, there's nothing you can do much to prevent that. I mean, I think it's part of the, you know, other than I would say be a great place to work. There's a lot of uh other things that happen in a business other than just showing up and collecting a check obviously. Um you know all the stuff that Check Cherry helps with before

14:12 the event, after the event, you know, uh there's just tons of things even like you know what we're talking about today and attending webinars like this. Um but non-competes, it's my understanding, are they're really restricted or banned in a lot of US states. And so um it's not really something that I think is viable. Um, but more what's used are things like non-solicitation agreements,

14:36 which prevent staff from stealing clients or co-workers for a certain amount of time. Um, or confident and and confidentiality agreements. And so, you probably use both of these uh things to say like, hey, look, you can go start your own business at any time. I mean, that is what it mean. You can't prevent people from working, but you can't steal my clients. You can't steal my

14:56 co-workers. You can't basically steal my business. And so, um, you know, again, these are things that I think are more reasonable to put into place and have people sign. Also, I've learned that, um, it's best to have people sign stuff when they start working as opposed to, oh, you know, I mean, if you don't have this in place, you might want to have everybody sign, but there's always a rift

15:17 when you have existing employees sign a new agreement or something like that. And I think if you do that, I think just be really um, upfront and fair and clear about why it's why you're doing it. Um, you know, again, always consult consult your legal counsel, you know, something somebody familiar with your local laws. So, a lot of this stuff is based in the US, but state laws vary as

15:38 we've mentioned in the non-competes. Um, you know, but h have a good counsel that you can reach out to. Um, you know, it's it's worth it. You know, somebody in your area, somebody you trust. Um, another thing you can do is basically have stuff like uh you know, equipment agreements. you know, you can protect your equipment by having them sign like a gear responsibility agreement and

16:00 just they they acknowledge they've been trained properly and to report issues immediately. Um, you know, that they'll be responsible for negligence, you know, which is not, you know, negligence is not the normal wear and tear to be clear. Um, and it's really not about um charging people, you know, and making, you know, this isn't a profit center for the business.

16:20 is basically just don't abuse the equipment and think you're going to get away with it. You know, it's my last shift, whatever. I'm not going to do with it. You know, that type of stuff. Um I think that can be really helpful if you don't have that. So, um I think that uh pay is, you know, pay and retention. This is really, you know, one you want to be somebody who's reasonable obviously and you

16:41 want to find the right people. um make sure it's a good fit, but really at the end of the day, you know, most are coming, I would say, if not all, you know, for the money. And so, you know, I this is going to vary by region, but you know, you can do hourly or per event. We've seen that. Um and so it varies uh by industry. It varies by but you know, you're 2030 bucks an hour, you know,

17:05 $200, $250 per event. There are pros and cons to those. Um, just keep in mind that your pay rates are a signal, right? If you don't pay well, you're not you're going to not going to get good people and they're not going to value the job as much. And so, I think you got to find a way to charge clients enough that you can pay a fair rate, something that people are excited about earning

17:29 basically, and that they want to keep the job, you know, or keep it, you know, it's worth it. So, um, flat versus hourly. I mean, I'd be curious to see if people have experiences in this. Um, you know, I would say that almost I I would probably do a an hourly situation. Um, because one, there's travel. Um, and so I think travel comes into play and other things. And so,

17:53 um, but I know people do do flat rate. Flat rate's very easy to bake into your cost, so to speak. So, you know, it's kind of easier to think about. But if events run over, setup times longer, whatever it is, um on the flip side, if they're very efficient about setup and that stuff, I mean, maybe it's maybe it's good. But I think hourly probably is better, I'd be curious to hear

18:11 thoughts um from people. Um you know, and I think incentives can really work and I I'm a fan of this stuff. Um it it it doesn't [clears throat] take much and you don't need to do all these, but I think introducing some of these can really be helpful in aligning goals. So for example, a referral bonus. So you know basically 50 100 bucks if you find you know okay if you can bring a new

18:35 team member you know to works three plus events I can give you a bonus $100 bonus something like that. Um, you know, depends on what it's worth to you. Maybe it's more, I don't know. Uh, but using your existing, uh, tenant network, especially if you, imagine if you had like students working for you that you really liked. Um, you know, that could be a really nice place and they're

18:53 obviously going to graduate, but if you kind of always have that going, I could see that as really working well. Um, I've seen, you know, people do the raises, you know, so it's like, hey, you're going to start at a certain rate and then after so many events, you know, you basically get more money and then after even more events, you're at more money per hour. And so what this type of

19:12 thing does is it's going to incentivize people or gives the people incentive to stick with you and then rewards them. And then of course, you imagine after 20 events, you're going to know a lot more, right, and do things. So, I think it's, you know, baking something like that in, uh, makes a lot of sense as well. Um, and then basically, you know, a reli reliability bonus, you know,

19:33 $100 a quarter for, you know, perfect attendance or not, you know, not cancelling or whatever, not having to find a replacement. Um, obviously not no shows. I I suppose I should take that out, but um, you know, just kind of being reliable basically. Um, and you know, I think also there's some really important things about rate praising people in public and correcting in private. You don't want

19:55 to shame people, that type of thing. You want to be somebody who's good to work with, right? I mean, it's not these are in my mind really simple things, but um I think in the heat of the moment, you know, it can be easy to to criticize somebody in public, but try try to correct them in private. Um, you know, giving people opportunities. I think that pay stuff is interesting and that it gives

20:15 opportunities people an opportunity to learn earn more but also like new you know if you if you have a lot of different types of events you know maybe there's more simple and more complex and they pay different I could see that happening um pay your people on time you know I mean I think that's really important um you know be quick to pay them um in all likelihood uh you know I guess some some

20:39 events are post you pay, you know, their net 30 or whatever, corporate and school, but I think the vast majority are prepay, you know, be sure to pay them on time. Um, and then invite them into like and share feedback, celebrate wins, that type of thing. Like, invite them into the company. Um, you know, make them feel like they're part of the team. I think that's also u really important to

21:02 do. Oh, I got this in here again. It's really important. Pay does pay does say send a signal Matt. Um so in closing uh basically great entrepreneurs don't just work hard build teams that make customers happy and uh it doesn't mean that everybody has to grow. Um but I think that if you can get yourself in a position where you have help it frees up time to do other things uh work

21:30 on the business um you know grow the business that type of thing if you're not doing every event. So I would encourage people to uh consider it um and that type of thing. So that's where that's at. Um and so finally we do have features in Czecherry that help with staff and I think uh maybe we can pop open the faux events demo account and kind of poke around. Um but I think you know we have staff

21:53 accounts where you can assign staff um you know they can get notifications. You know, I think if you set your staff up for success when it comes to knowing where to be and reminders and, you know, they can log into the app and see the address, you can have private notes. Um, the events can, you know, the venues or places in Check Cherry can have notes to tell them things so they know where,

22:16 you know, a layout of things for setting up. I mean, just make it easy for them. And we also have a feature where you can send an email to everybody and they can claim the booking, they can assign themselves or um they can uh request to work the booking. And I think that type of thing uh is really helpful because if you're spreading out the events, you know, you can kind of like see

22:36 who's interested, who's who's uh who who's eager to work, and then how do you kind of go about that and filling it up. So, um do we have any chats or questions or anything? Yeah, not a lot of chats. Um, somebody asked for a referral link. So, um, I I dropped, uh, Cher's referral link in there, so feel free to use that or if anybody else has has a link, feel free to share that. Um,

22:58 one question I have for you, um, any tips for writing a good job description because I think, uh, you've done that for both of the interviews we had, and I think you did a good job on that. Um I think that where what I would start with is the type of person that you're looking for and then kind of go from there. Um and so um you know obviously uh you know with Check Cherry

23:25 we had two you know marketing is somebody who's probably more extroverted and more creative and more you know that type of thing. And then the support you know it's okay if you're you probably want to be more introverted and be like super able to dig down into things that type of stuff. Um, and then I think make it relatable and you want to make your company like seem friendly and

23:44 approachable, right? Like you don't like you're not a big corporation. Don't act like it. Like you don't we don't need to have the you're not applying to a big corporation, you know, where you put your resume into the black hole and maybe you get back, you know, a response. I think you have something that's really personable, you know, just say, "Hey,

24:02 look, I'm looking for help. Here's the situation." I would highly encourage people to put the pay rate in there. Highly encourage because that's going to help people feel like this guy, you know, this this person's a straight shooter. They know what they know what they're looking for. I know what I'm getting out of it. You know, everything, you know, the expectations just to weed out, hey,

24:22 I need weekend availability, you know, this type of stuff. I think that would be really good. Um, and uh any tips on knowing knowing how much to pay somebody? How do you how might one that Yeah. It's a tough question. So, I think what I would do is um you know, I would kind of just start with something, you know, I guess it depends on your region, but I would start with something that you

24:46 could afford, you know, and that you're willing to give up and throw it out there. Um, and then can you, you know, what kind of margin do you need on an event if you're not going there? You know, I think maybe that's also, you know, uh, you know, if you're going to make $900 at an event, you know, and it's going to cost you, you know, not much else, I guess, using equipment and some,

25:06 you know, some other stuff, but not, you know, how much can you afford to pay somebody and still make a healthy profit. Um, so I would do stuff like that. Um, but I think the at the end of the day it, you know, I've learned that training and turnover cost a lot and that you're probably better off paying a little bit more, you know, and when I say a little bit more,

25:30 I mean even like even an extra dollar more, $2, I mean like whatever it is, it does add up and people do notice that. Um, yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks. Well, if anybody else has questions, feel free to chat or just unmute your um Hello guys. Hey. Yeah. Uh this is Adi. Thanks so much. I like that you guys put this on, you know, even though he has nothing to really do with Check Cherry,

25:58 but you guys trying to help us and support us. Yeah. That's why we've been here. I think I've been here 3 4 years now and I'm staying strong. Uh so I appreciate you guys. Uh I just want to touch something that I mentioned like two or three calls ago whereby when you trying to send uh a message and [clears throat] you including photos it keep crashing. So like let's say u there's what

26:23 I call an model whereby I'm trying to like build uh after like they fill out the form when they receive my message back I'm trying to do like some stylistic stuff whereby they can see what they're getting hopefully he to convert them easily but every time I had like a photos or insert it just crashed. Did you do a did you do a zoom with Matt by any chance? I think that was the No. Oh, no.

26:47 I think that's kind basically, and Matt, correct me if I'm wrong. It's You're not the only person to report this. Okay. But we can't reproduce it and not everybody's experiencing it. Um, so the thing to do, schedule a Zoom with Matt so he can basically see and thug more or less because we have I'll go ahead and put my uh my calendar. Okay. Pick a time. Share the screen. Let's let

27:16 them look at it. Yeah, that's the way to go about it. And and uh because yeah, we've we've tried, you know, different browsers, different different plugins. Um we just haven't been able to. Yeah. Sam can't do it. Matt can't do it. I haven't I haven't tried actually, but but I think if you can recreate it. Yes. Um you know, and then we can take a look and then look at the inspector and

27:38 stuff like that and see what kind of errors there are. But that would be awesome. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I will try and schedule a time with you. Thank you so much guys. I really appreciate you. Hey, do you hire people? Uh yes. Uh because it's like 8020. If I go on LinkedIn for every time I hire one person, five might be trash. And like there would that be there'll be that one person that

28:00 will just be with me for like a whole year. I have one lady. She's been with me close for a year now. And like the good thing for her is she owns a photography business even though she doesn't know much about it. And I'm all I was all still technically a corporate photographer. So I give a point. So I think maybe one of the reasons and she just looking for like something on the side.

28:20 For anybody hiring, I would suggest look for moms like stay stay at home moms that are just looking for some reason to get out on Saturday. [laughter] Seriously, they are the best. They're going to be reliable. They might not be able to pick things easily. So if you have like 360, forget it. None of the ladies will do the 360 for you. I land, you know, but like just all like a like a mom that

28:47 maybe she's like a empty neester. She just because they love parties. They love weddings. They want to be there, right? You get invited. So that's where I sell it to them and they're getting paid and like I always tell them no, hey, eat, have fun because I en I like I tell people if you're not enjoying what you're doing, don't do it. So I try to let them like enjoy it and like I show

29:08 up and like even sometimes I go beyond and above to go pick the things myself or set up for them because I rather go set up for them, get things in place than worried about people not showing up, you know, it's all about you just have to look for what works for you. It's not the best, but I'll take that over, you know. Well, and I back to the job description. Maybe in the job description

29:31 you're like, "Hey, this role in the past has been a great fit for students, stay-at-home moms, empty nesters, people who want to go to, you know, like you could be like that and let them know, hey, this is kind of Anyway, there's a comment here that says, "Thanks, Audi." So, awesome. Yeah. See, that's I love that. No. Yeah, you guys are out there doing it. So, um, you know, I think that's

29:51 a great tip. Yeah. The vast majority are are, you know, of the responses you get, most of them are not going to be good. you know, it's kind of the same people applying to everything. So, um, but definitely, you know, there's there's those needles in the haststack for sure. Yeah. And another tip, and I hope nobody in Charlotte is listening because they don't want to they

30:10 shouldn't steal my idea. Go to popbookings.com. They are mostly like people that are like in uh hotel, not hotel management, but like uh it's like a more of like a hospitality business and they're just looking for gigs. Even when I'm going to like rally or I'm going to somewhere different, I just book people there and there's chances some of them will like you and they like, "Oh,

30:35 let me know whenever you're around or if you need more." And as long as you can check them on time, you know, that's another good way to always find someone because they're already in the space. Some of them have done photo boo before or they've waited, you know, for a golf event or some that's what they do. So, they know how to approach people. You just have to show them how to

30:53 use the tools, which is not really hard. Like it's in all honesty, you're just pressing the button. It's not like complicated. It's the setup that might be tough, but you know, everybody have what works for them. So, right. Love that. Love that. He's giving out his secrets. [laughter] Um, yeah. And so, well, I think there's a lot of, you know, and I think that's one of the things is

31:20 that, you know, you do learn your little tricks, you know, over time. Um, you know, and figure out kind of what works. And it's interesting that he's not worried about the training much at all, Matt. You know, that he's like, "No, it's pretty easy on the training side." And if they've done it before, um, you know, but I think obviously you need people to show up. um anybody on the DJ side

31:41 that does that does hiring and you know what do you look for or mobile bartending or other event services? Um, I'd be kind of curious, you know, what what people look for. Or is it, you know, I think, uh, obviously it's easier to hire a photo booth than DJ, I would assume, right? An attendant because, um, you know, most people are don't want to get on the mic, I suppose, and kind of,

32:04 you know, MC a whole situation, wedding, that type of thing. But, um, and the bartender, I mean, obviously, that's, you know, another, um, challenge. So, yeah, let's take a look at some of these feature. I like that. So I guess one is so just to be clear, you can assign a staff member. Oh yeah, go ahead, Matt. You know what you're doing. Yeah. So um so yeah, I mean any any staff

32:26 that are, you know, in your town, of course, you can assign them to your bookings. Um you know, one of the things that that Jud mentioned is your you know, your SOPs or your operating procedures. And um I think it's worth um you know we'll kind of talk about some of the features that that Cet Cherry allows for, but it's worth really just kind of sitting down and saying like how do I want

32:48 this to work? You know, are my uh staff going to be taking payments at the event? You know, if if the customer needs to add an extra hour, who's going to do that? You know, is do I trust my attendant to know the pricing to do things like that? or do I want to kind of keep things more um more private and not show them, you know, how much, you know, what the event pricing breakdown

33:09 is and things like that. So, um so with Check Cherry um when you assign somebody to a booking um you know, they'll by default they'll get an email. Um you can also um uh have reminders go out to your staff. I think we do that by default. Uh, but you can certainly have, you know, a whole series of of email reminders, text message reminders if you want, things like that. Just kind of reminding

33:36 them, hey, your your booking is coming up, things like that. Um, but yeah, once you assign them, they'll they'll get um they'll get that email. And then if I go ahead and impersonate the staff um using that impersonate feature, you can see what what your staff sees as well. So, if you want to know like, hey, I'm I'm curious what is it that my staff can see, you know, what can they see

33:59 on this event? Do they have pricing permissions? Do they have uh, you know, access to, you know, what what do they have access to see? Um, use that impersonate feature. It really helps a lot for for getting an idea of what they can see. Um, but let me switch back to the admin account. And so as far as actually setting up your staff, uh you know, you you finally have that first hire,

34:26 uh you're going to come and do that under the user accounts section. And you're just going to add a new user, put their name, their email, um basically uh you know, whatever information you want to include there. And the important thing is you want to check this staff box. Um you probably don't want to give them admin access, you know, unless they're, you know, kind of helping you run

34:47 the business. Um, but you probably do want to give them the staff access. And the big one that that impacts most things is this extended permissions. Uh, this is going to control whether they can see pricing, see messages, make changes to the booking, things like that. And so if you kind of want to give somebody, you know, autonomy to answer all of the customers questions, you know,

35:10 to make changes, things like that, you're going to go ahead and check that box. If you don't want to do that, you know, you want to keep things kind of private. you don't want them to know how much you're making on an event, you're going to want to make sure that you leave that unchecked. This uh see all bookings feature uh where this comes in is is if you have a certain kind of staff that you

35:30 know maybe they don't need to see the pricing, but they do need to see everything on the calendar. So that could be um you know, maybe somebody that's help helping you with the scheduling. Yeah. Um things like that. and you know, or even just you want, you know, maybe you just want your staff to see everything that's going on, even if they don't necessarily have access to pricing and stuff like

35:50 that. Um, and then we do have a sales role. Uh, that's going to be a little bit different. That's more of a for if you've got, you know, if you're at the point where you've got somebody helping you with lead followup, with sending proposals, with things like that, you're going to want to check that that sales box. Um, you know, typically that's not going to be your first hire. you're

36:10 going to be fairly, you know, from what we see, you know, typically people have quite a few, you know, at least a number of staff running events and doing things like that before they bring on somebody to do sales. Um, obviously every business is different, but um, but typically that's not not going to be your first hire. Uh, we see, you know, generally the person that starts the business is

36:30 kind of the one that's that's generating those sales and sending out proposals initially. And then we have this option here about, you know, do you want your customers to see the staff's email and phone? Um, you know, probably less important than the other features, but basically, do you um, you know, it might be helpful to leave that checked if you want your customers to be able

36:49 to call the staff, email them, things like that. Uh, if you want to keep it private, you can just uncheck that. And once you create that staff member, let's go ahead and create one here. Good old John Smith. Oh, he's already He already exists. He's already in there. He's in there. Oh, John. He's in there, too. Yeah, you've been here before. [laughter] So, once you create a user,

37:20 you'll see this is the uh send staff login instructions button. And so, you can go ahead and and send them an um an email that's going to have all the details. And while we're here, we can take a quick look at what that looks like. Um, you can edit these if you want to, but by default that's going to include um, oops, let's look at the preview. Uh, that's just going

37:44 to include you've been invited to include to our staff portal. To log into your account, just click the link below and set your password. Uh, once you've set up your account, you can visit the login link to login on the web or download app link to install the Cherry app on your mobile device. And you can come in and customize that, you know, that language if you want. If you want

38:03 to have kind of a little onboarding thing, you can. Uh, but generally it's, you know, this is this default works pretty well for people. Um, and you know, Check Cherry has, you know, we're we're primarily on the web. You know, your customers are booking you through the web. Um, probably most of the time our admins are are using Check Cherry on the web. Uh but the mobile app is great especially

38:25 for kind of when you're on the go and for your staff. Um you know for your staff particularly if this is just something they're doing occasionally you know they don't want to remember login and remember websites and things like that. So the app is great for them to download install and then once they're logged in it'll keep them logged in. Um and then they'll get push notifications as

38:46 well when a new booking when you assign them to a new booking as well. So, you know, if somebody um you know, booking comes in, you assign uh your new John Smith person to it, they'll get a push notification on the app saying, "Hey, just a reminder or you know, hey, you've been instal uh assigned to this event." So, that can be real helpful as well. Um, another thing that's helpful

39:08 for staff is let's go ahead and impersonate one again. So staff can also sync their calendar to um you know if they use like a Google calendar or Apple calendar or things like that they can um they can uh subscribe to their events on that calendar as well. So, if I go to um probably the easiest way when they log in is to hit the subscribe to calendar link and it's going to

39:39 give them a link that they can add to their Google or you know, whatever whatever calendar they use, they can um there's some instructions for how they can do that. And that's a great way to make sure that you know, whatever they use, you know, they they'll have all of your events on there. So, um, so kind of going back to those SOPs or those, you know, kind of standard standard operating

40:00 procedures, you know, that's the kind of stuff you want to decide up front like, okay, what do I want my staff to do? You know, if if uh you want them to subscribe to the calendar, you know, just maybe include, you know, instructions with with that, saying, hey, you know, once you once you sign in, subscribe to the calendar and things like that. So, um, so it's real helpful to just kind of,

40:20 you know, keep them uh let them know what they need to do when they're first coming on. And the good thing about, you know, with with the calendar, with um, you know, with the mobile app, with the website, all of it, you know, as uh, things change, they're always going to have the latest information. Uh, I know some people like to do like printouts and things like that, which is

40:41 fine. Um, but the downside of anything you print out is it can get out of date. It can, you know, start to become stale as as changes are made. Um, people can lose the paper, stuff like that. So, with a um you know, if they're syncing their calendar, if they're getting emails, stuff like that, they're going to have all that information right there, you know, the latest version of it.

41:06 Let's go back to the admin. Um so, yeah. So, I don't know. Um well, I think the check mention the checklist side real quick. So, I think that's also something um which [clears throat] makes it really easy like an equipment checklist. Mhm. Um so you know when when a booking comes in, you can have an equipment checklist for that package automatically created. Let's get the the booking side of things

41:28 first. Um so every booking has this checklists tab at the top and what you'll see is you know that has a bunch of items that are automatically assigned to it or that you know in this case we're assigned to it. You can of course add new things. you know, if I come to this new test and um you know, add something uh and do something um I can specifically assign somebody or I can just you

41:53 know, everybody that has access to the event is going to be able to see these or uh all of your staff. So, um you know, so that's and I think most staff use the iPhone app. Uh just as a reminder, that is out there. Yeah. And you know, you can open that up and get to the place and make sure you check off the boxes, you know, or maybe have a setup checklist. um for for an event, you know,

42:14 where they can go through and just kind of check all the boxes as they do it. Super easy. Um yeah, but to me, this is like setting people up for success. Um especially if you're new, you know, and so and then, you know, so that's if you know that's on each booking. And like I say, you can manually add stuff if you want, but probably more easily is to come into these checklist templates.

42:35 And what you can do here is set things that um automatically get get applied to your bookings as they come in. So, you know, if if uh you have some kind of, you know, um you know, if you want to just have a reminder to bring a backdrop, um you can include that and it'll automatically um show up on all of your bookings as they come in. And then you can come in to your packages and say,

43:00 "Hey, I just want to do that on my photo booth ones or on certain photo booth packages." Um, and that way, you know, your DJ packages or something else aren't going to have have that reminder. Uh, similarly, you can do add-ons, you know, tied to backdrops, tied to other other things in cherry. And we have a full support video on checklist that you can find through that little search box also.

43:20 I mean, that's probably worth mentioning, but I mean, there's a lot of support material. Um, and you can always chat with us at any time. Yeah. And I think the the main ways we see checklist being useful, you know, it can be kind of a static like list of things to bring. Um, or it can be more for like reminders like, you know, hey, like after the event, you know,

43:39 these are the things we do or before the event, these are the things we do. And again, that kind of just makes it easy to make sure your staff are all on the same page. you know that that you know what you know once you've been doing it forever you'll kind of remember everything yourself you know just without thinking about it but somebody coming on

43:58 um they're not they're not you're going to forget stuff so and as Jen mentioned um under the support section you know there's there's lots of videos um you know the video tutorials are helpful uh you can also just go to the search at the top and if you top type something like checklists you'll see um you'll see support videos in here as well. So um so that can be helpful as well. And then um

44:27 any other Oh, here's a comment. Can Angela says, "Can staff add a postevent notes on the event?" So um so what they can do a couple ways you can do like postevent stuff. So the private notes section is a great way to kind of communicate with staff. Um anything that's private basically that's in that's private to you know that's not going to be shown to the client. So um you know you can add

44:56 notes things like that as as needed. Um you know pick you know setup times pickup times at you know 8 8 a.m. whatever that is. Um and that'll show up. You know the staff will be able to see that. they'll be able to see who added it, things like that. Um, you can have your staff leave notes after the fact, too, if if that's helpful. Um, you can also use the questionnaires feature. So,

45:21 with questionnaires, primarily those are aimed at at clients, you know, client questionnaires, but you can also use it for staff as well. So, you could have um we had an example here. I forgot we even had this, Matt. You know that? Yeah. Um, you can do so I know some people do that. Yeah, we don't we should make an example for that. You should make a template. Yeah. But, um,

45:48 you know, in the same way that you can have your your customers have a survey. Um, you could do something similar with your staff and say, you know, hey, you know, how did things go? You know, give them stars or drop downs or text boxes, whatever you want to kind of ask them. Um, and uh, yeah, I think I think it'd be a good idea for us to add a template. So, yeah, it's a great great

46:08 question. Yep. And I think it really depends on do you want something more structured or is a text area that's real simple that you just put a couple notes in is fine. Um you know this is going to be a more structured uh situation. Yeah. And on these um questionnaires you know you you'd of course want to say hey yes the staff can see it. No the clients can't. And you what what remember the

46:30 other settings? Can you do it postevent? Oh yeah. Yep. And so with this other settings section, you can say basically control when this questionnaire shows up. So you know, do you always show it, which is the default? You do you only want to show it before the booking or only show it after the booking. And so before the booking would be, you know, things like your planning forms,

46:52 your planning questionnaires, you know, song lists if you're doing music planning, things like that. Um after would be maybe a customer survey, a staff uh followup. Yeah. Yep. So, there's your options. But, and uh comment says, "I like the fivestar idea. Very easy." Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it kind of depends on what you I mean, I think uh I mean, we all have different personalities

47:15 as entrepreneurs, but I think kind of start simple and get complex when required. I think, you know, is what I would say. Um there's no need to make things complex when you're not sure if it even matters, I guess, you know. But that being said, um yeah, you can do the five stars and that's pretty quick and easy. that's what you're looking for. I like it. Um that's

47:35 another feature that can be helpful. Um so under packages, if you click on one of the services, like if I click on the photo booth service, we do have some staff settings in here as well. Um you know, you can label what you call them, you know, photo booth attendants and stuff like that. But um more interestingly, there's a a setting down here that how should staff be assigned to this event.

47:56 And the default is, you know, do not automatically assign staff. you know, we assume that by default, you know, most people assign their own staff, but we do have a couple of features that can be useful. Um, one of them is to allow staff to claim bookings. So, say, you know, a booking comes in, you can have a message go out to your staff or you can just, you know, tell them to check

48:16 in periodically, however you kind of want to do things. But when a booking comes in, um, you know, they can click that email and claim it themselves or go within their account and claim it. Um, you can also just let them request it. And so that way, you know, you kick it out and, you know, maybe five people request it and then you assign it to one of them. Um, for real small operators,

48:36 you know, you might want to, you know, if somebody handles all of your photo booths or, you know, all of your, uh, DJ or something, you can automatically assign somebody as well. And then we do have, way less common than the other ones, but we do have a setting to allow the customers to choose their own staff as well. And where that's useful is say you're um you've got a bunch

48:57 of like DJs and you know they're they're kind of better at different things. You know certain ones are good for weddings, certain ones are good for other things. Um you can have uh profiles in Cet Cherry and then the customer can choose their own stuff as well. Yeah. Like pick your talent kind of situation. Yeah. Exactly. And so if you're doing a lot of white labeling or things like that, that

49:16 can be useful as well. you know, if you've got kind of a a network of people you you sub out to or you know, and I think one last area to cover is the you know, with staff, which could be helpful, is there is a note section on places. So, um you know, most people forget about this feature, but um when you these will automatically populate, by the way, and when when you've done a work

49:38 or there's a booking with one of these, you can basically go in and there are some times where you're going to have specific instructions uh for a venue that are are not going to change, you know. So, you can have public and private notes. Um and so you put in the private notes, you know, stuff like that. You can also, if I remember right, do attachments right there in the bottom

50:00 right. So, I've seen people do uh layouts and instructions and stuff like that. So, um something else. And I think what's cool about that is it really just helps set your staff up for success, right? If there's a if a venue has certain things about it and it's just really easy for them to see it and know and all that stuff, they're it's going to be easier to work with you, you know, better

50:24 service, all that stuff. Yeah, exactly. Um, and that's kind of a one time every time. You know, the venue never that never changes for the venue. Yeah. Yeah. This will show up directly on the book that way. That's right there. And this will, uh, also show up in the mobile app as well. So, um, so if they're they're on site, they should see it there as well. Yeah. Yeah. Most staff again

50:46 use the mobile app. I think that's really common, um, that they're using the mobile app, um, and so on. So, well, are there any other questions? We miss anything, Matt? What do you think? This is a check unrelated to check cherry. Um I'm curious. One of the barriers we're thinking about is you know we're hiring people mainly right now for events that we can't do. But how do you deal

51:14 with your equipment and like timing and getting it to the getting it to the people who are um the staff running your events? My my understanding is most people have a pickup location. So the staff member is responsible to come pick it up at your location and then drive to the event. Uh that's I think what I've seen most of the time. Um, I guess it depends on how far away it is and you know

51:43 there's some other specifics, but I think that that is a common pattern where you have whether it's your garage, a storage unit or an office um that they come pick it up and um you know I think if you're uh one of the great moves is to have everything packaged up in a box slash you know bins like all together um so they just pick it up you know and take off and then they come back and

52:09 drop it off, that type of thing. Um, I haven't heard many people do the drop off. Yeah. How do you have other things to say? Uh, just to add to it because it's tough finding people. Another solution is because I don't know, for some reason some people, you know, car issue, I just put the equipment in a Uber or lift. I send it to them at the location. When they're done, oh, I I try to

52:34 make it work. [laughter] When they're done, I tell them, "Let me know when you done." I send a lift down there. The lift pick up, drop it to my house or or my garage uh my garage place. Even sometimes I'll tell the lift guy if I'm not home, I'll open my garage remotely. I'll tell him I'll give you extra $5 tip. Put it just dump it right here. And then when I come cuz I have cameras everywhere

53:00 you can open remotely because I struggle with it when I was trying to scale and like I couldn't find anybody to give me a tip or how they do it because I'm running most of my stuff from home. I'm fortunate to have a two garage system whereby my [clears throat] lady has a home parking space then my parking space is outside on the street so everything else go to the second side. So is like

53:24 don't don't be discouraged. get one of those uh the garage thing that is like the same. You can connect it to your phone. It's free. You can open and close it. You have cameras everywhere. So, nobody's really looking forward to steal your thing because you can see everything going on. And like, you know, because that's the only way like you can get to whereby you're doing two,

53:46 three events in a weekend without really like killing yourself, you know? So, yeah. And I love that. That's a great that's another that's like my what I do, you know, because people some people would like maybe oh I don't have a car. I don't know how to get like just get to the work don't worry I'll get the equipment to you while they're there. Yeah, it will cost you a little bit

54:09 but the good thing is I'll rather get the $900 and pay extra $200 than not getting it at all. Yep. So that's another way to look for it. Yeah. Great addition. Yeah. And it's great with all the, you know, the smart cameras and locks and all that stuff. I mean, it just makes it so much easier than it was, you know, when when we were growing up. So, yeah. Love it. Great question.