On a rare wander through Covent Garden or perhaps navigating the labyrinth passages of the London Underground, it’s tempting for an entertainment booker to reach into his or her pocket and start firing business cards into the guitar cases or top hats of busking entertainers. The scatter-gun approach, the thinking behind which goes something along the lines of; “If I indiscriminately throw enough business cards at any act I see busking, odds are at least one of them will be worth booking.” Of course then the office will be inundated with calls from acts that you couldn’t book in a million years… and what if a client spots you feverishly throwing handfuls of business cards into the air and shouting “Call me if you play the Harp!”? They probably won’t be a client any more – unless they play the harp, in which case they’ll become an act.

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