What If Nobody Books Your Creative Workshop? When to Cancel (and When to Keep Going)
There are few things more disheartening than putting a new workshop on sale, feeling excited about it and then... nothing.
You check the bookings again. Still nothing.
You post about it on Instagram. You check again. You convince yourself the booking system might be broken. You ask the venue if they've promoted it. Still nothing.
I've been there I've run hundreds of creative workshops over the years and plenty have sold out, but I've also had workshops that didn't sell enough tickets to go ahead and I found cancelling them really hard. I felt embarrassed, I wondered if I was wasting my time and I took it personally and convinced myself that nobody was interested in what I was doing.
What I've learned since is that one workshop not selling doesn't necessarily tell you very much at all. Sometimes it's the workshop, sometimes it's the venue, sometimes it's the date, sometimes it's the weather and sometimes you never really know.
So, what should you actually do when nobody is booking your creative workshop?
First: don't panic
A slow start doesn't necessarily mean your workshop won't sell. People don't always book creative workshops months in advance. I've had workshops sit with very few bookings and then suddenly start selling much closer to the date. Before you cancel anything, give yourself a chance to work out what might be going on.
Is the workshop clear?
Do people know exactly what they'll be making?
Have you promoted it more than once?
Has your venue actually told its audience about it?
Is it easy to book?
If your workshop isn't selling, I've written a whole separate guide about why your creative workshop might not be selling and what to do about it.
How many bookings do you need to run a creative workshop?
This is something I'd decide before you put the workshop on sale.
My minimum was usually six people. I'd worked out that with six bookings I could cover my costs and make enough money for the workshop to be worth running. Any fewer and once I'd accounted for materials, travel, venue costs and my time, I was basically breaking even. Your number might be completely different. The important thing is knowing what it is. Don't wait until you've sold three tickets to start wondering whether three people is enough. Work out your costs, decide what you need to make and set your minimum number.
If you're not sure whether you're charging enough in the first place, have a read of How Much Should You Charge for a Creative Workshop?
Should you run a workshop with only a few bookings?
You can. I've done it and some of those tiny workshops have been perfectly lovely but they weren't particularly worthwhile financially.
There can also be a slightly strange atmosphere when someone arrives expecting a workshop and discovers they're one of only two people there. I've had customers feel uncomfortable about being the only person booked onto something, and suddenly what was supposed to feel like a relaxed group workshop feels very different. That doesn't mean you should never run a small workshop. There might be a good reason to. Perhaps you're trying out a new workshop and want the practice. Maybe you're building a relationship with a brilliant new venue. Perhaps you're testing an idea. Just make it a conscious decision. Don't repeatedly run workshops that don't make you any money because you're too embarrassed to cancel them.
When should you cancel a creative workshop?
For low ticket sales, I would usually make the decision around a week beforehand. That gave me enough time to try a final push without leaving the people who had already booked wondering what was happening until the last minute.
Of course, not every cancellation can be planned. I've had workshops cancelled because I was ill, I've had venues with building work and broken boilers and then there's the British weather. Snow does not care how many tickets you've sold. Sometimes cancelling at the last minute is unavoidable. If that happens, communicate with your customers as quickly as you can, explain what's happened and make the next steps really clear.
What should you try before cancelling?
If bookings were low, I wouldn't immediately give up. I'd promote the workshop again, I'd email my mailing list, I'd ask the venue to promote it to their audience and I'd talk about it more on social media. Sometimes I'd run a competition for a free place, which could help get more eyes on the workshop.
This is also why I think the venue you choose matters so much. A good workshop venue doesn't just give you a room. Ideally, it gives you access to a community of people who already know and trust that venue. I've written more about that in How to Find the Right Venue for Your Creative Workshop.
Should you discount a workshop if tickets aren't selling?
I've done this too. And yes, sometimes it works but it's not something I particularly like doing.
The biggest problem is that you might already have customers who happily paid full price. Suddenly dropping the price because you're struggling to sell the remaining places doesn't feel particularly fair to them.
It can also teach you the wrong lesson. If a workshop isn't selling, price might be the problem, but it might not be. Knocking £10 off isn't going to fix a workshop that's in the wrong location or an activity that people simply aren't interested in making. So before reaching for a discount code, I'd try to understand why bookings are slow.
Why hasn't your workshop sold?
This is the big question and unfortunately, there isn't always a neat answer.
Over the years, I've had workshops struggle because:
the date wasn't right
the season was wrong for the activity
the price was too high
the venue wasn't right
the location wasn't right
people simply weren't interested in what I was teaching
And sometimes a workshop I'd expected to sell brilliantly just didn't. That's business. The important thing is to treat it as information rather than immediately deciding “nobody wants what I do”. If the same workshop sells brilliantly at another venue, perhaps the location was the problem. If your Christmas workshop flies out but the same activity struggles in February, perhaps it's seasonal. If people are clicking through but not booking, perhaps you need to look at your price or booking process. One unsuccessful workshop isn't enough information to decide your whole idea is a failure.
Cancelling a workshop doesn't mean you've failed
I wish I'd understood this much earlier. When I cancelled workshops because of low bookings, I felt ashamed. I'd worry about telling the venue. I'd worry about the customers who had booked. I'd wonder whether everyone else was running sold-out workshops while I was quietly cancelling mine. And because I'd created the workshop myself, it felt personal. They weren't rejecting a workshop. They were rejecting me. Except they weren't.
A workshop is a product. Sometimes products don't sell. You look at what happened, change something and try again. That might mean changing the date, finding a different venue, trying another location, changing the activity, adjusting your price, giving yourself longer to promote it or occasionally deciding that particular workshop just isn't one people want. That's useful information too.
Don't let one quiet workshop make the decision for you
If you're building a creative workshop business, at some point you'll probably put something on sale that doesn't sell as well as you'd hoped. You might even have to cancel it. It feels horrible and I know because I've done it. But I've also had workshops sell out. I've had people come back again and again. I've taught thousands of people and built a whole business around running creative workshops. The unsuccessful ones were part of that too.
One quiet workshop doesn't mean nobody wants what you do.
Work out what you can learn from it, change what needs changing and decide whether it's worth trying again. And please don't keep running workshops that cost you money just because cancelling one feels embarrassing. Your workshop business needs to work for you too.
Need help figuring out what's going wrong?
If you're already running creative workshops but you're struggling with bookings, pricing, venues or figuring out what to try next, that's exactly the sort of thing we can talk about in a Strategy Session. The best place to start is with a free 15 minute Virtual Cuppa. We can have a chat about your workshops, where you're feeling stuck and whether I'm the right person to help. There’s no pressure and no hard sell, just a cuppa and a chat.