How to Start a Ticketing Business: Online & Home-Based

Which business idea do you currently have in mind? Do you feel like becoming an entrepreneur in the ticketing industry? Here is a complete guide on how to start a ticketing business and make profits.

As the world and technology changes, so do the working and earning opportunities.

Unlike in the past, when you had to be in your working place physically, the world has taken remote working to an entirely new level.

Today, things have taken a new turn, and people can work from any location, as long as there is an internet connection.

In this article, we explore procedures on how to start a ticketing business – either online or home-based.

If you’ve been interested in starting a ticketing business, then today, we offer you the perfect solution.

We’ll discuss more on the process, advantages, as well as disadvantages of both online and home-based ticketing businesses.

Tips on How to Start a Ticket Booking Business

These unique steps show you exactly how to be a ticketing agent:

1. Learn and Understand the Business Landscape

Before you can dive right in and start selling those tickets, understanding the landscape of the business is crucial. You need to know how the business works, who the customers are, who your competition is, and the various rules of operation.

This way, you have a clear idea of what you are getting yourself into, and what are your chances of success.

For instance, if you are running an online ticketing business, you must first understand how various ticketing websites work, especially the market leaders.

Also, it would help if you researched about how they serve their clients, how much they charge, and the different ways they make profits.

Essentially, a ticket booking business requires you to buy tickets in bulk at a wholesale or discounted price, and then sell them at a higher price to make some profit.

You can buy tickets for any popular event, then attract willing buyers, either through online or other advertising means and sell the tickets for a profit.

If you are operating an online ticketing business, interested customers will contact you through your set website, or even call you. Payment is usually via credit or debit cards, or any other acceptable online payment method like PayPal.

All these help you to come up with a plan that strategically positions you in the market.

2. Come Up with a Concrete Ticketing Business Plan

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, a business plan is a must-have tool. A business plan is the road map and guideline for your business.

Without a proper plan, your business might fail before it even starts.

And, whichever business you are planning to start, proper planning should never be ignored.

When starting a ticketing business, just like in any other business, several considerations come into play in creating a business plan.

Whether you are formulating a home-based or online ticketing business plan, your plan should contain the following:

• A Business Model

This part of the plan includes the outline of the business’s activities and how they will be carried out. It highlights what tickets your business will be offering, as well as how you’ll be selling them.

For instance, you might decide to make all your sales online, make on-site sales, or use any other sales methods. Your business model helps in positioning your business, as well as communicate your presence, especially in a market with existing competitors.

Do you want to build a travel agent business or do you want to sell tickets to local entertainment? You’ll need to hash this out in your business plan.

• Marketing Plan

This is another quite important section of a business plan for your ticketing business. You need to know how you will acquire your customers and in a cost-effective way.

Remember, you will be dealing with companies who have the experience, and who have stayed in the industry for quite a long time – competitors who know the ins and outs of the business.

So, how will you position yourself to attract customers? What effective marketing techniques will you employ to outdo your competition? These are some questions that must be answered.

You should note that your tactics should also not be costly, as the margins in this business can be considerably low. This is especially with the stiff competition, sometimes even from your ticketing company. It, therefore, means that you must have a unique, low-cost, but effective marketing plan.

You should perform A/B testing to determine which strategy works best for which clients, and optimize on that. The conversion rates for the marketing techniques you choose should be quite high.

For example, email marketing generally has a 122% return on investment. Learn how to build an email list with success in this free course.

See Related: Hotel Digital Marketing Tips to Grow

• Financial Projections

When starting a ticketing business, financial projections must be made. They should be set based on the anticipated gross margins on the growth of sales and revenues.

Since your business probably doesn’t have any prior operation history, you should use the existing companies’ financial ratios to estimate this.

Remember, if you are seeking funding, investors and lenders will require 3-5 years of income and expense projections.

It, therefore, means that even though your business is entirely new, financial projections must be included in the business plan.

This is crucial in determining the customer-acquisition plan and cost, as well as the retention rate.

3. Design Your Website and Content

An active, responsive, and customer-friendly website is quite necessary while operating either a home-based or online ticketing business. Otherwise, how will you make it in this internet era?

Potential buyers will log in to your website seeking to buy tickets. And if they can’t find what they want fast and efficiently, they might just log in to your competitor’s website and make the purchase.

Therefore, your website must be attractive and user friendly to ensure that you don’t lose potential sales.

It must include all the necessary information that customer needs and an easy way to access that information. Fast loading time and easy navigation will make the ticket purchase process easy, thus offering the best customer experience.

Always make your website and its content, SEO friendly to ensure organic traffic, which can translate to sales. Make the buying process as easy as possible.

Our recommended option is Bluehost. It’s the easiest way to build a website and for the right price. It’s only $3.95/month to get started and you’ll get a free domain name along the way.

See Related: How to Use Pinterest in the Travel Industry

4. Learn How to Sell Your Tickets

Besides making the website SEO friendly, you also need to make your offers attractive and irresistible.

Remember, you are not alone in the industry. You need to be able to compete with other ticketing companies and agents, who might be offering even lower prices.

The availability of information online means that customers can easily browse for the best deals. This also implies that it is harder to convince customers to buy tickets from your site, especially if there is a better offering.

So, you must first offer the right prices for the tickets and gives deals that customers expect, and more.

And, since undercutting will only make the business less profitable, develop other ingenious tacts to sell tickets without too much price reduction.

Remember you still have to put your costs into consideration, to be able to make any profits.

Need to figure out how to get traffic to your ticketing business? Join this affordable  5 Traffic Secrets Online course to learn how to get eyeballs on your website right away.

It’s only $27 and you’ll get some amazing bonuses along the way. 

See Related: Ways to Book the Cheapest First Class Flights

Ticket Booking Business Ideas

If you are looking for the best ticketing business ideas, there are quite a number.

People buy tickets for various things, including travel, concerts, and events. Here are some excellent business ideas for you.

• Airline Ticket Booking Business

This is one of the most popular ticket booking ideas, and arguably among the most profitable ones. People are always traveling for vacations and business trips, and most of the time they need air tickets.

Whether its local or international air tickets, this can be a lucrative business idea.

You can easily start a travel booking agency and start your entrepreneurial journey. With airline ticket booking, the job doesn’t end with the customer getting the tickets.

Most agencies will go ahead and plan for their clients’ vacations or trips, including recommending travel destinations and booking for their hotels.

This way, you have a wider income range right from tickets, and commissions from travel destinations and hotels.

For more information on how to start an airline ticketing business, take a look at our blog on how to become a home-based travel agent for free.

See Related: Best Travel Agent Jobs

• Bus Ticket Booking Business

As a travel agent, you can also include booking services for buses to your airline booking or just focus on it alone.

Whichever the case, the operations are almost similar, except that one includes air travel and the other one road. The business structure is the same, and you face the same competition challenges and opportunities.

Just like starting an airline ticket booking business, bus ticketing business also needs research, a plan, and a responsive website.

This way, you offer your customers a platform where they can easily book their bus tickets at any time.

Join Global Travel to learn how to become a travel agent and get paid to travel the world.

• Events Ticket Booking

Online event booking is quite popular as almost everyone now books event tickets online. This means that an event ticket booking business can be quite lucrative. And although it’s not that easy to start one, here is how you can go about it.

There are two main ways of starting an event ticketing business.

One, you can sell tickets to an event you’ve organized, or better still, become a broker (buying bulk tickets and reselling them at a profit). Whichever the case, you should have a website.

This will help you to advertise your business, and create an online presence where customers can access your tickets. In the event ticket-selling business, you have various business options you can pursue.

For instance, you can sell tickets for church events, concerts, classes and workshops, community events and festivals, sporting events, and charities.

There is so much to go with when it comes to event ticket booking. Concert ticket booking for artists’ music concerts and events is also quite popular, and it can pay handsomely.

You can become the ticket booking agent for various artists, whereby fans can buy tickets to their events through your site.

See Related: Travel Hacking 101: Travel the World For Next to Nothing

Registration of a Ticket Booking Business

Before you start your ticketing or travel booking business, you must ensure that you have all the necessary licenses and permits. Starting the business without proper local and State business permits can lead to hefty fines, if not a closure of the business.

For instance, 14 states in the US require you (travel agency) to obtain a “Travel Sellers Registration License” before you can sell travel tickets and plans.

You can obtain such documents by applying through the set channels.

However, you should note that this involves some fees based on the State you are starting the business. You might also be required to provide some supporting documents like being a member of a specific professional association.

Learning the basics of how to start a ticketing business is crucial, as it will immensely help you when the business kicks off.

Also, remember to register a unique business name that people can easily remember. For the business name registration, you need to confirm with your State if the name is available, by performing a trademark search.

Also, do a web search and ensure that your name of choice doesn’t exist and that its web domain is available.

See Related: Pros and Cons of Being a Travel Agent 

Conclusion on How to Start a Ticketing Business

With the increased opening of the global markets, people can now travel around the globe easily. Whether it’s for business, holidays, or even relocations, people are always moving around. This makes the travel business quite a lucrative business niche.

Also, there are numerous events taking place daily that require ticket booking. Right from musical concerts, theatre plays, sports, to community festivals and events. This means that people are continually looking for places to buy tickets to these events.

With the right information on how to start a ticketing business, you can easily start and operate a ticketing business profitably. We hope that this article offered useful information to help you start your next business venture.

Related Resources

• When Is the Best Time to Travel to Puerto Rico? (Ranked)
• What is Travel Concierge: Things to Know
• GetYourGuide vs Viator: What is Better?
• How to Book a Flight Without a Credit Card

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