We had the good fortune of connecting with Curt Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Curt, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
After spending years working for corporate company, I seen a need to do something in the community and seen the value. Careful consideration on kicking it off studying everything in the music industry, artists, recordings, studios, venues, agents, I quickly saw the vision. The goal is and was to give local artists a local lower cost and less stressful company to work with. I developed a business plan and had a 3 year plan to expand into not just Entertainment & Promotions but also adding a concert venue to the business. I knew our local community had nothing like that. Again the vision on what the community needed as that helps the business succeed, and now PWR has its own venue as well and accomplished it in less than 2 years .
What should our readers know about your business?
My business is just one of many in the Music Industry, however we are unique and not the same as other companies. We are a music artists one stop shop, we have management, promoters, agents, recording studio and we are a label all in one business. The artist does not need to deal with 2 or 3 separate individuals or companies, therefore making it less problematic on them. We also now have a concert venue to showcase our artists and their talents. Start up was not easy as Artists must trust a company to work with them and believe in them. Knowing it would be difficult to start landing good local talent to build and release was the major concern. Secondly finding staff that could to the above listed tasks and jobs with confidence was a large concern. As a start up to go hire a 10 or more year employee that is fully trained would be costly and would hurt financially.
We solved this issue by bringing in someone who has years of experience and used that to build our team and their experience. It has worked well and now our staff is one of the tops in the industry.
The biggest hurdle was getting into other venues with our talent on our roster. We just stayed the course and with patience pushed ahead and now our booking 150 or more shows per month. The key here is to never give up, when a door closes it doesn’t mean it will stayed close and we have maintained a steady pace.
We just like everyone to know that we treat our roster and employees like family. PWR is really one big extended family and everyone works together and looks out for one another. This leads to some of the best talent and shows that we can schedule out for any venue. We take pride in what we do and all of PWR family wears the brand proudly and our clients enjoy working with us as we take the struggles out of planning and scheduling shows.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well I am going to bias on this as we have the PWR Texan Theatre, an awesome Historical Marked Theatre that we hold concerts in. I would take him there for one of our beg concerts, then I would have to take him to the best hang out in town, The Wagon Wheel Grill & Bar. The Wagon Wheel always has live music , cold adult beverages, awesome staff and friendly guests. Following a night out we would have to visit Lake Livingston and do some of the best hybrid striper and white bass fishing there is around. I would also have to get him to Pueblo Viejo Mexican Catania, another location with live music, awesome food and staff with the best Margaritas in town.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout goes to my Father. A Korean War Veteran and a man who worked hard to provide and one day started his own business with next to nothing in his pocket for money. In two he was cash positive and successful until the day he took his own life. From that day forward I took the belief you can do and be whatever you want in life and to not stress yourself over it by listening to the nay sayers. I have had many nay sayers but we are doing good all due to my believe in staying positive and build off the positivity’s.
Website: www.pwrpromotions.com www.pwrtexantheatre.com
Facebook: Pineywoods Rooters Entertainment & Promotions PWR Texan Theatre