# Finding Help



## FracturedDS (Jun 7, 2011)

My wife and I are pretty serious Home Haunters and have a dream of going pro in the future. Right now we do everything ourselves, but we are getting big enough where we need to have additional help to get what we need done. We are looking more for a core group that we can also bring to the pro level in the future. My question is for those of you that made the transition to pro or have a larger home haunt where did you find people that make what you do possible?


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## FracturedDS (Jun 7, 2011)

I was also wondering how much competition there is in the industry? Home haunters are pretty friendly, and the pro haunters we have met are the same. Is it common for local pro haunters to be friendly with other haunts or is the competition intense enough to prevent that?


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Take a look at this thread - discussions about issues with going pro and recommendations about a book on the subject:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=25519

Another "going pro" thread:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=26090

And another:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=7029

A short one on getting haunt help:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=23108

There are a number of members here who've run home, charity, and pro haunts that will have insight on the "getting help" issue. Many start with recruiting friends and family and grow from there.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

We are by no means pro, but we do use about 15 "actors" in our haunt. We have gotten volunteers through the neighborhood, from people who have been through the haunt and come back the following year to volunteer, through the local high school drama/ROTC program. We also have a local township street fair, Neptune Day. Hubby and I contacted them, they donated a space to use and we went in full zombie costume the first year, walking through the crowd, handing out fliers and talking to people. The next year we went in costume but set up a booth and hubby and I sat there working on props while people came by. It really drew people over as they wanted to see what we were doing and how. One year we ended up with about 25 people signing up. Of course, of that, only 10 actually followed through when I contacted them, but that was more than enough. This past year we had so many we didn't have spaces for everyone, so we were adding extra scenes at the last minute.


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## HalloweenRick (Nov 25, 2005)

I would contact some of the local volunteer clubs (Lions, Rotary, Ruritan) if you're thinking of splitting some of the proceeds with the charity they run. A lot of those groups are always looking for a fundraising idea that uses their free labor. We have two great "haunted hayrides" locally that are run by a local volunteer fire company and the local Jaycees civic club.


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## grantbrott (Feb 22, 2010)

Local college theater department and acting groups. Our local JC has a great theater department and I have had stagecraft majors and acting majors all come to help out just for the fun of it and some will keep coming back year after year if they are local also.


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