For as long as I can remember we have been fed misinformation about the relationship, or lack thereof, between the arts and science. The arts are here, we are told, and business is here and between the two is a wall or chasm which is seldom crossed, and only then to the detriment, one way or the other, of the individual brave enough to venture the leap.

Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat
                                                Rudyard Kipling

For me, this began as early as school, that great home and habitat of the clique, yet in contrast to the usual divisions and tribes of the school child, this seemed to be one acknowledged, confirmed and even endorsed by the teachers. So much so that come sixth form college, the arts department was three miles out of town, away from the main campus! “Keep those frivolous and weird arty types away” they seemed to be saying, and don’t get me wrong, this was no gulag. Yet in all that time I do not once recall speaking to a student of business or related studies, and importantly, I do not recall one of them getting to speak to one of us.

So our two great disciplines never touched, and this is the paradigm that has been followed into the workplace. In the Venn diagram of industry below you may see the perceived notion of performing arts on the left and business on the right. The two circles are more partitioned than teenage siblings on the back seat of the car.

Yet there is no excuse to follow this arbitrary segregation. There is much shared benefit in a partnership between your business and show-business, and here I intend to lay down the 5 main reasons why you should be using these arty types in your workplace.

1. We are trained to get reactions out of people.

Whether it’s a comedian getting laughs, a magician astounding your expectations, or a cellist proving that “strings made of sheep’s guts are capable of drawing men’s souls out of their bodies”, we get a reaction. What reaction does your business need? Decide that and then find a specialist to glean that reaction for you in a way that might not necessarily occur to you.

Do you need to draw your staff together? How about a shared moment of emotion, nostalgia or amazement. You want to grab the attention the punters passing your stall? Use an entertainer who can build a crowd. You want to impress your clients between negotiation meetings on a heavy day? Find an entertainer to give them a brain break and blow their minds. Everyone wants to work with someone who impresses them.

2. Entertainers work with you.

Don’t believe the temperamental artist stereotype. Most entertainers are hard-working, contentious folk who are trying to make a living. If they can provide you with a bespoke service and exercise the craft they love in the process, they will be grateful to you and want to work with you!

(That is not to say they will work for free or for “exposure”. As with a suit or wine, you get what you pay for; Derren Brown from off of the telly is more effective and more expensive than Darren Broon from accounts who has a band in his dad’s garage. Darren might be fine, but you know for certain that Derren will be astounding.)

So talk to an entertainer, and tell them what you hope to achieve and what your aims are. If they cannot help you, odds on they will know someone who can.

3. Most of us are flexible.

Things change on the day, all the time. CEO not arrived yet? Fill in. Forgot to hand out the awards? We can help with that. Birthday in the crowd or someone retiring? We can perhaps do something a little special for them. Ask your performer, we are used to it. If you employ an experienced performer we have all sorts of tricks up our sleeves and are ready for almost anything.

4. Glossophobia? No thanks.

Glossophobia – that is the fear of public speaking affects 74% of people according to Statistics Brain. It is the highest indexed phobia on their lists. The second highest is Necrophobia – the fear of death, at 68% at the time of writing. This means that at any given funeral most people would rather be in the box than standing in front of it giving the eulogy!

You may not want to speak publicly, and the person in your company who doesn’t mind so much may not be the best person for the job. Many professional entertainers are able to take this burden upon themselves and save you the worry. We don’t mind public speaking whether it is announcing your awards, introducing the guest speaker or warming up for the CEO. Be sure and ask and it may be one less thing a busy event organiser has to think about.

5. Professionalism.

Did you ever hear of a company who got a group of office volunteers together to form a committee, to plan and install the new plumbing for the staff lavatory? Or to rewire the building? Would you let Margery from PR head up a team to lay the building foundations of the new conference facility because she had an interest in construction in college? Of course not. Yet how many times do you hear of such committees being given the job of entertaining their fellow workers and sometimes visiting guests and VIPs from other companies and associates at a corporate events? Such entertainments can, arguably, be good for internal moral in some cases like the company Christmas party or picnic. But if your business is setting out to impress and put out a professional image, you need a professional for that.

Surprising as it may seem, like professional builders, electricians and plumbers, professional performers need to keep abreast of the latest developments in their industry. They study and work hard (or the good ones do) to follow the latest equipment, techniques and theory, just like you do for yours. The perception is that once you can sing, you can sing, or once you can do magic you can do magic, perhaps once in the dim and distant past that was the case, but in the modern workplace professionals are constantly working on and honing their skills and developing new aspects of performance.

So there you have it, 5 reasons you should be employing professional performers for your business. They don’t have to be on the telly, or YouTube’s latest flavour of the month. You don’t even have to have heard of them (at first). Look for their testimonials, look for their experience, meet with them as you would any other contractor and talk to them about what you can accomplish together. You should be pleasantly surprised to discover that we are more than aware that the term show-business is made up of two words, the largest of which is business, and that could be everyone’s business.