The job interview...

You’ve been rehearsing forever, and you’ve got a solid four sets’ worth of music. The band is feeling good and sounding tight; you’ve got a bunch of demo videos posted online, and you’re completely confident that now you’re finally ‘ready’ to play anywhere. There’s just one problem; where are you gonna play?
This is probably the most difficult part of playing in a band — selling your services to a potential employer (aka finding a gig). In a very real sense, it’s a job interview, where you make your pitch to the manager or club owner and hope they’ll give you a chance to play at their club. It makes a lot of people nervous (myself included), but it’s absolutely necessary in order to get out of the rehearsal studio and into the real world of being a practicing musician!
So how do you do this…? First, research what clubs are out there, and which ones might be interested in your particular niche (your 80’s dance band might not go over too well at a country bar). Visit these places and find out who’s in charge of booking the entertainment — it’s that person, or the club owner, you want to focus on. Don’t rush things; if they’re busy, wait until they have a few minutes to speak with you. Smile! Tell them who you are, tell them a little about your band and what makes you unique, give them a business card, and tell them where to find your demo material! If they’re interested, they’ll tell you. Or maybe they’ll call you sometime. If not, oh well.
If I could offer one piece of advice to anyone in this situation, it’s this: don’t wait until you’re ‘ready’ before you start looking for gigs. When you’re ‘almost ready’ (like 75 - 80%) is the best time to start looking. It might be months before a club can book you, which gives you tons of time to finish getting ‘ready.’ If you can get a gig sooner, it’ll give your band a little push (or pressure, however you want to look at it) to get going! Of course, make sure you’ve got good demo material and some nice-looking business cards.