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A
quality show is hard work |
How much time do we spend with
our clients? Besides the 4 to 5 hours at the reception, DJ's
spend much more additional time into their event. There's the
office end of it: bookkeeping, payroll, bill paying, taxes,
etc. Then just to keep their business running smoothly, there's
the endless sales: meetings, phone calls, prospecting, trade
shows, marketing, ad design, etc. Let's not forget the performance
aspect: buying music product, keeping up with trends, researching
equipment upgrades.
Then
on the day of the event, don't forget the 1-2 hours to load
the van up, one hour to drive down (2 if you're playing at Turtle
Bay :^), 2 hours to load in and set up, one hour to teardown
and load the van, 1-2 hours drive home, and 1 hour to unload
the van and put things away.. For part-timers, this is in addition
to the 40 hours or so that is put into a "day job." For them,
they are sacrificing time away from their family, recreation,
and free time by going out on weekends to your gigs.
How
much do DJ's make? Many part time or hobby DJ's assume that
if they get $300 for a gig, they have made $300 profit. Top
professional DJ business's obviously don't make this mistake.
They have made the largest mistake that businesses can make,
and which causes most to go out of business. In order to get
any business, DJ's must spend upwards of $1000 per month on
marketing and advertising such as wedding expos, printed full
color flyers, yellow page advertising, etc. Expenses can easily
run over $2000 per month. Gigs almost always fall on Saturdays,
with few weekday jobs. That's only 52 Saturdays maximum per
year. Our prime work times. The rest of the week is spent running
the business aspects. Most DJ's are lucky to book 2 or 3 jobs
per month. If they are trying to compete with others by dropping
their price lower that their competition, they offer low quality,
and hope for volume which usually never comes, before they have
lost so much money that they go out of business. In fact, they
may be out of business before your event ever arrives. For instance,
in the wedding business, brides typically book more than one
year in advance, in order to get the top providers, before someone
else books them. Wait til the event is about to happen, and
you are often left with 2nd rate providers. They may charge
as low as $300 per gig. Let's see, if we take $300 times
3 that's $900 gross income. Take the $900 gross income and subtract
$2000 expenses and you are loosing $1100 per month, after working
40 hard hours per week on their DJ business.
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