Advertising

[absvicandmark 0]

Hi guys.

Nearly ready to start gigging!

Just want your opinions on some aspects:

1. Whats the best way to advertise?

I know word of mouth is one, but as i`m just starting out, this isnt an option for me. I`ve put word around work and friends etc but what else can I do?

 

2.Which way gives most outcomes?

I know theres loads of ways but what works for you?

 

3.Cheapest?

As i`m just starting, I havent got alot of cash now so whats the most cost effective?

 

So far i`ve setup my own email address with company name, i`ve setup a basic website which is currently awaiting to be listed on search engines. I`m also about to some cards printed to stick in the local and surrounding areas newsagents, fish `n` chip shops etc.

 

How can I go about approaching pubs etc?

 

I appreciate all the help I can get.

 

 

[kazzachi 0]

as a newbie you are definitely going to have to do some leg work.... Go round ALL the local village halls and put up flyers/posters.... send letters to hotels/clubs/leisure centres or anywhere that has a function hall..... approach local schools, scout/guide groups etc etc.

One good way of kick starting is to offer a freebie - I know you will want to start earning but it is always a good way of getting a new customer - and if you arent doing this as a full time occupation (yet) then it is only going to cost you your time.

If you do decide to advertise in the local paper, I would express the point that you are a new set up..... So many people are of the opinion that if an established DJ has to advertise in the local paper then it is a negative thing.... if they were any good then they shouldnt have to advertise etc.... thats why I suggest you put "new to the area" or something along those lines.

[YourBigEvent 0]

Think Karen has covered everything there.

 

Make sure that everything looks proffesional, I know if you have just started you don't want to be spending lots of cash, but it is better to spend money and get it right first time than try and save a bob or two and look 'shoddey'

[The Spindoctor 0]

Also if you are going to advertise in any way shape or form, be prepared for the Taxman to be even more interested!!!!................ don't wait for him to come to you, be upfront in all your business dealings!

 

Spin

[ChrisPointon 0]

Spin is right about the Taxman - after all if it doesn't work and you don't earn it then he won't take it! so you've got nothing to lose. It's also a risk in this business, especially if you have local competition that some Jealous http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/censored.gif will Drop you in it, so if you keep everything 100% legit you have nothing to fear http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif .

 

Have some professionally printed leaflets done. Make them as professional as possible but don't overload them with information. A5 size is ideal. Avoid catchy slogans or cliche's just make it business like and phrase it as an introduction to your business which is offering it's services to their establishment.

 

Landlords are always on the look out for money saving opportunities so offer some form of discount for regular pub work or function room bookings. Such offers are usually phrased as "Loyalty Discounts". But don't undersell yourself pricewise, you can be TOO cheap, and thats when people start to suspect your abilities!.

 

Once you have produced these leaflets, mail them out to venues which are within a reasonable travelling distance, aim for hotels and Pubs which have a function room attached, since you are likely to get more private functions this way!. Don't forget to look out for pubs which have billboards outside advertising Live Music Here, or Karaoke every Monday since these obviously have some form of weekly entertainment and even if they have a D.J currently they may not be 100% happy with him or her!. Contact each venue around 5 days after the leaflets have been sent, introduce yourself and your business and the fact that you are ringing to see if they have received your recent mailing! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif . Offer to call around, when convenient, to discuss any requirements that they may have. Although you may like to visit instead of 'phoning and speak to the manangement in person? I always used to do this and I found that it is often harder for somebody to say NO, to you in person, than fob you off on the phone!.

 

If you know somebody who has kids with a paper round then this can be a good way of getting your leaflets distributed to the local community http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/tongue.gif .

 

Put your business cards, anywhere where a card can go!. Ask if you can leave a pile of cards on the counter in the local petrol stations and shops, Pin one up on Village Hall notice boards, Leisure Centres, Shop Windows, Library, newsagents. Even if a pub doesn't want a disco at the current time, ask if you can leave some cards on the bar, or next to their public phone.

 

Have some request slips done which are over printed with your roadshow name and details and place a pile of them on every table at the start of your gigs. The main aim of these are for the audience to fill in any requests and pass them back to you, but they are also a very good form of advertising, and I often see mine being put in pockets and handbags for future use!. They are a great compromise for people who are to lazy to come over and ask me for a card http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif .

 

Don't forget to keep receipts for all of your advertising and business expenditure since it will all work in your favour when it comes to tax!.

 

 

[absvicandmark 0]

Im glad the subject of TAX has come up.

 

Thats something I havent a clue about.

 

I know I need to keep all my receipts and I suspect its a good idea to get a book to list Income & Expenditure.

 

How do I go about registering tax etc. How do I work it all out? How do I put this charge to customers etc?

 

I know what to do with Cash payments if you get my drift but what else do I have to do to cover myself?

 

Claiming tax back and stuff like that , I just havent got a clue!

 

Bear in mind that I already have a full time job which I pay tax etc on (which is already sorted out by work).

 

All help will be greatly appreciated. If its not suitable to put on forum then feel free to email me!

 

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi

 

Just to add my thoughts.

 

Scan the local community papers for upcoming events...contact the organisers to see if they need a compair, dj, or just use of the sound system.

 

Pop into your local library and take a look at the electoral register for folks that are due to be 18 soon, drop them a quick note, chances there will be a last minute party or two.

 

Regarding the interent...

 

Hope you've got yourself a domain name and proper website hosting, rather than the freespace you get with BT, Tripod, Freeserve etc...otherwise you'll find it difficult to get indexed with search engines.

 

As far as your site is concerned, make sure it not only looks good, but that it is thoroughly proof-read, spell checked and is simple to navigate.

 

Take a look my my piece on internet marketing in the website section of this forum.

 

It's difficult starting from scratch and we've all been there, but if you're good, time will prove it.

 

Good luck

 

Darren

[C.S 0]

Loads of good advice here,always try and go and talk to people face to face instead of ringing and dont under price because once you have started low its difficult to raise your price.A little tip about ads in newspapers is that they have a very limited life only a couple of days and they are in the bin! Good Luck

[ChrisPointon 0]

Hi,

 

You don't CHARGE tax to your customers, you are confusing TAX with VAT and VAT doesn't apply to you unless your business earns £56,000 or above (turnover, not profit) in any ongoing 12 month period.

 

Income tax is different, this is a percentage of what you earn in profit that goes directly to the government. If D.J'ing is your SOLE form of income then you are allowed around £4600 before payment of tax becomes applicable. Since you already have a full time job then you will already have used the £4600 allowance already http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/sad.gif so basically you'll pay tax on every penny of profit that you earn from your D.J'ing!) The amount of tax that you pay does depend on whether you have other employment and how much you earn, usually it works out that around 23% of your PROFIT after expenses, is taken as tax. So 23p out of every £1.00 of profit(roughly) is paid to the IR for tax. Of course this varies depending on your circumstances, other income / employment etc. If your profit goes above a certain threshold you may also need to pay additional National Insurance Contributions - usually around £10.00 per month.

 

You need to keep records of your income and outgoings, and preferably keep a seperate account for your roadshow. Business accounts do cost a little, but The Royal Bank of Scotland - Business Direct usually have some form of incentive such as 18 months worth of FREE online business banking before charges become applicable http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif , this give you time to establish your business before you start paying to cash cheques etc!.

 

You have around 12 months of trading before payment of any tax is due, but you need to inform the IR within 3 months of starting any business!. If your business takes off well, and you start earning a healthy profit from it then it may be worth while to use an accountant to deal with your tax affairs. Ian Stewart on this Forum is an accountant and offers a very good deal on his accountancy services for D.J's.

 

Another area you need to consider is Public Liabilty Insurance (Do a search on the forum, or check out our insurance links page).

 

For information on starting out in business, Cick Here to goto the Inland Revenues section on new start ups

[YourBigEvent 0]

Good answer Chris, I couldn't have put in better myself, I though Ian was answering it.

 

Business accounts do cost a little more, after the 12/18/24 months free period but they also look better too, imagine you are booking a disco for your daughters wedding and you have to make a cheque out, which looks more professional...

 

Cheques made payable to Joe Smith

 

or

 

Cheques made payable to JS Entertainments.

 

 

[stevemarshall 0]

another place to advertise is the Yellow Pages, it costs around 400 pounds a year for a box ad....and it works, got plenty of bookings because of it!

 

re Tax phone your local tax office, and ask to be put through to the Shedule D/Self Assessment section, they are very helpful....thats if you are going along the self employed route...(IE a sole trader!)

 

Even if you find the tax form confusing every April, just take it along with your account statements and a box of receipts(a shoebox is what alot of people use!)the nice people at the tax office will help you fill in your form!

 

also if you are regeistering your company as a business, the tax office will help you...

 

generally the rule of thumb with tax, you use petrol, you have your clothes dry cleaned, you buy new equipment/CDs any expenses connected with what you do for a living, can be written off against your earnings

 

 

most self employed people use what is called a three line account

 

thats:

 

Earnings-minus-outgoings(ie what you spent!)=profit

 

 

The Tax people will only charge you tax on your profits, plus if you paid a regular stamp, and its too much they give you the excess back!

Edited October 15, 2003 by stevemarshall

[paperman_uk 0]

Hi,

 

Just want to add a few things that I've found out over the past year from just doing Karaoke's, First is to do with looking proffesional, you could go out and brake the bank spending on a lot of kit but at the end of the day you find that you just can't do it, and more to the point it's what you do and not wether your kit looks the dogs http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/censored.gif, I'm sure that if some of the DJ's here saw my kit they would think I was total loser! but I now have a reaguler spot thats turned into a real hit!

 

Advertising is more word of mouth than anything else, and it will take off when you have done a few Gigs and the people really had a good time, getting those first few gigs is the trick. One way you could do it is to find a brewery owned pub (theres a reason for this) and ask the land lord if they would like a gig for free, explain it's to get your self known, and tell them that if all goes well that you'll do gigs for them at a heavily discount price in the future (depending on availabilty).

 

So hows wondering why I said bewery owned? It's cos the landlords have to pay high rent cost's and find it hard to compete against free houses, so when some one offers something for free they seldom refuse! My first six months I didn't make a penny, but now there calling me and I'm starting to get the cost of my set up back which I'm now using to upgrade my kit.

 

This is totaly based on what I have found for myself, but everyone is different!

 

Good luck.

[kazzachi 0]

Breweries who own a huge percentage of pubs put management into their venues and the management have an entertainment budget... so paperman, I think you may have it round the wrong way.... go for the free houses who are not controlled by the large breweries!

[stevemarshall 0]

a couple more tips for sources of work

 

Hotels- Most people like the local Social Secruity and Tax Office and other local firms and organizations, tend to have their "do" at a local hotel or bar....start looking for this work in September:)

 

If they have a band on, which many hotels do nowadays, see if you can play some music either beforehand or afterwards....yup its a nights work

 

 

Social clubs, Masons, and Roundtables, join your local chamber of commerce, after all you are a local business right...many social clubs have their annual dinner, and the Masons hold wedding receptions and much more..all good sources of income! And the Roundtable in your area is always a good source of contacts and in many cases prizes to give away on charity nights.....

 

We do quite a few nites for the local council every year, including Halloween nites Xmas switch ons and even a nite in the local swimming bath with the Kids doing stuff like the Macarena and YMCA all good fun plus well paid!

Edited October 15, 2003 by stevemarshall

[Ian Stewart 0]

QUOTE (absvicandmark @ Oct 14 2003, 09:33 AM)

Im glad the subject of TAX has come up. Thats something I havent a clue about. I know I need to keep all my receipts and I suspect its a good idea to get a book to list Income & Expenditure. How do I go about registering tax etc. How do I work it all out? How do I put this charge to customers etc? I know what to do with Cash payments if you get my drift but what else do I have to do to cover myself? Claiming tax back and stuff like that , I just havent got a clue! Bear in mind that I already have a full time job which I pay tax etc on (which is already sorted out by work). All help will be greatly appreciated. If its not suitable to put on forum then feel free to email me!

Hi Ya,

 

well as the forums resident tax expert, I have sent you a PM with details of how to contact me

 

Ian

[partychris 0]

Hi Ian just a quick question, how about if you have roadies helping you and you are paying them? what if they have a full time job as well?? whats the best way to show this in your books?

 

cheers

[Ian Stewart 0]

Hi,

 

Chris covered the rules regarding income tax, well done

 

your personal tax allowance in any tax year is £4,615

as Chris stated, if you are already in Full or Part Time employment this allowance will have been taken up in this employment)

The rate on the first £1,960 is 10% ie £196.00

The rate betwenn £1961 & £30,500 is charged at 22%

ans anything ove £30,500 is charged at 40%

 

obviously as you are self employed the above is after legitimate expences, capital allowances etc

 

But in his last Budget Mr Brown iintroduced tax breaks thay has now made it more advantagious for anyone who is self employed to become a limited company.

 

the first £10,000 of any companies profits (after deductions are tax free), if DJing is your only income you can earn £14,615 pa tax free, (ask me how this is done), if you already have a job, you can earn £10,000 from these activities tax free.

 

and the starting rate of corporation tax on income over £10,000 is 23.75%

 

My charges for accounts start as low as £150.00 pa