Life Is Good!

[Robster 0]

Thursday it was busy in the village hotel , Friday was a good crowd , last niight valentines night was excellent , i got two extra gigs a wedding and a 21st from people who came to my gigs. i had to turn down two more as i am already working on those dates.

 

so life is good ...business is great its not all doom and gloom

[Kingy 0]

Hey Robster! Result! I am very pleased that you are bucking the trend.

 

In my area I know many DJs. No one, not one is having a very good time of it at the moment unless they are in the sub £150 bracket.

 

It's very re-assuring that people such as you and another DJ are doing well and perhaps times ahead will change for some of us less fortunate guys.

 

As a full timer, I am currently looking for another job. It is remarkably quiet, given one of my golfclubs is up for sale, another has undergone management changes, one of the hotels is already in recievership and I do not touch the pub & club market. The local councils who used to book PA systems for small conferences of about 30 delegates now get them to speak up, bands have little work on where they need my PA as many of the live venues have built in gear since it has become so cheap.

 

Thinking about it, neither myself nor no one I know regularly get engagement parties on sunday nights, 40ths on Thursdays, weddings for 400 guests, parties with 70 guests booked for but 200 turn up, etc etc, so I have to make do with whatever I am picking up at the moment, which isn't a fat lot.

 

I will expand:

Last Sunday I bit the bullet and did a deal to provide the PA for a bridal Fair in exchange for a free stand. I have not done one for a couple of years. I was shocked. I spoke to quite a few Brides to be. From their varied responces I had the following:

 

1. The hotel disco is cheaper

2. The band are doing their own disco

3. The resident DJ comes in with the room

4. My son's mate is starting his own so we will try him to see if he is free.

 

I will look at these above "reasons not to book" in a little bit more detail:

 

1. The Hotel disco comes in at £175 inclusive for 2010, I simply can't compete with that for a 1 am finish.

2. It may be the case that the band have a really good DJ amongst their line up, but I have never seen that yet. Sure I have seen many bands playing music back via laptop, but interaction...no, never.

3. The resident DJ that comes with the room is someone I actually know in this particular case. He was a glass collector one night and is DJ the next. He has no experience and was just given the job because the venue has the equipment and he likes to dance!!!

4. So experience counts for nothing.

 

So, basically I took two bookings, both now contracted. I was doing a "special offer" price for the wedding fair which was basically 10% off my normal wedding 12 o'clock ground floor function.

 

I genuinely hope that the guys out there are al doing better than I am. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe I am now to cynical to continue in this business anymore. The latter could be the point I think. I wish I was in the position that a DJ was in last week when he revealed he earns £100K+ PA yet is not registered for VAT. I would be delighted to work for half of that!!

 

This is, without doubt, the miserablest year I have ever had in 30 years of DJing. The sooner it's over, the better!

 

Sorry to dampen your thread, by the way!

[C.S 0]

had an absolute blaster of a weekend with 2 great club gigs. Signed a contract for 50 more club gigs between now and xmas. lifes good !

[YourBigEvent 0]

Got a great wife, and kids.

Mortgage gets paid

Bills get paid

Thinking of getting a horse

Business is good, but the other 4 get priority.

 

Life's good.

 

Although one good weekend when you take 2 bookings is hardly classed a 'life's good' is it ?

 

 

[C.S 0]

I have met your wife harris and believe me your life is good anyway !

[stevemarshall 0]

Life is great here in Southern Spain did Burns night what a great night we had, also doing [EDIT]St Patrick's night next month doing lots of mobiles too each weekend!

[Raymilkybarkid 0]

I will expand:

Last Sunday I bit the bullet and did a deal to provide the PA for a bridal Fair in exchange for a free stand. I have not done one for a couple of years. I was shocked. I spoke to quite a few Brides to be. From their varied responces I had the following:

 

1. The hotel disco is cheaper

2. The band are doing their own disco

3. The resident DJ comes in with the room

4. My son's mate is starting his own so we will try him to see if he is free.

 

I will look at these above "reasons not to book" in a little bit more detail:

 

1. The Hotel disco comes in at £175 inclusive for 2010, I simply can't compete with that for a 1 am finish.

2. It may be the case that the band have a really good DJ amongst their line up, but I have never seen that yet. Sure I have seen many bands playing music back via laptop, but interaction...no, never.

3. The resident DJ that comes with the room is someone I actually know in this particular case. He was a glass collector one night and is DJ the next. He has no experience and was just given the job because the venue has the equipment and he likes to dance!!!

4. So experience counts for nothing.

 

So, basically I took two bookings, both now contracted. I was doing a "special offer" price for the wedding fair which was basically 10% off my normal wedding 12 o'clock ground floor function.

 

I genuinely hope that the guys out there are al doing better than I am. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe I am now to cynical to continue in this business anymore. The latter could be the point I think. I wish I was in the position that a DJ was in last week when he revealed he earns £100K+ PA yet is not registered for VAT. I would be delighted to work for half of that!!

 

This is, without doubt, the miserablest year I have ever had in 30 years of DJing. The sooner it's over, the better!

 

Sorry to dampen your thread, by the way!

 

 

I agree with what has been said at the exhibitions, we also supply the PA, staging etc for the fashion shows. The number of venues and hotels who offer an all inclusive price is growing, what we have found is that the DJ will only get a small portion of the (for example) £175 possible he would only get £125.

We are the sole suppliers in a couple of local venues but we offer a kick back of 10% to the venue for every upgraded show booked.

 

The market has changed some what, but our bookings are still at the same level as the previous years but the upgrade side is down by 30%. Having said that our production side has had an increase of 23%.

We are getting more calls than ever before for last minute bookings (within 2 months) as many of the Couples seem to be ditching Bands that they had booked in order to save money. I was amazed that a good four piece band could cost upto £8,000 for 2 - 3 45 min sets.

Our business plan for the next year is to break even, we have agreed on the production side not to replace our shows and to try to reuse as much as we can. Equipment that was sheduled replacement has been put on hold as we have decided to take the stand: - " If it ain't broke don't try to fix it" attitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UKHero 0]

Hey Robster! Result! I am very pleased that you are bucking the trend.

 

In my area I know many DJs. No one, not one is having a very good time of it at the moment unless they are in the sub £150 bracket.

 

It's very re-assuring that people such as you and another DJ are doing well and perhaps times ahead will change for some of us less fortunate guys.

 

As a full timer, I am currently looking for another job. It is remarkably quiet, given one of my golfclubs is up for sale, another has undergone management changes, one of the hotels is already in recievership and I do not touch the pub & club market. The local councils who used to book PA systems for small conferences of about 30 delegates now get them to speak up, bands have little work on where they need my PA as many of the live venues have built in gear since it has become so cheap.

 

Thinking about it, neither myself nor no one I know regularly get engagement parties on sunday nights, 40ths on Thursdays, weddings for 400 guests, parties with 70 guests booked for but 200 turn up, etc etc, so I have to make do with whatever I am picking up at the moment, which isn't a fat lot.

 

I will expand:

Last Sunday I bit the bullet and did a deal to provide the PA for a bridal Fair in exchange for a free stand. I have not done one for a couple of years. I was shocked. I spoke to quite a few Brides to be. From their varied responces I had the following:

 

1. The hotel disco is cheaper

2. The band are doing their own disco

3. The resident DJ comes in with the room

4. My son's mate is starting his own so we will try him to see if he is free.

 

I will look at these above "reasons not to book" in a little bit more detail:

 

1. The Hotel disco comes in at £175 inclusive for 2010, I simply can't compete with that for a 1 am finish.

2. It may be the case that the band have a really good DJ amongst their line up, but I have never seen that yet. Sure I have seen many bands playing music back via laptop, but interaction...no, never.

3. The resident DJ that comes with the room is someone I actually know in this particular case. He was a glass collector one night and is DJ the next. He has no experience and was just given the job because the venue has the equipment and he likes to dance!!!

4. So experience counts for nothing.

 

So, basically I took two bookings, both now contracted. I was doing a "special offer" price for the wedding fair which was basically 10% off my normal wedding 12 o'clock ground floor function.

 

I genuinely hope that the guys out there are al doing better than I am. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe I am now to cynical to continue in this business anymore. The latter could be the point I think. I wish I was in the position that a DJ was in last week when he revealed he earns £100K+ PA yet is not registered for VAT. I would be delighted to work for half of that!!

 

This is, without doubt, the miserablest year I have ever had in 30 years of DJing. The sooner it's over, the better!

 

Sorry to dampen your thread, by the way!

 

 

I can sypmpathise with you on this one A lot of the work that I did before has dried up.. Inc PA for bands, Lorry Driving, Camera work and disco agency work....

 

I have managed to secure some good bookings via my web sites and from networking with other DJs in my local area. Dont get down hearted Andy, just change your approach.. I would say a refresh of your website Andy King Entertainments Might be a good place to start. Then network with other local DJs, help and encourage them and they in turn will help and encourage you...

 

This has been working for me so give it a go. What have you got to lose?

 

Nik

[Kingy 0]

Bit of a problem there...which will be addressed soon ( I am on a course at Walsall College)....we don't have the codes to ammend the web-page and haven't been able to access it for two years now, so some information is sadly out of date.

 

I don't pretend to fully understand web site construction, but by July this should have changed. I will then look to re-creating the site. This one was done by my son.

 

 

[UKHero 0]

Bit of a problem there...which will be addressed soon ( I am on a course at Walsall College)....we don't have the codes to ammend the web-page and haven't been able to access it for two years now, so some information is sadly out of date.

 

I don't pretend to fully understand web site construction, but by July this should have changed. I will then look to re-creating the site. This one was done by my son.

 

Hey I went to Walsall College or WALCAT in 1992 I think it was. The Shelly Campus doing Media Production. What course are you on?

 

Nik

[Kingy 0]

I am at the main campus on a Monday night (6-9) doing a Computer Literacy & Information Technology course with my 20 year old daughter to enable her to get a better job within the NHS. I paid for both our courses to encourage her to go and it was part of her xmas presy.

 

Part of the course which comes later is web design (basics I dare say!) but we have just done word processing, file management etc. Next stage is Excel, then power point and finally I think it is the web stuff.

[UKHero 0]

I am at the main campus on a Monday night (6-9) doing a Computer Literacy & Information Technology course with my 20 year old daughter to enable her to get a better job within the NHS. I paid for both our courses to encourage her to go and it was part of her xmas presy.

 

Part of the course which comes later is web design (basics I dare say!) but we have just done word processing, file management etc. Next stage is Excel, then power point and finally I think it is the web stuff.

 

Cool, my wife has been a PA for many years down south and is now a school Secretary she is a wizz with the microsoft packages... Take a look at netscape fusion 11 its a great web page design package and once set up very easy to use and upload or change your pages. Its what I use its basic enought to be understood by the layman but technical enough to get some fair results.

 

We may not always see eye to eye on here but if I can be of any help let me know we are after all members of the brotherhood of DJing lol

 

 

Nik