New Business

[Big B 0]

Well we have paid out a small fortune on my wife's new business which is chair covers-sashes and lots of centre pieces. We have a few wedding shows and said to potential customers that if they book chair covers and sashes they will get the dj half price. And i have to say it has gone down a storm. do you have another business that you can also offer a disco for?

 

 

[McCardle 1]

We have a few wedding shows and said to potential customers that if they book chair covers and sashes they will get the dj half price.

 

I'm confused??, do you consider the disco to be worth half the price it used to be?

 

Why not charge full price for the disco and offer the chair covers @ half price?

 

Sorry to play devils advocat, and I don't mean this to be offensive in anyway, but IMO this type of thing just add's to the (misplaced) belief of the general public, that discos are just a cheap addition at a wedding and a wholly negotiable service, and this is made worse even more so when they see a wedding based company actively offering a half price disco themselves. Its hard to justify a value on a given service, when those around you are halving its worth smile icon .

 

If you have unshakeable belief in both of your businesses and your marketing then why not charge a decent rate for both?. Isn't doing something like this just proving that we believe that most of our clients just choose on PRICE? and PRICE alone?.

 

Personally I think a 'Half price disco' sounds a bit like a BOGOFF on special brew down your local supermarket, and gives off the wrong impressions. Some deeper thinking clients may even feel that they are being overcharged on the chair covers to subsidise the 'half price' discount on the disco. Some businesses do work like that, running a loss leader on one product but charging over the odds on another one to more than make up for it.

 

If you intend to offer an introduction on your businesses, then why not market it along the lines of a 'turnkey discount applied to the total bill when both services are utilised by the client' - and then give the discount based across loyalty shown by them booking both services rather than singling one out be worth less than the other and 50% less than it was worth before, because isn't that EXACTLY what you are doing? :scared:

 

And i have to say it has gone down a storm

 

Of course its 'gone down a storm', you have offered a huge 50% discount on a service - how is that flattery?. If the local pub started selling beer at 50% less than usual, or the local travel agent started offering 50% discount on flights both of them would prove very popular and would crowd the places out!. But it doesn't mean that they would still be in business 3 months later. Busy doesn't automatically equal a profit.

 

Can your disco afford a 50% drop in revenue. Are you buying music 50% cheaper than before?, your tax liabilities and NI both halved at the same time?, where are you buying 50% cheaper PLI and filling your car with 50% cheaper fuel, and is your time and experience only worth half of what it was previously??, and how much above the minimum wage hourly rate are you working now - as a company owner?. All things to consider.

 

Hopefully you have a decent business model and have thought it through, like you say, you have already spent a small fortune developing and investing in the new business, so make sure that any profit that this area earns is not just artificial and being diluted at a later date by losses accrued by the 'half priced' offer smile icon

Edited May 17, 2009 by McCardle

[Bouncy Dancefloor 0]

i see where both customers are coming from

 

Personally if i get a Disco enquiry, i try and do a package with uplighting. For instance i would normally charge £200 for 8 LED uplighters, or £150 if taken with the Disco

 

Reasons for this : Im there anyway, uplighting doesnt generate alot of interest on its own (for me anyway) so i see it as an addon product plus it makes the disco look more impressive!

[Big B 0]

I have read in great detail both the replies, we do now offer both services at the normal rate as we only did the offer for the first month. and we stil get bookings. As it was only for a trial period while my wife got back into the swing of things with the chair covers

 

We do still have an offer on which is if they book the chair covers ( minimum amount ) they get 10% discount of the DJ. we can now earn in just 1 booking over £500 and if we have 2 booking over the weekend we can earn over £1000 for a weekends work.