Getting Them Bookings In!

[djn_discos 0]

:Thumbup: as some of you will know im new to all of this. i have all the equiptment (not cheap rubbish eather) so i have a decent setup.

its all about advertising and getting your name out there when your new so what did you do?

at present i have my website, website on my van, business cards, on yell.com, dj mobile network, goodparty, getting flyers made this weekend to give out on the street to people with a 10% discount on your booking with the flyer to strum up business, facebook fanpage, facebook friends page, advertised on facebook for a few weeks, got friends and family spreading the word. im sure ive missed sumthing but nothing much.

what did you do to get ur name out there and how long did it take to start getting booking every weekend etc..

 

any advise is good advice

 

thanks in advance :Thumbup:

[disco4hire 1]

.

what did you do to get ur name out there and how long did it take to start getting booking every weekend etc..

 

any advise is good advice

 

thanks in advance :Thumbup:

 

The best advise I can give, is impress the guests at the gigs you do get, and hand out your business cards to all who express an interest. Most of the DJ's I know get the majority of their bookings through recommendations.

[djn_discos 0]

yeh i know what u mean, only done one gig so far and there wasnt as many people as they was supposed to be there and i knew most of the people there so givin them my cards was pointless lol. just need sum bookings to flood in lol

[Dream Catchers 0]

All the business cards, yell, sign written van etc are secondary advertising and will only bring in the odd booking.

The only way to get your diary full is by doing gigs and people refering from them.

Whether it's regular pub/club work or agency work these are also only going to rebook you after you have shown that you are capable of pleasing the crowd.

At weddings, birthdays etc again you will only get the referals if you do a good job.

i have all the equiptment (not cheap rubbish eather) so i have a decent setup.

only done one gig so far

It isn't important what your equipment is, as long as it is clean and reliable. I guess from the post that you were expecting that having a Bose, Denon and Martin rig would mean you would "win" all the bookings. Unfortunately it is only DJs that are equipment focused, our clients wouldn't know the difference between a Denon and a Maplip CD player.

 

All you can do above what you already have done is do your best when performing, the more experience you get, the more bookings will follow.

 

Just one final note about the flyers being handed out in town. I doubt they will work, most people just throw flyers away if they are not immediately relevant, also the people that you are giving the flyers to will be going into a pub where they can see a real DJ instead of a piece of paper, if the need a DJ they are likely to ask the ones they see. And finally I know that my local council are now looking at prosecuting the companies on the flyers for littering as every Saturday and Sunday morning they are clearing thousands of discarded flyers from the footpaths, is that an image you want?

 

Jim

[djn_discos 0]

ahh cherrs jim, have taken on borad what you have said. i know what u mean bout the flyers and things, just think 1 bookin in 2 months is weak lol. i dont charge a major amount due to being new and all that so cant be the prices unless there are djs round hear charging a pittence. will wait for that phone to start ringing lol

[Dukesy 0]

As one highly experienced DJ has stated elsewhere on the forum, this is the worst year experienced for mobile discos. Others are doing ok. Don't give up hope...keep confident. :yes:

[exbutlinred82 0]

ahh cherrs jim, have taken on borad what you have said. i know what u mean bout the flyers and things, just think 1 bookin in 2 months is weak lol. i dont charge a major amount due to being new and all that so cant be the prices unless there are djs round hear charging a pittence. will wait for that phone to start ringing lol

a

 

 

Keep your chin up M8.

 

A couple in my village have just taking on renting a pub that only took any real cash when I was there on Friday nights.The owner is a millionaire who lives in Canada and don't give a toss about his tiny investment.The previous landlady scraped home ....just.....but wasnt paying him any rent.

 

This younger couple have come in and agreed to pay him rent (undisclosed) and invested 10 Grand in a property that isn't theirs (redecorating).

In the time its been closed it has lost even more trade.Even my Fridays are quiter now.Their solution was to try and knock my fee by £20.......

 

I told them to poke it

[Steve_Mitchell 0]

Recomendations are the best way.. Offer a professional SERVICE.. I upper cased service because I mean the whole picture from start to finish. It's not just about playing the right tunes on the night.

 

2009 is my busiest year yet and 2010 is proving to be busier.

[Bouncy Dancefloor 0]

i worked for a big local agency who supplied kit etc for many years

 

in November i was on my own, no work, no way of paying the bills. I put on my shirt and trousers and physically walked into lots of local hotels and venues with function rooms. Many just took cards off me, some listened and seemed grateful that i was offering to help them, two booked me there and then for parties as they had been on the phone to clients that day!

 

8 Months down the road, ive had lots of phone calls from many of the venues, some responded faster than others, but its just when they needed someone!

 

btw quoting cheap could be working against you, if i called a DJ for my wedding and they quoted £80, would i book them? On price alone, i would say no.

[djn_discos 0]

yeh i have noticed a few people saying its quite bad this year, im keeping my head up though as i like doing the djing so im not givin up for a long time ha ha, and as for the price, im not doing it so cheap it will scare people to thinking im rubbish but not so high they expect pete tong to turn up. we had a bloke for our xmas party at work and he charged £170 (180 in the end £20 out of my own pocket as people was enjoying themselves and i wanted the party to carry on for them) but im not charging that much £50 less infact lol. i think thats a ''in the middle of the road'' price for a new dj. if you dont agree let me know

[Dukesy 0]

OK, here's some food for thought.

 

A DJ service is a business.

An experienced business is one that may have got a lot of things right over time, or may have made plenty of mistakes, either way, the 'experience' of the service and of course the service is what the end-client pays for.

 

Business's do not tend to advertise that they are inexperienced - they do not offer a cheaper rate purely based on that they started out yesterday - I've yet to find a professional service be it a skilled trade or non-skilled trade offer a discount for being less experienced?!

 

PHONE CALL

POTENTIAL CLIENT "Hello, I wonder if you are free on 1st August and how much?"

INEXPERIENCED DJ "Yes, I'm available and my rate is £50 less than experienced DJ services....."

 

It just doesn't happen.

 

I don't see balloon operators or chair-cover services offering discounts based on being inexperienced, no less than Wedding Cake providers or vocalists offering a discount because they only started last month.

 

 

 

[McCardle 1]

I agree that lots of businesses are failing at the moment, however just how many of those are failing due to the credit crunch or bad management is open for sceptical debate because plenty of businesses went to the wall before the hype over the recession or its arrival, its not a new thing. The words 'credit crunch' do however make a nice convenient smoke screen for those who are struggling today, to go and run and hide behind when they call time on their business tomorrow, and its far easier to blame the economy than their own reluctance to pull their finger out.

 

If your business is consistantly making a steady profit at the end of each year, then your business is successful however you have chosen to run it and whatever prices you have chosen to charge, and nobody has the right to ever question any of that. If your business keeps making a loss then you can dress it up as much as you like or brand it a 'hobby' but at the end of the day financially it is not successful - end of, and should be a big neon glowing indicator to you that if you intend to make rather than lose money then it either requires far more effort and marketing, a price review or a change in direction / career.

 

If your pricing model is wrong or the business doesn't come in then, yes, you will make a loss. How long you can carry on making a loss will depend on how much you earn from any other occupation or how much finance you have in reserve to keep paying the bills, (and in the case of full timers - buying food and paying the mortgage) but one thing is certain, if your business is your ONLY form of income then if you keep making a loss consecutively and don't dig yourself out of it, then it will end eventually, either voluntarily or upon the arrival of the bailiffs.

 

Whether part or full time, the inland revenue will consider and view your business with the same level of importance and scrutiny, and no discounts or exceptions are levied for those who consider it a 'hobby' and who may price accordingly. Everybody who works in return for payment needs to fill in their self assessment, whether you earn 50p profit or £50,000 the law is exactly the same, as are the requirements (and the penalties).

 

In fact Deejays who also have a full time job, will in theory always be worse off as they will probably end up paying two lots of N.I (but not benefiting from any additional heath benefits) and will certainly be paying tax from their first 1p of profit from the disco, mainly because their personal allowance has already been used up by their full time employer - so everything else you make in profit in addition to your full time job is taxable. On this basis, its usually safe to assume that the Revenue will want at least 20% of your profit at the end of the year, so for every £100 profit you make thats £20 to the revenue sliced off the top, leaving you with £80. For this reason, don't assume that charging £100 will mean £100 in your pocket, because it wont.

 

Instead price in a way which maximises your profit purely because there is nothing worse than putting in all of that effort only to find at the end of the year that 'Big T Disco Supplies' and the Inland Revenue have done better out of your business than you have personally. Besides If you do work a disco in addition to the usual 37 - 40 hour week, then whether you do it for the love or the money you HAVE to make the effort of running and attending the '2nd job' worthwhile.

 

In comparison, Deejays who are bona-fide full time do have one little advantage over the part timers, in that they are able to make upto their first £6475 in profit before they have to pay a penny in tax, so some may argue that if you are going to start ANY business, you may as well do it with an aim (or view) to being full time. smile icon

 

2009 is going to be a trying year for most people, especially those who run their own business. I've run more than one business over the years, and not all of them have been successful and you learn from your mistakes - price model can be one of them!. However for each one which began to fail, I called time on them long before they turned into a millstone and dragged me under. If 2009 does get the better of me and this one goes the same way then i'll review it when the time is right and may jack it accordingly, but not until i've researched every avenue, put in the extra work and tried every possible way of moving it back on track. In the meantime i'm trying to balance running an existing business and doing a course in another one and soon will be taking exams in the other field....just in case.

 

If times become tough in self employment, then instead of working 8 hours a day, you may need to put in 12, if you only generally cover 50 miles then you might need to consider covering 150, if you've never tried canvassing around the pubs and hotels then maybe you should start - needs must etc. Large companies have teams of salespeople out on the road for a reason, and self employment does not preclude this fact either, the phone won't ring itself!. If your business still closes then at least you can say that you did everything you possibly could to save it and work you way out of it, and in my mind that carries a hell of a lot more pride than just sitting back doing or trying nothing, waiting for the inevitable and then laying it at the feet of a credit crunch.

 

But in all industries there are those who are just big talkers and those who are big business and don't have to broadcast it. Which side of the equation somebody lands depends on the effort they are willing to put in and what they intend to do in order to make it a success but one thing IS certain and FACT - it will always be easier to just sit and talk (or post) about it rather than actually make it happen.

Edited July 3, 2009 by McCardle

[exbutlinred82 0]

McArdle

 

Please take this as a compliment!!

 

You make about 12 good points in your last post.Trouble is I sometimes have to be really in the mood to sit down and read your posts properly.

 

You are obviously a bit of a Philosopher and have a good handle on life.Wondering if you'd get more response if you didn't deal with quite so many issues at one time.

 

Trying to help....and definately enjoying what you post!!

[vokf 0]

I went through this problem last year. Quite a few gigs with unprompted "thanks, great job!" at the end, but most gigs were still gained from the website, or GoodParty. I wanted more work, but realised I had to pay to advertise.

I posted here asking about advertising (local paper etc), and the advice was it would attract low quality jobs.

 

About a year later, I've been asked for my details on the majority of gigs, and have taken bookings off the back of a few (1 wedding and a 60th from one gig) and some I've not been able to take due to other commitments.

 

Its a slow painful process, but working hard to please the crowd is the best marketing tactic. If someone has seen what you can do and wants to book you, then price is less important.

However, they will probably know what you charged the original client, hence comments about being difficult to raise prices. Keep to a structured price plan, and if you need to discount try to find a way to justify why they get a discount.

This could be the use of photos from the gig on your website, or leaving cards on tables. This may not always be suitable, but for a standard family birthday party, its a way of justifying a reduction through marketing assistance.

 

Don't get too tied up in the equipment (although I'm still asked if I have lights...!), you are being hired - they could hire PA gear themselves..

 

So... make the best of the gigs you have. Prepare in advance, work hard and make sure you are a pleasure to work with (for venue staff and your client), and make sure you enjoy yourself - its contagious!.

 

 

[Dukesy 0]

McArdle

 

Please take this as a compliment!!

 

I agree, even if I'm 18'ish hours after originally reading your post!

[disco4hire 1]

McArdle

 

Please take this as a compliment!!

 

 

Pretty much agree also, I didn't post a reply since there was little of any consequence to add, I don't mind the long posts, they are usually well constructed and interesting.

[Dan allanthemsdisco 0]

hiya,

i would say read the guide on web site optimisation, have an entry page to your site and make sure lots of plain text is used.

Make sure your business is listed with google local business directory, above all this, try and get connected with established djs or agency & start getting work through them, it might come quicker that way. Thats how its been for me as i only started out last sept. Apart from that your probably hitting more bases than most djs out there so just pray for gigs & stay cool :)

[exbutlinred82 0]

As one highly experienced DJ has stated elsewhere on the forum, this is the worst year experienced for mobile discos. Others are doing ok. Don't give up hope...keep confident. :yes:

 

 

 

I'm not complainig because I have been too busy just recently.I have noticed tho that despite getting some awesome comments and dishing out scores of business cards after gigs that the bookings are dropping off a bit for August and September......still got a couple of residencies tho!!

[kevvyb 0]

I have pretty much got my name here,there and everywhere,I searched all the local pubs in my area and sent them all my flier and my business card.

Plus I teamed up with another DJ not to far from me and we share work