The Price of Professionalism
However, before you start slashing your prices and reworking your packages, we need to determine whether you are actually charging too much.
In the early days of my career, I used to display a pricing table on my website. Visitors could work out a quote based on the number of hours – an hourly rate – and the number of guests, which dictated the equipment required, all without ever having to contact me. The result was zero enquiries via my website. Even my grandma told me it seemed a bit expensive, which certainly stung.
Back then, most of my bookings came from word of mouth through family and friends whose parties I had DJ’d for free or cheap. These people were always happy to pass my details on to anyone interested, but the worst part was that these referrals were always looking for the cheapest option, too.
I did not know it at the time, but a quote from Henry Ford sums up the situation quite nicely: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Cheap or free gigs just seemed to lead to more cheap or free gigs; even the ones where the organisers promised loads of “exposure” never seemed to amount to anything more than a late night and an empty wallet. The challenge I faced was that I did not get enquiries from anywhere else, so when I eventually did receive an email or phone call, I was so desperate to book them that I would just take whatever I could get. Eventually, I had a decision to make: carry on being the cheap disco guy or become a professional DJ.
To decide how much you should actually charge, we must first consider the conventional way of pricing services, starting with the most common trap: charging by the hour. This is where most DJs start out, but for a simple breakdown based on our average evening wedding booking, the numbers tell a surprising story.
When you factor in one hour for handling enquiries, two hours for managing the booking, 90 minutes for pre-event prep, another 90 minutes for travel, and...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
You’ll also get full access to this article and the last year of articles, reviews and play lists via the Pro DJ App
In the early days of my career, I used to display a pricing table on my website. Visitors could work out a quote based on the number of hours – an hourly rate – and the number of guests, which dictated the equipment required, all without ever having to contact me. The result was zero enquiries via my website. Even my grandma told me it seemed a bit expensive, which certainly stung.
Back then, most of my bookings came from word of mouth through family and friends whose parties I had DJ’d for free or cheap. These people were always happy to pass my details on to anyone interested, but the worst part was that these referrals were always looking for the cheapest option, too.
I did not know it at the time, but a quote from Henry Ford sums up the situation quite nicely: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Cheap or free gigs just seemed to lead to more cheap or free gigs; even the ones where the organisers promised loads of “exposure” never seemed to amount to anything more than a late night and an empty wallet. The challenge I faced was that I did not get enquiries from anywhere else, so when I eventually did receive an email or phone call, I was so desperate to book them that I would just take whatever I could get. Eventually, I had a decision to make: carry on being the cheap disco guy or become a professional DJ.
To decide how much you should actually charge, we must first consider the conventional way of pricing services, starting with the most common trap: charging by the hour. This is where most DJs start out, but for a simple breakdown based on our average evening wedding booking, the numbers tell a surprising story.
When you factor in one hour for handling enquiries, two hours for managing the booking, 90 minutes for pre-event prep, another 90 minutes for travel, and...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
You’ll also get full access to this article and the last year of articles, reviews and play lists via the Pro DJ App
