I'm about to try out another area of business!, I've already got two fairly local customers interested, but thinking of expanding this service .

The idea?? - Long Term Hiring...similar lease hire of a car for example, of Equipment for D.J'ing!.

Most people find the idea of spending £1500+ on equipment to be daunting - especially on something like D.J'ing which maybe a passing interest, or which may not turn out to be a success for them.

The Soultion:-

Hiring is the best option...although it will cost you a small fortune in hire fees...especially in the South . D.J gear can cost anything between £50 - £150 per NIGHT to hire, then you may have the problem of that 11th hour booking that you could have taken...but ooops, the local hire company is closed / booked out. Along with having to run the gear back and forth for every gig..even weekly hire locally can be very expensive.

My Idea:-

I have a lot of hire gear, whilst most of my hire business is weekend single items / karaoke and lighting, I do have enough gear to put together around 4 complete, professional systems on a long term hire basis. Most of this gear is a few months to a few years old, but regually serviced, PAT Tested and as you could imagine "As New" condition.

I'm looking to hire these systems out on a long term basis, which would be ideal for those just starting out in business but dreading the initial start up outlay on equipment etc. This way you would have 24 hr access to equipment, and be able to establish a business and see whether D.J'ing is the right industry to you - with very little outlay, no committment, and no loans!.

The plan is very competitive, the initial figure of around £250 / month for a basic but complete dual cd based Audio system with lighting. This equals to around £60 per week - which is around what you would pay the one night in some area's.

The idea is just that at the moment, although this is working to success with a local customer at the moment.

I could also arrange delivery within most parts of the UK, for an agreed additional fee. The advantage of course is that you could renew for a further month if required!.

Thinking of the same sort of thing, get the gear, let hotels have it for as long as required at say £50 per week, sitting at thier hotel, and then supplying a DJ to set it up and use it if required at an extra cost, if not £50 per week for no work, always the best option.
Good idea Chris, DO IT !!

Are you doing this already Andy, or still at the thinking stage?

Seems to be working so far, only been advertising locally for a week and already got several calls. Going to also advertise it on the Website and throughout Cheshire and see what happens!.

In the meantime, if anybody on the forum is interested then drop me an email.

Of course you need to make sure you have do's and don'ts written in hire contract form, and take a deposit etc, and to prevent rehiring of the system, so if you are a competitor and thinking of hiring from me at this special rate, and then re-hiring to your own customer for £50 a NIGHT then Don't Bother!! - the cheek of some people always amazes me!.

I'm only thinking about it, a guy I know does it with conference gear, has 8 TV's on long term hire, every 6 months gets new TV's for them as they have already been paid for ! Also does it with staging and bass bins.
I was only looking at supplying hotels that I know at the moment, but even at £50 per week, some local guy will agree to do the whole show for £60 per night, and as most hotels charge the customer the same as I charge the hotel (0% GP) then I am thinking is it really worth the hassle, maybe think of something else, also thinking of getting a TV and a Playstation/XBox type thingey and gettting the wedding afternoon slot, entertianiong the kids after dinner but before the evening starts, again, no work actually involvedand I think most people would pay £50 to keep the kids happy/out the way fior a while.

If you are going to do it in the south, I think you should put up the prices a bit more.

I would'nt do it, People will really take the , pushing the equipment to the limit's, etc that!!!-

Spooky.

Talking to a collegue earlier tonight this very subject cropped up, and we are talking about it over a pint next week, me hiring a couple or three set up each week off him, and putting a DJ in to work it.

Will let you know the outcome of the meeting

That's a good idea! You can also do "rent to own". Long and Mcquede (or however u spell it) is a huge canadian chain, that rents their equipment, till the rental pay pays the total charge, and it belongs to the customer then! That will work too....

ur idea's nice too

i'm thinking about doing the rent to own for a nice pair of Technics