How much do you guys charge on average and why. Please give me some numbers and reasons. How much should you discout if you are just a starting out dj.

Normally about £100 for a weeknight and anything up to £150 for Friday to Saturday night (it’s a cheapish area).
This is the price, well as everyone else has around the same price

As a beginner don’t under sell yourself for your sake and for the other DJ's in your area.
Your price will depend on your area and the venue you play at. You will find not everyone goes for the cheapest as this is normally the 'lesser' quality discos.

My advice would be to ask people what they pay for there discos to give you an idea of the price in your area it also gives you an idea of the competition there is out there.

Hope this helps

This is also a very much chicken and egg situation aswell, I agree with what you say Tom, but I think Mikee will also back me up in that if you pick up a real plum gig at a nice venue where the punter expects to pay loads. You quote a high price cos of where it is, they snap your arm off cos they don't know any better but the bonus is that any further work from people at that gig will EXPECT to pay your 'higher' price. Once you move in those circles regularly and the gigs keep coming then your overall basic price will be higher. (assuming of course that you impressed at the original one) As soon as those gigs tail off though you are back to quoting the 'going' rate for your area. Moral of course is impressions count........ the punter deserves the best you can do wether its for 30 old biddys or a 500 head corporate bash.
Just my 4d worth

See mikee & chris I 'remember 4d not 4p !!! LOL

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Normally about £100 for a weeknight and anything up to £150 for Friday to Saturday night

Blimey Tom, thats cheap.
I wouldnt get off my sofa for that..........

I dont do mid week disco's, but I have done some large stores staff partys midweek early evening, disco & karaoke for £200, and yes they pay it and feed me to!!! yummy!!!
But weekend disco with Karaoke (sometimes) £250 +.

For Karaoke alone I charge, midweek £65 an hour miminum of 2 hours & weekends £75 an hour miminum of 2 hours.

Am i to expensive guys?

Well Paula if u sound expensive do i sound to cheap.
At the moment i charge £80 for a normal 8 till 12 disco and then £25 per hour after that.
The going rate around here (liverpool) is around £85 > £95 but with not long starting out i just want to be a little bit more competitive with my price.
Hopefully when a few more gigs start rolling in i can increase the price a little bit more.
It would be great to charge £150 a night but i wouldn't get any bookings.

The going price in the Cheshire area at the moment is around £100 - £120, luckily I'm on the Manchester / Derbyshire Border, so I can get away with charging £180 for Manchester and Derby area's. Local "Competition" includes one guy who goes out for £65 a night, and I've been saying that he won't last for the last 5 years so he must be doing something right.

The going rate for a local pub disco here is £70, which is why I do very few disco's actually in my home town, I tend to travel for the better(ish) prices - go figure . Even so, it must be nice for you Southerners to virtually write your own cheque with regard to what you charge.

There is more competition here also - Congleton has a population of around 30,000 people, and given that there are around 35 Disco's operating in the town itself then you can figure out why prices are so low. It's good for the Sound & Lighting business of course, having so much local demand, but the result is that for Disco work, we travel further to get better prices.

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I wouldnt get off my sofa for that..........

Unfortunately thats the North / South divide again Paula - go North of Birmingham / Staffordshire and the cost of entertainment does drop dramatically. If you charged £150 - £200 a night you would never be out! - An average Pub Karaoke goes for £70 / night - and this isn't just one person - its everybody charging that.

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For Karaoke alone I charge, midweek £65 an hour miminum of 2 hours & weekends £75 an hour miminum of 2 hours

Maybe I should be putting my equipment prices up - you lot can obviously afford it

QUOTE

Am i to expensive guys?

Not for your local area I don't think you are - I mean London, or any city for that matter is going to provide plenty of work and bear the cost of a greater fee for going out. However if you moved to this area then you would go out of business pretty quickly if you didn't reduce your prices.

Out of interest - how is this £5 charge into Central London affecting you and your business? or are the majority of your bookings outside the time that this is charged?.

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Out of interest - how is this £5 charge into Central London affecting you and your business? or are the majority of your bookings outside the time that this is charged?.

Forgot all about this, Dare I put my prices up!!!!!!!
Nah! it doesnt really the zone is not really that big, Im free of it as far up to Knightsbridge & with my bookings being in the opposite direction, Not A problem.............

Talking of London........
Most of the agencies charge the client around the £1,200, + VAT for an evenings disco (8 to 12 / 8 to 1), sounds good, but remember you may have to be on site from 2.00 in the afternoon and may not get away until 4.00 in the morning - LONG DAY.

I normally clear between £500 and £950, depending on the function, venue and performance times.

Out in the real world, a wedding style DJ, is averaging £250 / £300, (surrey, hants, berks area)

QUOTE

Out in the real world, a wedding style DJ, is averaging £250 / £300, (surrey, hants, berks area)

Oh No! - your not another one who thinks that the world ends at the start of the M6 are you?

I agree with Mikeee here, sometimes its nice to live down here, I'm out the other side of London bout 10 mins from Lakeside but because of the proximity of the M25 I tend to get gigs from Essex Kent Surrey and Herts not forgetting up into London purely because i can get to them within 1hrs travelling.

My normal rate for a Sat night would be £200 - £250 depending on distance and I work most weekends. The weekdays Sun - Thurs are all pubs which I work week in week out and consequently charge £80 - £100. this is for 8 - 11pm

[QUOTE]I normally clear between £500 and £950, depending on the function, venue and performance times.

No wonder youve got a smile on your face from ear to ear,I think we would all take up dj'ing full time for that sort of money!Even for those hours

Have you tried asking for it? Those figures are the fees I recieve not what the agency charges the client.
In the real world, anywhere outside London.
It's interesting talking to DJs around the country and how the prices vary or don't as the case may be. In Birmingham I know guy's (a lot of them) that tell me they can't get more than £150, Then I talk to other guys around the home counties, Birmingham, great £500 / £600. What the hell is going on. All i can think of is SERVICE, the better the service you offer the more money.
When I talk to DJ's I normally suggest they think before putting there mouth into gear.

In the states a disco of average ability charges around the $600 (about £450) and in a lot of cases lighting is extra, now equat the cost of living (petrol - States about 60p a gallon), we should actually be charging £1,500 / £2,000 a night.

I was always told to calculate a price, use the following: What is the Average weekly income in your area and thats what you charge on a Saturday night. It has only been the last 10 years or so that this has gone out of the window, and the cause of this, lots of people starting discos because they think it's a quick money spinner. Unfortunatly NOT, as with any other profession, you have to work at it, and work bl**dy hard.

Time to put the Box away

I used to let the part timers get to me with their £60 a night fees, but of late with more and more places asking for PLI, and local council's asking about PAT testing of equipment slowly but surely they are getting pushed out.

At the end of the day the old adage 'you get what you pay for' is so true. It all comes down to SERVICE as Mikeee so aptly put it, but I still have to remind the roadie of that when its a freezing December night and we are carrying 15 Grands worth of gear down three flights of an exterior fire escape at 3am......... glamourous? Of Course!

Just reading with interest this bit of the forum. The going rate up here in Scotland(Central Belt, Edinburgh - Glasgow) is around £120 Fri/Sat. Sun - Thurs, around £80?!?

Sorry CMJ but needs must if I don't work at least 5 days I don't mpay my mortgage or eat

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Have you tried asking for it? Those figures are the fees I recieve not what the agency charges the client

With respect Mike, you wouldn't get that sort of figure up here, although it would be fun watching you try

I 've worked this area for years and I deal with the local D.J's up here day in day out, i've been on first name terms with them for many years, so its no secret that everybody knows what each other is charging. I know of a local D.J who puts out ten roadshow's and hes' been in business for almost as long as you - yet he charges far less than me and thats a fact.

Only last night I got turned down for an 18th Birthday in October because my quote of £110 was "Too Expensive", I wonder what she would have said had I quoted £500? - yes there are several D.J's around here who charge far less than £100 and - Yes thats your "real world". One of the reasons why my own hire business does so well is because in this area, 18 year olds now take their birthdays to clubs, and the small family get together is held at home.

one of the reasons my equipment prices are so competitive is because they are the prices which sell gear in this area, if it wasn't required for the locals etc, I wouldn't need to do it and I'd be selling stuff for around 30% more .

Here is an interesting Entry taken from the Guestbook on the website of my disco, written by a visitor from South Wales:-

QUOTE

Found it more interesting picking up how other dj's set up their disco and how they run it to be honest  You covered every thing about this industry for any budding dj. I wish I'd found out about this web site 4 years ago when I started seting up my disco. Oh by the way, no one in my area would ever dream of paying over £100 for a disco. I'm charging £75 a night and I'm out on an average of 3 nights a week!

Maybe we should run a poll, where visitors can select the section which applies to what they charge (anonomously ) since i know that some people may not publically want to declare their exact fee.

Remember most D.J's operate a disco as a second income, there are very few around here who do it full time. A tribute perhaps to the low fees which this area will stand.

QUOTE

All i can think of is SERVICE, the better the service you offer the more money.

This assumption, and it is just that - Is pretty much going to get you some flak and i'm the first in the queue

I had the car serviced today, the main dealer quoted me £230, the local garage did it for £145. When I collected It had plastic bags over seats and a nice little gift pack of Summer additive, Car Shampoo and a sponge (Maybe they were hinting I should clean it) and the work was carried out by the owner. Last year I paid the £230, it was handed over to somebody who looked about 12 and when I collected it, all I got was a scratch down the side of it and got my old oil filiter back (I marked it before it went in). Sometimes the most expensive isn't the best.

I`ve just had a Wedding binned because my fee was too high.
They wanted Karaoke/Disco from 2pm to 5pm. Then they wanted Disco from 7pm to 1am. I told them £130 for the evening and £70 for the afternoon. Total 200 quid.
I was replaced by a local guy who does disco to supplement his Dole money. He`s doing the whole gig for a hundred quid!!
They won`t know whether I am better than him or not, whether I have more music than him etc etc.. all they`ll know is - they saved a hundred quid so I must be a rip-off merchant.
And although I shouldn`t say it............. I hope the disco is crap and they have a lousy day/night
--------------
My normal fees tend to be around £70 - £90 midweek and £80 - £125 weekend. Depends on the function, the venue and the punter.
---
A friend of mine recently lost a Sunday pub karaoke residency. He was getting £80 a night, but lost the job to a guy who HALVED his price.
The guy who lost the job has about 250 karaoke CDs.
The guy who took over has about 40, mainly copies.
The licensee doesn`t give a to$$ about any of this, just that he`s saving 40 quid a night.
--
I am very pleased to say that his Sunday nights have dropped off considerably. So much so that he is talking of finishing up the karaoke night. He says "no-one wants karaoke any more".
Of course they do - and that`s why they`ve gone elsewhere.
--
Do I sound bitter? I wonder why? OK time to fall off the box

QUOTE

all they`ll know is - they saved a hundred quid so I must be a rip-off merchant.

Thats exactly the point. People do ring around trying to save money. I could give you 20 numbers of people within 2 miles of me who go out for £80 - £125 a night. Upon contacting me they get a quote of £500 or even £200. For some reason they don't think "Oh he charges the most he must be the best" - they think "Cor what a rip off - ever likely he's free that night". Out of 21 possible local quotes all under £120 and my quote of £250 who are they going to book?? -Me??? - Get real!, people can't resist a bargain, its human nature - irrespective of whether they get burned due to making the wrong decision or not, i've lost £120, the D.J turns out to be crap - the client feels let down = the industry gets more bad press.

since I actually do enjoy the work, it does make money - well the tax man seems to do well out of it , and given the opportunity of making £120 from working the local club, Spending £40 on a night out, or sitting in and watching Casualty then I'm sorry but come Saturday then i'll take the £120

Here in South Yorkshire I charge £80 for a Saturday night as do the rest of the mobiles here. I must admit a few years ago i would undercut to get the work cos i enjoyed the scene and still do , but thing about this before you make up your mind.

If you stick to your guns on price eventually people will book you as you are consistant and may be the only disco not working and the person on the other end of the phone has been let down by " Bodge-it and scarper disco" now this may not make sense, but word of mouth works as i stopped advertising for a year and wanted a break , but calls still came in well after the ad ended.

The moral to the story has to be: Out price another disco and you could outbid yourself of work.

Never get into the war on disco a charges 10 quid less than you. Sell yourself as i do. When you give them a price tell them at the end of the call...example

Caller: how much do you charge?

You: Ok, before i give you a quote can i ask Whereabouts you are having the function ? (9times out of 10 will be local)

The caller will tell you venue and type of function.

You: ok well we are fully insured up to ???? to undertake your booking as well as being electrical tested which is a pre requisit of most council / goverment buildings ( quote the price) because if you give the price from the start , they are just thinking pound signs and not understanding why you charge as much as you do, but only tell them the above if its true!!!

I would say something along the lines of: I have checked with a few mobile jocks and find that they are not insured or elec tested and say that they have had no problems as yet , but ask yourself. Why. Simple...this disco only does the more pulic venue and avoids the matter of pli

Living in rural Norfolk and a traditionally low wage earning part of the world, the price to charge for a disco is on a par with what it seems the rest of you are getting apart from the London/Home Counties high flyers - anything from £80 to £180.

Like Chris, I suppose part of the problem here is that we have a lot of DJ's willing to work on a weekend and they will accept a lower price for the job. In and around Norwich we have 4 major hotels that are the 'in' places for weddings and all of these are exclusively through agents. The agents will charge them from £140 to £200 for a wedding and I'm afraid that market forces say that you can't charge more as people can always get it cheaper.
We all know that cheaper may not be better, but you try telling that to the public who have to part with their hard earned cash.
I'm fortunate in that in my village there are 4 of us D-Jing and we not only work with one another in offloading work when we are booked but also try to work around the same price depending on the function.

Yeah,
I find it good to get frienly with an other DJ as you can pass your work onto them if your over booked and he can do the same.
Iam lukly enough to have an older mate who does not like doing childrens parties well iam in there he gets the wedings. Its like one big business

I agree in principle with what you say, but you have to be so careful, because I normally work five out of six nights per week I find it very difficult to recommend anybody if I'm booked purely on the basis I have'nt seen them work myself and don't have time to go see them. Last thing I want to do is pass bookings on only for somebody to turn up with a home stereo and one light or worse! At the end of the day it will be your reputation that is tarnished aswell!!

I normally now pass them on to my local retailer of DJ equipment who will only pass out phone numbers of reputable DJ's with decent kit.

As i said I have a good mate
I trust him and have seen his work.
Iam not saying you should pick a DJ at ramdom and say use them as that is pointless you could be saying to use anyone.

I dont know about you, but I feel if you let a customer down they are not likely to use you again, pass them onto a friend who you know is good and they might come back.

I'm charging £120 for a normal Saturday night, up to £180 for weddings.

If you go by the average weekly wage then that's about £470 for my area its probably less than that. Sounds like a good price for a quality show.

What do you charge for other things? I also do Fashion Shows, I have done 3 now but very cheep (allot of hard work compared to a normal disco) and also I do PA and Lighting for bands, I have no idea what I should be charging.

One more thing do you pay any people to help you? What do they get?

With regard to Fashion Shows, I charge around £55 for P.A only hire, or £85 with engineer. If they need lighting effects (Usually DMX Scanners & Colour Changers) its £150 all in for upto 4 hours duration.

With regard to other area's of P.A Hire, it can range from £30 / day for basic 500W p.a hire (no engineer) to £100 per hour for a 10k rig with 2 engineers.

I have to agree about the work involved tho.

Regarding your question about how much people pay thier staff - you may find this thread interesting HERE

... I tell my clients that I am l'Oreal...... I charge more than most of the djs in my area .... because I am worth it!!
Seriously, location will have an effect on what you charge - but never think you have to compete with a competitor on fees - you pay peanuts.... etc....... I charge what I believe is attainable and given the fact that I am never at home over the weekend, I reckon it is fair. When you decide you want to increase your fee, your clients will let you know if you have gone too far . I never get the reaction "oh that is too expensive" because all my clients have either been to my functions or I have been recommended to them

So what about Christmas and New year what do you charge ??

I don't penalise clients for December bookings, in fact I offer a discount if I can get a series of bookings at the same venue. It makes sense, it's great to leave the equipment set up for several nights in a row (Minus CD's & Radio Mic) and just turn up in the car night after night without worrying about setting up and a 1AM packing away

Christmas Eve, I don't charge any Extra, Neither do I charge more for a Boxing day set at the club.

I do charge more for New Years, although not excessively High compared to other area's I am one of the most expensive (for this area) to book at £400.

I agree with Chris on this one, block bookings get a cheaper rate for December and no packing up.... lovely. Christmas Eve is a normal working day for most people and as such in my eyes is a normal price depending what night of the week it falls on.
New Year is the one night where people expect to pay and I have not altered my price for the last 2 years £500.

Millenium well thats a story in itself £1000 on the banks of the Thames for the Daily Express!! What a Night!!

I think the idea is to set a price and that is it, with the exception of Xmas eve, Boxing day and NYE

My price - Norm - £350, Xmas Eve - £400, B Day - £400, NYE - £600 (ish)
Av for the area - Norm - £260, X Eve - £325, B Day - £295, NYE - £450.

Chris, Im glad you dont hike your prices at christmas either - all of us know that in december the work comes in by the bucket load and we are all going to earn more by doing more jobs in december - my view is that if you are greedy enough to put up your prices in december just because there are more customers out there, then you really should put your prices down in January when bookings arent quite so many...... My prices do not change whether it is a mid week date or a weekend - my prices are fixed - I am not going to offer less of a service on a wednesday than I am on a saturday after all.
The only time my prices rise are for after midnight and if they want one of our bigger rigs which is usually for university sized crowds and above and that warrants charging more because it takes so much longer to put up, and we have to use more staff etc etc

Like most of you lot, when I first started, I started out cheap (£80 a night) and then fell into the deep deep hole of a free disco for family, not much good when you have a family as big as mine.

I've lived up in the North West in Rochdale and the average night is about £140 for pretty much anything, and around £80 for pubs. It's a low income area really.

I think it was Mikee who said nearer the beginning of this thread (forgive me if i'm wrong) that your price is averaged on whatever the weekly wage is in the area you are working.

Now, I live in Brighton where the average weekly wage is hugely inflated. I can quite easily charge £200+ and frequently do. There's a guy down here who runs 'Cheap Disco's and he pushes guys out at £90 and those cowboys are killing the market, but I don't let it bother me anymore now. If people want to pay the premium for a premium DJ then they'll listen to my advice not to go with the bottom feeders, they will regret it later.

Plus i've always got the added bonus of PLI and PAT testing (often overlooked by DJ's) which again sets your clients mind at rest. A bit of sales spiel and the gig is in the bag.

QUOTE (mikeee @ Apr 16 2003, 05:26 PM)

Birmingham I know guy's (a lot of them) that tell me they can't get more than £150, Then I talk to other guys around the home counties,

I have worked at place like the NEC and received £250-350 for mid week gigs.

and I ahve had to travel from Essex for these.

QUOTE (Chris_Pointon @ Apr 16 2003, 07:07 PM)

Only last night I got turned down for an 18th Birthday in October because my quote of £110 was "Too Expensive",

If you quoted that here you probably would not get the gig for being too cheap

QUOTE (FrankieJ @ Apr 29 2003, 04:04 PM)

So what about Christmas and New year what do you charge ??

For me after a lonf Christmas, I work in my local (i've known the manager years) just PA, no lights needed.

But he pays me £900 for Xmas & News Years Eve (total for the 2)

QUOTE (The Spindoctor @ Apr 29 2003, 04:52 PM)

Millenium well thats a story in itself £1000 on the banks of the Thames for the Daily Express!! What a Night!!

got cancelled and still got a £1500 fee

The one thing that I have learnt, the fee depends on who is paying,

i.e. for some people £150 is far too much and others £1,000 is too cheap. The secret is to find out as much as you can before you quote.

for me a party in a local village hall is one price and a corporate gig in the city for a blue chip company is another.

I also get booked as a guest DJ on soul events and very rarely do I get more that £120 for those, but I only DJ for an hour.

and yes my diary is always full.

i live in the north west and charge £150, sometimes £170, although i'm doing a christening party in june, a sunday, from 2 pm til 1am for £250, i dont reduce my fee for fridays or sundays.
i think that decent disco's should get more than we do, but the problem is of course is that the cowboys with crap gear can still sound convincing on the phone, so if i was to quote say £300, the client could say, "well ive just spoke to xyz disco's and he said hes got all the top gear and will do it for £120 " . i think that for a quality disco , it should be about £200 ~ £300.

QUOTE

If you quoted that here you probably would not get the gig for being too cheap

Charging more would suit me - however if you've ever worked this area then you would know the going rate is less than that. Mrs Smith Wanting a disco for her daughters 21st, and who has never ever booked a disco before & wouldn't be able to tell a good disco from a cowboy with both hands and a torch all that she knows is that she has had several quotes from other D.J's all ranging from £65 - £90 so it must be me who is to expensive . Of course I warn her about the pit falls of paying to little - she thinks that its just sour grapes on my part because i've lost the gig.

Result = She books a guy with a lava lamp and a bush stereo who plays Rap all night - Do I derive any pleasure from knowing this?, no!, I sit at home watching tele whilst £10k of gear sits getting dusty there are no winners is this tale! At the moment the show is out 70% of the week - two shows are out each night over the weekend - it works for me.

The only bookings that are worth more are our bookings for Astra-Zeneca although these include entertaining between 600 - 1800 on site staff from 2 sites / corporate guests so we do earn every penny - it also needs a lot in the way of P.A and lighting = set up time, and lets face it - they can afford it .

I also cover Greater Machester where the going rate is far more (Like most city centres) - interesting to see that the going rate almost doubles for" trip up the road". I'm also close (about 7 miles) from Alderley Edge and Wilmslow (Beckham Towers!) and A colleague based in that area charges £300 a night. Purely because its a more affulent area.

This has already been pointed out, and I would tend to agree - you charge to suit the area - what the local economy will stand. If you don't believe this then try charging £400 per gig. or even £200! in Tyne & Wear and see how often you are out!.

The Local competition includes cowboys like any area - however it also includes one guy. He charges £65 a night and I have to admit he's damn good. His lightshow is very professional as is his Audio Gear (all supplied by me!), why does he do this?, well it gets hm out of the house and tops up his pension. is he any good? -Yes, he's worked cruise ships and been in the business longer than even Mikeee. A Professional, reliable, good show for £65!.

QUOTE

If you quoted that here you probably would not get the gig for being too cheap

That reminds me of something i heard last year. I had done a birthday party for a bloke in my area (NW London), and about 10 months later he called me and asked me to do his wedding, but that it was in the Isle of Wight. I wasn't able to do his wedding as I was already booked, but told him the price I would have charged (£400), and told him that I'd guess that the local dj's in the Isle of Wight would be a fair bit cheaper.

He told me that he'd been to a wedding fair there, and was chatting with a mobile dj. He asked him for a quote and the dj said £70! The bloke exclaimed "£70" in surprise that it was so cheap, but the dj thought he was saying it was too expensive and quickly said, "OK, £60"!

My pricing is based on 3 factors: 1. Location of Venue, 2. Start/end times, 3. Number of guests (which dictates how much sound & lighting eqpt I'll need). Weddings start from £350 and the actual price depends on the above 3 factors. Private parties start from £250.
It's extremely rare that anyone quibbles about price with me, and I'm told that I'm too expensive about twice a year!

... although from some of the above posts I now know why the £500 quote I gave to a recent enquiry I received for a wedding in Ipswich for the summer of 2004, wasn't confirmed

Ian, how much for the NEC, I think you could have got a little more for that.
One of my guys, was travelling to brum, 4hr wedding in a hotel, £550, and I thought with the three hour drive he was to cheap.

I would like to quote from a posting on another forum:

"The biggest problem with our industry, concerning prices, is that most DJ's set their prices based on what everybody else is charging!

Not based on what it will take for them to make a living...

Not based on a business plan that takes into account business expences........

Some base their prices on how much extra they need aside from their day job to help pay the bills!

Some set their so that they have a little extra beer money!

And, I've seen some HUGE sound and light systems set up, only to find out that the DJ was charging what we have come to know and love as "bottem feeder" prices! "


Makes you think dosn't it, I believe that all people going into business regardless of type should sit down and work out a business plan, then they would know the real value of what they are charging.

QUOTE (mikeee @ May 1 2003, 02:07 AM)

Ian, how much for the NEC, I think you could have got a little more for that. One of my guys, was travelling to brum, 4hr wedding in a hotel, £550, and I thought with the three hour drive he was to cheap.

it was 5 years ago

I hear what you say Mikeee, trouble is even if you could get every DJ to agree a minimum wage for 4 hrs, there would still be the part time beer money merchants who would take all the bookings we'd priced ourselves out of. At the end of the day most customers (general public) could'nt give a to$$ if we have PLI or PAT or indeed if we downloaded the whole set or whatever................ they SHOULD care but they won't all the time somebody will do it cheaper!

Hi Spin, yes agreed, but they have probably a sec / hd, ICE clubman (white covering lol), some beat up squekers, and not portraing a professional image. Yes they will get work, pubs, clubs etc. As professionals we should be looking at Hotels, and Black tie functions. As I see it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, most DJ's tend to peg there prices to the lowest denominator, hence we're all broke.

It is of great credit that we are all talking here openly about what we charge and would like to but can't, would go out of business if we did and if we admit it to ourselves a little envious of some of the big money that appears to be made out there.

Can we just put some of it into focus as Chris has pointed out before.

The guy who charges £65 to top up his pension - can we compete - no !

The cowboys who undercut just to get the business - no !

The corporate event which requires loads of lights, big sound etc and is willing to pay the earth - more than half of us haven't got that amount of gearlet alone having a vehicle big enough to cart it about in and the labour to put it up.

But what we can do as I have stated before is try to encourage the main hirers of the mobiles to look for the qualities that we believe all mj's/kj's should posses. ie, PLI, PAT, reliability, quality, appearance, professionalism.
I have another job which pays the mortgage, feeds Mrs Spinks and Brat Spinks but I still believe in providing a professional service when I am out dj-ing

I know of 2 agents in Norwich for whom I was asked to do work for and neither asked if I had PLI, PAT, equipment etc...

I am certain that one big organisation for us all would be of real benefit.

One word - "EDUCATION"

Clients, Venues and DJ's alike

QUOTE (DJ Spinko @ May 1 2003, 03:53 PM)

The corporate event which requires loads of lights, big sound etc and is willing to pay the earth - more than half of us haven't got that amount of gearlet alone having a vehicle big enough to cart it about in and the labour to put it up.

I don't have a huge amount of gear etc, but I have found that most corporate clients I deal with etc don't want that. So I got rid of a lot of it.

As long as it's clean, presentable and reliable and can be set up and dismantled very quickly thats all they are interested in, and of course the quality of presentation.

I get most of my work Under the "No Naff Music" ie no party dance type tunes, my diary is always full with quality work at good prices, most of which comes from reccomendations.

Most people in the UK are more interested in quality and service (I think the figures are 97%) price is way down the list.

It's how you sell it if your competators are £250, and you want £300 sell it on the diffearance ie £50.

There's some interesting comment here & I'd like to add my bit.

First of all a 5 hour disco is much more than that: there's travel, setting up & dismantling, allowing time between setting up & starting etc. This makes it at least 9 hours & if there's two of you 18 man hours.

At the minimum wage this amounts to £75, then there's the 'hire' of your gear by them for their party, even for a small set-up say £50 (I'm being very conservative here) and your overheads (travel, maintenance, insurance, tax etc) say £20 So an absolute minimum is £145. Anyone doing a 5 hour gig for less are not doing themselves any favours.

Case A I recently met a DJ who charges £35 per night 'Until I get myself established'. "Have you got any gigs?" I asked. 'Yes one in about 8 weeks time'.
Case B A few days later a good friend who charges between £300 - £500 a night told me that he already had 60 confirmed bookings for this year.

I totally agree with Mickee about a business plan because until you know how much the business is costing you in terms of capital investment, maintenance etc how do you know if you are making enough money to keep it viable. Certainly it might seem good to pocket £100 at the end of the night & consider it all profit but I'll bet if you calculate it out you've probably earnt less than £5 per hour.

Your business plan doesn't have to be elaborate (unless you're going to the bank for a loan to start it). Consider: How much investment will you need to start, what your overheads will be (Insurance CD's, Vehicle, Maintenance, Advertising, Interest on loans, Tax & NI), How much do you want to earn per hour & finally what your competition charge (this has to be considered but not used in isolation).

Don't compete on price alone because there will always be someone who can beat you, instead use quality & service to get the edge on competitors. Offer something they don't (10 free Glow Sticks with every booking! - no forget that & sell them at £1 each) but you get the idea.

How much do I charge - well it's no secret I have all my prices on my web site so feel free to check it out at 5stardisco.co.uk.
You will notice that I offer a discount for early payment. The reason for this is that there's nothing worse than on the night chasing someone for money. A lot of my gigs are at 5 Star hotels (Hence the name) and in general I find people with money are the hardest to part with it but offer them a few pounds off for early payment & they jump at it.

I started by saying I'll add my 'bit' but this seems more like a 'byte' Anyway hope it helps someone out there.
Paul S

QUOTE

Offer something they don't

This is a good idea, and not as corny as it sounds, after all most larger companies use gimmicks and freebies in order to boost sales, and nobody can resist a bargain or something for nothing.

During quiet periods, I used to use the old "Free Bottle of Bubbly" for every Wedding Reception booked before "**/**/2003" (Fill in your end of offer date!), it works, this is good to run just before the Summer Wedding Season gets underway and don't forget that most people do book Wedding Receptions well in advance, so be prepared to make a note of the offer and that they are entitled to it!. This idea doesn't have to cost that much, All D.J's can get an account at your Local Makro, or talk to your friendly local bargain booze - They do offer some really good bulk buying deals for as little as a case of 6 bottles.

Another idea is the "Loyalty Bonus" - If I get a booking for an engagement for example, I offer a small discount if they also book me for their Stag Night / Wedding Reception . Okay, so if you are good they'll book you anyway, but they may decide to hold the reception at a venue that insists on providing their own resident D.J for functions - A Loyalty Discount usually means that the Bride / Groom will insist that the Venue allows you to do the disco in order to claim their discount!, and after all, you are better than the resident aren't you!!!?? .

Some great ideas coming out here, plenty of food for thought!