Service – Quality - Professionalism = Rate
DJs and their low- low rates are killing their own business.
A couple times a year I like to check around to see what the DJs in my area are charging for a wedding and compare it to my rates and service. This year I found some very disturbing information from my search.
I received an e-mail from a new DJ internet search site that was looking for DJs to join their web site and as they claim “Be Booked Every Weekend”.
I wanted to check out this site to compare it to others that I have researched and/or are presently advertising on. I wanted to see how it works and how I could be “Booked Every Weekend”.
I went to the web site and was in the area for people looking for a DJ. The site looked very amateurish and not very informative to potential clients.
Basically a person in need of a DJ would fill in a few blanks on a questionnaire and then the DJs available would e-mail or phone you back with their information.
I filled in the blanks with my wife’s maiden name and our home phone number along with a special e-mail address.
I then entered in the information of the date of the event and that I would need five hours of music for a wedding along with the city of the location of the reception site.
This was all the information that they required from any potential client.
The next day I began to receive e-mails from DJ services that were available and willing to work the event.
In all I received four e-mails and two phone calls from DJ services for the five hour wedding.
I was shocked when the first e-mail I received said that this company would do the five hour reception for only $275 especially since my five hour wedding STARTS at $1200.
The other e-mails varied in price but the highest rate I was quoted was only $600.
One company sent me out their packet with all of their information. I found this to be completely entertaining. In 1997 when I decided to turn my “Hobby” of being a DJ into a full time professional business I did the same thing as I did this January and this same company sent me their packet back then.
Now ten years later, this same company sent me the exact same packet as they did ten years ago. Same pictures, same pricing - same everything. The only difference is now they put in their packet a bag of microwave popcorn and two Twizlers.
Their price…..$495! What I thought was funny was that they claim that this is a $200 savings off their regular price if I sign with them before a certain date (two weeks later). This price is the exact same price that they always run on the web site and in all of their advertising.
Basically they are using the scare tactic of “Buy now before the sale ends” but the sale hasn’t ended for over ten years!
I then received a phone call from this company and from the person who was running the web site.
They both asked me about the DJ services and if I had found a DJ for the wedding.
I had to explain to both of them the incredible low rates that the DJs were charging defiantly relate to the low quality of the service they offer.
Of course they both had to argue with me that they can offer lower rates because "they don’t have huge overhead, they work in quantity or they are not “Gouging” clients."
Being in the entertainment industry for over twenty five years and a full time DJ for ten, I know that no business can offer the exact same kind of quality, time consumption or individual attention to their clients as a full time professional can.
It may hurt to hear this, but in reality it is true. Some may think they can, most will argue they can, but when it comes right down to it, after you work your full time job(s) take care of your family and friends and all the other things necessary in a persons everyday life, the time and energy left in a day is far less then those who work this as a full time business and have eight to twelve hours a day dedicated to the business.
I found this out when I went full time.
Looking back now I don’t know how I got things done when I was working another job(s).
Today I can dedicate eight to twelve hours a day, six days a week to my DJ service and I am sometimes still pressed on time to get things done and done properly.
Before I went full time I thought I was doing the best, giving my all and offering the kind of service others were giving, but looking back now I was just fooling myself and trying to convince potential clients that I could give them everything and then some.
Don’t get me wrong, I was offering my best, but my full time job, and everything else in life only allowed me to give “what I could” to my business in the little time left over.
I’m not Mark Ferrell - who believes all DJs should charge a $2200.00 minimum, but I know from all my experience that any DJ who has good equipment, any kind of skills and talents and shows up at the event are defiantly worth a minimum of $995 per wedding.
Then if you go above and beyond the “Average” or basic entertainer, your rate should also reflect your skills, talents, experience and quality levels.
Are actors like Jim Carrey worth 20 million dollars per movie?
Are athletes worth Multi-million dollar contracts per year?
Are C.E.O.’s of a business worth billions of dollars each year while their employees struggle to live?
Some may say no, but someone must think they are or they wouldn’t make the money that they do.
If you don’t think that you are worth at least one thousand dollars for your talents, skills and service for a wedding, then maybe you should find yourself a job that you are worth your pay. Wal-mart is always looking for greeters.
In the end I decided not to "PAY" for advertising on this DJ web site because I didn’t want to be linked to or have any association to these “Button Pushing” DJs.
Sure I could be "Booked Every Weekend" if I was charging so little, but my clients tell me at every event I perform that I'm worth more than the measly rates of DJs who are advertising on DJ search sites like the one I was researching for this blog.
Last weekend I did a wedding for $2000 and I still received a tip from the very happy clients.
Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions