Disc Jockey News

I was reading a thread on a DJ chat site that asked if a DJ should work an event for much less than their standard rate just to have a booking or to pass on it and just stay home for the night.

It was asked that if a last minute event popped up but was only paying $200 for a Saturday night party, would you take the event or would you pass on it and just stay home? GOOD QUESTION!

There were two very distinct answers made by the DJs on this posting.

1) YES! $200 is $200 and sitting at home doesn’t pay the bills.

2) NO! I work extremely hard at what I do and I am worth more than $200.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these answers.

1) YES! $200 is $200 and sitting at home doesn’t pay the bills.

This DJ believes that if he stayed home he wasn’t making any money and was actually losing money by not taking the event even though it was much less than his standard rate.

His argument was that $200 was added income that he would not have had if he turned it down and if he did the customer would have just continued looking and eventually one DJ would have taken the party. He went on to explain that the $200 would buy some nice things, and he gave a few examples. (Food, gas, entertainment etc.) He viewed that working this event at a fraction of the standard rate as an opportunity to make a few bucks and display his talents in front of a room of potential future clients.

His attitude was that of a positive outlook and as an investment in his business for the future as well as helps to pay his daily expenses today.

2) NO! I work extremely hard at what I do and I am worth more than $200.

These DJs were upset that any DJ would lower their standards, tarnish their reputation and work for a wage that was well below their worth.

They saw allowing themselves to work for a price that was less than even a beginner DJ should charge was just hurting themselves and the industry by giving the image that a DJ will work for little or nothing when asked to.

The majority of the DJs who were against this low rate had an average wedding rate of $900 and up. They remember what it was like to struggle to get up to this rate and actually begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

They know all the time and hard work that goes into planning, working and maintaining a profitable business. They believe that going out to do this low rate event was actually a loss to their business because their expense of doing the event was more then the few hundred dollars that was offered to do it.

Their attitude was that of a feeling of true self worth and as a real business person who knows every element of their business.

Compare and Contrast:

Yes, if you work an event like this it will help to bring in a few dollars and possibly pay a bill or two.

Yes, if your not working your not making money.

Yes, the bills are still accumulating weather you work or not.

Yes, this customer will continue to look for a DJ who will do it for this little amount and the possibility of that DJ being a beginner or a “button pusher” who could harm this clients special day is a viable concern.

Yes, it is lowering your standards and self worth if you allow yourself to work for a fraction of your standard rate.

Yes, you did fight a hard uphill climb to be able to charge the rates that you are presently charging.

Yes, the cost of running your business does actually increase over the normal stagnant rate every time you go out to do an event.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So who is right and who is wrong? .......Both!

The answer would no doughtily depend on the individual DJ and their personal standards, ethics, self worth and money situation. Your attitude towards money, business and the economy in your area will speak to your feelings of weather to work the event or not.

I believe the concerning part of this and the most disturbing portion of this question is that any client be it a wedding, birthday party, karaoke event or frat party would expect a DJ to entertain for them for any number of hours is only worth $200.00 and would expect to pay only this little amount.

A great majority of DJs all across American including myself charge $200.00 to $300.00 or more per hour for any type of event and this client was expecting entertainment for four to six hours for this little amount is outrageous.

What can we do to change this situation? Educate the clients of what you do, how you do it and the importance of a quality entertainer for their event. If they still insist on only paying a fraction of your standard rate, well then it is up to you if you want to take that event as a positive endeavor or pass it on to a lesser skilled and talented DJ.

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 09:30 AM | Permalink

It’s that time of year again, are you ready for all the changes in the tax laws concerning businesses like yours?

Yesterday I went to my CPA to have my taxes filed for the year. He informed me how the U.S. Government will be coming down harder on tax payers, small businesses and even the accountants themselves for any mistake (accidental or purposeful tax fraud) in their filed taxes.

The I.R.S. will be making a huge increase in the number of audits and really tightening the rules of what is and is not allowed.

This is just one of the reasons why I have always used a professional tax accountant to handle my paperwork and suggest to all of you to do the same. A tax professional will always be up to date with all the new, changes in and discontinued tax laws.

It seems that for the small business person they will be doing more audits and really tightening the deductions even tougher than before.

Some of their major concerns are the business expense right offs and the mileage right off.

If you are audited you will be required to show proof of any business expense you wish to claim to your accountant in order for them to write it on your tax forms be it equipment or office materials.

The biggest hit to DJs if audited that I can see is the expense of your music library. They want to see receipts for every single song you own be it bought at your favorite music store location or via the internet.

What this means for those without ethics who have been illegally downloading, sharing music files with friends or burning music for use at events, this could be a major legal battle for them. I see DJ web sites that claim to have 30,000 50,000 and even up to 100 thousand songs, well without a receipt for that music you won’t be in business very long. I would think that they then would also turn you over to ASCAP and the R.I.A.A. which is another whole bag of troubles.

The mileage write off is also at the top of their lists of “audit indicators.” You will need to prove to your accountant as well as the I.R.S. the mileage you claim for the business.

The I.R.S. is now holding the person or company who fills out and files the taxes accountable just as much as the person who taxes they are. Improperly filed tax papers, incorrect information or other mistakes can lead a fine that starts at $1000.00 for the tax preparer and goes up from there. If a CPA or other tax business is fined for a mistake, then that company will be audited and all of their client’s papers will be audited.

For those of you who work for a DJ company directly or through a broker type business, you need to make sure that they are registered with their Secretary of State where the home office is located as well as paying their state & federal employee taxes and if you are a “sub-contractor” of that business that they follow all the rules and regulations that are required by a business with “sub-contractors”

These laws are very tight and strict and the greater majority of the DJ services who claim to use “Sub-contractors” do not qualify for this listing with the government.

If you accept cash payments from clients or you are a business owner who accepts cash payments,, make sure that you claim that money on your tax forms. Somewhere down the line either the business will get audited or you will get audited. Either way both will get investigated by the I.R.S. or problems will emerge.

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 11:01 AM | Permalink

The cost of gas has risen 16 cents per gallon in the last two weeks and is being reported to continue to rise all summer long. Have you planned for this huge price hike?

I spoke about this in a blog months ago how the price of gas continues to rise while your profit margin continues to drop. The news is reporting the average price of gas is around $3.25 per gallon, almost $1.00 more than it was a year ago. (depending on where you are located)

It is reported to possibly top out at anywhere from $3.50 to over $4.00 per gallon. Unfortunately there are gas stations in California that have already topped the four dollar mark and will continue to go up over the summer.

What does this mean to you? This summer when you fill your tank to make the trip to your events, it can cost you double the amount you were paying last summer and up to three times the amount of two summers ago.

Did your rates increase to cover this huge new expense? Probably not! That is all lost profit and a possible loss of your business.

If you didn't increase your rates six months ago, that means the events you are now performing and already have booked for the summer months will take a larger share of the profit to cover the cost of your travels.

If you raise your rates now, the bookings you get in the next few months won't actually take place until late summer, fall or winter. Who knows where the price of gas for not only your car, but home heating will be in the fall or next winter.

Let's say that you were charging for a wedding last summer $750. A tank of gas was $30.00. (estimated 1 tank per event) That left you with $720.00 to which you would then subtract the other costs of running a business.

This summer that same tank of gas will cost you $50.00 or more. Leaving you with only $700.00 or less to balance your books.

Now you also have to include that because of gas rates rising, the price of most consumer goods also went up. Food, clothing, home heating etc. etc.

The costs of bread have already doubled due to the increase in wheat pricing, because of the increase of fuel for trucking that wheat. Fruits and vegetables along with milk have jumped 30% to 50% in the last year, all due to the hike in gas prices.

Together this adds up to a huge increase in your monthly expenses at home and for the business.

Did your rates account for this huge increase?

In the airline business, a one cent raise in gas will add up to millions of dollars a day. Airlines are trying to get a grip on this before it is too late by raising their ticket price $30.00 or more per ticket or adding a fuel charge to each ticket.

If you want to stay with the ever increasing expense of life this summer and beyond, you must also adjust the rate at which you provide your DJ service. Charge a mileage fee will help to cover this and if the price of gas drops you can always stop adding this extra charge.

We are in a recession, no matter how much the President wants to deny it, the only way to not fall behind is to increase your rates just enough to cover this expenditure of raising gas prices. It is either that or cut way back on your service and expenses which is not a smart move with the industry moving more to a “Quality Personal Service”.

What ever you are charging now, I would suggest raising your rates by a minimum of $25.00 to cover your added gas increase. If you are uncomfortable with this increase, begin to charge a mileage fee of up to 40 cents per mile (what ever is the legal mount allowed in your area) to each and every event you perform for in order to help cover your added gas expense.

This recession won’t be easy, but if you plan ahead for it, you may get through it with minimal damage.

UPDATE: 3/19/08

Today I had my CPA file my taxes for the business. When we were working on the mileage portion of the paper work, I pulled out all my papers with the locations and the mileage to each event. I then added in the other mileage for the business and it came to almost 8000 miles. It didn't seem like that much during the course of the year, but when you really sit down and figure it out it can really add up.

How many miles to the gallon does your fully loaded vehicle make? How many gallons of gas would that be? Last spring we were paying about $1.00 less per gallon then today and the price is expected to continue going up.

With my vehicle and the miles per gallon it makes and the increase in the gas prices, it comes out to be approximately a 50% increase in my gas bill for this year. If the price continues to go up that fuel increase cost could become 55% to 60% or more when compared to last year by the end of this summer.

Where is that extra fuel cost money coming from? A mileage charge added to each event performed.

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 07:59 AM | Permalink

I have been trying to find new clients by listing my business on "craigslist" here in MN since December and the biggest obstacle I came up against was another DJ!

In December I decided to try a little experiment by listing a posting for my business: Party Time Productions Exceptional Disc Jockey Entertainment, to see who really shops on craigslist and if I could attract any potential clients to hire my service.

I understood that those shopping craigslist tends to be people who are looking to purchase something for little to nothing with no real concern of the quality of that service or product. It’s all about the cheap price. Since I am one of the more expensive Entertainers in the state I thought I would try it out anyways to see if people would consider booking a quality DJ over the low, low rate DJ.

The first couple postings went exactly the way I expected, no phone calls, no e-mails and no takers.

Then suddenly I was up against a wall. My postings were being flagged and removed from the site with in hours of posting them.

If you’re not familiar with how craigslist works, every posting has the option of being “Flagged” by anyone who reads the posting. What this means is that Craigslist has pages and pages of rules about what can and can not be written in the posts. It is a way to control people posting horrible things, inaccurate lies, causing controversy and stopping hatred or other bad items from appearing on the web site.

When a posting is flagged it goes to a computer that will automatically remove the posting and send the person an automated e-mail saying it was flagged and removed.

The problem with this is that no human actually reads the posting or has any idea why it was flagged. Everything just happens automatically.

This is where the trouble comes in. Every time I would try to make a posting another DJ (who will remain nameless, but I know who it is) would then flag my posting and it would automatically be removed.

At first I thought maybe I had something in it that was against the rules, so I read the rules over and over but could not find anything that would call for it to be removed.

Then I figured out that it was another DJ who was lurking in the background and with in hours of my posting had it flagged and removed.

In two months I had ten postings flagged and removed by this jealous, spiteful DJ. I can’t get a posting to stay on the site for more than a few hours no matter what time of day or middle of the night I make the posting.

The funny thing is that some of the posts that were flagged were postings that had appeared on the site months ago that he didn’t see and flag. Some were written to ensure that there wasn’t anything anyone could find controversial or threatening to anyone. Some were as Politically Correct and boring as they could be but yet he still flagged it.

This person just has it in for me (and possibly other DJs) and wants to make my life troublesome. That’s just too bad that he doesn’t spend that kind of time working his business and tiring to be the best that he can be instead of holding back the real competition by FALSLEY ACCUSING others of impropriates.

Sometimes the TRUTH hurts and they don’t want potential brides to know there is a real difference in the skills, talents, experience and professionalism in Disc Jockeys. If Brides knew, those DJs would be out of business!

Here is the latest posting that he had flagged with in one hour after I put it on craigslist. See if you can see any reason to remove this from the site. (listed under Events)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See the Difference for yourself. Disc Jockey - DJ (Minnesota - MN)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: see below
Date: 2008-03-04, 11:52AM CST

http://www.PartyTimeproductions.biz

Thank you.

Jeff Richards

Location: Minnesota - MN
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 595275597

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My experiment really worked.

This person is purposely flagging my posts with the intent to harm, cause loss to business and control the DJ industry on this site and the metro area. He has broken so many laws that it would be hard to count.

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions Exceptional Disc Jockey Entertainment

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Latest Update: 3/6/08

This person who has been causing so many problems and creating a hostile environment on craigslist continues to post on the site and continues to write complete lies, misquotes and misinformation in order to try and discredit my business.

One posting was all in capital letters (against craigslist rules) several lists my personal as well as business initials and all are completely misguided and misunderstood by this sorry, pitiful fool.

The very things he accuses me of, (which are not true) is exactly what he is doing to me. He even went as far as accusing me of putting down DJs who don't attend Bridal shows and went on to say he doesn’t attended Bridal shows by choice and for me to go ahead and spend two grand working one.

This is hilarious, because I never mentioned one word about Bridal Shows on craigslist, (for or against them) as a matter of fact; I haven't been a part of a Bridal show in over eight years, why would I say anything against DJs who don't attend a bridal show when I don’t.

I guess according to him, educating Bridal couples about the difference between button pushing, non talented DJs who call themselves professional in order to fool clients into hiring them at a less then adequate rate for the work being done, is against the rules. It’s so obvious that he really doesn’t know what the word "Professional" means or how to be one.

It's funny how informing Bridal Couples what is right, wrong, legal, non legal, good and bad really hurts his feelings so at five in the morning he is making posts accusing me of outlandish untruths.

The best part is that this person isn't mature enough to put his name on his posts or even to take the time to phone me to talk about his problems he has with me.

It’s just a shame that telling and showing potential clients how one person stands out, operates a business and offers quality service angers those who deep down inside know that what I inform Bridal couples is true and it discredits who they are.

Posted by Jeff Richards at 10:31 AM | Permalink