Booking into 2011?
Tonight I heard a story of a DJ who just booked a Wedding for 2011. You're just not going to believe this....
First of all let me say, good for this guy, he has a client who wants his service three years into the future. Nice Work!
The problem I have is that he is charging them the same price for the wedding in 2011 as he is charging for today in 2008 which in reality is probably the same price he has been charging since 2007 and possibly as far back as 2006.
This would mean that when he performs this Wedding he will not have had a price increase in as many as five years.
So how would you have handled this Bridal couple’s service request?
A: Would you have charged them the same price as you are currently.
B: Would you have added a rate increase to estimate what you will be charging three years from now.
C: Would you have said, call me back when you get within 6 to12 months of the wedding date?
For myself, I would have selected option C. The reason is, you just don’t know what you will be doing three years from now. If you take their deposit then close the business for what ever reason then you are still ethically obligated to return that money because you went out of business.
If they insisted on having my service then I would have attempted to estimate what my rates would be in 2011 by adding a 3 to 5 percent raise each year for the three years. This could still be a problem if you under estimate the rate and you end up doing the wedding for little to no profit margin.
With the sudden spikes in gas prices you never know what we will be paying for a gallon of gas in three years.
The future is just so uncertain that to book an event that far into the future can be very risky.
I would defiantly have a “No refund” policy enforced because most likely this wedding isn’t actually going to take place.
Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions