Credit Crunch

[Candybeatdiscos]

Hey guys

So quick question whilst i am pondering setting up the business again, how is this "Credit Crunch" (it was called a recession in my day) affecting you?

They say that during times of economic downturn that this is the best time to start a business, do you agree?

I have the business account set up and am looking to start trading from April, so come on guys gimmie your thoughts, is it worth starting now and what tips can you offer to ensure the first year is successful.

[Grahame Case]

Hey guys

So quick question whilst i am pondering setting up the business again, how is this "Credit Crunch" (it was called a recession in my day) affecting you?

They say that during times of economic downturn that this is the best time to start a business, do you agree?

I have the business account set up and am looking to start trading from April, so come on guys gimmie your thoughts, is it worth starting now and what tips can you offer to ensure the first year is successful.

best time to start a business in my view - the only way is up..

[ppentertainments]

I am finding, in general, people are not spending less money but are spending their money a lot more wisely. More people are taking me up on pre-event meetings etc and are asking more questions when booking.

I have noticed a definite downturn in 'cheaper' enquiries and pub/club gigs. I have directed my advertising away from this market so not sure if it is down to that or the credit crunch.

[yourdj]

People party harder and still need to get married.

They are a bit more fussy with prices though. I have lowered general price and offered more in the form of optional extras and other bespoke services if they want it.

Im starting to make more than i did before on average now!

My advice is yes.

[Tony Scott]

I've seen an improvement in bookings for '09 which has surprised me. I would suggest you target the wedding market though as it definately seems to be holding up.......I think weddings are pretty much recession proof??

I believe in the current climate most clients are looking for a quality service and value for money, if you aim to provide this and get your advertising right you won't go far wrong.....good luck! :)

[spin mobile disco]

Im noticing a rise in the engagment parties this year. I think some people are having these to make their relationship more formal but they can't afford a wedding yet.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

I agree with whats been said previouly. The issue of having packages with different prices has ben debated to death, but i can honestly say that having them has worked well for me so far this year.

Ive got Bronze, silver and Gold and i generally push silver as the standard package. People getting married (and those with plenty of cash :D :D) have still (compared to last year), gone for the silver and gold packages. However those parties, Birthdays, engagements etc, that are more low key have been favourinbg the Bronze over the silver. Generally you can get the ide that a client is going to say: "How Much?:eek: and i generally beat them too it by saying that we have a smaller package available for £xxx. Ive picked up a few bookings this way, which i may have lost to the £125 Nigels :D

[Steve the DJ]

I would suggest you target the wedding market though as it definately seems to be holding up...

Funny you should say that because I consider myself a Wedding specialist and yet I am diversifying out of doing just Weddings.

Why?

Well the world and his wife are focusing on Weddings now, mainly because it seems the only way to get a decent fee. It's brilliant for the clients that so many DJs who offer great service are now focusing on Weddings, but for me, having so many good DJs chasing an ever smaller number of events only means one thing in the long term, lower prices or providing extra services for free.

I'm not really interested in either, so if I am going to earn less money I may as well do a Birthday Party, much less hassle... :D

[rob1963]

Well the world and his wife are focusing on Weddings now, mainly because it seems the only way to get a decent fee.

Not so sure about that.

Those of us with set prices always get the same fee...whether we're doing a wedding, birthday, retirement party or whatever.

:D

[Wayno]

I'm not really interested in either, so if I am going to earn less money I may as well do a Birthday Party, much less hassle... :D

Thats been my thought too this year lol.


My current position is that the first 3 months of 2009 have been the busiest first 3 for me ever, last year i had 5 gigs in the first 3 months - this year I have 22.

I've noticed the £125 18ths and that have disappeared but on the flib I have had 3 wo hour kids parties come in at £150??? - go figure! lol

It's weird because I actually seem to be doing OK regardless of the downturn, although it's not been plain sailing I have had 4 wedding cancellations but on the whole it's looking good.

[pagan_flame]

The 'Credit Crunch' is the CAUSE of the recession, not the name for it. Banks aren't lending thousands of £££'s to anyone with a pulse any more, hence the tightening of belts.

2 months into the year, and NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY has come to me for this year via my website or advertising. Work is OK, though, as my original / core business is coming back up (rock / biker events) and I am moving into promoting my own nights... and referral / agency work is holding up well too.

[Pe7e]

No enquiries in 2 month is pretty grim, I get 1 or 2 a day from a web site that's only a few months old. I've had a quick look at your site and one thing I spotted was a complete lack of any meta keywords indicating your location, or the area you operate in. IMO, almost everyone searching for a disco will type in 'disco kent' or 'mobile disco york' ect, if I was you I would change this ASAP, and don't forget to be sure to have all your keywords appear in the content of your site. Regular updates of your content will also help your site position in google. Have you used google webmaster tools to see what's going on?

[Steve the DJ]

Not so sure about that.

Those of us with set prices always get the same fee...whether we're doing a wedding, birthday, retirement party or whatever.

:D

I said a decent fee... :D

It all depends on your income requirements of course and I would assume as a married man with an ever expanding family that my business has to generate more income than yours to fulfil our "living" requirements.

I am just at a point where I am seeing the amount I can earn per gig (average £400 - £500) being pegged back because of the amount of DJs offering a similar service for £300 - £400 and chucking in extras for free. I (and it appears I'm not the only one), am not prepared to do loads of work for free, it just doesn't put food on the table and continues to devalue what we do.

I can earn almost £300 for a local birthday party without the need for client meetings, hours of prep, travelling, early set ups etc. I could use the spare time that gets freed up to develop other income streams that I am working on which would eventualy replace the lost Wedding revenue.

In fact I am thinking of offering £35 quiz nights in the Worcester Park area...:p

[Vectis]

The 'Credit Crunch' is the CAUSE of the recession, not the name for it.

Couldn't :agree: more



2 months into the year, and NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY has come to me for this year via my website or advertising.

Can I ask what type of work you're seeking out?

I had a quick nosey round your website and I have to say it's so riddled with information pertaining to biker and rock events that if I were shopping for my wedding DJ then unless the majority of our guests were into the scene I'd certainly be put off!

I do understand this is a major thrust of your business and that's cool but if you're looking for different verticals then perhaps consider either a redesign in terms of content or perhaps run under two different identities?



one thing I spotted was a complete lack of any meta keywords indicating your location, or the area you operate in.

META keywords won't do much for your ranking these days but you're running a framed site which certainly isn't helping! As a bare minimum get your pages meaningfully TITLEd and get a meta description in there. There's plenty of tutorials on this. Otherwise, as Pe7e says, the search engines will struggle to find you.

[rob1963]

It all depends on your income requirements of course and I would assume as a married man with an ever expanding family that my business has to generate more income than yours to fulfil our "living" requirements.

Very true.

I'm sure that what I need to live in for a month is the same as what you need for a WEEK!


I can earn almost £300 for a local birthday party without the need for client meetings, hours of prep, travelling, early set ups etc.

And I usually earn £350 for weddings, 90% of which ALSO don't require client meetings, hours of prep, travelling, early set ups etc.


In fact I am thinking of offering £35 quiz nights in the Worcester Park area...:p

:jawdrop:

[yourdj]

I am moving into promoting my own nights

Same here. Im setting up a Polish Party on fridays. Good quality club nights or other events are where the money if you get it right.

My old latin spanish night used to pay my mortgage and bills and took very little work. I did not even DJ. Oh those were the days.


perhaps run under two different identities?u.

Also a good idea. I own Your DJ which is a generic agency not specializing in much. but i also own newforestwedding, which will be a listing site for other companies and a personal site for my dj services too.

I can charge more from that as it it a far more bespoke service. If the do not want to spend the money then they can go to your dj and pay less for a less bespoke service.

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

the identitiy thing is a good idea

i have a generic website for everything
i have a childrens disco website
a oldies disco website
and an equipment rental website

sometimes i get 2-3 enquiries a day off one website and none on the others, sometimes its evenly spread

[PropellerHeadCase]

The 'Credit Crunch' is the CAUSE of the recession, not the name for it. Banks aren't lending thousands of £££'s to anyone with a pulse any more, hence the tightening of belts.

Indeed.



2 months into the year, and NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY has come to me for this year via my website or advertising. Work is OK, though, as my original / core business is coming back up (rock / biker events) and I am moving into promoting my own nights... and referral / agency work is holding up well too.

Much of what follows is pretty much wghat I was going to say...


No enquiries in 2 month is pretty grim, I get 1 or 2 a day from a web site that's only a few months old. I've had a quick look at your site and one thing I spotted was a complete lack of any meta keywords indicating your location, or the area you operate in. IMO, almost everyone searching for a disco will type in 'disco kent' or 'mobile disco york' ect, if I was you I would change this ASAP, and don't forget to be sure to have all your keywords appear in the content of your site. Regular updates of your content will also help your site position in google. Have you used google webmaster tools to see what's going on?


Couldn't :agree: more

Can I ask what type of work you're seeking out?

I had a quick nosey round your website and I have to say it's so riddled with information pertaining to biker and rock events that if I were shopping for my wedding DJ then unless the majority of our guests were into the scene I'd certainly be put off!

I do understand this is a major thrust of your business and that's cool but if you're looking for different verticals then perhaps consider either a redesign in terms of content or perhaps run under two different identities?

META keywords won't do much for your ranking these days but you're running a framed site which certainly isn't helping! As a bare minimum get your pages meaningfully TITLEd and get a meta description in there. There's plenty of tutorials on this. Otherwise, as Pe7e says, the search engines will struggle to find you.

Regarding the bolded bits - if you confuse your message you confuse your potential clients, separating the rock/biker message from your wedding message can only improve your pentration into both markets.

[pagan_flame]

Are you actually referring to my site? I cannot see how, as:

- Keywords, title, text on page, search engine optimisation and ranking, sitemap ROR file etc etc are all in place as mentioned above, where on earth are you looking for them? :confused:

'So riddled' - 3 pages out of 20? Hardly. However I am working on that one... working on the pages for a subsite at http://www.rockdisco.co.uk which will divert the focus away from the main site.

...and anyway: if any or all of the above is true, how come I have had plenty of enquiries and work from the website as it is now, over the last 2 years - primarily black tie / corporate work and very little rock work - then suddenly nothing in 2009? What's changed? Not the website. :bang:

[Vectis]

Are you actually referring to my site? I cannot see how, as:

- Keywords, title, text on page, search engine optimisation and ranking, sitemap ROR file etc etc are all in place as mentioned above, where on earth are you looking for them? :confused:


<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<frameset rows="100%,*" cols="100%" border="0" framespacing="0">
<frame src="http://www.slingshot.uk.com/fd/index.htm" frameborder="NO"
scrolling="AUTO">
<frame src="dummie.htm" frameborder="NO" scrolling="NO"></frameset>
<noframes>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Redirection to <a href="http://www.slingshot.uk.com/fd/index.htm">here</a>
</body>
</noframes>
</html>

No title. Framed away to another page. Redirects. Lack of meta information. None of which are good SEO practice.



'So riddled' - 3 pages out of 20? Hardly. However I am working on that one... working on the pages for a subsite at http://www.rockdisco.co.uk which will divert the focus away from the main site.


Main page.
About the FDR.
Your Event.
Availability.
Testimonials.

All mention Rock/Biker events in some way.

I could only find 7 or 8 pages.



...and anyway: if any or all of the above is true, how come I have had plenty of enquiries and work from the website as it is now, over the last 2 years - primarily black tie / corporate work and very little rock work - then suddenly nothing in 2009? What's changed? Not the website. :bang:

Search engines frequently change their scoring algorithms and websites that DO have regular changes fare better as a result.

I think that due to the so-called "credit crunch" many corporates are cutting back on discretionary expenditure (see Carphone Warehouse in the news today for a good example) so if this made up a lot of your work until recently this could explain things somewhat.

[theoloyla]

Disco bookings holding up well and Line Dancing going very well. All 4 classes are full now.

[pagan_flame]

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<frameset rows="100%,*" cols="100%" border="0" framespacing="0">
<frame src="http://www.slingshot.uk.com/fd/index.htm" frameborder="NO"
scrolling="AUTO">
<frame src="dummie.htm" frameborder="NO" scrolling="NO"></frameset>
<noframes>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Redirection to <a href="http://www.slingshot.uk.com/fd/index.htm">here</a>
</body>
</noframes>
</html>

No title. Framed away to another page. Redirects. Lack of meta information. None of which are good SEO practice.



Main page.
About the FDR.
Your Event.
Availability.
Testimonials.

All mention Rock/Biker events in some way.

I could only find 7 or 8 pages.



Search engines frequently change their scoring algorithms and websites that DO have regular changes fare better as a result.

I think that due to the so-called "credit crunch" many corporates are cutting back on discretionary expenditure (see Carphone Warehouse in the news today for a good example) so if this made up a lot of your work until recently this could explain things somewhat.

*Tchoh* Amateurs...

<META name="GENERATOR" content="Coded by Celticon with a little help from Dreamweaver">
<meta name="description" content="Firedance Roadshow is a mobile disco for all adult events, specialising in rock music if required.">
<meta name="keywords" content="Firedance, fire dance, firedancer, pagan, flame, mobile disco, rock disco, rock roadshow, roadshow, music, disco hire, disco, biker, rally, wedding, marquee, civil partnership, gay wedding, handfasting, birthday, DJ, rock DJ, night, nite, club, Cambridge">
<META NAME="revisit-after" CONTENT="30 days">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="ROR" href="ror.xml" />

<TITLE>Firedance Roadshow - Burning Down The House!</TITLE>

The 'About FDR' page has 6 sub pages linked off it, for starters - 'Your Event' has 3 pages linked off it.

Good job you're not a search engine, isn't it! :D

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

2 months into the year, and NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY has come to me for this year via my website or advertising.


*Tchoh* Amateurs...

The 'About FDR' page has 6 sub pages linked off it, for starters - 'Your Event' has 3 pages linked off it.

Good job you're not a search engine, isn't it!



for someone whos so cocky, yet looking for a reason why your website isnt getting enquiries, people offering genuine advice too. Everyone else with proper websites seem to be getting plenty of enquiries, so its obviously something wrong with your site

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

for someone whos so cocky, yet looking for a reason why your website isnt getting enquiries, people offering genuine advice too. Everyone else with proper websites seem to be getting plenty of enquiries, so its obviously something wrong with your site

Was this absolutely necessary? What help is it giving anyone apart from trying to flame someone.

Pagan Flame was joking in his last post about the 'amateur' bit.

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

he complains about no enquiries on his website, people say why, he argues against it, people explain why in further details, then he comes back again. Hes the one with the website problem, not any of us, so perhaps Pagan should be more willing to listen to peoples advice?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

As I said, was it absolutely necessary?

[pagan_flame]

for someone whos so cocky, yet looking for a reason why your website isnt getting enquiries, people offering genuine advice too. Everyone else with proper websites seem to be getting plenty of enquiries, so its obviously something wrong with your site

For the last time: the site is not the problem. There are plenty of visitors to it, and it has generated lots of work, just as it is, over the last 2 years.

I would sort your own site out before criticising other people's.

[pagan_flame]

I think that due to the so-called "credit crunch" many corporates are cutting back on discretionary expenditure (see Carphone Warehouse in the news today for a good example) so if this made up a lot of your work until recently this could explain things somewhat.

:agree: But that makes much more sense!

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

For the last time: the site is not the problem. There are plenty of visitors to it, and it has generated lots of work, just as it is, over the last 2 years.

I would sort your own site out before criticising other people's


2 months into the year, and NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY has come to me for this year via my website or advertising.

as you just said, you havnt had a single enquiry in 2 months, everyone else has, so perhaps you should listen to people who ARE getting enquiries instead of getting on the defensive?

My website is home made, it ranks high on the search terms i want it to and i get enough work from it to keep me going fulltime, so what exactly is wrong with my website???

[pagan_flame]

as you just said, you havnt had a single enquiry in 2 months, everyone else has, so perhaps you should listen to people who ARE getting enquiries instead of getting on the defensive?

Try actually reading the thread instead of endlessly requoting my post. :bang: As I said - 5 days ago. Keep up.

In fact: *EDIT*


For the last time: the site is not the problem.
So the conversation on that bit ends here.


My website is home made, it ranks high on the search terms i want it to and i get enough work from it to keep me going fulltime, so what exactly is wrong with my website???

I'd start by looking up 'Keyword Spamming'. Then check your grammar and spelling (You'll need to do all your pages).

Nice Hotmail address! Very professional. Pictures of children on there too! I'll leave it there for now.


I do understand this is a major thrust of your business and that's cool but if you're looking for different verticals then perhaps consider either a redesign in terms of content or perhaps run under two different identities?

Partly done; I've modded the template and got it functional, it just links to pages on the Firedance site for now until I have the time to move the rock / biker stuff fully across.

http://www.rockdisco.co.uk

And the Meta tags ARE in there, try 'View Source' on the page, not from the browser... ;)

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

this is amusing, Pagan Flame hasnt had a single enquiry through his website in over 2 months now, instead of doing something about it, you'd rather blame the credit crunch and insult people who are trying to help you



Try actually reading the thread instead of endlessly requoting my post. As I said - 5 days ago. Keep up.

Ive read the thread again, and i notice you state no enquiries in 2 months, TWICE, nothing else


For the last time: the site is not the problem.

So the conversation on that bit ends here.

Keep blaming the credit crunch instead of doing something about it



I'd start by looking up 'Keyword Spamming'. Then check your grammar and spelling (You'll need to do all your pages).

Nice Hotmail address! Very professional. Pictures of children on there too! I'll leave it there for now.

Ill admit to keyword spamming, it works, it gets me high on the searches i want it to, whats the problem there?

Grammar and spelling look fine to me, unless youve managed to find a little typo hidden away

I use hotmail because i can logon and check emails wherever i am. Most clients use the Contact form or use the telephone

I see 2 pictures of children, one is a stock photo which was taken professionally and of models. The other is a zoomed out photo of children enjoying themselves, taken and displayed with permission of the organiser, showing no distinguishing features of the individual children


I find it funny how you are getting defensive about your lack of enquiries for over 2 months, by attacking my "homemade" website which generates enough work to keep my busy fulltime. So whos doing it right? The person whos fully booked and gets enquiries daily, or the person who hasnt had a single enquiry in over 2 months and would rather sit on the internet moaning about it, than doing something about it!!

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Stop this now please or I will delete posts.

[pagan_flame]

Stop this now please or I will delete posts.

My apologies, I'm done.

Oh, and I'm fully booked for May and July now, with the rest of the year shaping up nicely - still nothing off the website though!

Good luck with the business, BD.