Well I've made the decision!

[Silver]

At the tender age of 57 ... 58 looming! I have just tendered my resignation for my day job http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10099.gif

So I am now a 100% dj and quiz compere.

I need certifying!!! http://planetsmilies.net/ill-violated-dead-smiley-545.gif http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10097.gif

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Good man and good luck!

Was it a redundancy?

[Shaun]

The very best of luck to you. :beer1: :)

[Penfold42]

What post 2 & 3 said....all the best. :beer1:

[Silver]

Good man and good luck!

Was it a redundancy?

Not at all! No, I was selling a device to remove limescale from domestic water systems on a self employed basis. I have an area from Honiton in the West up to Bristol, across to Newbury and down to Portsmouth. I must say business levels have dropped due to the credit crunch and people ordering off the web, which has helped me in making the decision. I could carry on with it if I wanted maybe doing a day a week, at it's busiest I would do two or three days a week. However dj/quiz work is becoming busier and I don't want any other influences or issues to take away my time.

My quizzes take me at least ten hours to set up, full colour picture round, musical bits & pieces and the main questions, researching, checking and double checking. I could simply buy them off the web but I much prefer to tailor the quiz to suit the people, much more fun!

So there it is, decision made!http://planetsmilies.net/happy-smiley-638.gif

[daz226]

Congrats and the very best of luck to you. I think its a very brave decison to make as allways Respect goes out to all the full time DJ's out there

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

My quizzes take me at least ten hours to set up, full colour picture round, musical bits & pieces and the main questions, researching, checking and double checking. I could simply buy them off the web but I much prefer to tailor the quiz to suit the people, much more fun!



Yep, same as me. Mine take slightly less time though - I'd say up to 7 hours for 100 questions.

[Silver]

Congrats and the very best of luck to you. I think its a very brave decison to make as allways Respect goes out to all the full time DJ's out there

Cheers, we'll have to meet one day and see if we can help each other out http://planetsmilies.net/eat-drink-smiley-5174.gif

[daz226]

Cheers, we'll have to meet one day and see if we can help each other out http://planetsmilies.net/eat-drink-smiley-5174.gif


yes that would be great to meet you ill look to come across as its only a few miles

[visualdjmax]

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!

[Silver]

Yep, same as me. Mine take slightly less time though - I'd say up to 7 hours for 100 questions.

I say 10 but that's not hard nose to the grindstone non stop effort. You are probably nearer the mark Darren, still got my salesman's hat on! :D

[rob1963]

At the tender age of 57 ... 58 looming! I have just tendered my resignation for my day job http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10099.gif

So I am now a 100% dj and quiz compere.

I need certifying!!! http://planetsmilies.net/ill-violated-dead-smiley-545.gif http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10097.gif

When I started reading the thread, I thought you were going to say that you're retiring from discos & quizzes & sticking with the day job...not the other way around!

I had no idea you were even in your 50's!

Good luck with everything.


My quizzes take me at least ten hours to set up, full colour picture round, musical bits & pieces and the main questions, researching, checking and double checking. I could simply buy them off the web but I much prefer to tailor the quiz to suit the people, much more fun!


I remember the days of compiling my own quizzes back in the early 90's.

I seem to remember it took me around 5 hours to compile and just 90 minutes to run, but that was pre-internet...so I'm sure it would be quicker & easier these days.

At least you'll have plenty of time in the daytime to compile those quizzes now!

[daz226]

i bet a quiz is great fun to run its something that i have never thought about you never know one day maybe ill try one.

[Silver]

When I started reading the thread, I thought you were going to say that you're retiring from discos & quizzes & sticking with the day job


Blow that Rob I enjoy this job much more! Who knows to what age I can go on until? I go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, try to look after myself and eat a healthy diet. I've just started doing 18 and 21st birthday parties, something a year ago I wouldn't have touched for anything. This has given me a new outlook on things and especially the music they like at those gigs.

I can remember in my belligerent days a few years ago if anybody asked me for some R&B I'd play Chuck Berry. Five minutes later they'd ask where the R&B is and I'd tell them I've just played some ... well the look on their faces! Still that's all changed and I'm more into hip hop than a hip op! http://planetsmilies.net/ill-violated-dead-smiley-5383.gif

Who knows what is around the corner, I've faith in my ability and a good girlfriend (I hate the word partner) beside me, so bring it on!http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10187.gif

[rob1963]

Blow that Rob I enjoy this job much more! Who knows to what age I can go on until? I go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, try to look after myself and eat a healthy diet. I've just started doing 18 and 21st birthday parties, something a year ago I wouldn't have touched for anything. This has given me a new outlook on things and especially the music they like at those gigs.

I can remember in my belligerent days a few years ago if anybody asked me for some R&B I'd play Chuck Berry. Five minutes later they'd ask where the R&B is and I'd tell them I've just played some ... well the look on their faces! Still that's all changed and I'm more into hip hop than a hip op! http://planetsmilies.net/ill-violated-dead-smiley-5383.gif

Who knows what is around the corner, I've faith in my ability and a good girlfriend (I hate the word partner) beside me, so bring it on!http://planetsmilies.net/not-tagged-smiley-10187.gif

Respect!

I'm sure things will go well for you.

:beerchug: :thumbsup:

[womble]

Good Luck - I'd love to be able to kick the day job. Maybe in a few years...

[Tom]

Good luck and I hope it works for you. :)


:beer1: :approve:

[Vectis]

Hey another member of the GOOTRRAGIA club!

Good luck Silver. I did the same at the end of '08 and am busier now than I ever was... but enjoying it immensely :beer1:

[Marc J]

Hey another member of the GOOTRRAGIA club!


OK, I think I have Get Out Of The Rat Race And....but the GIA :confused:

[Vectis]

OK, I think I have Get Out Of The Rat Race And....but the GIA :confused:

Go It Alone :D

[Silver]

Go It Alone :D
Indeed and I've not forgotten Martin I need to call you re R4 :)

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

well done, im fulltime also myself, i diversify into equipment hire and childrens parties to boost potential earnings

i know Darren does upmarket quiz nights etc, but for the average pub quiz night, im not sure it pays? Perhaps someone can shed some light. To do it properly, you need to put alot of prep work in, like others have said 7-10 hours ish. Yet i dont know of any venues paying more than £80-£100 and that seems to be the upper end of the scale for weekly pub quiz nights.

[rob1963]

i know Darren does upmarket quiz nights etc, but for the average pub quiz night, im not sure it pays? Perhaps someone can shed some light. To do it properly, you need to put alot of prep work in, like others have said 7-10 hours ish. Yet i dont know of any venues paying more than £80-£100 and that seems to be the upper end of the scale for weekly pub quiz nights.

£80-£100 is exactly the kind of amount pubs pay for a weekly quiz, but that's certainly not upper scale in MY experience, it's the average.

My pub quizzes are compiled by someone else, so he does all the work (it takes him nearly a day each week) and I pay him a commission, which I'm happy with.

For anyone thinking of getting into running pub quizzes, I think the key is go go for the maximum mileage from all your hard work & time doing the preparation.

The best way of doing this is rather than spending 10 hours compiling a quiz, then going to a pub each week to run it & earning £80-£100, go and run the SAME quiz in three, four or even five DIFFERENT pubs each week, with each one paying £80-£100. Now you're talking!

:D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

To do it properly, you need to put alot of prep work in, like others have said 7-10 hours ish. Yet i dont know of any venues paying more than £80-£100 and that seems to be the upper end of the scale for weekly pub quiz nights.

The last regular pub quiz I did finished about 6 or 7 years ago and that paid £80 a week.

There are different sorts of quizzes don't forget. A pub quiz doesn't generally contain as many questions or rounds as a corporate or one off, so take me more like 2-3 hours to compile.


£80-£100 is exactly the kind of amount pubs pay for a weekly quiz, but that's certainly not upper scale in MY experience, it's the average.



Agreed.

[Silver]

As with many things if you work out the hourly rate then it might not be such a good thing. However if you do have the time during the week to set the quiz when maybe you would be watching tele or the like, then why not?

I ENJOY setting the quiz, they are good fun on the nights and from them I have got dj business.

Many thanks for all your good wishes and I'm looking forward to putting on my passport application 'Entertainer'! :)

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

well im glad we are kind of on the same wavelength

my point was similar to what Silver said, 7-10 hours prep'ing a quiz, plus travel and peroformance time, including some equipment, for £100? Doesnt seem like a good wage to me

Rob, you say you pay someone to do it for you, this makes sense, but of course you have to find someone willing to do a quiz with appropriate level of difficulty and format. Do you mind revealing how much you pay? I notice the usual websites charge approx £5-£10 a quiz. This isnt so bad, giving £70-90 "profit" for the nights work (usually regular, midweek and in local venues)

Darren, you say you were paid £80 7 years ago for a quiz night, sounds about right. Just like i would say the cost of hiring a DJ hasnt changed much in that period

i used to host a regular quiz night, it used to take me several hours to compile the quiz each week. Id load up around 7:30, arrive 7:45, 2 small speakers, mixeramp, tape player and radio mic, ready for 8. Chat and sell answer sheets, start around 8:30, be finished around 10:30ish. Whilst i did enjoy the quiz and the banter, i didnt see it as sustainable for the future and i gave up. I was very tempted to go down the "buy a quiz" route, but i liked the fact that my Quiz was formatted the way i wanted it, was the difficulty i wanted and reflected my personality.

I can now earn £100-120 for doing a local nightclub or bar Midweek with all equipment installed, this makes much more sense to me?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Just like i would say the cost of hiring a DJ hasnt changed much in that period


You can say that about you, but I'm not sure you can make that assumption about others or the industry in general.

I am certainly not charging the same as I was 7 years ago.

[rob1963]

Rob, you say you pay someone to do it for you, this makes sense, but of course you have to find someone willing to do a quiz with appropriate level of difficulty and format. Do you mind revealing how much you pay? I notice the usual websites charge approx £5-£10 a quiz. This isnt so bad, giving £70-90 "profit" for the nights work (usually regular, midweek and in local venues)

Hi Bouncy,

The guy who prepares my quiz runs an entertainment agency supplying quiz nights as well as mobile discos, so I am one of a number of people who present quizzes for him.

As far as the appropriate level of difficulty & format goes, I'd say he gets it spot on for your typical pub quiz, although he SHOULD be good at this...having set a pub quiz each week for the last 25 years or so!

To answer your question, I pay him a commission of around £25 per quiz.

This probably sounds high compared to the £5 - £10 quizzes cost on the internet, but you need to understand that internet quizzes need to be printed off, and in many cases copied - whereas my quizzes are professionally printed. They also include a music round which is supplied on minidisc, which internet quizzes don't.

The other thing to note is that my friend probably supplies about 15 pubs with quiz nights each week & is therefore quite well known locally for doing this. Therefore, pubs wanting a quiz night will often know of him & contact him...so he also gets most of my quiz nights for me in the first place.

The bottom line is that I earn the same money from a 2 hour pub quiz night which involves no preparation & takes 5 minutes to set up as I used to earn from working an 8 hour day in the bank...but without the stress, so I'm more than happy!


You can say that about you, but I'm not sure you can make that assumption about others or the industry in general.

I am certainly not charging the same as I was 7 years ago.

Me neither.

Having just checked, I'm now charging over 60% more than I was 7 years ago.

[Bouncy Dancefloor]

neither am i charging the same, however this is because i have better equipment, better gigs and more experience

because you are earning more money, doesnt mean everyone is, you must be catering to a higher market

if we talk about going rates, they have barely moved in all those years

on a local level, about 7 years ago, majority of typical parties (21st's 30th 40ths) in local venues, skittle alleys, working mens clubs etc the going rate was £125-£130, if you quoted £150 for this type of gig, people would say how expensive you were!! Now the "going rate" seems to be £150, the amount of times ive been told £175 was so expensive is crazy!!

the same applies for the local Hotel trade, the supposed lucrative trade is still paying around the £250 mark, which if im honest has stagnated over the years

[womble]

neither am i charging the same, however this is because i have better equipment, better gigs and more experience

because you are earning more money, doesnt mean everyone is,

Better equipment or general inflation? I think it's a combination of the two.

I'd love to be able to charge the prices some of you guys must charge, but quite simply I don't think I have the equipment, experience or expertise to do so... Yet.

I would hope that I can increase my prices in less than 7 years to catch up with you, hopefully it won't be too long before I will have the equipment to do larger venues and the equipment and experience to diversify into other areas, video screens, uplighting etc...

I also think that there has been some price inflation acheived, but not as much in the lower price bracket, possibly due to cowboys. For example I'm doing a gig for a friend in June who told me he normally pays £75 - £100 for discos (he loves parties). I'm doing it half price as a favour and I'm still the most expensive he's had.

I am surprised at the prices that can be acheived for running a quiz though. I used to stand in for one in a pub Uttoxeter about 10 years ago and it paid £40. I wouldn't have thought a pub would pay over £80 for a quiz night. I feel that I may diversify into one market sooner than I planned...

Chris.