Shakermaker Promotions
07-02-2011, 02:23 PM
I'm chucking this one out there as I am guilty of doing this myself at times. It may be because I have heard bad things about venues on the grapevine or whatever? I sometimes think twice about taking on a booking because of this or if I have taken a booking on, sometimes I wonder if I have done the right thing and dread it when the date arrives, wishing it was all over before I have even left the house.
To be honest, it's very rare that it happens but I wondered if others felt like this? It's easy to say "If in doubt, quote a higher price" or "If in doubt, don't take the booking" but when you are self employed and do this as a full time job and you have a date free that people want to book you for, it's sometimes hard to turn the work away. Like I said, it's not a common occurrence so I'm not too worried....
But...I also feel a tad guilty sometimes for thinking the way I do about some bookings / venues.
What brings me to write this post is 2 examples over the past week.
The first one was a phonecall enquiry on friday afternoon. A couple of years ago I did a simple light hire job at someone's house for his 2 daughters 16th birthdays. It was in a 'dodgy' area in town and I had the doubts that I mentioned above when I went to set the lighting up in the house. Everything was cool however but I seriously wondered if I would have any lights left when I went to collect them the next day. All was well though. I don't know what it is, I am sure we've all done it at times and I personally hate it but the old "Don't judge a book by it's cover" saying always comes up. I felt bad at the time because I did judge and I was wrong.
Anyway, the phonecall on friday was from the same guy. He wanted to book me to do the Disco for his daughters 18th's. I had a flashback, remembered who he was and instantly thought that if I quoted my usual price, I wouldn't get the job. I didn't do overkill to get the booking, I more or less let him tell me what he wanted and took it from there. He wanted a Disco from 7.30 - 01.00am at a local hotel and then mentioned that the girls were very interested in the Pink / Lilac Uplighting too. I quoted him a price and as I said, I really thought it would be a no-no. He said that he'd chat to the wife and get back to me by today (Monday).
Sunday evening he calls me and says he wants to book Disco + Uplighting for the price I quoted. Result! It's a friday night and a very good payer so lesson learnt on my part big time!
The other reason I am posting is regarding a venue that I had doubts about. On saturday I did an 80's night at this particular venue. I did feel a bit uncomfortable at first but it lasted all of 10 minutes because the venue and it's punters were spot on. The landlord booked me one night when our darts team were playing his. He heard me mention what I did for a living. He'd never seen me do my thing before and booked me on the strength of me simply saying that when it came to 80's stuff, I knew what I was doing and I would play what his customers wanted. Anyway, it went well, better than I thought and exceeded his expectations. The feedback from customers was great and I am seeing him soon to book some future dates.
This venue had some very intimidating characters in it but they were all loving the music and that's all that mattered to them. To give you some kind of idea, it was one of those places I should imagine where if they didn't like what you were doing, they'd have no problems telling you!
So, Do you or have you judged people or venues and then felt bad because you've been totally wrong?
Don't get me wrong - There are some venues that I KNOW are a gamble and I won't touch them. The landlord at this particular venue said to me that he knew the reputation that his venue had and thought it was totally unjustified. He said that his customers were a great bunch and would be well up for it and he was right.
To be honest, it's very rare that it happens but I wondered if others felt like this? It's easy to say "If in doubt, quote a higher price" or "If in doubt, don't take the booking" but when you are self employed and do this as a full time job and you have a date free that people want to book you for, it's sometimes hard to turn the work away. Like I said, it's not a common occurrence so I'm not too worried....
But...I also feel a tad guilty sometimes for thinking the way I do about some bookings / venues.
What brings me to write this post is 2 examples over the past week.
The first one was a phonecall enquiry on friday afternoon. A couple of years ago I did a simple light hire job at someone's house for his 2 daughters 16th birthdays. It was in a 'dodgy' area in town and I had the doubts that I mentioned above when I went to set the lighting up in the house. Everything was cool however but I seriously wondered if I would have any lights left when I went to collect them the next day. All was well though. I don't know what it is, I am sure we've all done it at times and I personally hate it but the old "Don't judge a book by it's cover" saying always comes up. I felt bad at the time because I did judge and I was wrong.
Anyway, the phonecall on friday was from the same guy. He wanted to book me to do the Disco for his daughters 18th's. I had a flashback, remembered who he was and instantly thought that if I quoted my usual price, I wouldn't get the job. I didn't do overkill to get the booking, I more or less let him tell me what he wanted and took it from there. He wanted a Disco from 7.30 - 01.00am at a local hotel and then mentioned that the girls were very interested in the Pink / Lilac Uplighting too. I quoted him a price and as I said, I really thought it would be a no-no. He said that he'd chat to the wife and get back to me by today (Monday).
Sunday evening he calls me and says he wants to book Disco + Uplighting for the price I quoted. Result! It's a friday night and a very good payer so lesson learnt on my part big time!
The other reason I am posting is regarding a venue that I had doubts about. On saturday I did an 80's night at this particular venue. I did feel a bit uncomfortable at first but it lasted all of 10 minutes because the venue and it's punters were spot on. The landlord booked me one night when our darts team were playing his. He heard me mention what I did for a living. He'd never seen me do my thing before and booked me on the strength of me simply saying that when it came to 80's stuff, I knew what I was doing and I would play what his customers wanted. Anyway, it went well, better than I thought and exceeded his expectations. The feedback from customers was great and I am seeing him soon to book some future dates.
This venue had some very intimidating characters in it but they were all loving the music and that's all that mattered to them. To give you some kind of idea, it was one of those places I should imagine where if they didn't like what you were doing, they'd have no problems telling you!
So, Do you or have you judged people or venues and then felt bad because you've been totally wrong?
Don't get me wrong - There are some venues that I KNOW are a gamble and I won't touch them. The landlord at this particular venue said to me that he knew the reputation that his venue had and thought it was totally unjustified. He said that his customers were a great bunch and would be well up for it and he was right.