Hows the year looking?

[Candybeatdiscos]

Well folks how is the forthcoming year looking for your businesses? Are you busier or quieter than you expected? have you done better than normal in this last couple of "usually quieter" months?

I myself am not in such a great postion as yet, and had the feeling of chucking it all lol but a wise man has said not to and thinking about it he s right. Money wise is a bit tighter than normal so that doesn't help, but i have decided to lower my prices slightly and try and offset this against hopefully securing resident gigs.

As you were all aware my mother and myself were looking at taking over a local pub, but the brewery have failed to get in touch with the solicitors and ourself over the last 5 weeks, (it took them 7 weeks over xmas to get back to us as well) and I wont deal with someone who doean't keep in regular contact, especially as we told them at the last meeting we were ready to sign and they gave impression pub would be ready to open 2nd week of march. So that one is not going to be happening, well not through that brewery anyway.

[Shaun]

It's easy to get a little dissalusioned during the quieter months Gary, hang in there, things will pick up buddy. Sorry to hear the pub deal fell through. :(

[BeerFunk]

Sorry to hear all is not pukka, nothing going for me either :(

May need to advertise a bit - I only need 3 or 4 gigs a month really, so doesn't seem worth drawing up a big advertising campaign

[dannyboy]

Last few weeks have been quiet for me as well, pre orgainised this weekend off, but after that things start to pick up.

Jan/Feb tend to be my quietest months so not to worried yet.

In our local newspaper they have a celebrations page/s.

People can send in a photo with a message to be in the issue in the paper on there birthday.

Every saturday they publish everyones photo and message from the week on a double page spread.

I see this all the time in the paper, 18/21/40 e.t.c

And wonder why it is quiet on the disco.

Talking to the other DJ's in the area, they are also quite too.

mabe people are still trying to recover from christmas/new year (Financially) before throwing a party.

Danny

[Dragonfly]

not even an enquiry for comic relief or st patricks night?????? so guinness on chill nice 10 pack..... things for me have ben around 6 weeks slower but picking up now any good djs in east mids with spaces in their diaries pm me and we'll have a chat as i must have turned down 4 or 5 in the last week due to not being available. .....

end of jan beginning of feb it looked aweful. thankfully word of mouth has really kicked in for me this year.

[leighinstoke]

Gone a bit quiet now after a good start to the year but bookings slowly coming in and I'm being promoted more at my resident venue and I have picked up a lot more from another venue that my cousin and I have done together for years and I'm now doing solo due to him doing a lot of other dates for the guy who runs bars at various village halls.

I have 4 regular venues I do which bring in a good turnover each year.

For me - this is enough to take me into summer.

Leigh....

[rob1963]

I've had a very quiet start to the year...only 3 gigs in 11 weeks!

Luckily I run pub quiz nights in the week, so they've been paying the bills.

The wedding season (April - October) is looking pretty good, although I'm probably a few bookings down on where I was this time last year.

[spin mobile disco]

Generally quiet so far doing an average of 6 gigs a month so far this year. As im a full timer its lookign a bit on the scarce side. Done a couple of wedding fayres this year to try and boost, with mixed results.
A possable main hotel chain residency is being offered locally at least 20 gigs a year if I get it. I hope so as it would set me up for the rest of the year. Taken 3 2008 weddings so far though this week.

[paull]

Very good start, but it has slowed down recently.

[Danno13]

Going OK for me apart from April, which is dead apart from 2 gigs.

May and June are almost full, and July - September are getting there... this time last year i didn't have nearly as many bookings and still managed to be fairly busy, so this year should hopefully be even better! :)

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I'm actually doing ok...well better than that. I have 22 weddings booked already aswell as a couple of birthday parties and my residencies. In my first year of business (I went as a full time business on 1st Feb 2006), I did 266 gigs. I am looking to improve on that this year.

Busiest days of the year so far are :
Saturday 19th May (I have 5 things on but could have easily doubled that judging by the enquiries I have had and had to pass on).
Saturday 11th August
Saturday 18th August
4 Weddings on each of the above dates.

Funnily enough, I have not had one enquiry for 07.07.07 as yet!

[Vectis]

could have easily doubled that judging by the enquiries I have had and had to pass on

Feel free to pass a few my way :beer1: :o

[theoloyla]

This year January and February reverted to their traditional quiet mode - the last few years they have been uncharacteristically busy. I always go for a wintersunshine holiday in January (a tip I picked up from Chris Hill). There is no work, prices are cheap and the weather here is awful. As for the rest of the year it is looking good and I have bookings as far ahead as summer 2009. The Line dancing remains steady at good.

[Dragonfly]

more cancellations this year another today ...... lots of family members seem to be dying and the one today decided she wanted a childrens entertainer and disco s has booked someone else....... im pretty sure its a price thing personally (things now put in place to help stop this) . but still booking fee recieved and a couple of months to find another booking so hey ho.

[PropellerHeadCase]

The last wedding season was pretty awful for me - in November and December I can usually count on doing two or three functions a week, sometimes four, I was doing one or two.

The good news for me though is I've just had a venue enquiry for 12-15 school balls between mid-May and mid-August (though none yet booked in July, oddly). For us school balls are big-ticket functions as we can have anywhere between 200 and 1000 guests and we charge accordingly. As I would be doing 90% of these gigs personally I can just about live off that.

The venue where I have a kind of residency tells me that next wedding season is looking like a bumper crop, to make up for this last one.

[soundscapes]

i must admit ive had more wedding enquiries for 2008 than this year so its looking good for next year. this year was a slow start but picking up now. lots of cowboys round my way which doesnt help. Some of them are even offering pat and pli now and still going out for £80 a night ????!!!!

[Steve 'B']

still going out for £80 a night ????!!!!


SHAFTING THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE!! NAME AND SHAME THEM.:bang: :bang:

[Steve 'B']

im looking for a afforble dj as we have a budget of 170 pounds 2oo max

Copied and pasted from one of my enquiry forms. What she means is

I am looking for a mobile DJ for up to 200 people and I am happy to pay £170 maximum and will be held in a large sports hall.
Please let me know if anyone would be insane enough to do this gig or do I ask too much??

[Dragonfly]

SHAFTING THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE!! NAME AND SHAME THEM.:bang: :bang:

who says they are cowboys???? if someone has a day job that earns them 25k and they want to do discos for a laugh / part time thing surely they can still afford pat pli etc ..... yes it is exceptionally unhelpful to those of us trying to scrape a living from the industry but i think its unfair to class all 80 quid djs as cowboys

personally i prefer to think of people willing to hump 2 tons of disco gear up a fire escape set it all up then get sworn at for 4 hours by drunk people because they dont have that neil sedaka b side from 1958 then take it all down hump it down the fire escape into the transport drive home then unload it all ........ for £80.....

as idiots , you've got to be totally nuts to do that much work for that little money???

your insane comment is totally on the button lolol

[ross@rds]

Hi all

Not looking to bad this year must say lots of booking coming in now so im happy. Was asked to provide entertainment at Tesco in Falkirk for the RND yisterday but dont entertain childer so didnt bother with it. Most would be at school any way lol so dont know why they were having a doo.

While i am here does anyone know of a entertainment company trying to stomp out cowboy djs ??? had a phone call yisterday about it could not hear him right there was music blasting in the background. But he said they were trying to stomp them out and he tryed to tell me all the **** about what they done and what it would do for my biz if i signed up with them. Could not get a word in side ways he kept going on and on so i just put the phone down on him just wondering if this is a scam or what ??.

[theoloyla]

more cancellations this year another today ...... lots of family members seem to be dying and the one today decided she wanted a childrens entertainer and disco s has booked someone else....... im pretty sure its a price thing personally (things now put in place to help stop this) . but still booking fee recieved and a couple of months to find another booking so hey ho.
Me too! Dunno why but had far more cancellations in the last 3 months than is usual.

[PropellerHeadCase]

While i am here does anyone know of a entertainment company trying to stomp out cowboy djs ??? had a phone call yisterday about it could not hear him right there was music blasting in the background. But he said they were trying to stomp them out and he tryed to tell me all the **** about what they done and what it would do for my biz if i signed up with them. Could not get a word in side ways he kept going on and on so i just put the phone down on him just wondering if this is a scam or what ??.

I'd call BS on that one. If they can't be professional enough to make a phone call without music blasting in the background I'd suggest they are probably cowboys themselves trying to size-up the competition.

[ross@rds]

I'd call BS on that one. If they can't be professional enough to make a phone call without music blasting in the background I'd suggest they are probably cowboys themselves trying to size-up the competition.


Also if they were for real they would have called back i would have thought so i think its just someone trying it on had a call about a month ago from a printing company well thats what they said and they were on about i had an ad in a police paper :confused: lol well fone down on them and nothing more heard so cowboys trying it on so watch out people.