Post COVID - what's the future going to look like?

[rth_discos]

Not strictly true - there are still Directors Liabilities to prevent people setting up businesses, raking up huge debts then declaring the business bankrupt. Whether this would come into play at this moment in time, I doubt it, but isn't the fail safe it once was.

Of course - but a DJ who has been operating as a Limited Company for many years, but ends up falling over because of Covid is highly unlikely to fall foul of that. That is just in place to stop people intentionally doing that - not for those who run out of money because of an external factor that they have no control over.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

2 real nuggets I've leant on since doing music biz studies at college: the customer isn't always right and you shouldn't have to placate them when they're wrong and it's the music business / industry, not the music charity.

Im 90% sure I'm going to stop taking bookings beyond my furthest one and pull the shutters down and on it all after that.

I'll happily see out that time defending my (award winning ) reputation against brides moaning about me adhering to our mutually beneficial contract and retaining money that I'm legally entitled to keep.

[Excalibur]

2 real nuggets I've leant on since doing music biz studies at college: the customer isn't always right

Absolutely true, Jim. As a wise man told me many years ago though, they are however, always The Customer, one of the many and various people who pay your wages. Alienate too many, and business suffers. In the Day Job, I have a couple of customers who I'd rather never work for again, but I have to smile and be my usual accommodating self, as they're good payers. Ah well.

[ppentertainments]

2 real nuggets I've leant on since doing music biz studies at college: the customer isn't always right and you shouldn't have to placate them when they're wrong and it's the music business / industry, not the music charity.

Im 90% sure I'm going to stop taking bookings beyond my furthest one and pull the shutters down and on it all after that.

I'll happily see out that time defending my (award winning ) reputation against brides moaning about me adhering to our mutually beneficial contract and retaining money that I'm legally entitled to keep.

Ahh, totally different scenario if you are packing in and don't have future reputation to consider.

[Benny Smyth]

We're a service industry, for heavens sake!

I have a client who has postponed from August this year to July next year. Postponement was agreed to on the understanding that 50% of the remaining balance is paid on the original due date and the remainder paid closer to their new date. One day after receiving an email reminding them of their invoice due date, they send an email cancelling.

I'm all for customer service and being a client advocate, but there comes a point where you have to be a businessman first.

[DJ Jules]

I have a client who has postponed from August this year to July next year. Postponement was agreed to on the understanding that 50% of the remaining balance is paid on the original due date and the remainder paid closer to their new date. One day after receiving an email reminding them of their invoice due date, they send an email cancelling.

My recent refund has made me rethink my rescheduling policy (certainly for any rescheduling post 1st Oct) and I'll be asking any new re-schedulers to sign new terms and conditions that will go some way to protecting me from repeat rescheduling or cancelling. I'm going to have a good think about what I'm going to put in them to try and be as fair as possible to me and them, but the reality is that the horse has bolted as I've only got a handful left for this year that are likely to reschedule.

The thing that REALLY came as a shock yesterday was looking at my income for this financial year. Ok, it's possible that Jan, Feb and March might still fill up (they don't traditionally book up until a few months prior) but I'm turning away anything for Aug and Sept and I doubt I'm going to get many/any new bookings for Oct, Nov or Dec. At present, income for FY 2020/2021 is looking like it's going to be around 20% of 2019/2020. If Xmas is cancelled, it'll be more like 5-10%.

Plus I've now got lots of clean kit and pretty flight cases, but I've probably forgotten how to DJ

Julian

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I have a client who has postponed from August this year to July next year. Postponement was agreed to on the understanding that 50% of the remaining balance is paid on the original due date and the remainder paid closer to their new date. One day after receiving an email reminding them of their invoice due date, they send an email cancelling.

I'm all for customer service and being a client advocate, but there comes a point where you have to be a businessman first.

Bingo and I've said from day 1 we all need to be careful how we deal with this as we could shoot ourselves in the foot.

Being nice is good and all but giving couples all the leverage leaves you vulnerable - none of this is our fault either...

[ppentertainments]

Bingo and I've said from day 1 we all need to be careful how we deal with this as we could shoot ourselves in the foot.

Being nice is good and all but giving couples all the leverage leaves you vulnerable - none of this is our fault either...

I kind of hope a result from all this is that wedding suppliers become business people rather than all the 'luvvy duvvy' talk we are used too.

It did seem to be going that way, however now certain suppliers can return I am seeing the trend returning to the norm. In fact all these 'changes for the better' we were hearing about overall seems to have gone out the window.

[saduffy1]

Caught up with the replies and had a few flashbacks.

I laughed at ppentertainments mentioning the ‘luvvy duvvy’ talk from other wedding suppliers. Some other non-DJ folk in the wedding market I encountered over the years came across as being quite naïve in their attitude from my perspective so I can guess the sort of talk!

Repeat rescheduling

I had a client once who did a bit of repeat rescheduling. I had a term in my contracts about a £10 admin fee for rearranging/variation, which I put in after taking inspiration from how hotels, train operators, airlines, insurance companies etc charge admin fees if you want to change something about a booking. I rarely had a need to ask for it.

However, I‘d agreed to do an end of year school disco for Year 6 children being organised by parents. They’d already been unable to book their usual DJ, who is a friend of mine, as they’d changed the date and he was away on holiday. Well, after booking me and I’d sent out the confirmation and contract they rang to change the date a second time, which was fine because it moved from a Wednesday to a Tuesday in the same week.

In the meantime I had a signed contract returned in the post and a deposit. However, about a week before the gig they rang and asked to change the times. It actually meant I’d have to finish the day job slightly earlier to accommodate, which meant using up some annual leave. Now this was beginning to rattle me so I said, “ok but there’s a £10 admin fee.” The lady got a bit narky but I pointed out she’d changed the booking once before with me and I hadn’t asked for a admin fee as per the contract. I also explained although I could accommodate the earlier start time meant I’d have to finish work earlier and use up annual leave. She said she’d have to speak to the other mothers. A different lady rang back later and said, “I’m sorry we’ve messed you about a bit.”
I ended up getting a tip after that particular gig too.

At the end of the day rescheduling is contract variation and if you get the feeling the client is a bit or could be a bit flaky, I’d try and renegotiate something for you as well.

[Imagine]

I had a client once who did a bit of repeat rescheduling. I had a term in my contracts about a £10 admin fee for rearranging/variation, which I put in after taking inspiration from how hotels, train operators, airlines, insurance companies etc charge admin fees if you want to change something about a booking. I rarely had a need to ask for it.

THIS is something I'm going to be looking at when/if things rotate back round to some kind of normal. In fact I'll be engaging a solicitor to advise/re-write my entire contract once I can afford to do so. After all, car insurance companies get away with around £50 a time for a contract/policy change as I recently found out! If they can do it (just for pressing a few buttons on a keyboard) why can't I? The public accept it as a fact of life on that account - how is my business any different?

In my current job as a supermarket home delivery driver, if the customer isn't in when I knock the door - they have to PAY for a re-delivery (it's a change of contract). It's accepted and is normal to them. Again, this should apply to me.

I can't afford to do it at the moment until such time as there is proper guidance that we have some sort of timeline as to when things might return to normal. My next booking is 6th March 2021 and I'm not prepared to wager that THAT one will go ahead in the way we know and love. As a result, I'm not even entertaining new bookings until we know for certain what will and won't be allowed from the perspective of what we do for a living. ALL outgoings are off the table other than storage and insurance at the moment.

Too many times in the past a customer has changed things and I've just gone with the flow rather than lose the booking/upset the customer.
Even in the light of the current pandemic, I've been far too lenient with reschedules and changes. My contract isn't tight enough at the moment to enforce things either way though.

I've learned a LOT of lessons from this COVID thing, and once I bring the business back out of hibernation when it's safe to do so....I'm going to be working one hell of a lot differently!