Time to start advertising, but one small annoyance ...

[Centre Stage Discos]

I wonder if there's a thread here which covers DJ's biggest or most embarrassing mistakes? Probably not. We've all made them. One I did recently at a friend's gig, using his gear, was to accidentally catch the crossfader with the headphone cable. The sound just stopped. It took us a few minutes to work out what had happened. I hate crossfaders almost as much as I hate Marmite! Never use them and the one on the VMS4 is permanently disabled. I'd ri[p the thing out of the unit if I could (I'm considering it as it gets in the way!) I'm sure I'll do some live mixing at some point but I'll be sure to use the individual channel faders if I do.

[ppentertainments]

I wonder if there's a thread here which covers DJ's biggest or most embarrassing mistakes? Probably not. We've all made them. One I did recently at a friend's gig, using his gear, was to accidentally catch the crossfader with the headphone cable. The sound just stopped. It took us a few minutes to work out what had happened. I hate crossfaders almost as much as I hate Marmite! Never use them and the one on the VMS4 is permanently disabled. I'd ri[p the thing out of the unit if I could (I'm considering it as it gets in the way!) I'm sure I'll do some live mixing at some point but I'll be sure to use the individual channel faders if I do.

Biggest mistake was doing free charity discos believing they would lead to more work even though everyone else told me not too

[rth_discos]

I am beginning to see the need to just get out there and spread the word, but the problem with starting off at a lower price than I'd like will probably result at me straying at those lower prices. I definitely need to get out there on the road to make some inroads into this. I will take a look at the sites. Marmite?

I started up in 2015 again, from scratch, after many years break from mobile DJ'ing (I'd only done bar DJ work in the years before I went mobile again).

I too was in the chicken and egg situation - no recommendations, no testimonials, not even a photo I could use from a recent event!

My aim was to get into the right venues, get photos and recommendations, and use that to build further work.

So how to get that work early on without compromising my ongoing fee... I did an 'offer'.

It was pretty heft - £200 discount off what would be my main ongoing price.

It did the trick and got me my first handful of bookings. I also used Need A Disco a lot in my first year too - again being flexible with my pricing.

Then I did the wedding fairs, and Google Ads/Facebook Ads.

But it did enough to get the momentum going, and from 2016 onwards, I was at full fee, and busy. Followed that with venue recommendations, and that's where much of my work now comes from, along with the benefits of SEO on the website bringing organic traffic.

I spent a fair amount on marketing in my first 24 months, but it was all there to serve a purpose.

One tip: when you're being flexible on price, don't be flexible in the venues you perform at, or the clients you perform for. I needed to use that flexible pricing to be in the right venues and working for the right clients. I didn't want to start snowballing the work in the wrong places or with clients that weren't the right fit for me!

And take lots of greatphotos and pursue reviews from clients to start growing your bank of 'social proof'.

I now have photos of people dancing and my set up at pretty much every venue in my local area. It's great to quote for an event whilst attaching photos of you at their venue - it proves you know the venue which is a big bonus in the eyes of the client.

[Imagine]

Biggest mistake was doing free charity discos believing they would lead to more work even though everyone else told me not too

And here, I'm going to be controversial (what.....me?????? )

Charity/free gigs as everyone else here has mentioned....you have to be "selective". More often than not they'll result in a lot of people wanting their's for the same price (i.e. very cheap or free....it's all exposure...innit?)

But I do one a year for free and it DOES generate more work - quite a bit of it and normally outside of "wedding season".

It's for the village Scout Group (of which I'm a very long term leader), it's our main fundraiser, and it's a kid's Halloween party with anything up-to 150 kids in attendance (not all of them members of the Scout Group - it's advertised to the wider public). Plus, they come with accompanying parents or grandparents watching from the sidelines.

For a kids party, it's absolutely MASSIVE, VERY hard work (I enlist a lot of volunteer help on this one) and it's AWESOME. And yes, games are involved for that many kids - lots of them! The ages range between 5 and 12 years old as a general rule, and that in itself makes it a lot harder when you think the average kids party attendees are all of very similar ages to the birthday boy/girl.

All the stops are pulled out for this 2 hour extravaganza and locally it's well known! The Social Media buzz during and after the event is huge. The reason? Because it's different. There are no other kids Halloween parties in the area anything like as big or interactive as the one I do....and that makes one hell of a difference.

I regularly get work for more kids parties from that one once the parents have actually seen what it is that I can do for a kids party. The only reason I do this particular one (other than actually being involved in said charity as a volunteer anyway), is because I can pretty much guarantee to make back what I've given away several times over.

So whilst like everyone else I'd normally advise to steer well clear of charity gigs, sometimes they can work to your advantage.

Now...would I do similar for a load of drunken adults who are going to very quickly forget what I did on the night.....absolutely no chance I'm afraid.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I'm exhausted just thinking about that kids party

Great that it works for you and that's because it's different, most charity events are just an excuse for a up and you're the dafty giving up a night / afternoon to entertain them for free / less than you're worth.

At this stage for me it's not even the £££s that matter (though it's much easier for peopleto see how unreasonable they're being by saying: " look my fees start at £xxx... you're essentially asking for a near 4 figure donation from me.") it's the time and energy involved multiplied by what I'm foregoing, even if thats j8st a chilled night on the couch.


P.s. most embarrassing moment: said wrong name for the bride during first dance intro once. Still get the fear until I've got both names out of the way to this day.

[Centre Stage Discos]

I'm exhausted just thinking about that kids party

You and me both Jim.

Great replies - thank you.

We're back to the "it works for some but not for others" scenario and it's right. Imagine nailed it with his last sentence. A carefully chosen charity gig has got to be the way to go, but just one, maybe two. No more. I don't like the idea of working for nothing, but there's also a feel good factor involved, as my other half just said, you do get a buzz out of doing something for a worthy cause or something close to your heart. She used to take a group of elderly people to the seaside, purely to give them an enjoyable day out. Digressing yet again!

Thanks rth - your suggestion about getting plenty of photos is high on my list. I have a good few but they are hopeless quality as I took stills from videos and they didn't come out right. I've included a few on my website but I kept them small. There are a couple of stock photos in there too which are close to how the gear looks anyway.

£200 off your price, WOW! I am thinking I'm going to be struggling to get £200 in total for some gigs. Remember what I posted recently about increasing my prices? Well, here I am in that difficult chicken and egg situation. I know I could easily charge two or three times this amount, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking for this early stage. I knew this would effectively be like starting all over again, so I have to be realistic and expect a bit of bartering and discounts along the way.

I'm probably going to invest in some kind of paid advertising but I am going be VERY selective about where.

Thanks again all!

[Imagine]

Remember one small but important thing that's been mentioned on here in other threads about when will we be working again....

There is about to be a deluge of enquiries, and 19th July is looking to be more and more likely for the easing of ALL restrictions in favour of common sense.
An awful lot of DJs have hung up their headphones over the past year and from talking to people who are booking me at the moment, getting a DJ who's available for their now multiple rescheduled date is becoming nigh-on impossible (don't know if that's a good thing or not).

I'd be inclined to hang fire on any reductions for a couple more weeks until Boris speaks and we know exactly what's what. I'm thinking it's going to be stoopildy busy for all of us.

[Marc J]

Remember one small but important thing that's been mentioned on here in other threads about when will we be working again....

There is about to be a deluge of enquiries, and 19th July is looking to be more and more likely for the easing of ALL restrictions in favour of common sense.
An awful lot of DJs have hung up their headphones over the past year and from talking to people who are booking me at the moment, getting a DJ who's available for their now multiple rescheduled date is becoming nigh-on impossible (don't know if that's a good thing or not).

I'd be inclined to hang fire on any reductions for a couple more weeks until Boris speaks and we know exactly what's what. I'm thinking it's going to be stoopildy busy for all of us.

I've seen a marked increase in enquiries through the MDD listings lately. Don't forget that standard listings are free and for now all document verification is also free, see Post COVID Return - Free Directory Verification.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

£200 off your price, WOW! I am thinking I'm going to be struggling to get £200 in total for some gigs. Remember what I posted recently about increasing my prices? Well, here I am in that difficult chicken and egg situation. I know I could easily charge two or three times this amount, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking for this early stage. I knew this would effectively be like starting all over again, so I have to be realistic and expect a bit of bartering and discounts along the way.

I'd really suggest trying to charge more than that otherwise you risk getting caught up doing lots of lower end jobs and have to duke it out with the sids -

It's much harder to differentiate yourself from others in a similar price bracket so are you not better swimming around with the dearer guys out there? Someone really focussed on getting a lower priced DJ won't see much difference in the £200 guy compared to the £150 quid guy and the £150 compared to a £120 guy.

And for the clients who are willing to pay more (aka the ones you do want booking you) it's a piece of if they're comparing us. All I have to say is 'I never hard sell myself but there's a reason I charge 5x as much as Centre Stage..." that's it, I can't think of a time it's never worked.

IF you are content working at that end of things I know people who have had good success with GumTree and though I've not used it for years, NaD will probably do you a turn.

[Centre Stage Discos]

This is not the first time I have heard people say that there is going to be a deluge of enquiries. Again, time will tell on that, but it makes sense to me, especially if so many DJs have hung up their headphones.

I'd like to know more about the MDD listings. I'd already seen these and I must admit that these were what initially drew me to this forum, but a lot of listings were seemingly out of date or missing.

Regarding the MDD listings: We haven't got the PAT and PLI yet for obvious reasons, deciding that we'd get this done when a certain PM gave more of a green light on things, and also waiting until a time that we were actually going out on a booking. (At the moment, the first booking we have is not until Christmas!)

I have never been a member of any organisation in the past, NADJ, etc. and I've just been looking into this, but where do I go to create a listing? Haven't you got to be a member here for a certain length of time? I'm not sure I'm there yet. Correction .... I just successfully registered so I'll be looking into this in due course.

Thanks again all. Very helpful and an interesting discussion.