Are You Heading into your Off-Season?

One of the benefits of having come from the business in my previous life is that we had no season, no high or low times during the year.

I sold insurance. Effective dates were 365 days of the year. There was no "Wedding" season, "Holiday Party" season......and so on...

My point.....we were in prospecting/contact mode 365 days of the year. It was not a "feast or famine" mentality.

As DJ's we must operate in the same mode. Even though you are booked solid 4-5 months of the year you must not curtail your New business activities, during these times.

In the Insurance Industry we had what was called a 12 to 24 months on the average, of "Inside Lag" time, which means activities today may not bear fruit for 12 to 24, months..... at best. Contacts today may not even give you the "time of day" for 2 years.

The "Outside Lag" may be 3-5 years, before we would get the account, or have a chance to make your pitch? All of us who were successful in the business, would develop lists of those accounts we wanted to put on a "pursue list", meaning we would make frequent contacts with these individuals or companies on this list just to continue to show our interest.

This is where I think some of us could be better at in setting "Short, Mid and Long Term" objectives. Your marketing activities must be set and reviewed 365 days of the year. Every day you should make some contribution to those activities.....even if it's a phone call, meeting new people, something that increases your contact base, which in the end will increase your bookings.

It's not uncommon when times are good we coast.....it's normal we have all done it.......the successful individuals will see that lapse, and correct their activities, to get back into a positive marketing mode.........

How many of you feel you market your business 365 days a year?

Valerie Ruste said:

I make a point to stop in and spend a little time at the office even if I 'don't really have anything to do' right now. It helps keep me connected and focused. It reminds me of new things to get on the agenda. Without consistent contact, it's easy for a project (marketing for instance) to get postponed for even months...time flies! I try very hard to be working ALMOST 365 days a year. I think it's important to allow yourself breaks too though.

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That's one of the reasons you are so successful today Valerie, but I will bet that's one of the main reasons you have grown as you have over the years.....??? making that committment

As you say it is very easy to put aside what we make consider as a difficult thing to do after all we are performers.....right??.......wrong if you don't do the difficult things on a regular basis (marketing), you won't have to worry about performing!!!!

Flyingdjdan said:

Re working wedding worksheets, vendor questionnaires etc.

Books, and audio books.

Now is the time for unbridled improvement studies.

If wanting to learn something... dmx, a new software program, re design website... DO IT!

Excellent post!

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That's the number one thing that "getting back in the saddle", and reviewing what you have done will do, and how you got to where you are, these are all things that will stimulate your need to get back doing the marketing that got you where you're at today........If you want to continue to enjoy what you are doing today!!!!

Johnny Dee said:

Once you stop doing just Weddings...you will have NO off-season.

We are FT and a couple of years ago I realized that there were other high end markets besides weddings...and these jobs go on 12 months a year. We started marketing to these other markets and now we are busy 12 months a year.

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Exactly, that's one of the reasons I don't do weddings....first it's a very limited time period, secondly a crowed field, numerous DJ's all competing for the Brides & Grooms.

Making good venue contacts, Corporate contacts can take you from 4-5 busy months a year to 10-12 solid months a year.