Cheaper daytime rate?

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rickryan.com

DJ Extraordinaire
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Dec 9, 2009
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Hendersonville, TN
www.rickryan.com
Not trying to stir up any "bottom feeder" or "race to the bottom" talk but I wanted to discuss an idea, in the spirit that competition is never-ending change to our biz practices.

I was talking with a photog recently who I'd seen advertising "$250". These guys are in their first year and are slammed. What surprised me is, they're not booking $250 dates. Their avg is already $800, and climbing. They use $250 as door-opener in their ads, but of course the $250 pkg is only an hour or two and not enough for practically any wedding. In fact, I heard her say "I hope nobody ever buys that $250 package."

It got me to wondering, would that tactic be good to stack some doubles. Maybe limit it to 2 hours, daytime only (must be finished by 3pm and no overtime), no lights, no video, 75 guests max, etc. It'd be a "walk in with 2 small speakers and a laptop" type gig and would be over in time to throw everything back in the car and head over to the evening's "real gig". I'm thinking $250-$350 on price.

Any initial thoughts?
 
Any initial thoughts?

OK, let's get it over with. Bottomfeeder! LOL :sqlaugh:

Now, not a bad idea. You might want to put a travel restriction on it as well.

As to system, take a look at this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/440275-REG/Peavey_03513400_Escort_Portable_Sound_System.html

I have the discontinued 3000 version of this that came with legs.

Get a miniplug adaptor for the laptop's headphone output and connect it to the Escort's RCA aux in and you're good to go. I use this for ceremonies. The unit is self contained.

As a parttimer I wouldn't be able to do this but I can imagine many fulltimers being able to take advantage.
 
I do a dance for a local senior council once a month for $100 (3hrs)

If I don't have to travel far and it's an off time, you can pretty much pay me in goats and chickens. Any money I gain is good money.
 
I do more than a few "daytime" gigs for a discounted rate 4 hours for $250 (same as my weekly bar rate) If the gig ends early enough for me to make an evening gig, if the end time goes into time I would need for an evening gig it get the full rate!

I have done three this month and have two booked for June and another in September!
 
Thanks, guys. Tommy, yea, I'd thought about travel restrictions and I'd also want to make provision to bounce it for a full-rate, evening gig or (better still) maybe send the wifey to do the cheap gig. My year's about booked, at least the Saturdays, so this seems like it might be an alternate way to pickup a bit more cash, short of having to take on mid-week club gigs. Of course, it just being a music-only, quickie thing, it'd probably be much easier to just send someone else, should there be a conflict. This definitely would also curb any out-of-town dates.

The main impetus for it though is to get more leads in the door. Yea, it's gonna open up every cheapskate in town but with my sales pitch being completely automated, if I can just up-sell a portion of them, it'd probably be worth it. No to mention, I wouldn't have to burn personal energy in trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. The strategy seems to be working in spades for my photog buddies (hubby/wife). They have the cheap price to get the lead, then they convert to an avg $800 sale and their book is completely slammed, even after only 5 months in biz.
 
While I have no "discount rate" for daytime events, I have certainly been more negotiable for say, 1-4PM on a Sunday afternoon in my own town...

I mean really, 2 minutes travel and the evening available for other things? I'm willing to listen...:sqcool:
 

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Maybe instead of a "matter of policy" you just take it on a case-by-case as your booking schedule per-month would necessitate.

What I mean is if you're constructing your rates correctly, then you are taking your costs to exist and do business for a year, adding a desired profit margin, and then dividing that number over a set number of gigs per-year to allow you to recoup those costs and make that profit.

In otherwords, you are essentially "counting on" getting at least x-number of gigs per-month to make ends meet and make money.

Now, if you happen to be ahead of this curve, are booked for all your evening slots (and then some...), or if you simply do this part-time and have another income and the money doesn't really *matter*, then sure - charge in chicken and paperclips.

On the other hand, if you are behind that curve, or don't have an event booked later that night, that weekend, or that month that you were "counting on," then you hold a little bit harder to your "regular" rate - or at the least don't "wiggle" any more than the profit margin you have included in your usual rate.

In otherwords, don't look for some kind of global policy - make it situational, and make it work for the circumstances you are in.
 
Maybe instead of a "matter of policy" you just take it on a case-by-case as your booking schedule per-month would necessitate.

What I mean is if you're constructing your rates correctly, then you are taking your costs to exist and do business for a year, adding a desired profit margin, and then dividing that number over a set number of gigs per-year to allow you to recoup those costs and make that profit.

In otherwords, you are essentially "counting on" getting at least x-number of gigs per-month to make ends meet and make money.

Now, if you happen to be ahead of this curve, are booked for all your evening slots (and then some...), or if you simply do this part-time and have another income and the money doesn't really *matter*, then sure - charge in chicken and paperclips.

On the other hand, if you are behind that curve, or don't have an event booked later that night, that weekend, or that month that you were "counting on," then you hold a little bit harder to your "regular" rate - or at the least don't "wiggle" any more than the profit margin you have included in your usual rate.

In otherwords, don't look for some kind of global policy - make it situational, and make it work for the circumstances you are in.

You do realize the purpose of this thread is not to discuss lowering your night-time rate, don't you? I'm talking about offering an elcheapo package that can be sold, done with minimum hassle/time, and still leaving the night-time slot (I average arriving at 3p-4p for those) available.

If you can bank an extra $250-$350 for the day, it sure seems like a win-win to me.