$350 dj

DJ Teddy Bear said:

Doing it for free, for a charity you believe in, is completely different. It's something honorable, and something I totally support.

Side note: For a variety of reasons, I recommend NOT doing charity events for free, but charging them, on a contract, ONE DOLLAR. If you want to know why, start a new thread.

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Ive seen you write about that before no need for side bar yet as the description of the event will be next Sunday night and easier to understand.

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As to the thread here Teddy I see you're taking a beating and respect you for not balling out or getting too crappy back.

I think like may other things GWYW is over.
Guitar Center, Numark, Apple, PSSL, SamAsh have caused the GWYW to just be OVER.

Gas prices topping $4 a gallon make it well... OVER


Here I am
I am 32 years old
I started in Professional Syndicated radio at 12 years old (Radio Aahs)
I also started djing gigs for money at 12 years old
I started djing weddings at 18 years old.
I personally have done easily done over 800 weddings
Ive done weddings and events for celebrities (on Non disclosures) that would make peoples heads spin
I can MC a northern or southern wedding
I mix like nobodys business.
Ive got good equipment throughout the organization

Im worth easily $1600 for 4 hours
Easily

Im also the founder, owner and president of a huge mega op

I cant possibly charge $1600 when my next best guy could command $950

anyways i could write forever on this and probably should bow out of the discussion because my business model is so different. I think GWYW is just over it was a novel idea at the time....


But let me just put this in perspective my opinions of the creators

The biggest advocate and creator of GWYW told me i had a horrible slogan

Donny Deutch was at a corporate event we did a few weeks back for google and thought it was great commented on the van and specifically the tag line...

hmmmm....

Steve Cie said:

I am definitely missing something with this thread.

Are you guys NUTS?????

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Um no! smart maybe

Steve Cie said:

I was charging $550 twenty five years ago!
I am sad to say that today I only get $1100 to $1500 per event, but that's simply because there are so many guys working for slave wages out there.

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Acually you are mistaken you are only getting $1100 to $1500 because that is the most your market will bear the guys working for "slave wages" have always been there all the way back to 25 years ago.

Steve Cie said:

One poster said "where else can you make $350 for a day's work. First of all, you are not making $350 for the day. You still have to pay for transportation, insurance, equipment, music, clothing, advertising, phone - electric-internet connectivity fees, etc. The average wage today is between $50,000 and $125,000 a year. Break it down--250 work days in a year---at the bottom of the scale $200 a day -- at the top-- $ 500 a day.

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I am the one who said: What other job can you have where you can make $350 for a days work. Which anybody else regardless of occupation will also have insurance, clothing, phone, electric, internet connectivity coming out of their wages as well.

Break it down there are 365 work days in a year for an active DJ, you can not look at the one price point as you are in this situation, you have already said that you have a range you charge. Are you holding that all other DJs only have one price?

Steve Cie said:

It takes me at least 4 days of hard work to put a show together--including client meetings, music compilation and acquisition, travel and set-up time for the event etc. If I did that for $350, my gross before all of my many expenses would be $87.50 a day, and I haven't purchased any gear or gas yet!!

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Here is a perfect example of the worth additude, it doesn't require 4 or more days to put together a show, if it does then the DJ has a problem.
My music is already together, if I need additional songs for a particular gig it takes me all of 5 minutes to purchase them online from Amazon, Walmart, or any other music service. No one is going to charge $350 for a gig that is going to require a lot of prep time.

For a gig that requires more than a 15 minute setup time I am going to charge more, for a gig that is more than 40 miles away I charge by the mile, for gigs requiring lights I charge a separate fee for the lights ranging in price from $100 to $1000 depending on the light package the client chooses.

Steve Cie said:

I do an average of 125 shows a year. And let me tell you, I earn every penny of my money! And i am by no means at the top of the income bracket at my rates.

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To do a personal average of 250+ gigs per year I earn in excess of your posted "average wage per year".

Steve Cie said:

C'mon guys, start thinking like businessmen.
Otherwise, you simply hobbyists!

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I do think as a business man and I don't have a "day job" I earn most of my income from my profession, other than the income from a few rental properties, which were purchased with the income from Djing.

I will give you an example of the one day earnings from DJing without charging $1200 per gig.

This past Saturday I had 4 gigs booked.

Regular KJ show $250 my take after paying the Host $125 total expenses for show $7.50, total time expenditure on my part 0.

Private party 13th birthday KJ/DJ $350 after expenses of $100 for Host/DJ $3.28 for fuel vehicle useage etc. and total time involvement on my part less than 1 hour $246.72.

Private party event DJ only $350 after expenses $150 for DJ $9.00 for fuel and vehicle useage, total time involvement 10 minutes in contract work.

Private engagement party DJ only small setup, $650, travel time 2 hours setup breakdown time 20 minutes, contract time 10 minutes, play time 4 hours, total expenses $21.00

So from a take for the day of $1600 and a payout $403.78 with a total time expenditure of just under 8 hours I have a return of $1196.22!

What was your return for Saturday night?

1600 28.78 375 7.6 hours

jokerswild said:

I think I'd prefer to work more and make the same amount of money over sitting by my phone with baited breath just hoping the next caller wont laugh at me or simply hangup when I quote them $1200.00....

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Robb what do you normally bait your breath with?

Unless I missed it, this is the first time in this thread that you mentioned that you're a multi-op.

But in your examples, you never calculated the expense to purchase the equipment necessary for each system, or the vans to get them there. How much did that cost? How many gigs are they expected to last before they need to be replaced? Do the division then add that to the expenses for the gig.

What about insurance? How about taxes? Do you have an office staff you need to pay? What about warehouse rent and expenses?


How about paying yourself?

Thunder said:

Private party event DJ only $350 after expenses $150 for DJ $9.00 for fuel and vehicle useage, total time involvement 10 minutes in contract work.

Private engagement party DJ only small setup, $650, travel time 2 hours setup breakdown time 20 minutes, contract time 10 minutes, play time 4 hours, total expenses $21.00

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Since you didn't subtract the cost of the DJ, I gotta assume you did this last gig yourself. How come you're worth so much more than your employees?

I'm confused.

A DJ gets $350 and a bunch of bookings that he's happy with -and that's a problem for who?

Should I follow the expensive part time DJ grossing $18,000 or the cheap full time DJ with a six figure hobby?

Mathematically I'm not sure which is hypothetically better, 4 gigs at $350 or 1 gig at $1200. But if anyone can help - I'd like to know how to cash a hypothetical check?

If I do 125 gigs a year at $1500 and spend 4 days preparing for each gig, wouldn't the real secret to my success be the year that's 500 days long?

The Canadian market sounds really tough. If Canada is on the metric system, how do you guys make it in a year that's only half as long - less 30 days more?

I think this issue needs to be put in proper perspective. I doubt anybody in this thread is doing weddings for $350. I also doubt that anybody is doing 30th birthday parties at the local VFW for $1,200.

So what are talking about exactly?

The real factor is profit vs. cost. That will vary for all of us as we all do things differently. I'll wager that at the end of the day, most of us average about the same.

I see a pretty decent profit from my $650 wedding fee. I am worth and could get $1,200, but in my heart, I would feel selfish and greedy. I would rather take a few apples from each tree than take all the fruit from just one.

I may not have everything I want in life, but I certainly am thankful to have more than I need.

To each their own.

DJ Teddy Bear said:

Unless I missed it, this is the first time in this thread that you mentioned that you're a multi-op.

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Actually my first or second posted mentioned doing multiple gigs in a day.

In another post I mentioned doing 450+ gigs a year, in yet another I talked about "personally doing a given number of gigs so I assumed that you would have understood the multi-op references. I apologize if you misunderstood!

DJ Teddy Bear said:

But in your examples, you never calculated the expense to purchase the equipment necessary for each system, or the vans to get them there. How much did that cost? How many gigs are they expected to last before they need to be replaced? Do the division then add that to the expenses for the gig.

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I have no equipment that has not already been paid for in cash and has not been totally depreciated on my taxes.

The youngest piece of equipment that is currently on the road in just at 5 years of age, the older pieces are at 20+ years of age!

I expect gear that is properly cared for to have a minimum of 10 years of useable life! If I purchase gear that doesn't hold up for more than 5 years I never purchase that brand again, period. Which is the main reason the majority of my sound gear (amps and speakers are Peavey)

I own 7 vehicles 4 of them are used only for business, each year I do a cost breakdown per vehicle and business expenses plus I add 10%, that figure was already used in my cost per gig. My business expenses are pretty much a constant.

DJ Teddy Bear said:

What about insurance? How about taxes? Do you have an office staff you need to pay? What about warehouse rent and expenses?

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Insurance is a constant regardless of the systems working or not, As a sole proprietor I am taxed on my income just like anyone else. DJ's and KJs are paid on 1099's so they pay their own taxes. My wife and I are our office staff, it isn't rocket science and does require someone to man the phones 24/7.

My studio/office/warehouse has long ago been paid for and now is only a tax deduction.

Electric/phone/internet are a constant and are due regardless of the systems working or not so the more income I have regardless of the amount charged, the less impact there is from expenses.

DJ Teddy Bear said:

How about paying yourself?

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I am a sole proprietor, The money earned less expenses is my pay, even if I don't actually do any of the gigs at all.

DJ Teddy Bear said:

Since you didn't subtract the cost of the DJ, I gotta assume you did this last gig yourself. How come you're worth so much more than your employees?

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Where do you see that I am getting more than anyone else? If one of the others wanted to do this gig they would have taken "HALF" of the money. But by their own choice they decided what gigs they wanted to do. One of those gigs I setup before I left for my own gig and broke it down when I got home. Two of these gigs were within 10 minutes of my home.

I could make arguments about the other points but I won't bother. Suffice to say, we see things very differently when we determine our profit rates.

Thunder said:

Where do you see that I am getting more than anyone else? If one of the others wanted to do this gig they would have taken "HALF" of the money. But by their own choice they decided what gigs they wanted to do. One of those gigs I setup before I left for my own gig and broke it down when I got home. Two of these gigs were within 10 minutes of my home.

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However, on this last point, you have me totally confused.

"Half" ? Only in the first example in your prior post did the DJ get half. (Although, based upon your wording, it would seem the DJ got one third!) Why didn't the others get half? And why wouldn't a DJ that gets half of the gig price select the more expensive gigs?

But that is irrelevant, since what you pay your staff is truely up to you.

I assumed that you did the last gig yourself since you didn't list a deduction for the DJ. If it wasn't you, why didn't you deduct the cost of the DJ?


Lastly, I put ALL of your math in question, since you couldn't even add the few expenses you listed correctly!

Duck and dive to survive.....

you know what **** you all just **** you alll... LOL

I hire guys that love doing this
I hire guys and girls with one thing in mind and that is we have more fun
Djing someones party is a lot more fun than sitting at home and doing any gosh darn thing so what i pay myself and my people is my business but i'll tell you this I make a lot more money now than when i was doing mornings in market 38 and number 1 in all demos

I make a lot more money now than when i was syndicated on 100 am stations

I make a lot more money now than when i was programming the number 1 station in myrtlebeach south carolina

I make a lot more money now than when i did nights in Washington DC

You guys know im so with Steve in this thread its not funny.


Wanna see my numbers? Really...

Saturday:

We had 4 4 hour weddings at: $550 = $2200
Pay out including hourly factor for office expenses: $800
Yield: $1400

Pool Party: $375
Expenses: $175
Yield: $200

thats $1800 so far

Vow Renewal: $395
Expenses: $195
Yield: $200

That's $2000

5 hour wedding that only went 4 hours with ceremony $695 (call it $700 for illustrative purposes)
Expenses $300

That's $2400

Now to get expenses we factor in the following

$1000 per month for equipment
Our Rent
Phone Bill
Advertising costs
Gas for co. owned vehicles
utilities etc

we take that large number and divide it by avg giggable hours so yes the actual cost of doing business is in my figures.

Now this was a SLOW saturday only not the whole weekend

DJ Teddy Bear said:

I could make arguments about the other points but I won't bother. Suffice to say, we see things very differently when we determine our profit rates.

However, on this last point, you have me totally confused.

"Half" ? Only in the first example in your prior post did the DJ get half. (Although, based upon your wording, it would seem the DJ got one third!) Why didn't the others get half? And why wouldn't a DJ that gets half of the gig price select the more expensive gigs?

But that is irrelevant, since what you pay your staff is truely up to you.

I assumed that you did the last gig yourself since you didn't list a deduction for the DJ. If it wasn't you, why didn't you deduct the cost of the DJ?


Lastly, I put ALL of your math in question, since you couldn't even add the few expenses you listed correctly!

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If you're running a multi op, a business with employees why on earth would they pick their gigs or their schedules much less see how much money you have in any given job. what kind of hypothetical organization would you be running

Apparently you have more of a problem with math than I do.

The $350 gig that paid $100 to the Dj was not a mistake but the time involvement was also for setup and breakdown of the equipment on my part, the job was three minutes from my house and the DJ chose to take less money and not have to fool with setup and tear down.

I won't much bother going into too many details because it would probably just confuse you. However in the case of $150 versus $175 being half, I will try to explain it in simple terms for you.

I don't have employees, I have contract labor!

I charge a rental for the equippment and vehicles which works out for some reason to be HALF after the deduction of a booking fee of you guessed it $50. Also the vehicles are full of fuel when they go out and the DJ's return them full of fuel.

Again how can I tie up 6 plus hours in a gig unless I am the one doing it.

I don't believe I can make it any simpler for you than that.

The other thing that always seems to identify a worther is their inability to understand something that most 9 year olds can comprehend.

Say this out loud "EYE YAM SOFA KING RE TODD DID"

Steve better watch out for the mod squad on that one..

Kyle,

I have watched the worthers try to make 2+2=11 for so many years it just gets to the point where you have to just say it the way it was meant to be said.

BTW Guys I do some last minute DJ jobs for a local multi (no names) and guess what I get paid??? $250

OK? I don't give a rats arse what you get or what you're worth - I have an extra $250 play money for spinning some CDs and saying some words to people for a few hours when I choose - what the F is wrong with that?

Mortgage is paid, Kids have fled and I need toys I LOVE TOYS!!!!!!!

I'm not screwing around with BS just give me $250, set the gear up and I'm yours for up to five hours where else can you get a job that pays that much?

I always get the job for the multi too B+Gs like the funny accent (OK YA) and my sense of humour but I'm not screwing around chasing fairy money - I make about $10,000 + tips a year extra for doing a simple job that some think is rocket science.

As I said I won't name the multi but there are a few here that can guess - stuff $350 I do $250 + tips and gear set up, taken down.

David

I didn't see the post from Kyle there - quite right too - you know who I do jobs for when I feel like it - I don't want to mention their name here but you know their way of thinking is pretty much like yours - all this worth crap is way too much.

Hey Teddy Bear I thought you were a priest or something?? Now you're into IT? Quite a career change

I'll keep the thread going but without total personal attacks... the Worth crew they are all worth a lot so much worth that they work day jobs to sustain their worth

Wavy Davy said:

I didn't see the post from Kyle there - quite right too - you know who I do jobs for when I feel like it - I don't want to mention their name here but you know their way of thinking is pretty much like yours - all this worth crap is way too much.

Hey Teddy Bear I thought you were a priest or something?? Now you're into IT? Quite a career change

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I know exactly for whom you speak we swap jobs from time to time