Do you have preferred venues that you prefer to DJ at?

I have worked venues in the past that I wasn't on the preferred vendor list. One venue I have done three reception for one family at one of these venues which was owned by a DJ company. I do the reception or they'll find another venue. If you have not figured it out by now, Disc Jockeys are generally at the bottom of the food chain.
You have a lot of hypothetical going on in your post.
I thought you were slowing down?? Last weeks wedding & reception was in a barn.
This venue is 10 min. from my home. Yes I live in the sticks.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/16753...8n9bHMwAoHn9ATx3G7VquylFLGUttUNIxi&__tn__=H-R

If I never did another event , This would be the one too retire with as a lasting memory of a great event . What a great couple , guests & family.

I don't have a list of favorite places to work, and I don't think anyone cares.

I do have ongoing relationships where I am the preferred vendor or the point of contact for certain services at a given venue. I also have clients who hire me repeatedly no matter what venue they use, and those relationships survive personnel changes because I am the most familiar with the program and requirements.

Typically, this isn't about what we like or who likes us. It's about the available resources we are able to bring to the table. Getting hired or referred repeatedly by the same client or venue essentially relies on two factors: Talent and Resources. How frequently we are consulted relates directly to how often we are able to deliver on those two things.

Some jobs don't provide us an opportunity to demonstrate either. Small, short money gigs can fall into this category if you don't have sufficient reciprocity in the relationship. I have no issue taking such a gig if it solves a problem for a recurring customer, or maintains my visibility in a meaningful way. For example, small one-off holiday parties probably do nothing to promote or expand my work. On the other hand, a modest pool party or teen dance at a country club whose major events I already handle solve a problem for that venue while keeping me engaged and top of mind with the facility management.

Will members at the pool party hire me for weddings? Not likely. What they experience at the pool party is not consistent with what they think about wedding receptions. The management on the other hand, knows what I am capable of and will refer me to brides using that facility, or members using other locations. The gigs are not as important as the connections that are attached to them.

Most DJs experience this as that one family you did a wedding for several years ago that keeps referring or re-hiring you many times over as the years progress. It's more challenging to create that kind of regularity with a venue who's primary function is food and beverage because they don't need entertainers to close a booking. It's much more effective to focus on organizations or well connected planners, and social chair people. When it comes to vendors, these organizations or planners are in the business of building teams of vendors to meet their objectives - regardless of the venue. That relationship supersedes any referral or house vendor a venue may suggest and does more to elevate us than any list on a web page.

A lot of my calls start with "How can we..." and then somewhere further along in the conversation: "and are you available on that date?" That's when I know I'm a top of mind resource and not just a possibility. It tells me that the sale is already mine, I just have to say yes.

In the past, I had a few venues that I loved to play.
The drive was minimal, the load in was easy, the food was great...
but most importantly, the venue manager understood that the vendor's needs were just as important as the client's.
They knew it was important that we were fed, in a timely manner so we can do our job.
The were accommodating when it came to where we set up, and how early we could get in the building.
etc.

Weird.
Past few years, I haven't played at my favorite venues,
I've been discovering NEW places.

DJ Ricky B said:

I will plan to start lowering the number of events I do per year to around 12. I really don't want to be working as a DJ and relying on this business going into my 50s.

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The overhead cost of finding 12 customers is no different than finding 100. It's a faulty assumption that you can work less, charge more, and still have the resources and current market awareness to be an attractive choice. Without even realizing it, I think you'd become stale - the DJ equivalent of packaged snacks sold at gas station convenience stores.

Why not simply work for someone else? Let them be the trend setters and manage all the booking and overhead. You simply get to be the DJ and do the gigs. You may not even need any equipment save for your own PC.

My favorite/preferred venues to work at are the ones that refer me

Obviously there are some that are easier than others. The Moose Lodge is easier to load in and set up in their multi-purpose room, but I'd much rather fight for a spot in the loading dock at The Fairmont or The Georgetown Ritz because those are the types of events I'd rather be doing. Yes, they are a hassle. But I'd rather take on the hassle and be paid for it.

Rather than listing a discount for any venue, I think there is more value in just featuring an even that you've done there on your website, YouTube, or whatever. That way if someone is searching "DJ + Venue" you're more likely to come up.

By listing a bunch of "preferred venues" you're also discouraging calls from anyone with a venue not on that list. So you're lowering you chances of booking that additional work. If you truly want to just focus on those spaces, that's a great plan. But I'd rather let my website encourage the call and just deal with any "preferences" on the consultation call if I need to.

DJ Ricky B said:

I agree. How long since the last time you have been booked and performed an event at a venue would you go before you realize that they either A. Are not refering you any more. Or, B. For one reason or another, their clientelle is simply not booking you? 1 year, 2 years, 3, 5 years?

I recently realized that it has been quite some time...like before the pandemic started since the last time a particular venue had referred us, or we even got an inquiry from a prospect having their wedding there, so I took them off of my list. Tried to reach out to them, and received no response so time to take them off of the list and move on.

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The beauty in not maintaining a formal list is that I don't really have to track it.

Every time I get on the phone with someone I'm going to make it sound like their wedding is in one of my favorite places to play. It makes them feel good about a venue they likely already firmed up, and it also reinforces that I know the space. Sometimes it's helpful to even say it's tricky (assuming that's true) because it demonstrates knowledge of how to handle the challenges.

Some of the planners I work with only send me 1-2 a year. Others I see 5-6 times. If I stopped hearing from those for 6 months I'd be more concerned than hearing from a specific venue or not.

This isn't helpful, and I'm sure it's not recommended by any consultant types... but I generally believe the effort output doesn't always align with where the business comes back. I don't think I can run 1 ad, book 1 gig. It's more that you run an ad, demonstrate at a show, touch base with planners occasionally, post an occasional mix... and you won't know exactly why you got a call, but you will get calls. It's more of a mosaic approach of lots of small potential touch points.

It's a general input effort that I give it, and it seems to give me back the results I need over time. But building a reputation and brand isn't like running a factory. I can't just press a button or input a dollar to create that same output. I just try to do good work and stay relevant for people.

DJ Ricky B said:

Because I don't want to work for someone else, and spend my time making someone else a bunch of money in this industry. Secondly, I literally do not want to be working 1/3 or more of my weekends away going into the future. I also don't want to continue to drive real far for events as I get older. I will prefer to try to enjoy life more. Earning a lot of money, or as much money as I possibly can won't be my MO moving forward once my son is out of high school, starting to work on his own etc.

I figure that 12 or so weekends a year is a nice round number that I will be comfortable with along with working full time during the week. I plan to enjoy life to the fullest that I can, and not spend my time working all the time as I get older. Besides that, I know a lot of people 5-12 or so years older than me who say their bodies hurt NOW working all the time that they don't understand how they will be doing it in their late 60s/early 70s. Then they are saying people my age will have to work until we are 70+ and that is assuming social security is still around. My body doesn't have the energy it had 15 years ago, and I can see in another 15 years the difference between right now, and 15 years from now will be even greater than the difference from when I was 27.

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Why are you doing this at all?
You could expand your daily hours at the full time job to accrue the extra income and benefits. If you already have another source of preferred income why are you not placing all of your effort there?

We can avoid driving long distances by building a local clientele and referral base.
We can do the job without being the sole roadie.
We can work better by recognizing when someone should be responsible for set & strike while we bring the needed experience and direction.

Albatross said:

I generally believe the effort output doesn't always align with where the business comes back. I don't think I can run 1 ad, book 1 gig. It's more that you run an ad, demonstrate at a show, touch base with planners occasionally, post an occasional mix... and you won't know exactly why you got a call, but you will get calls. It's more of a mosaic approach of lots of small potential touch points.

I just try to do good work and stay relevant for people.

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For an input/output result you have to have an obvious qualified target and act within the limited window available. I'll give you a pre-internet example of how someone built a huge Bar Mitzvah business (~300 events per year.)

A lot of the kids attending these events are relatives and classmates within a similar age range. They all have their own (or siblings with) Bar/Bat Mitvah or sweet sixteen events on the horizon. Along with any games and contests conducted is at least one prize awarded at the very end of the night. No one will miss out on the prize if they leave early because you simply put your name and address on an index card and drop it in the fish bowl from which we will draw the winner. The real winner is the DJ who leaves with a local mailing list more qualified than anything you can buy from a research firm. That mailing goes out the same week so when the Thank You message arrives - the recipients remember exactly what party they were at, and now know with a referrable certainty who the DJ was.

Unlike a website or internet presence, this method also lets you decide WHERE you want to work. If you're out of town and far from home - dont run that contest, or don't mail to those distant addresses. It doesn't take very long before you're the local or regional go-to source for DJs because for some odd reason everybody in that market segment seems to know who you are and exactly what you do.

I decided to wait before making a post. I don't know about a preferred venue. I know there are some venues that I don't like and would prefer to not do an event in certain venues. Sometimes it might have to do with someone working at the venue or the load in and out is very difficult. Especially those where you have to climb a bunch of stairs because the venue doesn't have a elevator. There are some I do like. One is in Montclair, NJ called Wally Choice Community Center. This venue is the same venue that I hang out with the seniors on Monday, Thursday and Friday playing cards and just talking trash. This venue cost $10,000,000 to build. It has a nice size parking lot. The venue inside is very nice and modern. To get into the venue it's super easy and it also has a nice size room inside to have an event there. Here are some pictures I took of the venue inside.

DJ Ricky B said:

Because I don't want to work for someone else, and spend my time making someone else a bunch of money in this industry. Secondly, I literally do not want to be working 1/3 or more of my weekends away going into the future. I also don't want to continue to drive real far for events as I get older. I will prefer to try to enjoy life more. Earning a lot of money, or as much money as I possibly can won't be my MO moving forward once my son is out of high school, starting to work on his own etc.

I figure that 12 or so weekends a year is a nice round number that I will be comfortable with along with working full time during the week. I plan to enjoy life to the fullest that I can, and not spend my time working all the time as I get older. Besides that, I know a lot of people 5-12 or so years older than me who say their bodies hurt NOW working all the time that they don't understand how they will be doing it in their late 60s/early 70s. Then they are saying people my age will have to work until we are 70+ and that is assuming social security is still around. My body doesn't have the energy it had 15 years ago, and I can see in another 15 years the difference between right now, and 15 years from now will be even greater than the difference from when I was 27.

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Why not retire completely, I only do maybe 5 gigs a year currently, and that’s becoming more of hassle than it’s worth, I moved my money into other less involved income producing investments, mostly self storage facilities at this point, and a couple of local car washes, the take up much less of my time.
Between those investments and what I’ve invested for retirement it has allowed me to be at every high school event my son has, which is far more important than making money. I can wake up in the morning and either go get a few things done on the hobby farm or around the house. Yes sometimes the storage or car washes need my attention but it’s only a few times a month. Most of the time my property manger can handle those issues

For me, 60 miles is a long distance. I’d say most of the gigs I do are 30 miles or less. We get a bunch of referrals from local venues.
There’s probably 25 event centers within 10 miles of me. Downtown Cleveland is 23 miles away. So there has to be hundreds inside of 60 miles.

I have two...

One is a small place that's a little over an hour of back road driving to get to. I've played indoors/outdoors there. Load-in for indoors is a PITA. Space is tight. Booking/payment is always simple and on-time. Crowd is usually smaller as it's an out-of-the-way place. However, every time I'm there, I have a great time. The owner/operator is a fantastic person, and their guests just always seem to be fun, courteous, and just enjoyable to be around regardless of what type of event they are putting on, be it a wedding, community event, or private party of some sort.

The other is a family I met when I first started Dj'ing. They hired me for a private party they were putting on at their home. I've since done probably a dozen events for them. They have been fantastic, super-easy to work with, great guests, and they best tips to date of anyone I've worked for. What's not to love.