I had an interesting conversation with my partner today.

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MIXMASTERMACHOM

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Oct 16, 2011
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I already know I'm taking a chance making this thread. I was over my partners apartment today. He loaded the speakers in the van for tomorrow's event. We were talking and he revealed to me that he gets scared when quoting a price to a potential client. He said he feels if he quotes a certain price that the person will not agree to him booking the gig and losing out on the gig. So he said he likes to quote a price that he feels they will agree to. His GF has said to him that the price should be higher then what he will quote. He said sometimes she gets on his nerves and yet she's right. Her thing is others are getting paid a certain price so why aren't we getting paid a certain price instead of settling. The Bible says ask and you shall receive. If you don't ask how will you know if you will receive. It's not just him. I'm guilty too sometimes.

He mentioned we need the money so we can advertise. I said we do need more online content so people can see what we do. We have very little content on Youtube. The other thing he addressed was staying away from certain people who know him because he knows they will not take him seriously and want him to do an event for them for a rediculously low price and he's not interested in dealing with that. I also mentioned pointing our business to those people who will pay the price we want. Now to be fair that means if you want a certain price people have feel you're worth the price or they won't pay that price and it goes beyond just playing music at an event.
 
So the long and the short of this is your partner has deep rooted self esteem issues?
 
I already know I'm taking a chance making this thread. I was over my partners apartment today. He loaded the speakers in the van for tomorrow's event. We were talking and he revealed to me that he gets scared when quoting a price to a potential client. He said he feels if he quotes a certain price that the person will not agree to him booking the gig and losing out on the gig. So he said he likes to quote a price that he feels they will agree to. His GF has said to him that the price should be higher then what he will quote. He said sometimes she gets on his nerves and yet she's right. Her thing is others are getting paid a certain price so why aren't we getting paid a certain price instead of settling. The Bible says ask and you shall receive. If you don't ask how will you know if you will receive. It's not just him. I'm guilty too sometimes.

He mentioned we need the money so we can advertise. I said we do need more online content so people can see what we do. We have very little content on Youtube. The other thing he addressed was staying away from certain people who know him because he knows they will not take him seriously and want him to do an event for them for a rediculously low price and he's not interested in dealing with that. I also mentioned pointing our business to those people who will pay the price we want. Now to be fair that means if you want a certain price people have feel you're worth the price or they won't pay that price and it goes beyond just playing music at an event.
It's funny... I just had this convo with a DJ friend of mine the other day, and he kinda said the same thing as your partner. He's older too, and has that same mentality. Perhaps it's an old school method of selling, where you "feel out" your client.

You want to know how to fix this... it's actually very simple... and it will hold you and your partner accountable. Make a website... put your pricing on there. This way you can never go against it. It'll set the proper expectations from inquiring clients and you can't just go raising prices just cause you think someone can pay more or less. You'll actually have to price based on value (I feel like I'm talking business 101 lol).

Now if you say you can't create a website. No big deal. You can Create a PDF with your pricing. Have someone else keep the editable file on their computer so you can't make changes to it as you please. Give every client that pdf file with your pricing info. It holds you accountable because you can't just go giving one person one price and another person a different price. Especially if they know each other by chance.
 
There's no right answer. There's a DJ here that is ALWAYS working and busy. He's not expensive...probably too cheap.
But he's ALWAYS working.

Another Dj charges 3X as much and doesn't work even 1/3 the events. I'm sure he gets a lot of "OMG" answers to his price quotes.

As the guy i bought out told me "I'd rather work for $300 than sit home and watch oprah and eat chips"

I have a goal of a per hour I want to get paid. Some gigs won't pay that, or perhaps I'm afraid to ask...like a church asked me to DJ for 6.5 hours for some kind of bingo purse raffle fundraiser...that's longer that most weddings, possibly a lot of announcements and background music...trying to get more info on what they want. $400? 500? I want to get as much as possible of course. THey're willing to pay. I've got other business with them so I don't want to piss them off with a $1200 please!...At least it's a friday evening in april, not a saturday in june! They also have a school, so more work might come from this if I play nice on price.

If all your stuff is paid for...your only cost is your time, insurance and new music. And gas I guess. LOL.

problem is if word gets around 'hey, mix did my wedding for $400' the referral will expect a similar price.

Thanks Taso and it's not self esteem issues. It's just running on desperation mode. Especially since the Pandemic hit.
 
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Thanks Taso and it's not self esteem issues. It's just running on desperation mode. Especially since the Pandemic hit.
Unfortunately, because fo your reliance on him as your partner, you're stuck dealing with his desperation. Why don't you just handle all the sales if you're more confident in your booking ability. Just have him hand off all inquiries to you. I used to do that as part of the larger company I was with before I got comofrtable selling myself.
 
There's no right answer. There's a DJ here that is ALWAYS working and busy. He's not expensive...probably too cheap.
But he's ALWAYS working.

Another Dj charges 3X as much and doesn't work even 1/3 the events. I'm sure he gets a lot of "OMG" answers to his price quotes.

As the guy i bought out told me "I'd rather work for $300 than sit home and watch oprah and eat chips"

I have a goal of a per hour I want to get paid. Some gigs won't pay that, or perhaps I'm afraid to ask...like a church asked me to DJ for 6.5 hours for some kind of bingo purse raffle fundraiser...that's longer that most weddings, possibly a lot of announcements and background music...trying to get more info on what they want. $400? 500? I want to get as much as possible of course. THey're willing to pay. I've got other business with them so I don't want to piss them off with a $1200 please!...At least it's a friday evening in april, not a saturday in june! They also have a school, so more work might come from this if I play nice on price.

If all your stuff is paid for...your only cost is your time, insurance and new music. And gas I guess. LOL.

problem is if word gets around 'hey, mix did my wedding for $400' the referral will expect a similar price.
Why did you mention my name? Where do you do events? Keep the focus on you.
 
I could mention anyones name.

Do you know how referrals work? Every ask friends about referrals?

"Hey Bob, I want new windows for my house. You did that last year, who did you use?" - 'window nation. talked to 3 window companies"...then he'll say something about why he picked them. Price? Performance? and then may mention "but they didn't clean up' or 'they were in an out in half a day"
Often price will come up too. "What did it cost you?" is often asked, or maybe Bob will say "Not the cheapest, but the best" or "shoulda paid more" or similar.

I'd love to say it's not all about price....but I"m getting bids for a garage...concrete bids have been 6500 to 19,000. The building itself from 19k to 42k or something stupid.
ALL the excavation guys are $2500....3 of them are exactly the same price.

Specific prices on DJs will vary widely...$400 for an experienced wedding DJ here isn't hard to find. WOM mostly, they don't advertise, are all part time. Doesn't mean they're bad. They're happy at that price. If they want to go to 600 and they'll get a referral that will be "but bob says you did his wedding for $400" - or they'll think it at least.

Why did you mention my name? Where do you do events? Keep the focus on you.
 
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I already know I'm taking a chance making this thread. I was over my partners apartment today. He loaded the speakers in the van for tomorrow's event. We were talking and he revealed to me that he gets scared when quoting a price to a potential client. He said he feels if he quotes a certain price that the person will not agree to him booking the gig and losing out on the gig. So he said he likes to quote a price that he feels they will agree to. His GF has said to him that the price should be higher then what he will quote. He said sometimes she gets on his nerves and yet she's right. Her thing is others are getting paid a certain price so why aren't we getting paid a certain price instead of settling. The Bible says ask and you shall receive. If you don't ask how will you know if you will receive. It's not just him. I'm guilty too sometimes.

He mentioned we need the money so we can advertise. I said we do need more online content so people can see what we do. We have very little content on Youtube. The other thing he addressed was staying away from certain people who know him because he knows they will not take him seriously and want him to do an event for them for a rediculously low price and he's not interested in dealing with that. I also mentioned pointing our business to those people who will pay the price we want. Now to be fair that means if you want a certain price people have feel you're worth the price or they won't pay that price and it goes beyond just playing music at an event.

So, at least you've identified an issue with your business. The person in charge of quoting jobs is terrible at it. Being desperate for business is never a good position to be in.

you guys need to decide what prices you are going to charge and how you both are going to handle quotes.

Also, if your partner is desperate for business, he needs to find something else to do.
 
Taso has a good point about putting it in writing. Even if you don't put it on a website, at least print out of a price sheet. However you structure your different prices doesn't matter. Just give them some choices, and put it in writing so it doesn't seem like you're making up a quote off of your head. Which is basically what you've been doing. It suggests that there is less room for negotiation, and that others have already paid you those rates.
 
Mix, you have a laptop with internet, right? You can create a website, and have a free one published and running in under 2 hours at WIX.COM.

I decided to make one last night. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to make this one while I was also watching TV last night so I wasn't 100% focused on it. FREE WEBSITE, AND TASO WILL PROBABLY LOOK AT IT AND SAY IT IS BETTER THAN MY CURRENT WEBSITE! LMAO

I will say that the WIX editor seems to be sleeker with easier, more modern features compared to Go Daddy.

I just spent another 20 minutes just now making the descriptions in the packages look neat, informative, and hopefully error free. I might just use this free site in the future to promote myself for directly booking me instead of utilizing my business website. Maybe this is my outlet for promoting only myself instead of myself and other DJs. Maybe I just use this one to throw up Craigslist ads and see if I get any bookings from those $5 ads? I don't know, but this free website could be an additional money generator for me.

Mix, This website editor even fills in pre written text that you can use. You technically don't even have to write up a bio about yourself, and you can even use stock photos to get going! www.wix.com

 
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Mix, you have a laptop with internet, right? You can create a website, and have a free one published and running in under 2 hours at WIX.COM.

I decided to make one last night. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to make this one while I was also watching TV last night so I wasn't 100% focused on it. FREE WEBSITE, AND TASO WILL PROBABLY LOOK AT IT AND SAY IT IS BETTER THAN MY CURRENT WEBSITE! LMAO

I will say that the WIX editor seems to be sleeker with easier, more modern features compared to Go Daddy.

I just spent another 20 minutes just now making the descriptions in the packages look neat, informative, and hopefully error free. I might just use this free site in the future to promote myself for directly booking me instead of utilizing my business website. Maybe this is my outlet for promoting only myself instead of myself and other DJs. Maybe I just use this one to throw up Craigslist ads and see if I get any bookings from those $5 ads? I don't know, but this free website could be an additional money generator for me.

Mix, This website editor even fills in pre written text that you can use. You technically don't even have to write up a bio about yourself, and you can even use stock photos to get going! www.wix.com

It does need some touching up and a step away from some of those generic images, but yes, it actually is better lol
 
Specific prices on DJs will vary widely...$400 for an experienced wedding DJ here isn't hard to find. WOM mostly, they don't advertise, are all part time. Doesn't mean they're bad. They're happy at that price. If they want to go to 600 and they'll get a referral that will be "but bob says you did his wedding for $400" - or they'll think it at least.

This is only partly true. I have ran into this situation in the past. One customer mentioned I had quoted her $200 higher than her friend whose wedding I did a few years back, BUT She did realize that her friend's wedding was almost 3 years in the past. Obviously, prices can change a bit in 3 years time. She still booked me!

Now charging people different rates for the same local area, and inside of the same year, and yeah, I suppose that could be a problem for a DJ. Which is why having set prices makes it easy. One thing a DJ can do is "discount" their price by running a special, and then that is a legitimate reason for there being a difference, BUT it only works if the price is lower for the prospect than it was for their friend lol.

Now if the venue is like 80 miles away, and their friend's venue was right near your house, then you have a legitimate reason for charging higher as well...but same area, same year, same hours...gonna be tough to legitimize a price hike! ...And even if it's 1 year later...a big price hike is going to be tough to explain. A small price increase will be reasonable to the client, but not 20%+
 
Specific prices on DJs will vary widely...$400 for an experienced wedding DJ here isn't hard to find. WOM mostly, they don't advertise, are all part time. Doesn't mean they're bad. They're happy at that price. If they want to go to 600 and they'll get a referral that will be "but bob says you did his wedding for $400" - or they'll think it at least.

I've only run into this a few times.
If it's been more than a year since Bob's wedding, you can blame it on a cost of living increase.
But there are a bunch of ways to rationalize a higher price.
Especially if it's not an apples-tp-apples comparison....
when it comes to travel time, hours needed, ceremony system, venue, etc.


If they saw me at a friend's wedding, I will usually offer the same price to start with.
"Since you're a friend of Bob...I'll give you the "friends and family" discount!"
 
Mix, you have a laptop with internet, right? You can create a website, and have a free one published and running in under 2 hours at WIX.COM.

I decided to make one last night. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to make this one while I was also watching TV last night so I wasn't 100% focused on it. FREE WEBSITE, AND TASO WILL PROBABLY LOOK AT IT AND SAY IT IS BETTER THAN MY CURRENT WEBSITE! LMAO

I will say that the WIX editor seems to be sleeker with easier, more modern features compared to Go Daddy.

I just spent another 20 minutes just now making the descriptions in the packages look neat, informative, and hopefully error free. I might just use this free site in the future to promote myself for directly booking me instead of utilizing my business website. Maybe this is my outlet for promoting only myself instead of myself and other DJs. Maybe I just use this one to throw up Craigslist ads and see if I get any bookings from those $5 ads? I don't know, but this free website could be an additional money generator for me.

Mix, This website editor even fills in pre written text that you can use. You technically don't even have to write up a bio about yourself, and you can even use stock photos to get going! www.wix.com

Again I'm not a computer wiz. I have one on Wix and is still in the beginning stage.
 
Again I'm not a computer wiz. I have one on Wix and is still in the beginning stage.

You just have to sit down and take your time to familiarize yourself with features of the editor. It's super easy to use. Or, when was the last time you signed in? They now have an even easier way of building you a website where they ask you questions, and you pick a theme, and it starts one up for you. It isn't hard at all. Jus takes time actually putting it together then you get to a point to where you can just hit the publish button, and in a few seconds it's live.