Is December an "In Season" or "Off Season" Month for you as a DJ?

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Do you consider December an "In Season Month" or an "Off Season" Month?

  • December is an Off Season Month

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • December is still an In Season Month

    Votes: 3 33.3%
  • Definitely Off Season for Weddings, but still a Busy month for Parties imo

    Votes: 6 66.7%

  • Total voters
    9

DJ Ricky B

DJ Extraordinaire
Mar 9, 2015
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Do you consider December a good month for making money as a DJ looking at your calendar for December right now? Or is it a weak sauce month?
 
December and early January used to be sort of a season all their own. I’m out of business now, but I never sent out any notifications to my former customers. Yet I have not been contacted about any of the corporate holiday parties I used to be contacted about. I also had a Halloween Party I did several years in a row, and that one has not happened in the last two years. I have not heard from them about this year. I have had a couple of calls from politicians I’ve worked for about potential political rallies, and I told them I’m out of the biz.😊
 
It's spotty, but can be a good month. I went back and looked... in 2018 I did 8 events personally in December (4 weddings, 3 nightlife, 1 holiday party). 2019 was half that with 2 weddings and 2 nightlife events - but I also had one of those Saturday's blocked off for the CFA exam.

This year I have 2 booked in December right now.

1-2 weddings would be my expectation, but any more than that and I feel like I'm playing with house money.
 
It usually isn't good for us because things are unsure what the weather might be like. there might be a major snow storm making it difficult or iimpossible to drive to do an event. So it's an up in the air month for us.
 
So far I've got four weddings, and zero holiday parties. I know those will happen if enough companies get people back into the offices by the fall. I'd say it's still a busy-season month. My only "off season" month now seems to be February. March is the month of charity fundraisers, and by April we're back to weddings.
 
December used to be 4 gigs a week plus NYE but the last 10 years it's dropped off to a trickle I'm lucky to get 5 or 6 in the month
 
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December used to be 4 gigs a week plus NYE but the last 10 years it's dropped off to a trickle I'm lucky to get 5 or 6 in the month


It use to be an amazing month. 2008/2009 dropped like 40% because of the recession, but it came back in 2010 except there wasn't really anything on weekdays any more. So then it continued to be good through 2016. Then in 2017 it slowed down. It slowed down more each year since. 2019 was real slow with 2 events. 2020 was Dead because of Covid. This year I have not had a single inquiry for December. My brother has a wedding in December though. My sister has 1 event as well.
 
Are we talking weddings or regular events. For weddings I no longer consider December an off season month. It used to be up till 2017 but then it really started filling up. It seems as if people are taking chances as we haven’t really had bad weather during December.

It can be for weddings or parties, or just in general. It sounds like it is a busy month for you in terms of weddings now.
 
It can be for weddings or parties, or just in general. It sounds like it is a busy month for you in terms of weddings now.
Yeah weddings are taking the chance of good weather in hopes of incredible pricing. Can be as much as 50% off if you choose a winter Sunday. However smaller events and holiday parties just never made it back to what they once were.
 
Yeah weddings are taking the chance of good weather in hopes of incredible pricing. Can be as much as 50% off if you choose a winter Sunday. However smaller events and holiday parties just never made it back to what they once were.

I took the Sunday discount down on my website. I was offering a 15% discount.

I think I may still offer the discount for customers who contact me for a Sunday, but honestly, I only had a single Sunday inquiry in the last 12 months, and they booked! lol

I am debating if I should have a separate Sunday price for weddings, and advertise it on the site, or just advertise a "Sunday Discount", or don't do anything for Sundays at all since leads for Sundays seem very rare for me.
 
I took the Sunday discount down on my website. I was offering a 15% discount.

I think I may still offer the discount for customers who contact me for a Sunday, but honestly, I only had a single Sunday inquiry in the last 12 months, and they booked! lol

I am debating if I should have a separate Sunday price for weddings, and advertise it on the site, or just advertise a "Sunday Discount", or don't do anything for Sundays at all since leads for Sundays seem very rare for me.
Idk if it’s a market thing, but sundays are big here. Perhaps bigger than fridays.
 
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Idk if it’s a market thing, but sundays are big here. Perhaps bigger than fridays.

I think a market thing. The slower venues don't even hardly book anything on Sundays. Most of the hotels will end up booking a Breakfast for the wedding party/guests after the Saturday night wedding.

The wedding Factory venues will book their Sundays though...at least most of the Sundays during wedding season.

Now that I am working 40 hrs Mon thru Friday I have no intention of booking Fridays. Plus the traffic is way too bad. a Friday event takes my whole day because they are usually 60+ miles away too. I will throw any Friday events at my bro or sis moving forward.

I did just actually get a Thursday wedding lead in though. It's at a wedding factory type of venue on the water. It's not really what I would consider a wedding factory. They are set up like one, but I don't think they are THAT busy. Last time I spoke with the Owner, they were doing about 60 weddings a year, that was in 2017.
 
I took the Sunday discount down on my website. I was offering a 15% discount.

I think I may still offer the discount for customers who contact me for a Sunday, but honestly, I only had a single Sunday inquiry in the last 12 months, and they booked! lol

I am debating if I should have a separate Sunday price for weddings, and advertise it on the site, or just advertise a "Sunday Discount", or don't do anything for Sundays at all since leads for Sundays seem very rare for me.

I have stopped discounting for anything on a weekend. Mid-week I might still entertain something less, but not for a weekend anymore.
 
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I have stopped discounting for anything on a weekend. Mid-week I might still entertain something less, but not for a weekend anymore.

Yeah, now that I am back to working full time, I kinda have the same mind set. Why should I offer any discount at all to get bookings for a Sunday if I already earn enough from my week day job, and don't really NEED to book so many events to make a liveable income?

If I had no job, My mindset would be reverse like it was just 2 months ago! lol
 
If I had no job, My mindset would be reverse like it was just 2 months ago! lol

That's the important thing about an abundance mentality. I understand why you do, but you value your time very differently when you don't feel like you need the money. You should aspire to always place value on your time in a similar way.

I suspect you devalue your own time way before any price sensitive shopper does. Try to always sell like you don't need the money and it will probably change your outcomes drastically.
 
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I don't think December is slower, although it has been before,. I generally make less money as I have a vastly different rate for weddings and don't do as many during December compared to summer.
 
I think a market thing. The slower venues don't even hardly book anything on Sundays. Most of the hotels will end up booking a Breakfast for the wedding party/guests after the Saturday night wedding.

The wedding Factory venues will book their Sundays though...at least most of the Sundays during wedding season.

Now that I am working 40 hrs Mon thru Friday I have no intention of booking Fridays. Plus the traffic is way too bad. a Friday event takes my whole day because they are usually 60+ miles away too. I will throw any Friday events at my bro or sis moving forward.

I did just actually get a Thursday wedding lead in though. It's at a wedding factory type of venue on the water. It's not really what I would consider a wedding factory. They are set up like one, but I don't think they are THAT busy. Last time I spoke with the Owner, they were doing about 60 weddings a year, that was in 2017.
If they want to book you, would you take it?