Thank you, Sir.
John is correct. There is more to working for the man than a paycheck. Benefits are just as important as your weekly pay so take things like health insurance and saving for retirement into account. And you've got to account for taxes and the additional expenses of DJing full time, too.
Running a full time business is just that ~ when the sun rises you'd better be running. It's a lot of work and time vested. You can't say "no" just because you don't feel like working that day.
I've never sat down and run the numbers but I can say with certainty that there is no way we could go full time and continue to live in our home. We'd have to be hustling other services to even think about it. There are not enough well paying DJ gigs around here to keep us from living under a bridge.
Some have tried but few have succeeded. Beating yourself and your equipment to death for $150.00 bar gigs is not what I'd call a business plan. To keep busy, one would have to work dirt cheap. The bar business has gone to the dogs... ya can't smoke, ya can't have a drink and drive home. There ain't no money in it anymore.
This area is up to its neck in DJs. Many of 'em work cheap because they too work for the man. They're established in their venues.
One of our DJ buddies who went full time looked at our system and said he was glad he didn't haul all that gear around. I just smiled and said I was glad I didn't haul it to bars and work it all night for gas money.
I don't think he's full time anymore.