That's why you can get, NEED to get $2000 to DJ an event.
Chicken or egg to some degree.
The cheap chinese batt uplight I bought, to have 40, would require $4000 investemnt.
How much for your moving heads?
And truss?
And labor cost to set up/tear down? Wedding venues here expect you out in 30-60 minutes. So labor cost?
As I said in the other thread, my prices are lower by a lot, my profit though, maybe not.
Well, it certainly was a risk, but I didn't start with what I have now. I started with something more basic such as 2 cheap $500 moving heads with 2 trusses and 8 wireless uplights... just to gauge the interest and up my appearance. I didn't really charge much for it, and practically included it, but I did raise my overall price to kind of balance the investment. This was MANY years ago, so an increase in price was from like $800 to $850 or $900. Once I saw how well the newer lighting and look was received vs my older scanner lighting on a tbar, it was an easy decision to invest in better.
In 2012 I made the big upgrades... I bought 40 uplights for around $8000 at the time, and Elation moving heads for $2000 each (4 to start), plus additional trussing... so about $16k. However by then I also had significantly raised my starting price to justify the investment... and lighting was now a la carte at $200 per 2 heads and $500 for uplighting.... Now I charge $450 for the first 2 heads and $800 for uplighting.
No additional labor costs needed... I always brought 1 assistant, and for any of my lighting productions (whether 2 heads only or 6 heads with uplighting), that 1 assistant and I is all that is needed to get out in 60 minutes. I require in my contract 1 hr minimum for breakdown or an additional assistant will be required at the clients expense. Never has happened.
So in my case, while I had a $16k investment... the event costs didn't increase. However, my revenues did directly as a result of this. For 2021 alone... my proceeds from lighting are as follows (I conservatively assume I gave each client a 25% discount on the lighting through as a result of bundled packaging)
- Uplighting - 21 events for a revenue of $12,600.
- 2 Moving Heads added at 25 Events for a revenue of around $8000
- 4 Moving Heads added at 10 Events for an estimated $1500
So this year alone, lighting brought me an extra $22,000... with no added expenses.
In 2019 for reference, which was my best year and did 70 events... 46 parties had uplighting, 38 parties had 2 moving heads, 24 parties had 4 Moving heads (I did more sweet 16's then than I do now). Even with lower pricing then for lighting... I can easily say that my $15k investment brought me a return of well over $30k.
The only expense has been the replacement of uplights over time (maybe 1/3 have been replaced) but they're cheaper now at under $150 each... so say $4000 there... and some bulbs for the moving heads... so say $500 for that.