Wow! This is huge news! What led to that decision?
Is this part of your transition to a real estate license?
Yes and no... this was always in the works and I had expected by 35 to start phasing out of teen events. Covid allowed me to start the process one year earlier essentially. The reason for this is a multi part reason.
- Sweet 16's that I was doing are VERY time consuming and Labor intensive. Designing graphics, photo booth templates, step and repeat banners, tv graphics, montages, etc.... plus picking up dry ice or exchanging CO2 tanks... ALL for ONE party can be extremely demanding of one's time. Especially when the profit margin on each of the above items is around $200 avg. On top of that... a large production, which I am know for can require 4-5 assistants (another $1k+ in expenses). 3-4yrs ago when I was doing 25-35 sweet 16's a year, those 2nd and 3rd string assistants were still getting quite a bit of work from me... however with weddings overtaking my schedule and booking further out, I am not booking as many sweet 16's, and therefore it's hard to retain all these extra employees when you only need them for 3-4x a year now. Weddings I need 1 assistant 80% of the time... 2 people the remaining... never need more, as weddings don't tend to do the major tv's or production work that Sweet 16's do.
- Sweet 16's don't necessarily make more anymore. As I said above, they're very labor intensive, need investment in materials, and require lots of time. The avg Sweet 16 was around $700 more than the avg wedding. But between the materials needed, the extra labor involved and time dedicated... was it actually more profitable. As I've raised my minimums for weddings, the line is now blurred as to which one is more beneficial.
- In terms of benefits... being considered exclusively as a Luxury based Wedding dj has more prestige and appeal than "Wedding & Sweet 16 DJ". Sweet 16's just appear one step lower
- Finally... As I do try to take on more real estate business, and realizing the time that one needs to dedicate to be successful, I realize that Sweet 16's are counterproductive in that sense. Weddings, while more detailed and demanding emotionally, timewise they're not as demanding. I had a very successful first few months of the year in real estate and saw the time it involved.... and knew it wouldn't be possible if my schedule was all Sweet 16's.
This isn't to say I won't take Sweet 16's... but it's going to be more selective, working for clients that don't really require me to spend time selling myself. I've also removed some labor or time intensive items from Sweet 16 pricing such as the tv production so I can still do it with 1 or 2 assistants. While I had 20 Sweet 16's in 2019 compared to 30 Weddings... 2022 I expect around 35 weddings and 9 or 10 sweet 16's max.