I Became a Low-Baller Today

[Jim Casey]

Well...
Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures. I haven't performed at a gig in 2006 yet (no bars, nuttin) so I got an email about a 4 hour wedding reception that is literally 1/2 mile from my office for March 3rd...

I talked with him and he had offers of $450 etc...

It's only 3 weeks away, I'm not going to book the date otherwise, and I am probably rusty right now with all my big money events ahead of me...

So I told him if he signed with me today, I would do it for $400 - no frills.

He signed, I took credit card payment.

$400 a 1/2 mile away didn't seem like too bad of a deal. Gotta take the bad with the good sometimes.

Trust me that was a hard pill to swallow.

.

[Cap]

Jim : Don't sweat it. When this is all you do, and your persihable products (dates on a calendar) are rotting away unused and unsold, leaving that amount of money on the table due to pride is downright dumb. Perhaps two people will see you there and book at normal fees.

[diskjokk]

Jim,

I'd like to echo what Cap just said. In this case, you have made $400 for a day you would have made $0 and you may end up getting more business from this event where you can then charge your normal fee.

Don't sweat it. It was the right thing to do.

[Wolfie]

I agree. I wouldn't necessarily call it lowballing, though. I'd call it good business sense. We all have to put food on the table.

Jim, $400.00 is still $400.00 more than you had before the show. Had you priced your service out of their budget range you wouldn't have a dime, let alone $400.00. And the B&G will have a true pro for their wedding. They'd have ended up with a second-rate service otherwise.

We'd all like to see our businesses prosper and grow. However with economic times the way they it's a wonder anyone is booking wedding DJs at all. All the wedding services have seen a drop in bookings... photogs, caterers etc. Despite the rosy economic picture being painted by them boys in Washington, many average American brides are working for peanuts at Mall-Mart. When the paycheck barely covers living expenses and you can't pay the heating bill, where the heck does $1200.00 for entertainment come from?

If it's any help, if we booked every prospect who called we'd be working most weekends. But we wouldn't be making any money because the price shoppers don't want to pay anything. We prefer to work smarter, not harder. That means a lot of weekends off.

Anyhoo, around these parts lowballers are the guys who can't say no. Often, they'll ask a caller what price ~Jim~ quoted. Then they offer to do it for less. They unleash the spiel about discounts, how great their service is etc. In essence, they let the customers run their businesses. Then they look at the calendar, realize they're already booked for the date and start working the phones trying to get some poor sod to take the gig for them. That's lowballing.

You're no lowballer, Jim. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

I hope it helps.

[djshy]

I agree with all that's been said. $400 is better than $0. While we are always talking about getting what we're worth, there is that odd time when you have to get whatever is available. We've all done it. I also agree with Wolfie's definition of a lowballer. That is definately not you.

On a side note, although I didn't get to respond, I did read through the emails about your recent decision on whether to keep this site up or let it go. I'm am very glad you stayed.

[djdonny]

A smart businessman adjusts according to circumstances. After a few years of DJing part-time at a $750 starting rate, I decided to take a year off from my full-time work to pursue other things, including completing an internship and post-grad degree. This made the DJ business my main source of income from Sep 2005 to Aug 2006. I had to quickly fill up dates for this year, and so I lowered my starting price to $500. It clearly worked, since 2006 is now already half full and I have almost $20K in A/R. Probably later this month, I'll be raising my rates back to $750 minimum, since I've already secured a steady income for the year.

[Art Dearing]

Jim...been there and done it likewise. Moved to NC and found that my base rate was higher than the high rate for this area...if there is a "high" rate. Anyhow, I had a Mother-to-Be call me about doing "her" Baby Shower last month? Has anyone done a Baby Shower Party/Dance? Well...this was d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t!

They were two weeks away and the "friend" DJ who was going to do the gig was "out of country" and the other DJ who was going to fill in had military relocation orders. Needless-to-say they were in dire straits.
I needed to get my name out there and quoted them $300 for 3-hr event. It was on a Saturday afternnon 1:00 - 4:00 pm, so it allowed for me to have the evening free. The price was too high! What? They were low ranking military enlisted couple. I'm retired military and certainly could identify with their financial situation. Parents of groom were from Philly and bride's parents from Raleigh, NC. I asked them what they intended to pay? $150.00. OK....I said that you couldn't let this out to anyone that I gave you this special rate. I offered to do the event for this amount only to get some recognition by those who would attend and the staff who run this community activity center. They wanted me to do the party because I advertised Latino music available. It turned out OK and the Latin music was a real hit with the family of the Groom and other "latin decent" guests. In reality, I probably played only 1.5 hours of music. The rest of the time it was "borrow the wireless" so the ladies who were MC-ing the "baby games" could make themselves heard.
The last 45 minutes was spent playing background music from their wedding CD and other appropriate easy listening music while they opened "baby" gifts.
I'll have to see how this turns out. The baby is going to be a girl and is due anytime now.
Should I send a baby gift?
Now for the kicker! At the end when I was backing up the Father-2-Be comes up with the balance of the money owed in CASH and hands it to me. And thanks me very graciously. I thanked him. As he was walking away I counted the money and to my surprise he had given me an extra $40, which I thought was very generous. So, I asked him to come back over. I said to him that this extra money was received with heartfelt gratitude. Obviously, he felt that the professional job that I did was not to be unnoticed. Of course, I had told him previously that my rate for just taking my equipment out the door was much higher than their asking price. Then his wife, the mother-to-be comes over and gives me a hug and says how much she appreciated my doing this party for her and that she will be telling everyone looking for a DJ to give me a call. I found out also that her military job was in scheduling events for the major activity center on the military installation. Many Units called her to schedule meeting space, audio and music for parties. Maybe this gig will bare fruit?

The short of the story is if there's money to be had and you wouldn't have had it otherwise, why not take the feed. Maybe a few dropped seeds will grow into major future events.

DJ Art