Our company has been providing karaoke services for about 12 years. We have been told we are the best in the city / area and from our research with the competition it appears that we are. (We think we are
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I'm wondering about a couple of things:
First of all we haven't raised our prices much within the past few years. My partner seems to think he knows exactly what our market can bear, but I honestly think we are undercharging and that it is doing ourselves and other companies a disservice by not charging enough. However, most all of our gigs are regular bars and have been lasting for years (our longest was 9 years)!
For example (now keep in mind that we are in Toronto, Canada); an average price for karaoke in a bar mid to end week nights is about $200.00 - $250.00 (Cdn$) -- at least that's what we're charging. Private parties haven't been much more than that ($50-$100 more as long as DJ services aren't added -- which is also part of our business).
Secondly, how is it that the cost of living and everything else goes up, but entertainers and entertainment companies aren't getting a raise? Also, our hosts get paid $100 for setup, hosting and teardown. That doesn't leave much left over, considering our expenses.
My partner makes some very good points about the market, etc., but I still feel we should be making more money. I've noticed some people in this forum talking about price and considering the US/CDN exchange, some of you are doing very, very well!
We pride ourselves in having new and current music (new songs every month), the biggest song selection in the city (about 6,000 + songs) and a professional sound system with experienced hosts who have been trained by a musician / sound engineer. We have a great following of karaoke regulars and My partner always makes sure the bar is making money. Quite frankly, it doen't matter how good the show is, the bar has to make money to make it worth their while. My partner is very good about communicating with bar owners about their sales for the night or customer issues --that sort of thing, because knowing the "bottom line" is important in any business, and as a business man he wants to make sure bar owners are prospering too!
I guess I just want to get a feel for what people in this forum think and if there are any ideas how we can get more money for what we do or if our prices sound about right (which may be hard to judge, being in Canada might be a very different market). Some people don't care how good you are as long as they get the most for the least money. For that reason, in fact there are a lot of bars we won't do. Some karaoke companies are charging only $100 or $150 a night!
Any feedback?