Pick your price

[PastMember]

I think you're not charging enough for your parties. Most of us do the bar scene because it pays the monthly bills... it certainly won't allow you to retire on the income it generates.

Our private party rates are basically triple what we charge in a club and here's why:

[A] You're usually expected to be a fully skilled disc jockey as well as a karaoke host. (how much would it cost them to hire a disc jockey seperately?)

[b] You have a substantially greater investment in your gear and music than a regular DJ.

[C] Private parties can be MUCH more difficult than a club... (sometimes they're easier, but not often) and most often than not you have to "be the entertainment" for good portion of the evening.

As far as negotiating a price, we have a set price for standard parties as well as corporate, weddings... etc. We keep those as standards and analyze them once a year. We will often run up against the "Monty Halls" that want to "make a deal" on price and we don't budge on the basic rate of $475.00. Do we lose some of these? You bet. But those are jobs we will leave to the discounters without much worry. We have 4 units that we use for private parties and this year we will top the 200 mark.

We make every attempt at soliciting the accounts that aren't as much concerned over price as they are about entertainment. Since this is for the most part, a "referral business", generating referrals from these accounts only works to our advantage.

When we get a "deal maker wannabe" we explain to them that it's the same amount of set up and tear down wherther we're there for 1 hour or 4 hours. We refuse to run a karaoke like a taxi meter.