It’s an inevitable truth that the logistic of clubs/festivals is mostly around the financial side of the business. If they are not profitable, they will fail. It’s as simple as that. The same thing is true about your DJing career. If you want to survive and make a career as a DJ, you need to start taking a better look at how much to charge for your DJing services. Here are 5 tips to help you with that:
Tip#1 - The price you charge says a lot about you and your brand
Before you decide to charge $50 per gig, think about this: What will people perceive about my services/brand based on this price? Not quite a lot, right? Perception is the reality in the mind of our customers. So, always try to charge as much as you can, of course being reasonable. Add value for your brand constantly. If you have no idea on how much to charge, do a little research and find out how much other DJs, that are in the same position as you are right now in your career, are charging. It will give you a good idea to decide the price for your services.
Tip#2 - Have a pricing policy
It’s always good to have a standard price that you charge for your services. First, it gives you a better sense of when to accept/deny offers. Furthermore, it helps you avoid playing at gigs for free. Sometimes it’s better not to play at a gig than playing it for free or for a very small “fee”. There are exceptions of course, for example, if you are offered to play at Ultra Music Festival for a small fee (or even for free), it’s definitely a good deal because of the exposure that the festival brings.
*Make sure to include any extra expenses such as hotel, travel costs, etc to the final price you send to the contractor.
Tip#3 - Charging less DOESN'T mean NOT giving your best
If you are just beginning your career, you are most likely not in a position to charge a lot for your services. The reason being that you haven’t created enough value for your brand to justify charging a lot. However, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn't deliver your best work at all times. If you don’t, you risk ruining your reputation and this is something almost impossible to recover once it’s ruined. So, always deliver your best work, do activities to increase the value of your brand, and it will be just a matter of time till you start charging more money for your services.
Tip#4 - Whenever possible, ask to get your $ beforehand
It’s always good to have a contract signed between you and the other party. There are a couple of reasons for this:
A) You don’t want to be inconvenient asking for your money while the party is still going on or waiting after the party to get it
B) It diminishes the risk that the contractor will not pay your money if they didn’t profit that night
C) You will still get your money, or at least part of it, even if the event is canceled for some reason
Tip#5 - Use common sense when increasing the price for your services
It will come a time when you will need/want to increase the price you charge for your gigs. But, make sure that you are not charging what Calvin Harris charges if you cannot deliver what he does ;) In the end, for the person/club hiring your services it’s all about the Return on Investment. So, make sure that you factor ROI, current brand value, and other factors when deciding by how much you should increase the price you charge for your gigs.
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