A few pro's and con's of hiring someone like me as your DJ when the venue has a resident on offer.
Like many DJs I started off working for multi-ops (companies who have many DJs on the books and take a cut of the fee) because they had a lot of jobs that need cover and were always on the look out for DJs who could do a cheap but cheerful job.
There were a few things that never sat right with me doing this kind of work which is why I feel qualified to write this blog post and it drove me to become an independent DJ working from my own diary.
So onto the pro's and con's:
Price
You will most often find the venues DJ cheaper but believe me what they charge you is often not what the DJ receives. Its 50/50 if a venue has a "contract" with one DJ who is there all the time, or a multi-op provider who sends any DJ they have available. You might think your paying a good fee for the DJ to be included but all to often there are one or two cuts coming from that either for the venue as admin or the multi-op.
While you may pay more for an independent DJ it often more than worth it for some of the reasons below.
Contact
So if there are 2 or 3 people in the chain of information there is an increased chance for errors to occur or messages to be lost. Deal with me alone and your contacts are logged and I can look back through them at any time. I can ask you questions directly and you can speak to me directly. Venues often stop you speaking direct to their DJs especially if they don't know who is coming to do the job that night.
Direct communication allows me to be better prepared and minimises mistakes and provide an all round better service.
Access
Similar to contact my clients get access to me as a resource and access to my planning system so they can be part of the booking journey. I am a wedding expert and have done over 1000 bookings (400 of them weddings). Imagine the insight I have about what works well, what doesn't, how things work etc.
I can help with suppliers (suggesting and speaking to them before the event), arranging announcements on the night, adding in spotlight moments.
Equipment
While I can say this is a 100% guarantee I can say that my setup if "far" better than any setup I used provided by a hotel or multi-op. I must have worked for over a dozen different suppliers when cutting my teeth and some of the setups were barely serviceable. In some cases I had to use my own equipment which is how I started to improve my setup. All of the niggles that made doing the job harder I learned from.
I've been asked to feature my current setup in Pro-Mobile magazine twice so if its good enough to be in a national DJ magazine be certain its will do the job at your wedding.
Familiarity
Yes the venues own DJ probably knows the venue better, the staff better and is far more comfortable in this surrounding. Again this only goes for the same DJ doing the same venue and not multi-ops dropping off a rig and sending any Tom, Dick or Harry to DJ.
But... Familiarity can breed both laziness and comfort. I know guys who turn up on the dot for these jobs ready to go. I am always setup early to test and soundcheck. These guys often have zero backup in place. I have loads of spares in the van and other ways to make sure the show goes on. Working at the same venue constantly can become its own problem.
Want to chat more about the difference, drop me a message.
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