From DJWiki

Once you begin distributing cards and advertising your business, it won’t be long before your phone will start ringing. While you may not be able to turn every call into a booking, your sales technique will improve with practice. Before long you’ll find your able to lock in a high percentage of callers.

On Location Advertising

As you gain experience, you’ll soon find that each job you play yields two or three referrals. As long as you are consistent, reliable and put on an excellent show, your bookings calender will continue to fill. At the same time, competing DJ services that sit back and rest on their reputations will find that many of their bookings are being sucked up by new, more aggressive operators, like yourself. In the long run, it’s the customer who benefits, because the cream will rise to the top. Those who market the best will attract the best DJs, thereby establishing the best reputation. This, in turn, brings more bookings, which makes more money available for marketing and equipment. It’s a continuous, positive growth cycle. No business ever stays the same year after year, it’s either spiralling up or sliding down. Make good marketing decisions, hire the best people, train them well, pay attention to the details and, above all, make customer satisfaction your top priority and your business will soon surpass all your competition.

If you are just starting out, get your feet wet by volunteering to play a few dances for friends or charities. As they say in auto racing, “Get in your laps.” Get the feel of what it’s like to be the center of attention in a room full of people. Do it and keep doing it until it gets easier. Overcome the initial uneasiness of being in front of people by getting out from behind your table. Put yourself in the crowd, be a part of the party. Find out what tunes are the hot motivators in your particular region. Make an honest effort to play what they request and your name will spread fast.

If you are not performing, or preparing for a performance, then be promoting. When you have tried all the ideas in this book, come up with a few unique ideas of your own. Each day, more and more people are discovering the advantages of hiring DJ entertainment. As this market grows, so will the number of Mobile DJs. Increased competition forces us to work harder and market smarter in order to get the biggest share of the bookings.

New Opportunities

With an abundance of DJs serving the basic wedding and private party market, many mobiles have begun to explore new entertainment options to offer their clients. Here are a few examples:

Mobile Nightclubs are the next logical step for DJs who want to offer an overwhelming on-location entertainment extravaganza. These shows use a carefully designed combination of sound, lights, lasers, video and effects. Much of the show is pre-programmed in advance. They are more expensive than a regular Mobile DJ. Raves (Rave parties) are an underground offshoot of this concept. Karaoke (ker-ray-o-kay) Sing-Along is an attraction that puts the audience members in the spotlight. It gives them an opportunity to come on stage and sing their favorite songs aided by TV monitors scrolling the lyrics. Some Karaoke systems include custom videos to match the lyrics, so the audience has something to watch if they don’t want to watch the singer. Others allow the operator video mix capabilities so the on-stage singer can be put on the monitor with the lyrics. New, compact Karaoke systems have made offering this entertainment concept a natural for Mobile DJs.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) makes it possible for a musician to use a keyboard, or other electronic instrument, with a home computer. Using MIDI, the musician can preprogram specific tracks of an arrangement, such as lead, rhythm and percussion, into the computer. On location, the musician adds live voice (either his or her own or a separate vocalist) and plays the one part of the arrangement. The rest of the accompaniment is recreated by the computer. A single musician who understands MIDI can create the illusion that the stage is full of live instrumentalists. In the future, MIDI will allow DJ/musicians to perform a show that’s part recorded and part live.

Interactive attractions such as Velcro walls, robotic boxing, foam parties, Sumo wrestling, and face painting have become a standard part of the menu for many DJ service operators. By packaging these attractions with their standard sound and light show, they can greatly up-sell clients. Large corporations, in particular, have found favor with DJs that can offer more than just music. While some operators may offer one or two of these attractions as an option, others have been successful producing full-fledged events from casino nights to summer carnivals.

The Complete Party Service is another concept that elevates a DJ service operator to a position of being a true entrepreneur. Along with providing DJs, these services take care of everything from getting the invitations printed, to cleaning up after the event. Through contacts with printers, caterers, limo services, entertainers, photographers, videographers, bridal consultants, florists, tux shops, party halls and other related businesses, a Complete Party Service will take care of 100% of the details of planning the event. The client need only show up, enjoy the party, and, of course, pay the bill.

Meet Your “Party Host”

Changes in technology combined with client demand have lifted the job of being a Mobile DJ to an exciting new level. Many DJs routinely include audience participation activities such as games and dance instruction as part of their shows. They have moved from being DJs to become party hosts. Advancements in technology have made it possible for a DJ to carry a complete music library on a computer hard drive. Through the use of wireless mics and remote controls, they can run their show from anywhere on the dancefloor.

It is now conceivable and possible for a DJ to bring only a laptop computer, amplifier and speakers to a job. Once at the scene, he simply sets up his speakers and amp and dials into the music bank. Online, he simply tells the computer what to mix and how to mix it.

Through the use of “transition codes,” the party host selects a series of tunes, and tells the computer how he wants the songs mixed. For example, with the proper code, he can program the computer to lay the beat of one song over another, hold it for ten seconds, then gradually fade the first one out. As the Party Host is not limited to just two, three or four music sources, he can create custom remixes, complete with digital effects, during his live performance.

Predicting what the DJ profession will be like ten or twenty years, in the new millennium is anybody’s guess. Through the use of digital electronics, the sound quality of today’s lightweight, compact systems is nothing short of astonishing. The trend is toward smaller, lighter and more powerful. For DJs who like the feel of an actual DJ mixer, computerized mixers with touch-sensitive faders will be the norm. Others will mix using touch-sensitive screens and keyboard commands. On the performance side, clients will grow to expect DJs to interact with their guests, at least to some degree.

If you were to travel by time machine to a DJ performance just ten or twenty years in the future, you may be totally surprised.

Technology is traveling at light speed. Everything new in electronics, be it sound, light, video or computers, has an impact on the mobile entertainment industry. What is your place in the future? Hopefully, through this book, you have gained a superior knowledge not only of the Mobile DJ business but of all that’s out there for you to achieve if you just set your mind to it. Good luck!