Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[eric lenasbunt]

I don't know when it will happen, but I'm hoping clients will start to find me as I get more networking going

If you are growing organically like I know you are then prepare for what is likely a long slog. I was in business for about 7 years while still maintaining my day job and balancing a million other things. People need to get to know you and trust you and the only way I know how to do that is by being out there doing gigs. It takes time, successes, failures and most of all relationships. The VAST majority of our business is repeat and referral. We get new clients, but not many at a time. However, we focus hard on keeping the good ones. So typically we are only adding clients, not losing them.
I'll be honest with you, there are far more $800-1200 gigs than $1500-2500 gigs in my experience. You do you and decide what makes sense, but I have found increased volume with leaner and more efficient systems was better than holding out for the slightly better payday.  I am fortunate, I know what my market will bare. However we have consistently charged slightly above the existing low market rates and we consistently get it because we are flat out better than the cheaper options. People who want quality will pay a little more. People who just want lowest price won't but they also don't last as clients.

I like the analogy of trying to be Target not Walmart. But here in Florida unless you are in South Florida or directly in a resort area situation you cannot be higher end than Target, the market just won't pay for it.

And Nathan, feel free to hit me up if you ever want me to look at pricing and give you my opinion, I'm guessing our markets are relatively close in pricing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nathan Riddle]

If you are growing organically like I know you are then prepare for what is likely a long slog. I was in business for about 7 years while still maintaining my day job and balancing a million other things. People need to get to know you and trust you and the only way I know how to do that is by being out there doing gigs. It takes time, successes, failures and most of all relationships. The VAST majority of our business is repeat and referral. We get new clients, but not many at a time. However, we focus hard on keeping the good ones. So typically we are only adding clients, not losing them.
I'll be honest with you, there are far more $800-1200 gigs than $1500-2500 gigs in my experience. You do you and decide what makes sense, but I have found increased volume with leaner and more efficient systems was better than holding out for the slightly better payday.  I am fortunate, I know what my market will bare. However we have consistently charged slightly above the existing low market rates and we consistently get it because we are flat out better than the cheaper options. People who want quality will pay a little more. People who just want lowest price won't but they also don't last as clients.

I like the analogy of trying to be Target not Walmart. But here in Florida unless you are in South Florida or directly in a resort area situation you cannot be higher end than Target, the market just won't pay for it.

And Nathan, feel free to hit me up if you ever want me to look at pricing and give you my opinion, I'm guessing our markets are relatively close in pricing.

Thanks Eric! I'll take you up on that offer

I've been around for 5ish year as now. But really only hitting it hard for the last two.

Honestly I think I'm re-evaluating the live-events and would rather focus on installs for churches in my area. Not that I won't do live-events, but I enjoy installs much more.

I came across this today. I felt like it was good, I'm thinking/brainstorming ideas of how to effectively market my difference instead of a boring line-item quote.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/industry_perspective_marketingwhat_marketing/

[Nathan Riddle]

And Nathan, feel free to hit me up if you ever want me to look at pricing and give you my opinion, I'm guessing our markets are relatively close in pricing.

Thanks Eric!

Glad to hear my labor is good to go that makes things easier.

So I'm anywhere from 10-30% off for FL market. No biggie, I can change rates and send crews out to events I don't have the time nor want to run myself.

I had one of my guys call the gal up and chat with her (she hadn't gotten back to me and one of her events already occurred) and It basically came down to I'm too expensive. Duh, I figured; where's the wheel and deal people calling up asking for a better price? I guess I need to set my pricing accordingly since people don't want deals? (can I blame my generation? haha)

I'm going back over my numbers. I'm thinking about updating them and sending an email out to all my clients saying 'RATE CHANGE' or something to that effect. What are y'alls thoughts on advertising in that way?

[Ray Aberle]

"Rate Change" translates to "We're gonna take more of your money."

try something involving the added value you're delivering. "We've got a new plan where we are increasing our effectiveness- starting right away, we're going to have on call backups on staff every weekend, to ensure that your event ALWAYS HAPPENS. Now, this is costing us a bit more, but we feel it's worth it to deliver those warm-and-fuzzy feelings every time."

-Ray

[Nathan Riddle]

"Rate Change" translates to "We're gonna take more of your money."

try something involving the added value you're delivering. "We've got a new plan where we are increasing our effectiveness- starting right away, we're going to have on call backups on staff every weekend, to ensure that your event ALWAYS HAPPENS. Now, this is costing us a bit more, but we feel it's worth it to deliver those warm-and-fuzzy feelings every time."

-Ray

Hmm, yes, good point. What I mean is the rate is going down for the price of gear on gigs.

Apparently my numbers were a bit high: (typical rate = cost of item / 10 rentals) [should be closer to 12-15 rentals]

Dry rentals will still be a bit (10%) more I would imagine...?

[James Feenstra]

Hmm, yes, good point. What I mean is the rate is going down for the price of gear on gigs.

if your clients are happy paying the price they're paying, there's no reason to reduce the price to current clients provided they're satisfied with the service. You're just shooting yourself in the foot by doing that.

Apparently my numbers were a bit high: (typical rate = cost of item / 10 rentals) [should be closer to 12-15 rentals]

Dry rentals will still be a bit (10%) more I would imagine...?

Dry rentals are generally cheaper than full show rentals, as there's less associated overhead (ie. only shop labour vs shop labor, client meetings, drawings, time booking staff, payroll processing for show staff, and other things that aren't necessarily billed directly to the client), and even less if they're rentals to a 'competing' company

[Nathan Riddle]

if your clients are happy paying the price they're paying, there's no reason to reduce the price to current clients provided they're satisfied with the service. You're just shooting yourself in the foot by doing that.

You make a good point. And really that's how I should do things to stay 'business minded'.

At this juncture in my business though I feel that I need to make things 'easy' on myself. I'd rather just have one price for all that people can reference and be happy with.

Also, my main clients that I would be reducing my rates for are already getting a discount to get the gig so I would call it a wash. It would really only change for my 'new' clients but to my old clients it would 'look' like they are getting a better deal.

Dry rentals are generally cheaper than full show rentals, as there's less associated overhead (ie. only shop labour vs shop labor, client meetings, drawings, time booking staff, payroll processing for show staff, and other things that aren't necessarily billed directly to the client), and even less if they're rentals to a 'competing' company

I didn't think of it that way. I was thinking, 'you're renting less so you get to pay more' than a 'package' that consists of labor & gear rental.

And yeah I do 50% for cross-rentals. No real reason for that number, just chose it. I doubt other companies are giving me that large of a cut, but such is life.


Along the crew rates thoughts I stumbled upon this:
https://www.lasso.io/2017-crew-pay-rate-survey-report

[eric lenasbunt]

My point Nathan about being about 10-15% or so high was speaking about how you felt like you were losing gigs due to being overpriced.
One thing unnoticed too is you had things like truss and lifts priced pretty high. That is the type of thing that would typically be a pretty low cost in my book, as it is needed to make the system work. That's some of the advantage of booking a whole system, you are not paying full retail rate for every item.
Also, I have found sound gear rents more like 5-7% of purchase price, 10% is a little high in the Florida market unless its more of a specialty item.

[Ray Aberle]

Well, he could be like me... I have posted price lists, for individual items but if you ask for a full show production quote, then a lot of those things are going to combine into packages. If someone wants to dry hire something specific, yeah, I want to get something reasonable for the rental rate, but if they're using us for a full event, then we're going to be more flexible on pricing.

-Ray

[James Feenstra]

Well, he could be like me... I have posted price lists, for individual items but if you ask for a full show production quote, then a lot of those things are going to combine into packages. If someone wants to dry hire something specific, yeah, I want to get something reasonable for the rental rate, but if they're using us for a full event, then we're going to be more flexible on pricing.

-Ray

precisely.

If someone calls me up asking to rent a bunch of cable, for example, it's going to billed out much higher than it would be if they were calling to do a whole show with me.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't add a charge for cable to a show where they're also renting speakers, amps, lights, etc, because that's part of what's required for things to work.

[ProSoundWeb Community]