How To Become A Mobile DJ, Pt 4: Build Your Business The Modern Way

Quick recap…

Back in Part 1, we looked at the types of mobile DJ, before looking in Part 2 at a change in thinking that’s going to be necessary if you’re serious about running a successful part-time mobile DJ business. In Part 3 we showed how the “New Rules Of Business” have changed everything for mobile DJs, and here we’re going to look at how you’ll be applying these in setting up a “side hustle” mobile DJ business.

By the end of today’s lesson, you’ll have a much better idea of what’s required and what tools and ideas you’ll be using to help you get off to a great start in your “side hustle” mobile DJ business, easily earning $10,000 a year in extra cash for your DJing…

Applying the “new rules” to a mobile DJ business

We all know that digital has changed everything industry after industry. The only surprise was how long it took to arrive in DJing, and then in mobile DJing. But it has, and so the big secret here is that you need to be applying all the learnings of other industries playing and winning as digital businesses to your mobile DJ business.

For instance, here are just some of the new things that you can do now to launch and run a successful part-time mobile DJ business that simply weren’t possible a generation ago:

• Effectively conduct internet research on competitors – You can see how they present themselves, who their clients are, often what they charge, what their clients say about them, where they DJ, how they market themselves… just by looking them up on Wedding Wire or The Knot, you can glean all kinds of knowledge simply unavailable to you a generation ago
• Easily identify and market to your ideal clients – Using Instagram for Business and Facebook for Business, you can identify your ideal clients, and then dig deep into who they are and what they like, and even better, who they know, to help you with your marketing
• Get logo design, artwork, and branding created for you for just a few dollars – Using online marketplaces like Fiverr and 99designs, you can make your business look and feel up-to-date and relevant, for a fraction of  the cost of hiring a designer a generation back
• Have a professional, highly functional website that works 24/7 generating business for you – 100% gone are the days of hiring web designers. Modern website builder apps like Wix and WordPress let you drag and drop your way to a perfect website, charging tiny fees in comparison to web designers, and looking just as good
• Have all your “office” tools and documents online and in the cloud – Document storage, email, contact management, calendar, to-do lists… all can be managed in cheap, secure and flexible online services such as G Suite, Office 365 or Zoho. No more expensive office software, no more storing everything on your own, vulnerable hard drive
• Get all the music you need cheaply and easily – Using DJ-focused digital music services like BPM Supreme, DJcity and Promo Only, you can for a small monthly fee het access to easy-to-mix versions of all the tunes you’ll need, and all for a single, set fee
• Build a mindblowing mobile DJ set-up for a small fraction of what DJs paid a generation ago – Modern controllers, laptop software and audio visual equipment give big results for low prices. LED intelligent lighting linked directly to your music files, impressive 3D visuals (including branding and music videos) projected or shown on digital screens, amazing sounding speakers and decks that pack easily into a small car… never has impressive DJ gear been cheaper or smaller
• Use cheap online and point-of-sale checkouts – Run from your phone via an app, with services like iZettle, QuickBooks GoPayment and Flint, you can not only take money from clients via simple online checkouts that you configure, but also even swipe cards on a device attached to your phone
• Issue client contracts digitally, painlessly and cheaply – Today’s DJ CRM (“customer relationship mamagement”) systems like DJIntelligence, Releventful and DJ Event Planner offer a mind-boggling number of things, are simple to use, and charge just a small monthly subscription – just one of the things they can do is make the “contract” part of your relationships with your clients painless and smooth
• Have a “virtual assistant” paid by the hour to do the tasks that you don’t have time for – Smart mobile DJs are using “virtual assistant” brokerages, like Virtalent or Taskbullet to hire help by the hour, and work with people they may never see to do all types of small tasks that can help you grow your business, like marketing emails, follow up communications, copywriting and so on
• Run the lot from your phone and laptop – Sure having somewhere to sit down is nice, but think cafes, fro your workplace, your dining room table… anywhere you can get online and log in to your systems, you can run a mobile DJ business from!

I’m only just scratching the surface here. The overriding idea is to run your business so you look bigger than you are, and achieve more than other DJs, by using digital tools and insights as the WAY you run, not as just a PART of how you run.

THIS is how it is possible to find the right customers, do effective marketing, put on a great show, have awesome music, get tons of referrals – and still do it all part time, with you spending the majority of your time doing the things YOU want to do – which means, of course, playing music and filling dancefloors.

OK, but, but…

Now, I do understand that it is one thing to know all of this stuff, but quite another to know how to apply it. That’s why in the next article I want to share one final piece of info with you  that will help you if you’re thinking “damn, I really want to make a go of this!” but you’re wondering how the hell to get started.

It’s a worksheet called “Your First 90 Days”, that I’ve taken from our beginner mobile DJ training course, the New Mobile DJ Blueprint. In the next and final article,  I’ll talk you through the worksheet, and you’l be able to download it too. It’ll be a great way for you to plan the beginning of an awesome little moble DJ business of your own…

Click here to go to the fifth and final part of this series and get your handout

See you there!