Potential Customer

Over the weekend I conducted a short interview with a potential customer, from the Chicago land area, for a mobile DJ business. I learned several things about what customers look for when it comes to hiring a DJ.

Customer's want a quick and easy way to search for entertainment, whether it's for a wedding, corporate event, or a house party, they don't want to spend a lot of time searching for the perfect DJ. They would rather find a DJ that is reliable and highly recommended. Getting your name out to all types of customers is the best way to build up a solid reputation and making sure your name is easily accessible on the web.

A mobile DJ business needs to be able to offer more than just a DJ who plays music. Customers want to be entertained to the max. A good mobile DJ will be able to offer an MC, to keep the crowd entertained all night, a large selection of lights, to keep the dance floor from seeming dull, and a wide selection of music to make sure that everyone's requests can be filled no matter how young or old they may be.

Mobile DJ's need to offer different packages and price ranges for different types of events. A DJ company should be able to offer it's customers a choice. For example, a choice of having an MC or not having an MC. A choice for having lights or not having lights. A mobile DJ needs to offer packages that are able to fit all customers with wide price ranges. If a customer only wants a DJ to play some music at a family party, this would bring the price down significantly because this can be done with only one employee (the DJ). If a customer wants to have a large corporate event, they might want a DJ, MC, and lighting. This type of customer would also be willing to pay a lot more for this. Setting different price ranges and packages is a great way to attract customers of all types.

Overall, keeping your customers entertained all night, building a solid reputation, and spreading your company's name around is the best way to advertise and attract more customers to your DJ business.

Start Up

As I have said earlier, I have been DJing since I was 13. I have played mostly for school dances, birthdays, and house parties. However, I have never technically declared myself as a mobile DJ. I have all the equipment, but just never got serious enough with the time and money to do so. In the past, all of my gigs have been booked through word of mouth since I've never spent any money on marketing. DJing has never been about the money for me, it has always just been a fun hobby. There are a couple questions I have regarding the issue of taking this hobby into a full-time job. How do I get noticed? I guess a blog could be a good start, but that also takes awhile to get noticed on. How do I go about registering myself as a DJ service? What could I do for cheap and easy transportation for all of the equipment (I have been using multiple cars and sometimes taking multiple trips to events). What types of employees could I hire to make my business even better? How can I distinguish myself from all the other mobile DJ's in the market? Any type of feedback you could give would help, thanks. -DJ Sblock

Personality test

I took the Path 101 personality quiz to find my future job. Just kidding, but it's a good test to take if you want to find out what kind of "team" you work best with. According to the quiz, my two highest personality traits were conscientiousness and empathy. I guess this means I'm reliable and I understand others perspectives. My lowest traits on the quiz were initiative and teamwork. People who score low in the initiative and teamwork categories generally need others to keep them motivated and prefer to do things on their own. I guess its somewhat true. The quiz also told me that people with similar personality traits worked in the following industries: Construction, Travel and Tourism, Accounting, Food Production, and Pre-K and Daycare. However, I am not the least bit interested in any of these job fields. So, from this quiz I've learned that I need to find a job where I can work alone and still be able to receive advise from others to help me stay motivated. If I do need to work with other people, it would probably be best if it was only 1 or 2 other person(s). Whatever field I do go into I really hope it's not changing diapers in daycare because that's just depressing. Stay classy - DJ Sblock.

So I started searching for some groups related to DJing that I might be interested in joining. The first group I found was on meetup.com. The group is called The New York DJ Meetup Group which meets in NYC to talk about the DJ business, exchange tips and tricks, and about the latest equipment. It currently has 141 members and was founded a little over a year ago.

The next place I came across was the American DJ Association on adja.org. This associations mission is to bring in DJ's and help their business's grow. On their site they offer their customers the ability to search and hire various DJ's in various locations. It's a great site for networking with other DJ business's or to help yourself book several gigs. Members of ADJA receive several benefits such as a full subscription to Mobile Beat Magazine, a 10% discount off all music at The Source music company, discounted car rentals, many discounts off of various marketing tools, legal and accounting advice, and much much more (see ADJA member benefits for details).

The last group I wanted to find was something that I could actually go to on a daily basis. So, I searched through Fordham's list of clubs and found The Music Association. This club brings students together to discuss music of all genres and cultures. It would be something for me to do in my spare time to broaden my musical tastes.

It's all about the music

I've been searching the web trying to find some quality blogs about everything music. At first, I found nothing but junk. However, after speaking with a friend who founded the site Consequence of Sound I was headed in the right track. CoS is a music focused blog site that offers news, review and other stuff about artists of all types. Today, CoS averages more views (around 10,000) in a day than it did in its entire first month one year ago.

Next on my list of sites was a blog about everything iPod called iLounge. The site is filled with literally everything that has to do with an iPod. What most attracted me to the site was that I not only use my iPod for listening, but I do most of my mixing (when I DJ) directly from my iPod (see iDJ2) as well. The site offers extensive news and reviews about all types of iPod products and accessories. iLounge also posts in depth tech help for anything that could ever go wrong with your iPod or your iTunes library.

The last site that I found worth while today was Rolling Stone. This site covers everything about the music industry. It lists the top albums, tracks, concerts, and festivals while letting users comment in the forums. The site is always up to date with all of the latest news, reviews, Q&A, and much more with artists from all genres. Enjoy!

First Post

Hey, My name is Scott and I'm currently a Junior at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. I was born and raised in the north suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Right now I'm a full-time student with no job. I became interested in entrepreneurship because I could never see myself graduating college and trying to work for some 9-5 fortune 500 company. I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but it's not for me. My most recent work experiences have been interning at my family's electrical contracting business in Chicago for the past few summers. I am very big into music and spend most of my free time as a DJ for house parties and for fun. I'm not sure what I want to do after college, but running a business sometime in the near future is definitely one of my goals.