As a young adult I was presented with a lot of different opportunities. One of those was as a Disc Jockey. My partner was Garry Lake and his father made our equipment, This included Speakers, the cabinet, our lighting. We were fortunate as Gary's father was a pattern maker for a large manufacture company in St Louis. We formed the company called Traveling Bandstand.
What was important about this business?
Being a new business we had to draw additional clients. So we started to look at options in doing just that. Keep in mind this was prior to the cell phone and the internet. But, the results are still the same today as I have seen them not change over the years.
So how did we advertise?
The first place we tried was the newspaper. Both city wide and county newspaper. We ran the ad for 3 months in the county paper. None of those ads brought us ne clients. So we changed to a free magazine that was available at the grocer checkout for the same timeframe. The results were the same. So how did we get new clients? We placed business cards on each table and at the bar. Guess what! These were the only leads. But, our best advertising was word of mouth, Building a relationship with the Bride & Groom or the people that actually hired us.
So you might be asking what gigs did we do?
We did a variety of events. Here is a brief list of what gigs we did.
- High School Graduation Overnight celebrations (lock-ins)
- School dances
- Weddings / Receptions
- School Reunions
- Christmas Parties
So as you can see we did all types of parties. We learned a few things along the way as well. Making sure we promoted our service right at the table was the biggest success we had in advertising. It was all about building a relationship with your prospective client. Listening to their needs and requests. Being on time was another biggie, but, being flexible was key.
Then we chose to take part ing the Gateway Portable Disc Jockey Association. This also grew our business as we once again had a relation with other DJ's in the area. We picked up gigs from them and sent them their way as well.
So when you start thinking about how you will grow your business start with building. a relationship first! You can do that in several ways. It might be through a good email series, online advertising, or a simple phone call. Nobody will do business with someone they do not know!
Until next time...
My name is Paul Caraway
More Power To You!
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