Client - We’ve been following you on IG and we'd love to have you entertain at our wedding.
Us - Thank you so much, we’d absolutely love to entertainment at your wedding.
Client - How much does it cost, can you send us a quote?
Us - Quote sent with thanks.
Client - cue radio silence
I paint the above scenario with broad strokes but familiar ones nonetheless. Getting ghosted as soon as you talk money is part and parcel of being a small business owner and personally dealing with these knock-backs is why they can spiral into the realm of self doubt about what you charge.
In spite of those feelings, we are here to shout loud and proud that we are 100% worth what we charge and have journeyed a long way to get to a point where we are standing firm in our talents, our brand and our price points.
We want to change the mindset from customer to supplier that the small business owner should be questioned about their prices and this blog post, I suppose is an attempt to join that conversation. We have many friends in this industry who are running their own businesses and contrary to popular belief a lot of us are doing it ALL ourselves. By everything I mean, maintaining a website, running social media pages, face to face networking, investing in new skill sets, keeping account of finances and in touch with clients and let’s not forget writing blog posts and daily admin. This is all on top of providing the service we are actually selling and in a lot of cases also holding down another job.
When it comes to music and entertainment, people are often surprised about how much it costs, so we’d like to highlight a little of the journey musicians go on in order to end up performing at your special event. It has often started in the classroom or church, where natural talent has been lovingly honed into skill. It moves to the rehearsal room where more time and attention is spent creating a product that is worthy of public performance. This is a massively condensed version of a lifelong journey for many but you get the point. Hours, days, months and years have been spent developing skills, gaining experience, making mistakes, growing and learning. Many musicians will attest to working for free as they were rising up in the industry. We can recall the days of singing backing vocals for unsigned friends who were forming bands and finding their sound. The hunger to just be doing what you loved and gaining experience was so intoxication that you didn’t even question those three words ‘low/no pay.’ Fast forward x amount of years and the thrill has changed because we have changed. We love what we do just as much, but we are older, wiser and have a plethora of experience to back up our qualifications.
We have so far never received a complaint about the quality of our services (quite the opposite actually) and we are very proud of this because we fully prepare and attend to the finer details. Small businesses like ours begin and end with a real love and passion for what we're selling. In our case it's music and vocals and if we are going a bit deeper than that, (which we like to do) it's a feeling and it's memories that we're taping into. Who doesn't have an absolute favourite song that evokes feelings of the beginning of a romance, a first kiss, a special union? The clients that book us understand that our time is what they are paying for and that the sound that is heard on our website or social media pages is one that has taken years to cultivate. They understand that they are paying for an experience and to add something unique to their day, they understand that work will be done specifically for their special day and that most importantly, when you invest in a top quality product, no matter what it is, it will always be worth every single penny spent.
We hope these few words have shed a small light on what goes on behind the scenes for a small businesses like ours. We leave you with these words from @junie_poonie “When you love what you do, you don’t often realise just quite how much of YOU you put into it. Its every waking moment, every beat of your heart” 💖
Support small businesses and make meaningful connections with your suppliers and a big difference to your neighbour, your friend and your community. In this disconnected world we are living in, we all need a lot more of this.
