All DJ’s aren’t equal. This is how we find the best of Kelowna.
We regularly attend business events, whether we’re participating in events with the Entrepreneur’s Organization, or speaking on behalf of the International Special Events Society. Usually when we first meet people, the first thing they ask is “What do you do?” followed by “So what makes you different?”. We always answer the same way:
When people are hiring a DJ, they have no idea who is good and who isn’t. They end up reading online reviews, making dozens of phone calls, having face to face meetings and emails back and forth just to TRY and find a DJ that will be reliable and fun.
This is not easy or fun for most people and they have no idea at all what to look for. After all, how do you know if a DJ will be good or not until they actually show up at your event? How do you know their reviews are even real?
At Airwaves, we’ve already done all of that work for you. We’ve search for the best of the best and by the time you click on our name in google, we have a number of pre-auditioned options ready to go.
We’ve also realized over time that the majority of our competitors either try one of three things that we feel is simply not adding value to the buying process for the customer. Here is a list of the 3 most common things we avoid when screening DJs:
1) The Self-Proclaimed “Expert”
The first is that they will charge extremely high, ridiculously overpriced fees and try to justify it by saying that they are an “Expert Event Planner or Music Planner”. Usually these are the older DJs who have been around for 15-20 years. They justify their high price by the fact that they’ve been DJing for a very long time. We think of these DJs as over the hill and hanging on by charging a ton and doing quite a few less gigs per year. They are by no means any better than any other DJs out there. At our company, we are always cautious of this kind of DJ as it can be attractive
2) The “Low-Baller”
The next thing DJs often do is undercut and promise the world at a price that seems too good to be true. You can always spot these DJs because their business cards are home-made, their website looks like it’s from 1995 (if they have one) and they generally don’t maintain a very good physical appearance (sloppily dressed, messy hair at meetings, etc). These DJs are normally not working DJs but are just looking for some way, ANY WAY to make a living. If something better comes along, the chances of them cancelling your event are high. If they don’t feel like it, they may not show up. Why would they? They are barely charging anything to come. We’ve come to learn that a DJ who prices themselves fairly but not outrageously high is a good sign, but going to low is a sure-fire red flag.
3) The “Negotiator”
The worst thing of all is the negotiator. If you run into this person, BEWARE and take caution! The negotiator can be easily recognized because their primary motivator for DJing your event is money. Now, negotiation on price, packages, time, equipment at the beginning are all normal, but once you have made a deal and signed a contract, all negotiations should stop. If you do decide on extra services, then negotiations may resume and that is fine. What we are talking about here is DJs who need reimbursement for every little thing or whom talk about money all the time. “Will you reimburse my parking” or “will you pay for my songs I buy on i-tunes” are red flags. DJs who are overly concerned with money, price and payment and not the music and the experience could end up causing you call kinds of headaches. These could include legal headaches, stressful conversations, blackmail/extortion or others.
How to Spot the Best of Kelowna
So we’ve told you the top 3 things to avoid, but now it’s time to tell you how to spot a winner. You’ll know them because they are on our team. All kidding aside, it’s very often the case. We spend hours and hours getting to know all the DJs in a specific age range within Kelowna and the Okanagan and do this full time. We then interview them, send them to do charity and volunteer gigs and have them mentor with other DJs who’ve already proven themselves on our team. The best part is, you’ll pay the same price at Airwaves as you would for a DJ who isn’t represented by our company. We are able to do this because we offer our DJs such a high volume of gigs, it is worth it for them to pay us a commission in order to gain a higher volume of work, without having to do any marketing themselves. We then take our commission and invest it into world class customer service and support as well as technology that makes planning your wedding music easier than ever. We even have wedding planners on staff to watch over your file and ensure everything goes well for you throughout the process. We’ve gotten 5 star reviews for the past 7 years in a row in 12 different cities across Canada and have even been featured in a nationally released book on entrepreneurship. Most importantly though, hiring is an art and it’s important to learn that it can take years to learn how to spot a great DJ from a horrible one. Why take the chance?
