Passion, The Key to Success?

As I stated in previous posts; I have been Djing for 3 years. I have a true passion for this business and love what I do. However, at this point my passion has become my only source of income. This is a hard place to be in. Mixing money with passion is dangerous. I can see this going one of three ways. This is especially true when your passion becomes lucrative.

1.) You enjoy what you do and keep your rates low. Its a labor of love.

2.) You believe your works or service are irreplaceable and believe one should pay a small fortune to obtain such a gift.

3.) You enjoy what you do and find a reasonable price for what you produce.

I know these three options seem pretty obvious however there is a lot of gray area here. The third point seems to be the practical choice but it is not as easy as it seems. I will explain my current dilemmas.

Deposits: I had two situations where clients have had to either cancel or postpone the wedding after the deposit was taken and the contract signed. One situation was shady and I believe the client decided to go with another DJ. I was notified within 10 days of the wedding. Luckily, or unfortunately, I had no one else looking at this date. This situation has me rethinking my deposit and payment policies. Having gone through this has made me want to increase my deposit. I would have been very frustrated if I turned down another event for this client. The other situation was where the couple decided to postpone the wedding. I feel for these clients and do not want to aid in the hurt of the situation they are going through. This situation makes me want to keep my deposit where it is. I do realize that I have the ability to refund a deposit if I choose.

Additional Services: I recently did some editing work for a couple’s first dance. They wanted me to edit a portion of a song. I spent about a hour working on it. Then last minute, they decided to change the song entirely. In the end I will do what ever makes the client happy, but I was a little frustrated that my time was wasted. I have now decided to start charging for this as well.

As I continue to re-conform to the challenges and joys of running a business, I hope to not lose the passion for this profession. I know this is unlikely because it is the great people I meet, and their stories, that inspire me to want to do the best I can for them. I am trying to do my best to run a quality, honest, fair, and profitable service that benefits both parties .