Could your rates be to low?

Is it possible to not charge enough for your service and not get as many bookings? What is your show worth? What are others charging in your area? All good questions, let me just tell you my story. Last year I didn't get to many bookings. Now, to put everything into perspective, I wasn't promoting that much last year but, all in all, I really haven't done that much promoting this year either. I will tell you this much, I had listened to friend of mine who is a magician and he owns a magic shop. His rate is really low, when I mentioned that I thought his rate was low he said, "Well, nobody pays much more than that for entertainment in this area." Then I talked to another acquaintance of mine who is also a magician working in the same area that is getting triple and even four times (is that quadruple?) of what the other guy is getting. He is also getting booked more. So what I decided to do towards the end of last year was to raise my prices considerably from what I had been charging. Guess what. I'm getting more bookings now! How about that. So here's what I say to you, sit down and figure what is a good price for the type of entertainment you provide. Make it a price that is not the lowest and stick to it. You might be surprised at what happens next.

Stick to your Guns!

I had a state college email me the other day about my fee for an hour show. I sent them a quote and they said that I was out of their price range. That's OK. Obviously they don't know how much good entertainment costs. There was a time when I would have negotiated my price to a lower fee but, anymore, I'm not budging. Here's what will happen if you do enough shows. People will talk and one day someone will be talking to another person about your show (you do have people talking about your show don't you?) and one person will say what they paid and the other person will say, "Man, that was a lot less than what I paid!" then where will you be?

I say find a fair price and stick to it. Don't lower your price to just get another gig. If they can't afford it either A) Show them a way to afford you or B) Decline and move on. You will never be successful if your prices are all over the place.