Category Archives: Bedroom Bootstrapper

Bedroom Bootstrapper, Business Streamlining

Service Review: Docusign Digital Contracts

For the first few years of my business I had been printing out contract and sending them out snail mail.

I’d be lucky if the entire process took a week, not to mention having to get to the post office to send out my licked envelopes and still send them a scanned copy once I got it back.

Then I discovered Docusign and swore off physical contracts forever.

What is Docusign?

For $120 per year you can send 5 digital envelopes (read, contracts) per month.

But are digital signatures binding? Here you go.

You can upload either a Word Doc or PDF, then add input fields, initial blocks, signature fields, and auto-populated dates.

  • Signature+Initial blocks, auto-populated dates
  • Input fields

For the amount of business I was doing at the time this was a godsend.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Relatively cheap ($120/yr)
  • Stores contacts for use between recipient fields
  • Can send a copy of your contract to as many emails you need
  • Has a solid app to access contracts at any time
  • Clients don’t need an account
  • You get notified when clients are viewing your contract

Cons:

  • Limited to 5 contracts per month
  • Unable to edit errors within input fields (which wastes envelopes)
  • Unable to bulk download contracts (must be done individually)
  • Setting up templates suck; fields don’t line up sometimes
  • No consistent dashboard showing # of used contracts that month

Verdict

It works, it’s cheap, but it can be very annoying when you have a busy month and have to wait to send out a contract to nail down that client.

There are CRM’s that include digital contracts in their cost with no monthly limitations (Ex. 17hats) so my advice is to shop around and find a more holistic solution. If you just need a few contracts a month right now in your business it will work, but realize you’re going to have to migrate to another service after you grow which can be a pain.

Bedroom Bootstrapper, Gig Rewind

Business Review Pt 1: How I Doubled Revenue Six Years Straight (and counting)

We’re just crossing mid-year and I hit a major milestone: I have as much on the books halfway through this year compared to ALL of last year!

I’m keeping up with my targetted revenue growth of doubling each and every year. I hit $25k last year so basic math would tell us that I’m looking at $50k for 2018.

It’s also looking like I’ll be able to keep expenses flat despite the massive uptick in revenue.

Gross Rev Expenses Total Gigs Private Gigs Private Rev Bars/Clubs Bar Rev
2012 $100 $234 3 3 $100 0 $0
2013 $1,510 $625 5 5 $1,510 0 $0
2014 $1,841 $2,022 7 7 $1,841 0 $0
2015 $5,128 $3,399 15 13 $4,478 2 $650
2016 $12,840 $11,010 24 16 $10,790 8 $2,050
2017 $25,175 $13,916 67 14 $11,975 53 $14,250
2018 $25,945 $7,168 46 21 $19,795 25 $6,150

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

So what can we glean from all these fancy numbers? The big thing sticking out is the explosion in Private Gig Revenue. Weddings have accounted for the big growth here.

I had five weddings in 2016 and unfortunately followed that up with absolutely zero in 2017. That changed in a big way this year, as I played five weddings over a four week period in May ALONE. So far I have 11 on the year with another already booked for 2019.

Bar revenue has fallen off a bit but that was to be expected. I stopped spending any and all energy working into the bar scene to focus exclusively on weddings and clearly it’s been paying off. I even began turning away bar gigs to double down on growing the most valuable part of my business.

As you can see below, I’ve done fewer gigs and my revenue has grown. Bar gigs pull in $200-250 not including tax or expenses. My average weddings have been priced at $1500 depending on the package. This is exactly what I planned on.

From Whence They Came

Below I break down percentages of where my revenue has been coming from.

Since a large portion of my income last year were bar gigs, Industry Connects & Multi-ops contributed to half of my revenue. Now that I’m turning away from bar gigs they’ve contributed to only a quarter of my revenue with Paid sources picking up the slack.

Paid sources include sites like Gigmasters and WeddingWire. A big reason why they’ve spiked up is because of the testimonials I’ve gathered.

Sources 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Word of Mouth 100% 100% 100% 70% 41% 31% 33%
Multi-ops 0% 0% 0% 18% 10% 30% 15%
Paid 0% 0% 0% 0% 26% 19% 39%
Industry Connects 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 20% 7%
Barter 0% 0% 0% 13% 21% 0% 5%

Revenue by Source YoY

More Reviews = More Leads (& Gigs)

In August of 2017 I signed up for a Wedding Wire Pro account and through January 2018 I only had two reviews. By June I got that up to TWELVE, with every single wedding client writing me a testimonial.

Industry average is 20%, 30% at best if you follow-up four times. Once you break double digit testimonials Wedding Wire’s traffic DOUBLES. Anyone can tell you that doubling your ROI is huge, because now you’ve got twice the bang for buck. And Wedding Wire is not cheap.

I’m getting more and more qualified cold leads from clients who are willing and able to pay for quality service. If you don’t have the reviews or marketing assets (like a great website and professional photos), you’re just not going to make the sale outside of budget shoppers.

How Did I Get Reviews from 100% Of My Clients?

It all boils down to doing the unexpected. Spending just 2% of my gig revenue  on a gift, my clients were jumping up and down to write me a glowing review!

Look out for the next the article or sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when it’s posted!

Bedroom Bootstrapper, Maximum Marketing

Stay Classy & Connected With Written Cards

One way I stay connected with past clients is hand writing cards and sending them in the mail.

  • As soon as I DJ their event, I send a Thank You card.
  • Each December I send out Happy New Year cards.
  • If I did a wedding, I send an anniversary card.

Most people just get bills in the mail. There’s something about a hand written note that will strike a cord with some folks.

A C-level executive took me out to dinner one day to learn about DJing, he grabbed the tab. I sent a hand-written Thank You and dropped it in interoffice mail the next day. I then got an email saying how much he appreciated it, “classy move”. I don’t think he’ll ever forget me.

It might take some time to write out your cards, but for that exact reason they’re appreciated that much more. This year I wrote out fifteen cards for New Year’s. It took me about two hours but I bet I easily get a couple gigs out of that. It’s the cheapest ‘advertising’ I’ll do all year, but also the easiest way to stand out.

PS: A reminder to follow-up with your leads! I just booked a wedding afterparty as a result of my THIRD follow-up email via autoresponder.