Absolutely. My gear goes nowhere unless I'm with it.Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: ↑Sat Nov 22, 2025 11:04 am Don't give your work away. Also don't rent out anything that you don't mind having destroyed. Rent your services as a DJ or live sound engineer along with your gear. A website is a must, and they're not expensive.
I've done some freebies for charities.....no more. Most of them are fund-raisers that bring in tens if not hundreds of thousands of $$. If it's something you care about, then ok. But, you don't want everybody looking for a freebie. Instead tell 'em that you'll give 'em a discount and that payment is up front before you load in. Hate to sound like a hard-ass, but you have to protect yourself. There are some real bastards out there that will take advantage of you.
I'd suggest that you get out to venues on a regular basis and meet the bands and the management of the venue. Let 'em know that you are available whenever they are putting on a bigger event and want to provide PA support for multiple bands. Explain the time saving and how much better the shows and the turn around times will be with you there.
Get on the good side of some bands that are popular. They know the club owners and can suggest you to them.
Anyway, good luck out there.....
) try and spend some time reading prosound books and applying that knowledge to dial it in and get it sounding exceptional. Take the time to setup, measure , and save scene presets for given common scenarios as that’s not something you want to do at the location. Yes it takes time but that’s where you bring value to the table and delineate yourself (and the system performance) from any other operators with just a couple speakers on a pole. Acquiring high-performance gear is easily the hardest step, but there’s also a lot more to operating in this business space beyond that. Just be prepared to accept that at first, the bottom 2/3 of the market will pushback when it comes time to compensate you correctly for the effort required to deliver amazing sound even though many know it (if not, feel it )when they experience it. The sound is just a commodity that you should eventually be able to deliver in your sleep. It’ll take some time to make a place for what you are trying to bring to the table. The end goal is to help someone else deliver/produce their intended experience through the use of your tools and expertise.