Ask Mark

This page is a list of questions about the job and the business. Read each one out loud and answer it in your own words on a voice note - don't stop to tidy anything up.

The answers are raw material for the website, so:

• Specifics beat generalities. Names, numbers, dates, venues, prices. "About forty weddings a year" is worth more than "loads of weddings".
• Rambling is fine. If something interesting comes back to you mid-answer, follow it - that's the good stuff getting captured.
• Skip anything that doesn't apply or that you've already covered.
• Correct the site. If a question quotes something the site already says and it's wrong or out of date, say so.

There are 67 questions. It'll take a while, so pause whenever you like and pick it back up.

The work as it stands

1. Roughly how many bookings do you do a year, and how does that split between weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, club nights and public events?
2. What's the smallest crowd you've played to this year, and the biggest?
3. Best guess, how many weddings have you done since going full-time in 2002?
4. What's your busiest time of year, and how far in advance are the peak Saturdays booked up?
5. Roughly what share of your work comes from repeat customers and word of mouth?
6. How many Saturdays a year are you out, on average?

Events and flexibility

7. What kinds of events do you get asked for that the website doesn't mention at the moment?
8. What's the shortest notice you've ever taken a booking on?
9. Would you take a midweek booking, or a Sunday, or an afternoon do?
10. Can you cover a full day - ceremony music through to the last song - and what does that involve that an evening booking doesn't?
11. Is there any kind of event you'd turn down?

Where you work

12. Where are you based, and what's your normal patch - which towns and counties do most of your bookings come from?
13. How far will you travel before you say no? What happens past that point - extra cost, or just no?
14. Do you charge for travel, and if so, how does it work?
15. What's the furthest gig you've ever done?
16. Would you take a wedding abroad?
17. Which venues do you play most often at the moment, and are you effectively the house DJ anywhere?
18. Are you on any venue's recommended supplier lists? Which ones?
19. Roughly how many different venues have you worked at over the years?

Music

20. What do you actually play most of at the moment - genres, decades, the stuff that reliably fills floors round here?
21. What do you love playing that you don't get asked for enough?
22. Is there anything you won't play?
23. Do you mix live or fade between tracks, and does the average crowd notice the difference?
24. What's actually in the booth now - laptop, controllers, vinyl, anything else?
25. How do you plan music with a couple before the wedding, and what exactly is the online planning portal?
26. How do you handle requests on the night?
27. What do you do when someone asks for something that would clear the floor?
28. What happens with the first dance if a couple haven't picked one?
29. How do you warm up an older crowd differently from a club crowd?

Kit, set-up and the practical side

30. What's the standard rig you bring to a wedding - PA, lights, decks, booth?
31. The set-up options the site mentions - white booth, star cloth, rustic, classic black - what do they cost as upgrades, and which is most popular?
32. How long do you need to set up, and how long to pack down?
33. How much floor space do you need?
34. What does a venue have to provide, if anything - power, a table, shelter for outdoors?
35. What spares and backups do you carry with you?
36. What's the biggest rig you can put your hands on, for the big public events?

Pricing and booking

37. How do you price a booking - by the hour, by the package, or a flat figure per event?
38. Can you give ballparks: an evening wedding reception, a full wedding day, a 21st in a village hall, a corporate Christmas do?
39. What pushes a price up or down - travel, finishing time, extra lights, day of the week, time of year?
40. What's the deposit, when's the balance due, and how do people pay?
41. What are your cancellation terms, both ways round?
42. What does a client get in writing when they book with you?
43. How far in advance do people typically book, and do last-minute gaps come up?

Trust and the paperwork

44. Who's your public liability insurance with, what's the cover, and where can people see the certificate?
45. What's the PAT testing arrangement - how often, who does it?
46. What's the actual plan if you're ill on the day of a wedding?
47. Has kit ever failed mid-gig, and what happened?
48. What do venue coordinators ask you for before they'll let you through the door?
49. Where do your reviews live at the moment - Google, Facebook, anywhere we can link to?

Career and kudos

50. Walk me through the timeline properly: the first decks at nine, going full-time in 2002, the Talk residency in 2003 - what came between and after, with rough years?
51. The club list on the site - Sugar Hut, Dukes, Mayhem, Chameleon, Eclipse, Sky Bar, Pop World, Bar Bluu, Chicago's, Unit 7, Moo Moos - which of those were residencies and which were one-offs, and roughly when?
52. The radio side - Capital FM Radio Stars, Funky SX, the Radio Essex shows now: show names, times, co-presenters, and where does the 100,000 listeners figure come from?
53. The corporate names on the site - ITV, Cineworld, Chiquito, Aberdeen Asset Management - what's the story there, and was that through Mega Inflatables?
54. What is Mega Inflatables, and how does it fit with the DJ work?
55. The Chelmsford City Racecourse residency - since when, what events, how many a year?
56. Billericay Fireworks - how many years have you done it? Same for the other public events like Marsh Farm.
57. The Essex Wedding Award finalist in 2020 - what exactly was it, which category, and any other awards or finals worth mentioning?
58. Have you ever DJ'd for anyone famous, or shared a stage with anyone a punter would recognise?
59. Any press, radio or TV mentions over the years - local paper, BBC, anything?
60. What have you done that would impress someone comparing DJs, that isn't anywhere on the site?

Stories

61. Best gig you've ever done, and why?
62. The toughest crowd you've ever won over - how did you turn it round?
63. A first dance or a request that's stuck with you?
64. Something funny from a wedding that's printable?

Wrapping up

65. What do couples worry about that they never actually ask you?
66. What would you want every couple to know before they book a DJ?
67. Anything on the website at the moment that's wrong, out of date, or winds you up?