Wireless MIC business. Can I make a go of it?

dannymusic

dannymusic

Member
Let me just throw it out there.
I'm in SE Minnesota. There seems to be a growing demand for my service:

Theatre Audio- up to 24 touring quality wireless w/earset. FOH audio. 12 station clearcom. 40 ch digital mixer. + me there running it. Typically high school musicals. Typically I get there on tech wknd (wknd before open) and stay for all rehearsals/shows that week (5 rehearsals and 4 shows). And mentor the kids running audio (if needed). All for 1 set price (been getting $1200-$1500. I have 4 shows that have committed to me annually for as long as I want.

Q: Is this something I could make a living at? Just doing theatre? Is there a demand for this; at this price (or more?). I'm kind of sheltered here and don't know what the real world is doing out there. I have a vast knowledge of wireless, theatre, and live show but have never done it for a living. I have a chance to retire next year from my day job (medical) with benefits and am exploring all my options.

Danny

give me the truth... i needs to know.
 
I don't know, if your income is higher than your expenses, and you are making enough profit, then I guess you can?
 
If you feel like there is a market and that you're getting jobs you may be a better judge of the area than us as far as demand goes. You said you're able to retire next year? so do you still need this rental job to make you money to live on? as Bishopthomas said, its tough. You mentioned you've got 4 shows that would commit to you and if you aim low with your numbers and say you get $1200 per, you're looking at $4800, that not enough. so it comes down to whether or not you can find enough work to keep you busy the full year. I know people who've done this but they almost always are supplementing another job and using it to make cash on the side.
 
Only $1200 to $1500 per show for 24 wireless, 40ch digital mixer, com, and labor for rehearsals + shows? That would be the minimum for the labor part of the equation where I am! Much less the gear! Is that the normal price for those kinds of services in your area, or are you renting low to schools?
 
I can't speak as to the availability of work, as that varies drastically depending on where you are located and how far you are willing to travel. Keep in mind that most school groups do one musical a year, and only one or two other theatre shows. We have found that mid to late October and Late April and early May seem to be the really big school show times of year. You can tell by the huge increase in the volume of questions from high school students and staff here on CB. I would think this work would be seasonal at best.

I agree with others; your pricing seems very low. It would cost more than that to just rent the digital board and com in most markets. Let alone the wireless, batteries, and your time. If you do peruse this, I would strongly encourage you to keep some percentage in an account to go toward repair and the eventual replacement of your gear.

~Dave
 
Actually its close to a standard 2 week rental around here. But just across the boarder in sw min. There is almost no work.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
 
At $166/day, you are giving then the equipment for free, AND working for 50% of what you should be getting I'd think. A bargain on the wireless would be $50 per day per channel.
 
I had a long response but Hughes net basically sucks and crapped out. Anyways most independent / short film sound guys I know charge $250-500 a day with far less gear than you provide.
 
agreed on alot. I do believe that is low. As I'm just starting up, I have to analyze whether there is a "call" for the niche in the first place. Then, how far do I radius. Then, what is a fair rate. Alot of time for shows, they either spend the money and buy (community theatres), or go without, or use crap. I do like working with the students. Its fun and rewarding.

I could see upping my rates. At this point, I wanted to see if I liked doing it, and if I was good at it. No one else is doing it around here. And, I have found that I am pretty good at it.

Is there a market for this? That is my big question. I could hang the shingle out if I knew it would be worth it.
 
dannymusic said:
I could see upping my rates. At this point, I wanted to see if I liked doing it, and if I was good at it. No one else is doing it around here. And, I have found that I am pretty good at it.
Click to expand...

No one else is doing it around there today, but could you handle it if a competitor opens up shop tomorrow?

If you're serious about doing this kind of work, you would be wise to diversify. Let me repeat that word again: DIVERSIFY. Maybe getting into the lighting end of things also and/or doing this type of work for corporate clients. If some company has a meeting or convention at a local hotel or conference center, would you be interested in doing sound for them?

You might also considering leasing your equipment out to some of those community theaters that can't afford to buy their own.

Just my two cents.
 
dannymusic said:
agreed on alot. I do believe that is low. As I'm just starting up, I have to analyze whether there is a "call" for the niche in the first place. Then, how far do I radius. Then, what is a fair rate. Alot of time for shows, they either spend the money and buy (community theatres), or go without, or use crap. I do like working with the students. Its fun and rewarding.

I could see upping my rates. At this point, I wanted to see if I liked doing it, and if I was good at it. No one else is doing it around here. And, I have found that I am pretty good at it.

Is there a market for this? That is my big question. I could hang the shingle out if I knew it would be worth it.
Click to expand...

There is no money to be made in community theatre. There is even less money to be made in academic theatre. If you like working with kids and you can cover your gear costs, good for you. You are not going to make enough money to live doing this. Hell, the teachers who do this on the side get a very small stipend.

If you want to get rich in this business, you don't do it by doing theatre of any kind.
 
If you are providing the equipment then I'm sure that venues with limited or no systems would be very interested at a $1,200 to $1,500 cost for a show. I'm also pretty sure that if you need to cover the equipment costs, insurance costs, business costs, direct expenses, equipment maintenance and replacement, etc. you would probably lose money.

If you are going to deal with schools, non-profits, etc. then you likely need to be operating as a legitimate business entity, obtaining the requisite commercial liability and property insurance coverage and so on, all of which have associated costs. If you are providing gear then you need to address repair and maintenance, how to transport and store everything, how to address if anything fails or is stolen, etc. Again, probably more costs. Then there is room and board, transportation, etc. for gigs any distance away.

At the same time, if you are booking for entire runs then it would seem impractical to have something every week, not to mention needing time between gigs to deal with the business side, get new business, perform any equipment maintenance and so forth.

So as a business model, I don't see it being sustainable. But if you have already paid off any equipment and are just looking to keep yourself busy doing something you enjoy then it might be a good hobby.

It hasn't been brought up in a while but another factor may be that some schools may be understandably reticent to allow anyone other than school employees and maybe parents to interact directly with students on campus and I expect that current events may make schools even more cognizant of the potential issues there.
 
As has been pointed out, musical theatre is VERY seasonal. What happens when you get double booked? Do you lose that client or do you buy 24 more wireless, another digital console, etc? Probably not the latter so the previous WILL happen. Do this as a hobby because you enjoy it. If you can pay for the gear great, but if not you're doing something you love.
 
great insight from all.

At this point, I own it all, the deal is more of a "rental" with me "supervising". Right, more of a hobby. I got into it as my daughters were going through jr. high and were both doing shows with garbage audio. I ended up spending a couple years playing shell games with equipment until I got to where I am now. My youngest is doing alot of shows so, naturally, I became in demand. I am more or less a "parent" with cool toys. However, my 35 years of band, audio, musician, lighting has put me ahead of anyone in SE MN. I told them I would hang with all the schools until 2014. That is when my daughter is done, and I could retire from me day job. At this point, I wanted to explore all the possibilities. My other choice would be to escape to Orlando and work backstage for Disney. I'm 49 y/o (going on 22)
 
I think that if you were to approach it as a business and especially to try to recoup the cost of the equipment and make anything from it then you would have to charge considerably more. You would also have to address all the legal, insurance, tax and other issues related to being in business. Of course you may want to protect everything you have worked for up to this point and many schools and non-profits I've worked with are very particular about anyone they contract with or purchase from being a registered company, having tax and sales IDs, etc. and anyone other than employees who work on their property having liability insurance and their being named on a Certificate of Insurance and so on, so you probably want to address the latter aspects anyways.

Just FYI, while this may not apply to your situation but it is not uncommon for retirees, those with inherited money, etc. to want to help others by offering some groups equipment and/or services at well below 'market' costs. The intent is good but there can be unintended side effects. One is that it can end up taking work away from those who make their living providing those same services. Another is that it can create a false impression of what things cost for those you work with. Realistically, that's just how it is but don't expect companies who might otherwise get that work or who end up being expected to match your prices to go out of their way to support you if you ever need anything from them.
 
Definitely alot of things I haven't thought of. The closest one is Minneapolis, 100miles away. I have actually given business to the A/V installer who has come in to do capital repairs on the sound systems. I'm glad you all responded. It appears as if I should just have fun with it for as long as my daughter is in HS. Its always nice to have this stuff laying around, or even sell it to the schools afterwords. True that it is kind of unusual that they would let a parent come in and do as much as I've done.
 
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