We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melvin Nicholson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melvin below.

Melvin, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’ve always been interested in music. I spent a lot of time learning about it, I spent a lot of money on it (CDs, Tapes, Posters, shirts, concerts), I really didn’t have any other interests as a kid. Eventually, I decided to take up guitar. Even taking guitar in high school. I went to join my first band, and was okay on guitar. But not great. I ended up as the vocalist. I played in bands for years. There was an issue though. I enjoyed playing music, that was particularly heavy. Even though I was really into most genres of music, the only kind I wanted to perform was heavy music. It’s pretty hard to make money when you play heavy music. I enjoyed it, it was a gigantic thrill, but I knew it wasn’t going to last.

When I joined my first band I was in high school. When I joined my next band I was married and I had two kids. I knew it was never going to last, because I was the primary provider in the home. I worked extraordinarily long hours trying to make it work anyway. At one point, I was working a full-time job, playing in a band, attending broadcasting school, And even working at a radio station doing on air news. I was almost never home. I thought that if music wasn’t going to work out, I could develop a public persona, I could get a job on the radio. The radio pays well right? Wrong. Unbeknownst to Me, prior to getting into broadcasting school, There was a thing called the telecommunications act of 1996 that effectively blew up the radio industry. It changed ownership rules, And therefore it killed a lot of jobs. I did well with on-air news, But I never made more than minimum wage.

I was trying to provide a life for all of us. But just because I was a family man, I did not want to find myself in a dead end job. I wanted to have some occupational satisfaction. I was working two jobs that paid me (although not well), And two jobs that did not pay me. Actually, one of them was costing me money. I spent thousands of dollars going to broadcasting school.

I was a really shy kid growing up. It was tough to get me to talk, socialize, or To be in crowds. I like most people, preferred death to public speaking. I didn’t know where everything was going to land me. But after playing music for years, I had a lot of equipment knowledge. I had also accumulated a fair amount of equipment. Getting into radio, taught me how to talk in front of audiences. How to formulate coherent sentences and thoughts. And how to communicate with the public effectively.

In 2012, my wife and I were invited to a wedding in South Idaho. One of her long-time friends was getting married. I had only ever been to one wedding, and I was the best man. I had very Little understanding of how weddings work, or the industries that are involved in it. This wedding in 2012 though, although the wedding went okay, The DJ sucked. That started my next adventure.

The next year in 2013, My wife’s sister, my soon-to-be sister-in-law was getting married. Whether it’s because they thought I was capable, or had the talent, or whether they were just trying to save money, they asked me to be the DJ. I agreed. I did it and I loved it! I Mourned when it was over. And I had to find a way to do it again, Even if I only did it a handful of times more. I got plenty of compliments on my performance, But I kept getting really thoughtful. Heartfelt comments from my mother-in-law about my performance. And while I was having a conversation with her at the kitchen table, I cracked open a laptop, And started my business that day.

It took years to convince people that I was able to do weddings. Having one wedding under your belt, For your family, isn’t a great resume. I joined the thumbtack, I was given some free credits, And I landed my first wedding. For $350. That may sound like a lot, But it’s not. It doesn’t even cover costs. I got a review, And I tried for another wedding. In 2015 I did a wedding, where I so impressed the owner, I was put on a preferred list. Doing more weddings, meant more reviews, More referrals, And it just grew from there. The entire time I’m building the business, I was working a full-time job again.

2019. I quit my full-time job as a truck driver. That was the first year that the DJ
business outpaced what I was making at
my regular job. Then in 2020 covid destroyed everything. Since the first year I started the business, I ended up Not only not making a profit, But instead a loss. I was afraid the business might be done at that point.

In 2021 though everything came roaring back. In 2022 we added a photo booth business. That was about the time my wife quit her full-time job as a school psychologist. Then she started a jewelry business.

Today, we own an operate three small businesses. The DJ business brings in the Lion’s share of money, But all three are profitable, and successful.

Melvin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am in service people. I love being around people. I love doing things for them, I love making them happy! I love being associated with joy. I care a lot about my clients, I have a lot of conversations with them, And I generally know them pretty well by the time we get to their event date.

I provide sound for events. But that’s not all. I help create an atmosphere. I set a mood. The number one way that I control people in a room is not by telling them what to do, But by providing a soundtrack that lets them know what they should be doing. I also MC though.

The number one thing that sets me apart from my competitors in this field I’ve learned, Is my MC skills. I hear from clients all the time during interviews, That they’ve talked to other DJs, But those DJs don’t want to talk on the microphone. Some of those clients, started thinking they were going to have to hire both a DJ and an MC as two separate costs. I do both, And every single DJ should. My MC style is serious And informative when it needs to be, And playful when the mood allows.

I generally spend one dozen to two dozen hours working on a wedding, before we arrive at the event date. A lot of my clients either because they don’t want to hire a day of coordinator or cannot afford to hire a day of coordinator, I eventually ended up taking on that role as well. If my clients do not have a day of coordinator, I helped them draw up a timeline, Then I execute that timeline by myself on the day of the event. From working with people who do strictly day of coordinating, I recognized that they generally can’t do much without me telling people what to do anyway. So it was a natural role for me. I would suggest that people hire a coordinator, But when they can’t, I step in.

Our brand is fun! We are only associated with joy. The world is tough, often ugly. Seemingly, eventually every comment section turns into a sewer on the internet. And it seems the number one way that we communicate anymore, Is over the Internet. And when we are not face to face to each other, We aren’t as kind as we would be otherwise. Events that require us be there in person, help us connect with people again. Provide us the kind of face-to-face contact that we should be having more often. These events I participate in, A party, A wedding, A school dance, A road race, whatever it is… It’s getting us back together. It’s getting us out there. And I take my in this seriously.

Although it doesn’t always need to be an event where you’re hiring a bunch of vendors, And spending a ton of money, I think it’s vitally important that we have more of these gatherings where we reconnect as humans.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

In 2022 we bought a photo booth business. Before I owned a photo booth business, whenever clients would ask me about a photo booth for their event, I would have to let them know that I did not own a photo booth. Then I would refer them to A company called Couve Booth. I knew that business did well, They were great to their customers, And they were run by a photographer that I’d worked with a few times.

The owners of Couve Booth put it up for sale, because they were moving. They were going to go live on a boat. I think that part of it is neat. I reach out to the owners through Instagram and asked for a price. The price would include the business, All the social media handles, All of the equipment, etc… A few days later they got back to me with a price. I agreed to the price. We set up a meeting at their house, So that we could learn to run the equipment. So that we could figure out if we were even going to be able to run this business.

There are two types of photo booths in the industry. A DSLR booth and an iPad booth. DSLR is a professional camera. Neither one of us was a photographer and we did not understand these complicated cameras. We took the leap anyway. Once I learn how much work we’re going to be involved in it, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to run both by myself at events. I had full confidence that my wife could do it though.

We Drew up a contract, We had a multi-hour meeting where we were given all of the information for social media sites and subscriptions and all the rest. We were given all of the equipment, and then we were the new owners.

It took probably 3 years with the DJ business, before I made my first dollar. The nice thing about buying an already established business, It’s profitable from day one.

Since purchasing Couve Booth, We have also added an iPad Booth. We are in the process of adding even more booths. Currently we run just the two booths.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients is easily referrals. I don’t pay for advertising. I’ve tried it before, and nothing worked.

I Paid for a profile Wedding Wire for a while, the cost thousands of dollars, and yielded nothing. I bought Yelp advertising, also nothing.

Getting into venues, letting them see me work, And getting on their vendor preferred lists, It’s the number one way that we get clients. I get added to more lists every year.

For people whose weddings that I have done, friends and family that were in attendance, have hired me based on my performance in those weddings. My past clients also send me new clients.

In 2018 I decided to get myself on television, at our NBC affiliate KGW TV, On a show that no longer exists. Called Portland Today. It was a lifestyle show, There weren’t a lot of people that watched it. I knew that if I could get on TV, get an interview, have a copy of that interview that I could post across social media, That I could use that to get a lot of business as well.

It cost me nothing to get on TV. I just had to be interesting, And they put me on. Although many people did not see the broadcast, I have used that video over the years repeatedly, To get more business. I’ve had people tell me they saw the interview that’s posted on YouTube, And that’s why they hired me.

Today we don’t pay for advertising. Our calendars are packed, and it’s all referral.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://djmelvinpdx.com