We were lucky to catch up with Shane Huffman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
When my wife and I got married we had problems with our DJ at our wedding and we started talking and thinking how hard it is really to show up to a party bring the music, keep the evening going smooth, have a good time and get paid for it. The more we talked about it we said this cannot be that difficult, it could be fun, something that we can do together and ease the stress from the bride and groom or person responsible for the party.
As we started to create our business plan we made a commitment to ourselves that we would create multiple relationships with other DJ’s to not only learn the business, understand what works and dos not work, read reviews that other DJ’s have received to learn from them and also create those relationships to have back up DJ’s to lean on in the event that something happened and we were not able to keep our commitment to a customer for their special day.
One of our big commitments to ourselves was to never leave someone hanging or take on more than we can handle and as equally as important to provide more than just a music service but provide the same Customer Service that we would expect when hiring a vendor.
As a Husband and Wife DJ team on the big day I work the DJ table and my wife is the connection with the person in charge of the party weather that may be the Bride & Groom, a wedding coordinator, or simply the person in charge. By working this model, the dance floor stays on track while keeping our customer happy and in the loop with no surprises.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Once we finally decided that this is a business that we are passionate about and believe we can do successfully we then started looking into purchasing equipment, talking with people, schools, churches, and business to determine if we started this endeavor how are we going to get our name out there and start booking jobs? Before we knew it, we had a school and a church that would commit to our DJ business once we were up and running, so that was our green light to get started.
We purchased our first DJ set up, started working on purchasing and organizing music, watching DJ training videos, met with a friend that was a current DJ for some tips and tricks, order business cards, and started working on the business plan.
When we started our DJ business, we made a commitment to our selves that our DJ business would not only be a way to make some extra money, but to take a potentially stressful day for someone and turn it into something stress free, fun and a day to remember.
With DJ SNS World we do not only provide music for a party, but we also provide service beyond the expectations of a typical DJ. You get a Husband and Wife team. We meet with all our clients in person weeks before the big day to help with the planning of the night from beginning to the end to include things to keep the guests entertained, timeline for the night, dismissing the guests for dinner, assisting with getting the wedding party ready to walk down the aisle, keeping things on track, music selections for all the special events throughout the night and more. With DJ SNS you do not just get a DJ you get a Husband and Wife team that is patient about what we do, customer service and helping to create a day that you will not forget about.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Once we got things off the ground, we started small working with people that we know, we offered discounted pricing and was honest with our customers that we this is a new business, and this is a bit of a learning curve for us. When accepting a job and explaining our new to us business we asked for our customer to provide us with feedback good and bad as no business starts right out of the gate with perfection there is always a learning curve. We took out customer feedback and put it back into the business to be able to overcome any short comings and turn it into something great. We found that by using this model we have created customer for life. Our first year in business we did paid advertising, free advertising, and a lot of it. After only 1 year we cut back on our advertising drastically as we found that we were getting referrals from our past customers.
We created a business profile on Instagram and Facebook to share our excitement and parties with the approval of our clients started posting photos and video clips on our personal social media pages as well as our business pages. After another 6 months or so we stopped all advertising and are now booking out our services 12-24 months out with nothing but referrals and word of mouth.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
DJ SNS built our reputation by doing what we say and saying what we mean. We offer the best possibly customer service that we can at all times. Be honest, be upfront and provide the same service that you would expect if you were the one with the credit card. Do not over promise and under deliver.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djsns_world
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djsnsworld/