It's all for chari-dee great mate!
Jules Little
Co-Owner & Producer of DJ Massaoke | Broadcaster | Renowned Retro DJ | Event Host & Presenter | Industry Specific Writer / Journalist | Audio Production for major national radio brands | Tile Junkie
Working for charities! How do you approach this & cover your back without looking like a mercenary?
I have been approached to host or perform at countless charity events over the years, the majority of them are hosted by truly lovely people, who are easy to work with and work with an understanding of achieving a common goal together with you. Others however see the word charity to mean "we expect you to work for free". I have had one organiser with the latter approach who expected the full service for no outlay whatsoever, when they were paying the headliner full ticket. "It's great exposure!" is the usual reply, however when I last checked, the petrol station, equipment suppliers, supermarkets and banks are yet to accept exposure as a form of payment.
In our world we have all worked for free at one time or another, I volunteered at a hospital radio station and found it hugely rewarding in many different ways, my partner's brother volunteers at a food bank in London every month, this is giving our personal time, there is no cost attached to that.
领英推荐
However, when it comes to supplying a service that has a cost attached, in my case this incudes travel, public liability insurance, cost and maintenance of equipment (including music), loss of potential earnings from turning down other paid work, where do you draw the line as a sole trader? You need to cover your costs of course, and if you are able to offer your services at that price point, then the conversation ends there. However, if you need to justify any extra income from this work, what is deemed an acceptable level?
As a sole trader or a small business, you can be on a hiding to nothing! If you have an entitled organiser (as I did a few years ago) expecting you to provide you with everything for nothing, if you refuse their generous offer of working for free, you place yourself at risk of being deemed greedy, everyone has access to a keyboard nowadays, everyone is a reviewer. Your online reputation runs the risk of damage.
So just how do you price charity work? It's a tightrope for sure. I would love to hear the experiences of my LinkedIn network!