I recently celebrated my 45th birthday … and for a laugh (although I wasn’t when I found out) my so-called friends decided to take me to our local night club.
What an eye-opener! It was the first time I’ve stepped into such a place for over 15 years.
The first thing that struck me was how loud the music was, so loud in fact that I couldn’t hear a word my friends where saying to me.
The DJ was dancing wildly behind his equipment, not saying a word just playing record after record – sorry I meant tune after tune.
I thought to myself what an easy job that must be – especially as the requirement of a night club DJ has changed so much. In my day, the DJ had to be a personality who spoke to the crowd and entertained them with his jokes, games and of course the music.
Now, it seems you just have to play music and not say a word.
Anyway, I lasted till after midnight so I must have enjoyed it a little, but I don’t think I’ll be going back again!
A few days later, I happened to be talking to someone at my local gym who actually knew the DJ from the night club. During our conversation I mentioned how easy his job was just playing music all night, and the guy said that although he gets a decent wage each night - £120.00 - it’s nothing compared to what he earns from his other job.
“His other job” I said, “tell me more” … well, I learnt that the DJ ran a ‘How To Be A DJ’ course where he taught world-be DJ’s the art of becoming a night club DJ.
I further learnt that he has about 5 people attend his course and charges £200.00. So he is taking £1,000 from each course day …. And he runs 10 of these days per month!
That’s £10,000 per month he is taking and his costs are very low as they turn up his home where he has some equipment and does the course from there.
He gets most of his bookings from facebook so his marketing costs are very low too.
Now DJing may not be your thing, but it proves that many of us know a skill that others would live to learn – and pay for the teaching.
Piano teachers have been going for years, but there are now so many other skills that people what to learn – cooking is another that’s very popular, but what if you knew bricklaying, tree surgery, painting, craft making … the list is endless.
I’ve even had experience myself, a few years ago I ran a seminar on how to run a mail order company - as I ran one for over 10 years.
I charged £1,000 and within a month I had taught 120 people – taking £120,000.
After costs and marketing, I walked away with £97,000 for one months work!
So have a think about a skill you might know, and you never know, you could be running a very success teaching course yourself.
