After my DJ business took off, I had several additional side hustle spinoffs in the wedding industry. Some side hustles work out and some don’t, but there is so much more to gain than to lose. And even when you’ve vetted out an opportunity that you realized was not the right fit, you still take the learning and experience with you to your next venture. Knowing that something did not work is the next best thing to trying it and it and it turning into a huge success.
Finding ways to expand your business, career and income also provide you with the ability to diversify your earnings. Being diversified rocks. It helps you hedge against things going wrong financially, but it also keeps life interesting. I spent many years working for a corporation in the insurance industry, DJing weddings and managing rental properties. None of those roles have anything in common with each other and that’s what made it so great.
Here are a few example of my side hustles that spun-off from my DJ business over the years. Entrepreneurship is about experimenting. Finding verticals that compliment your existing business can be a great way to grow your income and provide more value to your clients.
Chair covers
At the age of 19 – while living in what was essentially a frat house – I decided that renting chair covers was going to be my next big scheme as a vertical to my DJ business. (For those that aren’t familiar, chair covers are the white fabric covers that people sometimes rent to put over those tacky maroon banquet room chairs).
I had learned how ridiculously expensive it was to rent chair covers, and also realized how ridiculously cheap it was to buy chair covers. You could buy 300 chair covers and recoup your cost in just a couple of rentals – no brainer right!? Wrong.
While we did end up generating several thousand dollars from renting out chair covers, it was a total pain. I ended up having someone bounce a check and having to get the cops involved over my sketchy, cheap-a** chair covers on Craigslist.
I am also surprised (my girlfriend at the time, now wife) Megan didn’t break up with me over the chair covers. She was, of course, the one to take on most of the responsibility to wash, fold, and press them for a very nominal fee in the questionable basement of aforementioned frat-like house. Yes, I know – she is a saint – but she is also a huge supporter and natural hustler too, so looking back I am not surprised that she was willing to give it a shot.
We ended up selling the chair covers after a couple of years and never looked back (until we decided to buy and flip chair covers for our own wedding, one of the several wedding savings hacks we used, saving us $1,200-$1,500).
RIP, chair covers.
Photo Booth
The next wedding side hustle was a photo booth in 2014. Photo booths were starting to get popular at weddings and, after stealthily asking questions to the photo booth vendors at events I DJ’d, I decided this was a sure bet for us. It complimented the DJ service well – we would be to be able to work the same amount of events per year while generating more revenue. No brainer!
I did my research and found the perfect photo booth that would fit in my vehicle with my DJ equipment. I decided to reach out to all of my clients that had upcoming events with me booked to offer an introductory special and it worked! Many of the clients took me up on my offer and I ended covering most of my $6,000 investment from just that initial email blast! Heck yeah!
The addition of the photo booth helped us substantially increase our revenue, our clients loved that we offered both services, and we had a ton of fun doing it, too. We have a collection on our basement wall of our photo booth picture from every gig!
Since I was busy with the DJ portion of the business, Megan was in charge of the photo booth at each event. She would help people use the booth, create a guestbook for wedding couples with photos of their guests and basically babysit drunk people so they didn’t break everything. The photo booth was a great complement to our existing business and allowed us to earn an additional $500-$700 per event. The photo booth would typical be open for 2-4 hours and the printing/ink supplies were minimal (~$25 per event). This was a game changer for us!
Officiating
The last addition to our mini wedding empire was officiant services. It started when good friends asked me to officiate their wedding, so I obtained my license to marry people. I have now married DJ clients as well as friends and family, which is something I have truly enjoyed having the honor to do. You can obtain an officiant’s license online for about $25 and you’re up and running! Wedding officiants can make an additional $250-$1,000+ per ceremony. This can be a great way to provide a valuable service to your clients and helping people with one of the most memorable experiences of their lives!
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