Understanding Your True Value

One of the biggest mistakes many performers make is not knowing how to set their fees and undervaluing themselves. I understand why - money is an emotional subject. When we say to someone ‘The fee is £x’, we’re saying ‘I believe that I am worth this, please validate me and tell me you think I’m worth it too!’

Conversely, some people get too excited about fees and believe that simply asking for a large fee will transform them into a mini-celebrity. And there are those whose actual fees are a small percentage of the fees they claim to be getting. I suspect that with the last two groups, they’re doing this because they don’t understand their true value, and they’re trying to find ways to compensate for this, a bit like someone with a tiny penis driving a noisy sports car.

All of us should learn how to accurately charge what we’re really worth, because your fee is one of the most accurate indicators to your target market of how good you are.

Imagine that you want to treat your partner/beloved/polyamorous family unit to a night out at a restaurant. Do you go for the £4.99 takeaway option because it’s cheap, or do you splash out on a more expensive restaurant because you know the experience will be better?

Of course, there are times in life when we have a strict budget and have to go for the cheapest option, but entertainment is not an ‘essential’ purchase—it’s not at all like food and drink. Entertainment is always a luxury purchase. There is no need for you to price yourself at the ‘essential’ end of the fee range.

When people book an entertainer, they are booking an ‘experience’. Often they don’t know exactly what they want, but they do know that they ‘want it to be good’. If they’re planning a wedding, they want their guests to have ‘an amazing day’. A corporate booker putting on an awards dinner will want it to be ‘better than last year’.

Most people want the best possible experience, and they know that they’re going to have to pay to get that experience.

People who are prepared to pay to get the kind of experience they want are almost always better-quality clients. They will respect you more and treat you better because they know that only you can give their event that special experience. They don’t know how you’re going to do it, but they know that the better you feel, the more likely it is that you’ll do a great job.

In my performing career, clients who paid better also treated me better in all sorts of ways. They’d say things like ‘We’ve organised a changing room for you with refreshments in it’. Clients who were ‘budget-bookers’ would be the opposite - they wouldn’t suggest anything about a changing room, and when I asked, they’d say things like ‘I think there’s a disabled toilet you can get changed in’.

Some clients like to boast about how much they’ve paid for you, but they’ll never boast about how cheap you are. It’s not uncommon for a client to say things to their friends like ‘He wasn’t cheap, but he’s good, isn’t he?’ It’s similar to when people put on an expensive dress, or some showy cufflinks to demonstrate their status.

I know - really - how tempting it is to think that if you keep your fees low, you’ll get more work, and - to some extent - that is true. But think about the kind of work - it’s generally lower-quality, with clients who aren’t loyal, and you’ll be subject to ‘fee pressure’ all the time. If you do get repeat business, it will always be at the same low fee level (people who’ve got you cheap will always refer you by saying ‘Oh, you ought to use John, he’s really cheap’.

What happens when you start charging your real value?

You build more loyalty, and more repeat business. A golden rule in any business is that clients who buy on price are never loyal. If people buy your service because you are the cheapest, they’ll just look for the cheapest next time.

Conversely, when you charge what you’re worth, clients are delighted to pay it, and (assuming you do a good job) they’ll be happy to pay your fee again next time. Even better, they’ll refer you at the right level, partly because their network is other people who are also happy to pay your fee, but also because that’s how they’ll refer you ‘Oh, you should use magician X, she’s not cheap but she’s amazing’ and that’s exactly the kind of recommendation you need.

You get treated better. People who pay higher fees for you pay higher fees for everything - the venue will be nicer, your changing facilities will be better. I’m not making a moral argument here - I’m not (at all) claiming that rich people are superior to poor people, I’m saying that people with a greater budget for you will lead to a more successful and pleasant business, in general. Of course there will always be exceptions - we’ve all got a horror story of working for some billionaire oligarch compared to the delight of doing a simple family barbecue, but you can’t build a business on exceptions.

Clients are more focused on outcomes than processes. Bookers who are ‘budget-buyers’ will be obsessed with getting ‘value for money’, and they’ll translate that into measurable things that are easy to control. If you’ve been booked for 2.5 hours by a ‘budget-booker’ they’ll be very aware if you perform for even 10 minutes less than that time. If they’ve booked you to start at 7 pm, they’ll insist you start at 7pm, regardless of whether this is the right time to start.

Clients who pay you what you’re worth tend not to be focused on things like that, they’ll be focused on the experience, and they’ll often say things like ‘Look, I know we’ve booked you to start at 7, but would you mind starting a bit later? I think we need a few more people here first!’.

You perform better and generally deliver a better service to your clients (yes, really). I’m aware that this is a controversial idea, many of us will say ‘I perform equally well for all my clients’. But I don’t think we’re being honest with ourselves.

Imagine that £500 is a typical gig fee for you. On a good day, you might get as much as £800 (use whatever figures work for your business). Someone asks you to perform but they say ‘We’ve only got £200’ and, for cashflow, you agree to do the gig. I can almost guarantee that you will put *slightly* less effort into this gig than a ‘normal fee’ gig. You won’t be terrible, but there’ll be a difference - you won’t hurry to reply to this client’s emails, you won’t get your ‘very best shirt’ out for the gig, you might try to squeeze the gig in between other gigs, and you’ll definitely finish on time.

Then imagine that someone calls you and says ‘We’d like to book you, could you do it for £3,000?’ I guarantee that you will treat this client differently - you’ll reply to all their emails immediately, you’ll turn up early, you’ll put on your ‘best shirt’ and you’ll probably perform for longer than you’re booked for. You’ll feel more valued, and it’s very likely that the quality of your performance will be better.

Increasing your fees actually makes you better, and it’s better for the client, too.