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’.
