My first dryhire

L

LiamSmith

Freshman
Jun 5, 2012
83
0
6
Ulster, NY
I have spent the last couple years just doing bar band sound, weddings, small festivals, town festival sound and have built up a small name for myself and a bit of a collection of gear.

So, every now and again I get people asking to just rent parts of one of my PA's and I just tell them to hire me. Usually they do... But, another local sound guy who's has helped me become a better mixer is asking to dryhire some pieces of my PA. I gave him a price and he outright agreed (I guess its very reasonable but I really don't know).

How do you ready your gear to be dry hired and then what is the protocol usually for retrieving gear?

Also, for the future, how do you guys usually set prices? How do you base the ROI? Or do you put feelers out and test what the local economy will support? I find every time I do that I end up working my bones to dust for almost minimum wage.
 
I only rent gear to folks I know or are recommended to me by someone I trust.
Most of my gear is in cases. Nothing to prep. Other stuff is supplied in a case or suitcase like thing. I expect things back in the condition it went out.

I price by the number of days of use.
For a theater show it means all the performance days.

I price at 3% of replacement cost for a single day. 2% for multi-day and sometimes a discount for regular customers.



Sent from my iPhone
 
Working order leaving your shop, working order returned to your shop on time on both ends.

DSPs cleared out, digi consoles initialized, Analogue gear zero'd, wireless preprogrammed (an labelled) in default group/channel with a fresh set of batteries ........ All verified working and an emergency contact.

If anything goes 'wrong', you want to know about it rather than if they come back and complain and want to not pay .... If they didn't try to call, why would you refund?

Paperwork detailing what is rented, terms and a replacement price with signatures, along with a copy for the recipient.

Essentially just the way you would expect to pick up gear when you rent ..... Cases, trunks, covers, paperwork, etc

As for ROI, depends on your market, where i am now, there is very little (10%) discount between vendors, yet the last market I was in it was an automatic 1/2 rate out of the gate and prices are all over the place between vendors .... And so does the quality of 'door' service too

BRad
 
Re: My first dryhire

Thanks for everyone's input. It all went swimmingly. Sometimes I forget how nice a pair of Mackie 1530's can be when not driven to their limits by a rock show. I showed up early before the engineer renting from me arrived. Loaded in entirely before he got there.

Showed up before the show ended got some nice creedance covers by a large group of musicians and a middle/high school choir. Then got out of there in less than an hour. Makes me not hate the idea of dry hiring as much.
 
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