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Windy City DJ’s was the name of my local mobile DJ service company based in Phoenix, AZ. At the peak of the company’s success, over 25 mobile DJ’s covered the state of Arizona. Here’s the story from beginning to end.
Since being successful back at my first college in Pennsylvania and having deep appreciation and interest in the field of mobile Disc Jockeys, during my first year in Arizona, as a college student at ASU, a friend of mine that knew someone who owned and operated a small DJ service at the college introduced me. His name was Mike. Mike ran a company named Windy City DJ’s along with two other guys. After spending a few days hanging out with Mike, we became friends. So, I asked him if he'd let me tag along with him to a few events. He said yes. I, of course, was told I must setup and breakdown the equipment, plus load and unload all of the equipment and records in the van before and after the event. This was in exchange for teaching me a few things about becoming a successful mobile DJ. It was a very fair tradeoff. I learned a lot!
I spent about a year with Mike. During that time his other two partners decided to head back to the Windy City itself (Chicago). In addition, Mike was a senior, and he was also planning to move back to Chicago when he graduated. So I purchased half of the equipment the business owned (which Mike's partner's owned) and became Mike's business partner in Windy City DJ's. Eventually, I learned enough to DJ events on my own.
In the summer of 1985, Mike graduated and headed back to Chicago to work at this family's electrical contractor supply business. Mike sold his half of the business to me, and now I was the sole owner of Windy City DJ's. I immediately decided I was going to take this small successful DJ business (at ASU) to the next level. So, I came up with a marketing plan to promote Windy City in greater detail to all of the fraternities and sororities. I printed brochures and new business cards and created a logo to represent the company. I used all of my profits to purchase more equipment. Plus, I hired a few experienced DJ's. Now I was in the position of booking multiple parties in the same night! In less than a year, Windy City DJ's was providing DJ's to most of the ASU fraternities and sororities formals, exchanges, and house parties.
The one downfall to the company was that Mike and his partners only limited Windy City DJ's to ASU college parties. Since I was successful building my college party business and generate a positive cash flow, I decided it was time to expand again. This time I was expanding outside the campus walls to market the business towards weddings, corporate events and High School dances. The challenge was on!
Windy City DJ's quickly got a promotional boost when in mid 1985, when I received five free 30 second commercial spots, weekly, on the local Top 40 radio station, in exchange for providing the equipment and music to a friend (Dave Rajput), who started mixing and producing a weekly Saturday night mix show named "Hot Mix".
The expansion to provide Windy City DJ's services outside of the college walls faired well. Eventually, I had to move into an office and hire a sales manager. So, I poured more money into the company to focus on weddings and corporate events (since that's where the real money is made). A well thought out marketing plan and hiring the best DJ's in town to provide top entertainment to my clients was the #1 priority. In the early 90's, Windy City DJ's was providing it's services (covering all types of events) to the entire state of Arizona and became the largest and most successful DJ company in Arizona. At it's peak in 1997, Windy City (self) employed over 25 DJ's weekly. Windy City billed itself as the "Arizona's #1 entertainment service".
At the end of 1997, I decided to get out of the mobile DJ business to concentrate solely on the Hot Mix Radio Network business. So, I sold Windy City DJ's to a friend and the business hasn't been the same from the day I left. I realize that sounds arrogant, but it's the truth. That’s what happens when the original heart and sole of the business is no longer around.
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