If the facade was part of your image or branding, then it's value is not simply a function of how much you can raise your individual gig price. A $2,000 facade might change your image enough to garner 1-2 additional events . or might bring higher paying customers .. or might set you apart from your competition .. none of which can be directly measured against a price .. but all might impact profit at some point.The low number cost per gig is assumed ONLY if you can actually up sell the add on at every gig, or most gigs moving forward.
I don't see DJs typically providing up lighting at 50 gigs every single year. There might just be years where the gig numbers drop significantly as well.
A $10,000 Up Lighting investment might look more like:
Up Lighting add on to an average of 12 event bookings per year over 6 years (Realistically, the lighting will either need to be replaced in 6 years, or the DJ will likely want to upgrade to better lighting in 6 years)
$10,000/72 event add ons over 6 years = $138 per gig cost when the lights are actually used.
Now higher end lighting would hopefully be added on for $500 or more per event so the profit being made is still very nice.
If I were to purchase a $1,500 façade, and could effectively raise my typical DJ booking price by $150 per event in part due to the visual presentation created by setting the façade up at my events, then yes, the expense was worth the investment over time.
If I can't correlate a raise in profits due to the purchase of the façade, then the façade was effectively just a Toy that I purchased for by DJ business which happens to be a Tax Deduction
It takes a different mentality to look beyond the simple costs ...
