Making good on all those promises
Since I began writing Sound Sanctuary, I often claim that I will get back to you on the results or the effect of a particular plan or project. Well, my friends, this is the month that I will make good on all my promises and catch you up on all the things I have written about. There is one small thing, in order for you to get the most out of this article, you will have to be familiar with the subjects I have been covering over these last months here at FOH. If you are not, you can check out the archive of issues at fohonline.com.
Training the Faithful
OK, let’s start with a piece called “Training the Faithful.” Every time I bid an installation job at a church, I include in my bid the training on the new gear and for sound training in general for the staff and/or volunteers. As part of my regular income, I mix at some church every Sunday. It occurred to me, however, that I could possibly be training myself out of a job. As it has turned out, I have trained myself out of a lot of my Sundays, but at many churches, I am now considered the expert sound guy. So, when these various churches have a special event, they call on my services. Special events always pay much more than a regular worship service, and they can fall on any day of the week. In the long run, by spending time training the people at the different houses of worship, I have increased my standing and income at these churches.
A while back, I was dabbling with the acoustic treatment of a couple of worship spaces, especially one at a small church in Newport Beach, Calif. This was a basement space in the church (roughly 20 feet by 40 feet), and the walls were concrete block. I furred out the walls with ripped-down 2 x 4s (they ended up 1_ x 2_), fastened them to the concrete block walls with redheads and glued in installed sound bats. Obviously, this was a construction job and something that may be very foreign to sound guys. I also pulled some extra electrical from a subpanel in the basement and ran new plugs into the furred-out walls. This all got covered with 5/8” drywall and painted. A very durable sisal carpet was installed, and we were done. The room was never prewired for sound, though I thought it should have been. The church leaders wanted to use the room for a youth space and planned on bringing in a portable sys-tem. At any rate, the space sounded a lot better, and the project was a success.
Multiplying Your Business
In the “Multiplying Your Business” article, I was visiting various houses of worship in my area during their worship services and just listening to their sound systems. If I thought that my services could be an asset to any of these locations, I spoke with the pastor or somebody in authority after the service. This method has not been very fruitful. I have found that there is a certain amount of distrust when I (a stranger) suggest that a particular sound system needs improvement, and that I should be the one doing the improving. So far, word of mouth has proven to be a much more powerful form of advertising for my business. But there are so many houses of worship near my home; I can visit a new one, week after week after week.
Taking God on the Road
In “Taking God on the Road,” I wrote about my experiences mixing live sound and doing roadwork with a gospel band, Firm Soundation. The group’s leader, Ray Sidney, and I have become friends over the last few months. As a result of working with Ray and his band, I have done some additional roadwork with other gospel/worship bands. This has turned out to be a ton of fun and very lucrative. My only challenge is scheduling shows around my other work. Working with choral bands, I have really sharpened my ability to mix a lot of singers with a wide variety of vocal tonality. This has also given me an improved ear for voices in general, which helps when I am choosing a particular microphone to use on an unusual voice. The whole “going on the road with a worship band” has opened my eyes to some very new and great experiences.
Getting Paid
I believe it was last year when I wrote about not getting paid in the worship biz. This was a fairly difficult piece for me to work on — mainly because I have spent my life looking for the good in the people who I work with. Nobody wants to think that someone who worships God will write you a bad check. But it happens, so the end result has simply been a different approach when working with churches — and all other types of organizations for that matter. The biggest change I have made is to simply make my communication and my expectations as clear as possible. If I win the bid on an install, I ask for a deposit that will cover all of my material costs. Therefore, I only have my labor costs on the line. The first time I supply a live sound system for a house of worship, or anybody for that matter, I ask for cash or a cashier’s check before I unload the truck. Once I have established a working relationship with the organization, I am willing to be a little more flexible. So far this seems to be working well.
I think that brings us up to date folks. Of course, if I missed something you would like me to expand upon, just send me an e-mail.
Contact Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com.
