Lighting rig hire prices?

[Louis sullivan NLS]

I am starting to hire out lighting equipment to my local am-dram, just wondering the prices people would pay for:

 

Strand Quartet PC/ fresnel +barndoor

 

Strand Prelude 16/30

 

Strand Prelude 28/40

 

Strand Harmony 22

 

Strand Cantata 26/44

 

Strand cantata PC/ fresnel

 

CCT starlette 1Kw PC/f +barndoor

 

CCT minuette Fresnel+ barndoors

 

Par64

 

Zero88 alcora

 

Pulsar 3way mini packs + level 6 desk (kit)

[cfmonk]

I am starting to hire out lighting equipment to my local am-dram, just wondering the prices people would pay for:

 

Strand Quartet PC/ fresnel +barndoor

 

Strand Prelude 16/30

 

Strand Prelude 28/40

 

Strand Harmony 22

 

Strand Cantata 26/44

 

Strand cantata PC/ fresnel

 

CCT starlette 1Kw PC/f +barndoor

 

CCT minuette Fresnel+ barndoors

 

Par64

 

Zero88 alcora

 

Pulsar 3way mini packs + level 6 desk (kit)

 

www.henleytheatre.com

 

I pay those prices less a bit of a discount.

 

Chris

[Pete McCrea]

Well, if your starting to run a business, which you are infering that your doing by saying that "starting to hire out lighting equipment to my local am-dram, just wondering the prices people would pay", then there are a few things that you'll need to do to help calculate the price that you charge.

 

1) Cost of Insurance - do you want to cover your equipment with insurance against loss or damage? If so this will cost. You'll need to make sure you get the cash back for this. Also Public liability cover. If you are providing a service to someone, and proceed to kill them whilst doing so, then you might want an insurance policy to help cover the potential several £M pound law suit that would be on your tail.

2) Time taken for completing Tax returns etc that running a business includes. Because if your making money from this, then you need to tell HMRC. So you'll need to keep accounts up to speed, and this takes time, which again hiring the kit pays for.

3) Testing- if your hiring it out then you have obligations to provide safe equipment that satisfies the relevant legislation and acts in the UK. So PUWER (Google it...) says something along the lines that all electrical equipment must be safe, and there must be systems in place to cover this. People frequently use the Portable Appliance test as one method to do this. How will you do it?

 

Once you've had a think about all those things, then have a google for your local competition and see what they charge. Use these as a good starting point, and it also means that should you need to hire an extra lantern, you can go to them, negotiate a bit of discount, pass it on to your client and make a small % to cover the cost of organising the sub hire.

 

If you decide to go cheaper, then you can find it hard to keep it sustainable, as well as issues with the subhire. You also run the risk of pissing off the other hire co's locally, which may harm your reputation, and make getting good prices hard. A large chunk of the industry works on relationships, so keeping them good is key.

 

HTH

[tokm]

Best suggestion is to just look around local hire companies website and work out an average..

 

IMO (and experience), non of the lanterns bar perhaps the Cantata Fresnels & Starlette's (if they're coming with Barndoors) should cost more than £6.00 a week and something around £7.50/£8 for the 1k fresnels w/Bdoors.

 

The desk.. £25.00. The dimmers maybe £8.00 each.. with a set of (you don't say how many you have) 2 for example plus a little 6way controller for no more than £20.00.

 

I work very much on a price per job, with only rough value's for kit in my head. A job'll come in, be it just hire or production as well, I'll sit down and work out a quote based on how much of what type of kit it is, how well do I know the client, will I have to sub-hire any of it in that week, will I/we make money back in other area's (crewing/consumables) to offset a lower price for the gear.. thus allowing me to put more on the job). So pricelist doesn't really suit me, perhaps thats something to think about for the work you get?

 

Rather than a set list of x amount for this and y amount for that, let them send you a list of what they want, consider any other factors (will you have to deliver it, rig/derig it, op' it) and then work out a price you think is fair.

 

Just my way of looking at it. HTH.

 

T

 

Edit/Addition - Definitely 2nd Pete's comments.. Was going to add some similar comments, but thought I'd focus more directly on what prices should be/how much I'd pay for them.

[greenalien]

Don't forget to factor in the cost of replacement lamps for your hire stock - The more you move them around, the more they'll need to have the lamps replaced. Do you have padded flight cases for everything? Do you have a stock of replacement lamps to hand so that you can instantly repair any luminaire that needs it? Remember that your customer will expect everything to remain functional throughout the hire.

[StNic54]

Look at the cost to run the business, the margin of profit you'll need to survive, the competitor's prices, and the radius you wish to cover. So much of it is about networking, but your prices can't be too low - you don't want to lose money and you don't want to be cheap unless you deliver cheap end results. Also, different clients will pay different amounts, depending on the length of the show, how busy you are, and the availability of manpower. If you are slammed, you'll be able to charge premium prices - if times are tough, you'll need to underbid the competition. Ultimately, you'll need to develop strong bonds with your clients, and that will drive your business. Good Luck!