COVID-19 pandemic has created a very uncertain times for my business. Let me start from the beginning...
About Us..
3 years ago I started my company called Portsmouth Party DJ, my aim was to bring affordable entertainment to families in my community. As a father myself I understood the difficulty in entertaining children through the holidays and the financial strain that birthday parties could have on many households.
I worked so hard making sure that I had everything in place, all insurances, the best equipment and re-investing every penny so I could give better experiences at the same affordable price. We even started ticketed family events across the city (POPKIDS) and started expanding to other nearby cities. Over the years we have supported many charities, organising fundays, donating our time for bullied children to attend a safe party where they can meet others in their position, donating our time to schools who didn't have the funding to put on school discos, so we made it possible for their PTA to give the children a disco they can remember for a lifetime. We believe that with the foundations we have set and the reputation we had grown from nothing that we created a business that would stand the test of time.
Since The Outbreak..
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, bringing in the closure of all pubs, clubs and community centres we have had to cancel ALL mobile work between now and the end of August. We have also had to postpone all ticketed popkids and adult events we had planned. We had already invested all the ticket money (plus more) into making sure these events were amazing.
With the business growth last year we invested into an office where we would plan and run all our events, also investing into printing equipment to enable us to print all fliers, posters and advertising materials in house.
So far we have explored every avenue to be able to access government funds to keep our business afloat during these hard times, to find out we are not eligible for any help (mostly due to the fact our offices have built in rates to our rent) which has led us here, to crowd funding, to asking for your help to keep our heads above water until the ban gets lifted and we can continue to trade like before.
What would we use the money for?
Firstly we would pay our rent till August in order for us not to loose the office so we can continue to use the printing equipment. This is an avenue we can use in order to turn over something rather than nothing. Without the office we simply have no option but to move out and close the business.
Secondly we would be able to continue to pay our financial commitments, this includes storage, equipment finance, Refunds for anyone not wanting to move their tickets over to new dates and other business running costs.
We are only asking for what we need to keep us going until August. Any extra we will make sure it goes back into the community one way or another.
We are not out to get something for nothing, we would like to thank everyone who is willing to donate, so please check out our rewards page.
Please help keep small businesses alive!