Talk about stealing your soul.
I was doing an event in 2007, and as thanks for the job I did, some band stole my wireless accessories(body packs, accessory cables, lavs, headworns) and then picked and chose their way through other mics(stole 2 of 4 SM57's, 1 of 2 SM86's and 1 of 2 SM58's, a Sennheiser e835, 2 of my e609's). Thanks to the stealing of the body packs and lavs and running things so tight to keep things affordable, that one act of theft cost me my entire 2008's corporate events. At $500/ day and 200+ days booked, that WAS good money. Couldn't get any financial help to get replacement body packs and lavs and I'd lose money renting gear, it damn near drove me to bankruptcy.
The promoter's insurance decided that despite a comprehensive policy that included theft, they choose to say it didn't cover theft and I can't sue them(because I'm that broke). My insurance decided to drop me because they decided what I do is too high risk. Wow, and you charge me $300 a month for that? Nice.....
I make sure promoters cover me completely, medical, liability, comprehensive.
Obviously I have good working relations with the promoter, as I am continuing to do his events.
I've been up and down this road. National acts, touring acts, one-offs, tech, system tech work, emergency "fix it" jobs(ranging from gear to entire systems prior to tour starts or early into tours), saving tours from bad engineers(like, zero'ing the console and starting over so their deaf FOH and/of monitor guy has something decent to work with. It's typically the FOH guy with problems). I just decided to stop working for other people and do it myself.
HOWEVER, with a wife who likes to sabotage work and 3 kids, my flexibility is somewhat limited these days!
Yes, my wife sabotages work. If I do a job and it's not enough in her opinion, it's "why didn't you charge more", and if I lose a job then it's "Why did you ask for so much"(it could be the same numbers). She'll also call up clients and try to squeeze more money out of them, which causes cancellations. Now I hide my contracts so she can't contact clients anymore, which helps a lot.
Right now, while I want more and new business, I'm fairly happy with my repeat clients, but it isn't enough work. A multi-day in January, August, September and October. I still want more.
The Sacramento, California area is strange. People want cheap, period. Quality is not even on the list of concerns, or even competence. Or, you have the high-end companies who are willing to spend, but then go with the 2 larger companies than myself and I won't say they are getting screwed, because they aren't, but they could be paying less.