The fee is what gets quoted. The net is what the client lives on.

Take a DJ three years into building a following, sold-out club nights in Manchester, Birmingham, a handful of festival slots. The agent quotes what sounds like a great number: £2,000 for a Saturday headline. Then four of them in a single month.

The headline gross is £8,000. But after flights, a hotel, an agent commission, and a tour manager, that number means something very different, and the adviser's job is to find the figure the client actually banks.