Being Resourceful In The New Business

With my equipment and record collection I was ready to conquer the world. Word soon got around in the neighbourhood that I was available for bookings and I didn’t have to wait too long. Being resourceful in the new business was essential for it to grow.

1979 kicked off with 2 bookings in the first tow months, that may not seem a lot but if you think about it, it was twice as many as the whole of the previous year. Both bookings were for birthdays, one for a friend and one was mine.

These early discos I kept to a play list within reason, I’m a great believer in planning and organisation, without it, I’m lost. Both gigs were well received, probably about 30 people attended each of them and my confidence was increasing. At the end of each gig I also wrote up what had happened which helped for future discos.

Forgot to mention, I had also bought a mic so I did a bit of intro too. That bit was the one thing that probably worried me as I was looked upon as being a bit shy so I was pushing myself out of the comfort zone. However, after saying that I was getting a real buzz from doing it, you could say addicted.

It wasn’t long before the local church had caught wind of the budding DJ/Entrepreneur and I was approached to do regular discos in the church hall. This could hold about 200 people and at the time it was a BIG thing. A deal was brokered that the profits would be split 50/50, to me that was a lot of money, in today’s equivalent it would be about £250 each for a nights work.

I had reasonability for ticket distribution and general promotion. Bearing in mind I was in the VIth Form I had identified my ticket distribution system as people of similar age and mind throughout the schools in Plymouth. Fortunately I had some creative friends too. One in particular, Ken Leake who was inspirational at writing quite bizarre posters and adding some wonderful artwork. It had to be different because I was different, whilst many of my friends were planning social weekend’s pubbing and clubbing my focus was on planning the ‘next Freak Show’.

On top of Ken’s creative ability with the posters which were distributed throughout our network, he had also come up with a novel way of printing tickets. If we went to a ‘proper printer’ it would have cost an arm and a leg. Ken had managed to find some old floor lino which he carefully etched out the ‘Freak Show’ logos for the front of the ticket. It was all labour intensive and took hours, but the costs were minimal and meant we had ended up with a unique product which was recognisable.

All of these experiences drew on being resourceful in the new business and using the imagination, not only was is fun to do but I was learning how to run a business on a shoestring and create interest that would last for years in my new business.