“Can you lend me some money dad?”
We are standing outside Louise’s bedroom and she tells me that she wants to put on a gig.
“I will if you can show me how I’m going to get it back” I tell her. Off she goes and comes back later with a page setting out what she needs to spend – deposit for the venue, cash up front for the sound engineer, cost of flyers, and what she expects to get on the door. I am impressed and cough up the required cash.
Nevertheless I am very proud of her when the day after the event she pulls a wad of tenners out of her jeans and pays me back. I was pretty amazed that the venue, Egg, would even rent itself out to a 16 year old but I guess she did not tell them!
Other gigs followed including the successful ‘Indie Speed Dating’ night at Nambucca. A pair of my shoes featured on the flyer for that one. She did have one upset when she ran an event at Madame JoJos in Soho.
“It’s all the fault of that stupid person on the door” she tells me. Bands and DJs had been booked but nearly everyone who came told the door that they were on the guest list and got in without paying. I bailed her out and she then dutifully paid me back a bit at a time out of future profits. After a few months I let her off the balance but a good lesson in entrepreneurship was learned!
