My First Business was Wild, Sweaty and Exciting

When you hear the word business most of us think suits, meetings, budgeting, tech startups and so on. It has a very serious ring to it. 

My first business was anything BUT serious. It was the most fun I ever had in my life (up until that point) and I didn't even realize I had started my first business at the time. 

But let's back up a bit. Back when I was 22 I had no desire to start a business. I've only heard about other people starting businesses... and failing. This aspect of business had put me off big time from ever attempting to start a business of my own. 

So how did a guy, who had no interest in business, unknowingly start a successful business?

It all started on a warm summer afternoon. My friend, Johannes, and I sat outside in a park enjoying the sun and a couple of lukewarm beers. 

We eventually started talking about our favorite nightclub, KB. Or it had been our favorite place... 

KB had been around for ages. My mom used to go there when she was young. That's how old the club was! It proudly announced, "Rock n' Roll Club" at the entrance of the club. 

Me and Johannes had enjoyed many late nights there. One of the reasons we loved going there was because of the music! They used to play all the indie rock hits and classics all night. It was the only nightclub in town that was all about indie rock!

But things took a turn for the worse... as the club gained in popularity the music slowly started to change. To appeal to the "new crowd" more mainstream music was played! KB slowly started to feel like all the other clubs in town. 

As we talked about KB one of us uttered: "Somebody should start a new club. A real indie rock club"...

Johannes jokingly said: "Maybe we should do it..." 

I sat quietly for a few seconds thinking about what he had just said:

"Why not. Think about it... how much would it actually cost to arrange something ourselves". 

Johannes knew a guy who could rent us a space in a basement. The guy also had a permit to serve alcohol. All we now needed was a sound system and nightclub lighting. 

We told friends about our project and the response was overwhelmingly positive. 

Now we HAD to do it! We decided on a date and booked the space. We found the equipment we needed but it would cost us all the money we had. At the time I was taking a sabbatical year from university and was working a minimum wage job i.e. I was broke.

I was so excited about turning this idea into a reality that I didn't care about the risk! I was willing to gamble it all. 

I announced that I would be the DJ, despite the fact that I'd never DJed in my life! I started training at home during the weeks leading up to the opening night.

We named the club "Le Fou". It's French, meaning the fool or madman. Which would turn out to be a fitting name for how the club turned out. 

We emailed every newspaper in town about our event. We printed hundreds of flyers and put them up all over town. We told all our friends about the event. Heck, we told anyone we would meet about the event!

We managed to convince two friends to volunteer (since we had no money to pay them). One as a bartender and the other working in the wardrobe. 

Weeks passed and the night finally arrived. I will never forget sitting in the middle of the dance floor eating pizza (which I had bought with my very last money) across from Johannes. I can't remember being so nervous up until this point in my life. But at the same time excited. 

"The calm before the storm"

I couldn't believe what was about to happen as the opening hour approached. I took my position in the DJ both. I started blasting out the finest indie rock music across the dance floor in preparation for the doors to be opened. 

The countdown had begun. We were minutes away from executing our dreams of running our very own indie rock nightclub! The excitement in the room was tangible. 

The door opened AND....nothing. There was nobody waiting outside. 

I was playing the setlist that I had rehearsed for weeks to an empty dancefloor. 

30 minutes passed and 3 of my friends stumbled onto the dancefloor... drunk out of their minds. 

"Great party Nic", they shouted at me as they laughed and walked over to the bar. 

My heart sank. I had spent all my money to basically entertain my 3 friends. 

BUT THEN, what seemed like a miracle at the time happened!

"You won't believe this", Johannes shouted at me. 

"There is cue forming outside", he continued.

"Guests finally arriving!"

Just as he finished his sentence the first few people started coming into the dancefloor. Soon a steady stream of people made their way into the club.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing! 

The dance floor filled up within the next hour, and soon, people were queuing to get in. We had reached the full capacity of the space. 

I remember the vibe of that night was unlike any other nightclub. People really let loose! People took off their shirts on the dancefloor, drinks were spilled everywhere, and the energy was through the roof. 

People kept coming up to me and making requests. At some points during the night, it got a bit overwhelming. I felt exhausted dealing with my DJ set and all the drunk people constantly coming up to me. 

Some girls even made their way into the DJ booth wanting to "hang out." It was wild! 

"Me trying to DJ while being pestered by girls... ugh"

"Success!"

At the night's end, we knew we had created something special and that the club had to go on! 

Once we closed down the club, we quickly cleaned out the place. Then, we sat down and counted the money from the register. We had made a profit! It wasn't huge, but non the less we had more money than we had before the event. 

We wasted no time and took a cab to the nearest club that was still open and splashed most of our profits on cheap beers and ciders. 

I remember feeling high from the experience that night. It was a rush to experience success like that on our first event, especially after weeks of anticipation and doubt about whether anyone would even show up. 

After our initial success, more people wanted to work with us. We now split the costs between 6 people instead of 2 for the coming events making it easier for us financially. 

We continued running the club successfully for 6 months straight before we decided to take a break! Unfortunately, the club is on a break to this very day. 

At the time I didn't realize it. I had successfully started my first business. Little did I know it was one of many to come. 

The point of the story is to illustrate what starting a business can look like! 

Many people don't think they are cut out for business. I was one of those people. At the time, I didn't see what value I could bring through a business. All I liked to do was go out clubbing and listening to music. 

The two advantages I had here were:

1. I liked going out clubbing; hence I knew the local club scene very well in my town
2. I loved listening to music. Not only that, but I also composed music. I was immersed in music every single day. Music was my life, and I knew which bands were hot on the indie music scene. 

Ask yourself, what am I good at? What do I like? 

Is there something you are missing that you would like to see? 

Why not create it yourself?

Tim Ferriss talks about the concept of "scratching your own itch". This means that you create something YOU want, something you feel is missing.

Most likely, there will be other people feeling the same way. 

Business doesn't have to be scary. On the contrary, it can be a lot of fun! 

For my next blog post, I will tell you about my second business which taught me why you should never let any of your friends invest money in your business. Let's just say things got pretty crazy... Stay tuned for that.