The Prince Guide to Using What You Got
A few weeks ago I was listening to an interview on Radio 6 music with Susan Rogers, the sound engineer of Princes’ masterpiece ‘Sign O’ the Times.’
Released in 1987, ‘Sign O’ the Times’ is a tour de force of an album that gained critical acclaim, commercial success and inspired countless other artists.
Susan Rogers was describing the recording of her favourite track on the album ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.’
It was the first song to be recorded in Princes’ newly built home studio, but a power outage during installation caused a technical problem which resulted in the song sounding somewhat dull and murky.
Rogers noticed the music sounded flat, but didn’t want to interrupt Prince who was known for preferring to just get the work out when he was in full creative flow.
At the end of the day he said he was happy with the way the recording went, then made the offhand comment, ‘But it sounds kinda dull.’
So he had noticed the flaws, but decided to embrace them.
As Rogers pointed out in the interview ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’ is about a dream, so that dull, flat quality fits perfectly as it gives the song an otherworldly vibe.
Part of Princes’ genius was that he was able to take what was available in the moment and work with it to achieve something amazing.
He was responding to the working conditions and he was using what he had. Not waiting until engineers came in and fixed the problem. No! He cracked on and got his job done. And maybe even created something better than if conditions had been ‘ideal.’
A lot of budding entrepreneurs and small businesses when they start out they see what the ‘big boy’s have: fancy branding and marketing collateral, and think ‘I need to have all that right now too!’
They splurge money they don’t have trying to copy businesses with deeper pockets and bigger budgets.
Or worse, put off cracking on with their business until they can afford a brand new website or fancy logo.
Now I agree, when you have the money to invest in these things, you should. But when you don’t immediately have the resources to hand to copy what businesses further along the road than you have, don’t fret. You have plenty of resources in yourself to e.g. set up a simple free WordPress website, make a simple logo on Canva or write your own content.
And you should because you might just find you are able to meet your short term business goals.
Then you can enlist a professional service to take it to the next level.
Which is why I am offering you my FREE downloadable PDF ‘5 Steps to Great Web Copy: A Guide for Small Businesses’ when you sign up to my regular email newsletter.
You will learn:
How to focus in on your target market and keep your website relevant.
How to write about your business in a way that’s meaningful to your audience.
The most common mistake when writing about your business.
How getting clear with your objectives sets you way ahead of the pack.
The tried and true formulas that won’t stifle your creativity.
The most important word in marketing.
You don’t need to be a genius like Prince, but you do need to be willing to roll your sleeves up and get to work.
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