Art, Design and Creative Community Projects
May 2008 (Creativebias)
Holly, who describes herself as an artist - designer is originally from Kendal, but has lived in Liverpool about eight years. Making initial contact through the grassroots community organisation, Lantern Company, she goes to community groups as the lead artist. Holly generates art (for example, puppet life) and works with diverse communities in Liverpool, such as Irish travellers and Arabic groups. Holly also facilitates very popular sessions with children at the Unity Theatre every Saturday morning.
Another example of Holly’s success is her involvement with Southbank TV in London, where (instead of the mundane version of written minutes) she produces ‘visual minutes’ to illustrate meetings. Explaining this activity as a kind of ‘mind mapping’, she provides Southbank TV with graphic records of their decision making process.
So how did her business come about? Art has always been her burning passion. After studying at LIPA (the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) for her degree in Theatre Set Design, Holly worked on several small projects for other people before she spoke to a business advisor who helped her access the New Entrepreneur Scholarship (NES) scheme. Next, she completed the Creativebias Start-Up programme, and self employment and the creation of Red Berry seemed the only way to forward that would allow her to work in her specific field, yet still offer scope for a wide variety of other creative projects.
When asked what business skills she has needed as an entrepreneur, (besides her artistic abilities), Holly says she has focused on setting clear objectives and a long term goal, marketing and putting together her business plan. Being an artist, she was able to visualise and draw her business plan, so that was what she presented for the NES! An advisor there helped her to put it into words. She has also had to work on believing that her own creativity can be sold as a valuable service to others.
In addition, Holly mentions the support she got from Creativebias, particularly in relation to marketing and financial management. She admits that she still needs more practice with generating profit and loss statements, and dreads the boredom of completing her annual Income Tax self-assessment forms! However important these factors may be, Holly insists that good communication skills lie at the centre of her success.
As every would-be entrepreneur knows, marketing is a vital and complex topic. Everyone has responsibility to conduct market research (to understand the market, know the competitors and identify prospective clients), but finding the best advertising strategy depends on the specific business and, to some extent, the entrepreneur’s personality. Holly now has her website up and running, and she also uses brochures and business cards to promote Red Berry. She’s thinking about doing a mail shot, but is aware that it could be costly yet perhaps not reach potential clients. Other new marketing opportunities currently under consideration are through Facebook and MySpace (which she only uses for social contact at the moment), and the VIC portal which has been specifically developed for creative entrepreneurs (funded through the European Union Leonardo Programme) once it goes online!
Holly’s Red Berry is a thriving enterprise, but she hasn’t lost sight of her long term goals. She’s keen to meet European entrepreneurs through the VIC project; travel to share ideas and experiences with other community art groups, and possibly find a business partner within the next three years to share the challenges.
And finally, here are the three things Holly wishes she’d known more about of before starting Red Berry:
Another example of Holly’s success is her involvement with Southbank TV in London, where (instead of the mundane version of written minutes) she produces ‘visual minutes’ to illustrate meetings. Explaining this activity as a kind of ‘mind mapping’, she provides Southbank TV with graphic records of their decision making process.
So how did her business come about? Art has always been her burning passion. After studying at LIPA (the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) for her degree in Theatre Set Design, Holly worked on several small projects for other people before she spoke to a business advisor who helped her access the New Entrepreneur Scholarship (NES) scheme. Next, she completed the Creativebias Start-Up programme, and self employment and the creation of Red Berry seemed the only way to forward that would allow her to work in her specific field, yet still offer scope for a wide variety of other creative projects.
When asked what business skills she has needed as an entrepreneur, (besides her artistic abilities), Holly says she has focused on setting clear objectives and a long term goal, marketing and putting together her business plan. Being an artist, she was able to visualise and draw her business plan, so that was what she presented for the NES! An advisor there helped her to put it into words. She has also had to work on believing that her own creativity can be sold as a valuable service to others.
In addition, Holly mentions the support she got from Creativebias, particularly in relation to marketing and financial management. She admits that she still needs more practice with generating profit and loss statements, and dreads the boredom of completing her annual Income Tax self-assessment forms! However important these factors may be, Holly insists that good communication skills lie at the centre of her success.
As every would-be entrepreneur knows, marketing is a vital and complex topic. Everyone has responsibility to conduct market research (to understand the market, know the competitors and identify prospective clients), but finding the best advertising strategy depends on the specific business and, to some extent, the entrepreneur’s personality. Holly now has her website up and running, and she also uses brochures and business cards to promote Red Berry. She’s thinking about doing a mail shot, but is aware that it could be costly yet perhaps not reach potential clients. Other new marketing opportunities currently under consideration are through Facebook and MySpace (which she only uses for social contact at the moment), and the VIC portal which has been specifically developed for creative entrepreneurs (funded through the European Union Leonardo Programme) once it goes online!
Holly’s Red Berry is a thriving enterprise, but she hasn’t lost sight of her long term goals. She’s keen to meet European entrepreneurs through the VIC project; travel to share ideas and experiences with other community art groups, and possibly find a business partner within the next three years to share the challenges.
And finally, here are the three things Holly wishes she’d known more about of before starting Red Berry:
- Dealing with the lack of financial security do due the nature of freelance self-employment
- Keeping detailed accounts and financial records
- Accessing funding, particularly to travel to other community arts projects
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