1. THE ART OF BEING A MUM

Motherhood has always been about caring, nurturing and spending quality time with your children, and for the lucky few who have supportive partners with well paid jobs this ideal is entirely achievable, but for mothers who have a financial responsibility to their household, its a fine balancing act, and there are some tough emotional decisions to be made when the maternity money runs out and the wrench of leaving your little one to return to work becomes a reality.

The best balance is part-time working, and a lot of employers are giving their staff this option, allowing new mums to return to work on their choice of reduced hours, but for some companies this is just not a feasible option and women are faced with the choice of leaving their child full-time in the care of a stranger or resigning their job altogether and facing major financial headaches.

One answer is to work from home and set up your own business. It sounds easy if you say it really fast, but for some people it can be a realistic possibility. Taken one step at a time and with the right support then its not as daunting as it first appears and can offer a real solution.

One Derbyshire mum, with a son under two years, has recently taken this plunge and benefited from advice and support from the Focusing Creativity Course.

Linda Wild of “Wild Ideas original graphic design” attended the course held in Belper in September 2007. Linda made some great connections on the course and was even able to trade skills with other delegates, supporting each other and establishing long term business links and friendships. “By helping each other out we can cancel out some of the costs of starting out in business as well as establishing links whereby we can pass on work to each other in the future”.

Wild Ideas ideal market is new businesses who are just setting themselves up,  Wild Ideas design a whole range of graphics projects from logos and business stationery to large exhibition banners.

It is early days for Linda, but she has made a commitment to herself and is making a go of it. She is achieving the goal of working from home with the flexibility that allows her to spend Wednesday morning at the baby group being a mum and Friday afternoon in the office being a business woman.

Details for Wild Ideas can be found at www.lindawildideas.co.uk

2. CREATIVE BEGINNNINGS

A 4000 mile gap, 3 years and two resignations later, stood in a kitchen, two friends stand reunited, it had begun.

‘Now what?’, ‘Hmm, cup of Tea?’

Adam Gorrill and Dave Owens had just taken the first step to undertake a new challenge; to turn there ideas into successful businesses.

Coming fresh out of University and going straight into a career is the route for many graduate students, as it was for Dave Owens.  With his enthusiasm and drive he set out to climb the career ladder, landing a job for a dream company. Adam Gorrill on the other hand, took a different route from University where they first met.  He also followed a dream; to be a snowboard instructor.  He achieved his goal and spent several glorious years travelling the world and following the winter seasons and living the snow lifestyle.

However, they both wanted a new challenge, a huge challenge and the rewards that would come with it.  They decided to cut all forms of retreat and channel there talents, drive, big ideas and every last penny into successful businesses.

As time and money was against them, they needed to hit the ground running, and running fast, but where to start?  With no real business experience or knowledge behind them, only ideas, talents and drive, they needed real business guidance and knowledge fast.

Their starting point was found, they met with an Adviser from Derbyshire Business Link and in their words “found the missing pieces to the business puzzle that needed to take there ideas and turn them into successful businesses”.

Their advisor referred them to the Focusing Creativity project and with the support and information they gained there has been no stopping them!

It is early days for Adam and Dave, there have been many ups and downs however things are really beginning to come together, currently working on building several companies under the umbrella of Marcy Madison Ltd. and chasing contracts across the world.

They say “The hardest step so far was to take the first one. “

Details for Marcy Maddison Ltd can be found at

or email hello@marcymadison.com

3. An Artist with a Passion and a Focus

Rob Kinsey is an artist with a passion for the sport of motocross, defining himself on his website as ‘motocross racer, fan and award-winning artist’.

Art and sport have been important to Rob for many years. He qualified as a technical illustrator in the 1970’s and his artwork has developed in parallel with his participation in motocross. He competed in the British Motocross Championships from 1977 to 1981 and still rides in Vintage Motocross events.

He specialises in painting with acrylic on canvas and produces high quality prints using the Giclée process, which ensures that the colours do not fade over time.

“They are all painted with a passion,” says Rob, and he combines his passions for art and motocross with business acumen. He sells pen and ink drawings, prints and original artworks through his e-commerce website to a world-wide customer base of riders, fans and motocross businesses.

To help make his creative enterprise even more successful, Rob attended a business development course close to his home in Derbyshire, England. The ‘Focusing Creativity’ workshops helped Rob and other creative entrepreneurs to devise business strategies which combine their creative talents with smart business thinking.

“I went on the course feeling that I should diversify my range of artwork away from just motocross because I felt vulnerable by having all my eggs in one basket,” said Rob. However, by the end of the course, after having considered a range of factors such as his competitive advantage, market segmentation and pricing strategies, Rob decided that his best option was to play to his strengths and focus on motocross art. “The course encouraged me to focus on what I’m passionate about and to capitalise on my position in the world of motocross” said Rob. “The message I came away with was ‘Believe in yourself and don’t worry about only working in a niche market – simply become the best motocross artist in the world!’ from the aptly named Focusing Creativity course” said Rob.

Despite being a one-person enterprise, Rob’s business strategy is similar to that of some of the biggest corporations. Jim Collins identified that the most consistently successful companies use the ‘Hedgehog Concept’. (The hedgehog is supremely good at one defensive position, and it survives by sticking to its winning strategy.) Businesses using the Hedgehog Strategy have identified the one thing at which they can be world-beaters. This results from an objective understanding of what you can be best in the world at combined with the thing you are deeply passionate about.

This focused strategy worked. Within a year he was appointed as the ‘Official Artist to the 2007 Motocross de Nations’ in Maryland, USA. This accolade will give him the opportunity to exhibit and sell his works of art in the VIP and Press buildings at the event, which is the ideal marketplace at the very heart of this international sport.

Rob Kinsey has achieved world-class status by focusing on his niche market, concentrating on his specialist creativity and being driven by his passion.

More About Rob Kinsey Art

4. “Revitalised and Ready to Go”

The Focusing Creativity Programme was good timing for my business and it was a crucial turning point for us.

My company, FirstImpression, a complete marketing communications agency, has been in operation for 13 years yet in 2006 was experiencing a decline in its key market – internal and external company newsletters. We had established a good reputation with a handful of blue chip clients and achieved steady growth over a period of ten years. Our key weakness was the reliance on too few customers which was exacerbated when the printed newsletter market began to decline. We needed to establish new markets and developed emailshot, an email marketing platform to maximise the growth in electronic communications. Our challenge was not to panic and where to focus our efforts for immediate and maximum effect.

The Focus Creativity Programme offered a good resolution for me as it gave me valuable time out of the office to concentrate purely on my business planning. It put me through a practical programme of workshops to look at what we wanted to achieve and how to get there. Focus Creativity doesn’t give you the answers and those expecting answers will be disappointed. What it does is empower you to find the answers by asking the right questions. The workshops are very practical with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and it was obvious that the programme was flexible to the participants, pitching it at the right level for their needs. A lot of the people on our programme had been in business for a while so it was good that we could cover the basics very quickly.

Focus Creativity has helped me produce a new revitalised business plan, one that is already working. Instead of declining with its shrinking market, First Impression has been able to focus on new areas and has come out of the situation considerably stronger as a result. Now with a High Street presence in Glossop, First Impression has taken on two new graphic designers, bought a Printing.com franchise and has put in place growth plans for the next 5 years. But it doesn’t stop there, First Impression understands the value of continually looking at your plans, at your position and re-evaluating and changing if necessary. To help keep us on that track I’ve signed up for further mentoring from Joy Revell, the mentor I met on Focus Creativity.

Helen Duncan
First Impression
01457 857111
www.firstimpression.co.uk