Hopes, dreams and inspiration

An old colleague of mine recently quit her office job and opened up her very own fashion boutique in her local town. Extremely brave!

The boutique is called Retrogue and is located in Huddersfield here in Yorkshire, and they offer unique looking and quite alternative fashion pieces for both women and men. Each style is only available in a small quantity to ensure exclusivity.

I mean… I am so jealous! Having your own business must be so amazing, yet extremely scary! People who have started up their own business say it all starts with a great idea, and that they hadn’t even thought of if becoming a business at first. It’s not like you sit down one day and think to yourself “I’m going to start up a business! What shall it be?”, but that would be the backwards way to go about it.

I’ve always been artistic and crafty, and a couple of years ago when I took a silver smithing course at Leeds College of Art to create my own jewellery, I was dreaming about becoming a talented silver smith and one day opening up my own unique jewellery shop. But it stopped at just that – dreaming about it.

However, when I blogged about the silver rings I had created I started getting emails from people asking if they could buy them off me, and the same has happened before when it comes to my art. I have taken special orders from people before wanting a certain piece of art – a portrait of their child, or something to hang in their bedroom, but I always thought of it as just a hobby.

I am working with online marketing and therefore sit in an office all day. I would absolutely love to have my own business one day, even if it’s together with someone else. Myself and my sister always joke about starting up a salon for hair dressing and other treatments, but who knows… one day this might actually happen.

I wouldn’t personally know where to begin when it comes to starting up your own business, but there are plenty of companies out there that can help. One of them is Virgin StartUp, who will help you get a government backed loan, free business advice, and a mentor to guide you through the different stages of your business start-up. And don’t be afraid that they’re going to think your business idea is too creative – two of their latest backed up businesses involve chocolate and lingerie. (Not together, although, that would have been a sight…)