6 XPONORTH SOURCING


When a dream


Starting a business can be daunting, especially when that’s what you teach other people


BY WILLIAM PEAKIN


It was going to be the ultimate test of Patricia van den Akker’s role as a business adviser, trainer, coach and mentor, who declares on her website: “I am passionate about seeing people grow and develop, turning dreams into wonderful businesses or careers.” Could she turn her idea – a book,


funded by a Kickstarter campaign, about starting a business - into a reality? Imagine the schadenfreude if the cam- paign did not meet its target - or worse; it succeeded and she failed to deliver. Van den Akker runs an online business school for craftspeople, The Design Trust, working with business owners, university graduates and craft networks, and specialises in advising on business planning, marketing, busi- ness modelling, selling, social media, costing and pricing and other aspects of building a business. When we speak, she has just spent


time with eight new makers from Scotland, taking them around galleries during London Craft Week. It was an initiative organised by Emergents, XpoNorth’s Craft, Fashion and Textiles Network.


10 May 2017


turns true “The idea [of a book] had been bub-


bling for a while,” said van den Akker. “Then for last year’s XpoNorth, I had been asked by Emergents to do some work on crowd funding, interviewing people in the craft sector who had used it successfully, which resulted on an e-book, and I thought: ‘Hm, I’ve got this idea for a book and I’ve gained all this knowledge about crowd funding; perhaps I can combine the two.’ “The idea behind Dream Plan Do is,


first to think bigger and more strategi- cally by setting big annual goals,” said van den Akker, “thought-provoking exercises and questions to uncover your real motivations and aspirations, and work on different aspects of your business each month. Then there is the ‘Plan’; how you will get from where you are now to where you want to be. And then the ‘Do’; doing the right things at the right time of the year with 12 consecutive monthly themes that build on each other.” The concept - comprising the book,


a wall planner and a club “for creative professionals from across the world who want to join an online community of like-minded people who are working on their creative business through- out 2017” – was conceived over the summer and the funding campaign was launched on Kickstarter in early October. “I knew, being a year-based book, that it would have to go out in December - therefore I knew that meant doing the campaign in October, which didn’t give me a lot of time!”


“What have I done? Me and my big mouth” Patricia van den Akker


Van den Akker wrote the first three


chapters of the book and had proto- types printed. In early September, she commissioned a short film for her Kickstarter page, worked on a market- ing campaign and wrote the rest of the book during September and October. When the Kickstarter campaign went live, van den Akker thought to herself: “What have I done? Me and my big mouth.” One in four Kickstarter cam- paigns fail, and if you don’t reach 30% to 40% of your target – van den Akker


had set hers at £12,000 – within the first few days you become that statistic. But, by the end of November, she had sold had sold 650 books and raised more than £27,000. Buy- ers were located all over the world; Europe, America, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Dubai and Brazil. Since the end of the campaign, after setting up a website, she has sold another 600, and despite it being based on 2017 orders still trickle in. A Facebook group has been established,


creating a new global business network for craftspeople. Van den Akker is now working


on the 2018 edition and is looking at spin-off ideas. She has also been approached by publishers. “Yes, I did think: ‘Me and my big mouth’, but it has meant that a lot of people have said: ‘You really know what you are talking about because you actually have done it’. And now I’m seeing people develop their own businesses because of it, and that’s wonderful.”


Showcasing the vibrancy of creative businesses Genuine


A growing contribution to the economy across the Highlands and Islands


BY FIONA CHAUTARD


As well as its excellent programme for music and film, XpoNorth this year will host one of its largest programmes for fashion, textiles and craft. Building on the success of previous years, the programme includes professional panels, workshops and an exhibition showcasing the vibrancy of the creative businesses in these sectors and their growing contribution to the economy across the Highlands and Islands. Recognised as an area that nurtures


its creative talent, the Highlands and Islands is home to some of the most outstanding and successful creative businesses. Emergents,, XpoNorth’s Craft, Fashion and Textiles Network, estimate that there are approximately 350 crafts, fashion and textiles busi- nesses in the region. An evaluation made in 2013 into Highlands and


Islands Enterprise support for the creative industries highlighted key successes, helping put the region on the map as a creative centre. The XpoNorth programme is part of


a larger professional support pro- gramme which is available uniquely to designers and makers in the Highlands and Islands throughout the year. The focus is to nurture creative talent and creative businesses through general and specific support including mentor- ing, training, advice and networking. This support is provided by XpoNorth Crafts, Fashion and Textiles through Emergents which is funded by HIE (through European ERDF funds) and is a key part of HIE’s support strategy for the creative industries in the High- lands and Islands. The networking offered by XpoNorth is an invaluable resource for businesses which are operating in sometimes very isolated rural commu- nities and includes not just partici- pation in programmed networking events, but also the opportunity to con- nect with other like minded business owners and creatives in an informal setting, a unique aspect of being a busi-


of Highlands and Islands and Icelandic designers and makers to talk, explore collaborate and inspire one another. Coming together earlier in the


year at the Icelandic Design festival, Design March, in Reykjavik, the group are showcasing their work at XpoNorth as well as participating in a panel discussion, Exploring Icelandic Markets, and meeting up informally to exchange ideas and investigate one another’s location, environment, influ- ences, skills, experience, materials and techniques. This year’s panel sessions include


A design by Doppelganger, one of the companies from Iceland taking part in XpoNorth


ness based in this part of Scotland. XpoNorth provides a platform for the designers to get together and to discuss what matters to them and the development of their creative business. This year the programme includes an international collaboration with Ice- land, bringing together a diverse group


focused discussions on topics which are important to the growing com- munity of professional designers and makers based in the Highlands and Islands and beyond. They include; panels on manufacturing and making, new approaches to crowd-funding, colour psychology and building your Instagram profile.


Fiona Chautard is a creative business coach and will be chairing the panel session ‘It’s all about Making’ at 10am on Wednesday 7 June at La Scala Cinema, Inverness


collaboration


Creative industry networks in the Highlands and Islands have “gone from strength to strength without a doubt,” said Donna Chisholm, Regional Head of Sectors, Innovation and Programmes, at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which along with the European regional Development Fund and Creative Scotland funds XpoNorth. “They have been very innovative and we have a genuine col- laboration.” According to a 2013 external evalu-


ation of the economic impact of HIE’s investment in creative industries, there is a return of £9 for every £1 spent by the agency (an updated assessment is due at the end of the year). “It’s quite a unique partnership in


the UK and Europe,” said Chisholm. “We bring a great deal of economic rigour and impact thinking and the networks, the network managers and the people who use the networks bring the creative intelligence. Without that symbiotic relationship, I don’t think it would be as successful as it is. And XpoNorth epitomises the direction of travel for the sector overall.”


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