Business Monitor
Happy doing business with you
The definition of a funtrepreneur is a person who works for the simple joy of expressing themselves and having fun, with money as a secondary side-effect or benefit.
Marketing expert, Paul Clapham, explains further. F
untrepreneur is one of those cloned words that, in general, I intensely dislike. However, it does define a group of people that should be on your commercial radar. These are people, or groups of people, who have stepped away from the rat race and are doing what they love because they love it. But funtrepreneurs are still commercial animals. These are not a bunch of hippies living in yurts and waiting for the sun to rise at the summer solstice. Instead they are aiming to build a successful business in a sector that satisfies them, gives them personal fulfilment and, yes, potential personal wealth.
I know for sure that there are some of these people well established as garment decorators. Basically, they stepped off the corporate treadmill where they were enjoying a good income but not enjoying the job that produced it. So they went with the heart (on the left) not the wallet (on the right).
Printwear is a first class example of where funtrepreneurs can establish themselves. For those who have been in the trade for years that might be a scary thought. Everyoneʼs grown up about having competition, but some is enough
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
and enough is too much. Yet and yet… I think there are lots of areas of potential for this trade still largely unexplored.
Hunt them down
So where are these funtrepreneurs and what are are they doing for a living? Food and drink is an important sector. Restaurants, micro-breweries, manufacturers of all sorts of foods, wine producers, specialist pubs and bars. If people are keen to eat it or drink it thereʼs a creative bod ready to supply it. Hunt them out – they are in your neck of the woods and theyʼre running funky businesses which will benefit from using printwear.
Lots of people running health stores fall into this category and you know exactly where those stores are. They are now serious business people (although the occasional hippy is still in place). The eco-friendly products recommend themselves to my eye.
Speaking of which, the whole green market is a great opportunity. Again the people involved in this market sector are truly committed to its success, from a personal commitment as well as for commercial reasons. Look at the Green Providers Directory online. If you canʼt get
business from one of them (since there are hundreds) you arenʼt trying hard enough. Get in touch with your County Council. This may vary significantly from place to place but where I am based (Kent) there is an organisation called PINK (Produced in Kent) and I know that it is not unique. A fair number of the businesses involved here can be described as funtrepreneurs. You will have read about the successful growth of English wine sales (much of it from Kent). They were all started with passion and no pension plan.
These are all micro, small or middle sized businesses, plenty of them family businesses, many of them with a lean and mean commercial structure. Just like the typical garment decorator, Iʼd say.
Get creative
So are there fun activities that you can add to your existing garment decorating business? I suggest that there are lots. They are mostly about creativity and who doesnʼt enjoy being creative? Most garment decorators Iʼve met lament that their commercial clients want dull stuff. Creativity? No thanks. Just put my very ordinary logo on the left breast of a navy polo, thanks.
Selling creativity isnʼt easy, but itʼs not October 2016 | 21 |
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88