Did you see us talking about our Young Entrepreneurs Day last week? It was a fantastic opportunity for a small group to gain some invaluable advice around running your own creative business. We teamed up with Go for Growth, who offer free support to small businesses on the Isle of Wight, to host this opportunity who were really helpful. We visited different people to find out what it’s really like to run your own business, and got to hear all about what they do and how they started up. As well as learning how they’re successful and what challenges they face.

First up was Monkton Arts, a community based cafe and arts centre in Ryde. Set up by mum and daughter duo Dawn and Jenna, Monkton Arts hosts a variety of events in their cafe, as well as housing two gallery spaces, a craft shop, and three artist studios – pretty cool! We heard from them about the challenges of running your own venue and being careful not to take on too much work at the same time. We also learnt about how to price your work. But their top tip was to allow yourself to accept praise about what you’re doing and don’t let one or two negative comments impact your view of your work.

Next we headed to Fieldwork in Newport, which is the studio where pattern cutter Sue Field works from. What’s pattern cutting? It’s where a 2D design is created to show what material is needed to make a piece of clothing. Sue moved to this new studio from a tiny space in Cowes recently. She has a vision to use this larger space as a shop as well, selling sewing materials and equipment, but she explained that it’s quite difficult to balance alongside her freelance work, like making patterns for a number of high end fashion brands, including Burberry and Jaeger. Similarly to Monkton Arts we learnt about the importance of balancing work, but it was really inspiring to see that this work is made on the Isle of Wight!

Then we visited Building 41 in Cowes where people can rent a desk in a shared space. It’s called co-working; perfect for people starting out as it’s cheaper than having your own office, and more socialise. We met with Jasmine Hayden, an architect for Mitchell Evans, and Matt Greg, founder of Nosy Creative Agency, who offer marketing support to sustainable businesses. Jasmine explained what it’s like to be an architect, how she got the job, and how rewarding it is when you get to the point where you can start to choose the jobs you take on. We spoke with Matt about how to take the leap from working for someone else to running your own business. Nosy now has a team of eight people, so we asked about how you know when it’s time to grow your team (when the workload’s too high for your current team – not the other way round!).

Finally, we stopped off at another new co-working space, this one on Newport high street, we looked around the space (which includes three rentable shop/office spaces) before sitting down with Carole Dennett, editor of the Isle of Wight Observer. We heard how the newspaper is run, and had an interesting discussion about the importance of knowing who your audience is, for example they choose to stick mostly to print, as they know their main audience are older people who don’t access their content online.

We had a great day learning about something different, make sure you keep an eye out on Brave Island for any future opportunities which might interest you!