Help Starting Your Hand-making Business

If you're 18-30 years old and unemployed or working less than 16 hours a week, you could get help starting your hand-making business from the Prince's Trust.

I've just finished the training to become a Prince's Trust Business Mentor. I'll be supporting people starting businesses within the Trust's Business Programme. One-to-one mentorship is just one of the benefits of this scheme, which also extends loans to individuals most High Street banks would turn away.

The success rate of businesses started under the scheme is significantly higher than the average for all start-ups. Find out whether you qualify here: Prince's Trust Business Programme

Handmakers, did I mention "Go For It!"?!

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. There's been stuff at pressies' that I just had to get done. Thankfully the worst is behind me now and I'm resolved not to let posting slip again.

Anyway, speaking of getting things done, Alice Rivers-Cripps is a handmade jeweller who does just that. We got more of her handcrafted jewellery range called Posh Totty Designs up at pressies' this week. It's very bohemian and rustic and brimming with charm (see pictures below - gorgeous!).



Now, as I said, Alice is a girl who gets things done. When I first encountered her back in spring 2005, she was just starting out. You could only catch her on her mobile or answer machine and she had a tiny range. But she already had a website and big ambitions.

During that same year, she started popping up at the gift exhibitions/ trade shows in London - I think taking a booth within Design Gap. Then she slipped off our radar a bit. We were busy with other things - and so was Alice, it seems. When we were looking to expand our handmade jewellery range, we looked up Alice again. And, guess what? She now has her own boutique store in Brighton's North Laine, a greatly enlarged and stunning range, plus she's fostering a celebrity clientele.



I look at Alice's business now and I don't recognise it from the one I saw only two years ago. Conversely, for some of our handmakers little has changed. And, you don't need to ask who's enjoying their business and success more!

Alice's case is a perfect example of the "Go for it" mantra I keep banging on about. I drum it into some of our other small suppliers, using Alice's business as empirical proof. As I say, you can find out whether your business is going to work quickly, or you can discover it slowly. It will cost you about the same amount of money. But, it will save you no end of wasted time. And, you know, money comes and goes and you can always make more of it. But, time - that's the one thing you can't get more of!