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| Business Chick Kelly Molson |
 Tell us about your two businesses... Rubber Cheese, http://www.rubbercheese.com, is a Graphic Design and Illustration company. We specialise in creating your entire design solution, saving you time and money by keeping all the work under one roof & giving you a more personal and down to earth service. Our outlook is pretty simple. We want to bring good design into smaller companies. Rubber Cheese Shop (www.rubbercheeseshop.com) is a spin off from the design company. We wanted a place to sell our merchandise, plus Paul has a big interest in the snowboarding culture, and had always wanted to design his own T-shirt line. So now we have! There's lots going on at the moment, we'll be adding a new range very soon, and introducing a childrens section too. Paula Gardner of www.doyourownpr.com worked her magic and produced us a fantastic PR campaign which is already starting to work! And what prompted you to set them up? Frustration mainly! We had both been working at the same company for some time, but had become bored with producing the same work day in day out, We knew we had more to offer, so we started Rubber Cheese as a place to showcase some of our work. It spiralled from there really, Paul's friend asked us to design some posters and flyers for a course he was running, and we realised that we could actually make it work as a business. I quit work in January and Feb 1st 2003, Rubber Cheese was born. Paul had only just bought a flat, so he stayed on at the other company for a few months, but by April 2003 he'd joined me full time. You're in a partnership. Can you give us the good and bad points about partnerships? I have to say there are far more good points than bad! I think my advice to anyone thinking of starting as a partership would be to make sure you and your partner share the same vision for the company, and both see it going the same way. There is a lot of trust involved and you really need a strong friendship to make it work. I'm glad that me and Paul have, as we couldn't do what we do so well without each other. Good Points: You're not alone - things seem less scary when you have someone else going through it with you. Someone to bounce ideas off, kick you when you need it, and make you laugh when you're having a bad day. Holidays are not a problem - instant cover! Two lots of ideas and imput. You use your strenght and weaknesses - you dont have to do everything all the time. Bad Points: There will be times when you both want to do different things. You can't always have it your own way. You need to be able to talk openly and constructively. When did you first think "This is going to be a success"? There's been two defining moments so far. The first came 2 weeks into starting up! I had recntly been contacted by an old school friend, Glen Franklin, via Friends Reunited. I had emailed round to people to tell them about my job change, and included Glen in the email. He rang me almost instantly to say the firm he worked for, Plan-It Architectural Design Consultants Ltd had a contract with a major supermarket chain, and would we be intrested in some of the design work? Of course we said yes, and we're still working with them 2 years on. Graham Terry the owner of Plan-It and Glen have been amazing. They are always referring us for work at other firms and we can't thank them enough. And the second has to be our 2nd Birthday in February this year. We hired out the balcony bar of The Boardwalk in Soho and invited everyone that had supported us over the 2 years: Family, Friends & Clients. We had such an amazing turnout, it made us so proud to be able to give something little back. There's another one already in the planning for next year. Which business women, not necessarily famous, do you admire, and why? I'm not going to pick anyone in particular, but I have to say I have the most admiration for business women who also have children. How some of my friends do it all I dont know. I have trouble coping with myself and the dog most days, let alone running the business with a little one on my lap. What part of your work do you enjoy most? It varies from day to day as we do so much! I do love meeting new people though, the first meeting with a new client is always exciting. And what do you hate? Admin work, chasing late payments, having to be business-like in general. I am quite organised and can get it all done, but I'm much happier designing than doing the books. Luckily my fantastic mum Carol now does this for us. All our parents have been absolutly amazing in fact. Paul's dad Stan has recently sacrificed his shed for our printing press! Can you run through a typical day for us? Well, at the moment it starts at about 7am in the park with dog. I'll usually come back about 7.45am, check my emails and have breakfast. I've recently noticed that I work much better in the mornings, so I try and get all the jobs I've been putting off done between now and 9am. The I nip upstairs and have a nice hot shower! I try to make most of my phone calls in the morning to get them out of the way. I much prefer talking in person so it's one of the jobs I force myself to do. The the rest of the day will be taken up with whatever jobs we're working on at the time...at the moment that's a lot! We're designing 2 websites, one for the Greyhound Owners Association and the other for Saffron Insurance, producing a set of icons for a site, designing a price list for a photographic company, producing a brochure for a furniture store and in between producing our first newsletter! 3pm it's usually time for a break, so I take Buster the dog out for another walk to clear my head. I'm usually flagging a bit by now but the walk sorts me out, then it's back to work till 6pm. Some nights it's later as this is not a 9 to 5 job. What do you find the most stressful part of working for yourself? Always being at work. My head is constantly thinking of things that need doing. I have to have a pen and paper next to my bed in case I wake up in the night. And I have lists all round the house. What advice do you have for someone setting up their own business? Plan what you want to do and how you'll do it. We never did and have there have been times where we've stumbled because of it. Also, get your branding right. We're always happy to help in that area! ;) And for someone growing their business? I'd suggest speaking to people that have done just that. See what worked and didn't work for them. Again, plan out where you want to go and how you'll do it. Make small realistic targets to start with and dont overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much all at once. What's your business style? Very easy going, probably too easy going at times. Our USP involves great customer service, so we're always striving to go that extra mile or our clients. What ambitions do you still have left to achieve? Blimey, loads! We're looking for our perfect workplace right now a nice country office, and we've talked about having our own shop one day, with offices out the back. Personally I'd love to travel some more, do the Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand. I want to try Snowboarding before I get too old and scared, and I'd like to be able to run for more than 2 miles without my throat feeling like it's on fire! You can contact Kelly on mog@rubbercheese.com, or via www.rubbercheese.com |
| Posted: 07/05/2005 18:02:37 Last Updated: 20/05/2005 13:29:41 |
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