Creative Lochaber women get businesses off to a great start

Three entrepreneurial women have turned their creative interests into businesses with a little help from HIE Lochaber.

Claire Innes, who lives in Inverlochy, started singing for a local band when she was fifteen, while studying higher education, and now sings at various venues in and around Fort William.

She said:  "I had never considered the possibility of making a living from entertaining until after I had my two children, and they have been my biggest motivation so far."

Claire is working on setting up a website, invested a considerable amount of her own savings into the business, but a start-up grant of £2,000 from the local enterprise company was crucial to its formation.

She said:  "The advice and grant from the local enterprise company enabled me to purchase musical equipment and also some backing tracks to get me started."

Her long term goals are to expand to cover more of the Highlands through her entertainment, as well as developing the artistic side of her business where she sells postcards and prints of her paintings.

Mary Carol Souness recently moved to her husband's home town of Fort William to set up Celtic Hart and received £1,000 from the local enterprise company to help her get off to a good start.  She successfully completed a BA in Contemporary Applied Arts at Cumbria Institute of the Arts, with weaving as her main pathway. 

Working from home, Mary Carol creates and sells woven items ranging from scarves to large wall hangings and even makes use of the waste created from weaving to make greetings cards.

Another creative avenue that Mary Carol will be pursuing is storytelling which will involve performing at venues and selling her own brand of storytelling cards.

Mary Carol, whose grandmother and great-grandmother were also weavers, sells much of her items via a website which her son has helped to develop.  She said:  "The internet has given me access to an instant worldwide market - an opportunity that my ancestors never had.  Having my own business lets me do something that I enjoy with my own input and my own design, from start to finish."

Mary Carol will take part in the annual Highland Studios event which provides an informal contact network for artists, gallery-owners and makers, helping people to access the wealth of creative talent throughout the Highlands. 

Fiona Jack is an accomplished artist and photographer who previously owned her own business in Antigua before moving to Lochaber with her two children.
 
After completing an HND in photography, Fiona travelled the world where she established many contacts. She said:  "My experiences have given me the encouragement and knowledge to proceed with starting a business in Lochaber with the means to reaching a global market, initially via the internet."
 
With a business start up grant from HIE Lochaber, Fiona has set up her own business - hART & SOUL where she uses the internet as an online gallery to allow browsing and purchasing of Giclee prints and her original paintings.
 
With the continued support and assistance from the local enterprise company, Fiona was able to secure a position on the NESTA Starter for Six programme, a project devoted exclusively to supporting creativity within science, technology and the arts. This will ultimately benefit Fiona in realising her dream of establishing and opening her innovative hART & SOUL gallery.

Charlotte Wright, area director of HIE Lochaber said it was important to encourage women to start their own businesses as they have a huge amount to offer.  She added:  It is great to see such a diverse range of new businesses in the creative industries starting up in the area."

Meanwhile, two other creative industries businesses in Lochaber have just been approved for a business start-up grant from HIE Lochaber this week.  Sharon Warner will set up a business producing craft products focusing mainly on two types of tote bags - one made from recycled material and one made from high quality fabric. Fraya Thompsen and Gillian Fleetwood have received assistance towards them formally coming together to form The Duplets - a Clàrsach (small Scottish harp) and vocal duet.