[A white University of Derby logo slides from the bottom of the screen, with a tall brown brick building in the background]
[Update beat pop music]
[Cut to young man and woman standing, talking to the camera, Rachel and Dariusz owners of Studio 74. Rachel is wearing a plain black top with black, square glasses, and medium-length, brown hair pinned back from her face. Dariusz has brown curly hair and a short, brown beard and is wearing a white top with a grey and black open, checked shirt.]
Rachel: The flexibility and the space at Banks Mill really helped us at the beginning because we weren't sure if we wanted a commercial lease, what kind of space we were after, so it sort of allowed us the space to sort of see, ok, what are we going to use it for, how are we going to use it and its been perfect for that. Just because we've had, they've sort of given us the keys and we can make of the space whatever we need to make of it, so that was really good whereas a commercial lease for us would have been, would have been weird at the beginning because we weren't sure do we want industrial, do we want a nice space with character like Banks Mill building has. Like we weren't sure what we were after, so it's been great to sort of see what space we need, how we'll use it to, sort of, then go forward moving into a commercial space, we know what we need it for then.
[Cut to image of Beatrice Russell, owner of Flomotion Limited. Beatrice has long, brown hair and is wearing a white jumper, smiling and talking to the camera]
The flexibility of the space has been really good because its allowed me to do late nights, and early starts, it works around me, like my family, whatever my schedule is.
[Cut to Diane Daley, owner of China Petals. Diane is sitting at a white table talking to the camera, wearing a pink, leopard print top. Diane has medium-length blonde hair and dark rectangle glasses.]
So business support that we get from Banks Mill and the university is really helpful especially when first starting out. Anything from meetings, to looking at my artistic practice and look at the direction I wanted to go with that, to the free membership of Chamber of Commerce, and I'm now using one of their business mentors to help develop the business even further and take it onto its next steps.
[Cut to Beatrice talking to the camera]
Whilst being at Banks Mill I've had the opportunity of working with Mark Gilman, he's been helping me get a business strategy together and it's been critical for everything I've then done since then. We've been using all of the phrasing, the wording, and the direction that I want to go in has helped subsequently, then do Innovate UK grant applications, we've been using all the work I did with Mark to help support that work and get that grant so, yeh.
Being able to have solo shows in the foyer downstairs at Banks Mill is really important because again, that's something that I can put on my CV as having solo shows and I was really pleased with mine. I sold work like, in person and also through social media by advertising what was going on in the foyer at Banks Mill. And again, they were able to put that on their social media channels so that's something that I'm really looking forward to doing again but with my partner, James, who's having his solo show for the first time. So by participating in things like Open Studios and Banks Mill events that they put on throughout the year, it has sped up what I've been able to do as an artist and as a maker and trader because it's given me kind of, things to work towards to be able to aim for a goal for a particular time of year and make sales, and therefore, make profits at a certain level every single year and then be able to scale up because I know what I can expect from what happened the year before so that has been useful.
[Cut to Diane talking to the camera]
So the support from the University of Derby has really helped my business, anything from the student Twitter takeover, where in November a small group of students have taken over my Twitter account and posted and engaged, just so they can see how social media works when it comes to business. And I've also been a live brief a couple of times, China Petals has been used with business students where I've given them an issue that's happened in the business and they've taken that away and come up with solutions. At the moment I've got two interns working for me which is really good for both of us because I get help in the practice and it also shows me, as the business develops, what help I will need in the future and for them, they get to see behind the scenes of how to run a creative business.
[Cut to Rachel and Dariusz]
Dariusz: It's actually really good, we've collaborated with a lot of creatives from different industries which is I think the most core aspect of the whole thing because we never anticipated to work with guitarists, mosaic makers, jewellery designers. It's just not something we really planned on doing but actually, when you sit down with them, they sort of describe their own business and what they're about it's actually really cool to work with them and help them out on their little projects.
Rachel: Yeah, it's been fun to meet a lot of different people because in a normal studio space, you have the keys, you go in and you don't really collaborate with anybody else. There's normally nobody else creative in the building that you're in and so it's been nice to have all the access to all these different people.
[Cut to back screen with white University of Derby logo]