Business Startup

Emma Wood, 40, was made redundant just before Christmas after working as a skilled glass artist/maker for the past 20 years. Emma saw her redundancy as the ideal opportunity to set up her own business, creating beautiful handmade glass artworks with the added bonus of working flexibly to better suit her lifestyle.

Emma therefore set up Sand, Lime & Soda Glass Design Ltd earlier this year with the help of the business training and advisory experts at Train 2000, a firm that specialises in helping women become self-employed or to start up and run their own businesses. The team provided Emma with guidance on everything from how to pull her business plan together, to how to effectively manage her accounts and taxation.

She said: “The team at Train 2000 has been instrumental in helping me to set up Sand, Lime & Soda Glass Design Ltd. Their advice on everything from finance to what my business plan should include has been invaluable, and I know if I need any further help or advice, they are there to offer support.”

Emma uses colour, texture and the light-specific qualities of glass to produce bold, fused-glass artworks such as small tiles and larger panels to suit a variety of domestic and architectural spaces. She also offers a made-to-order service where customers can have their own individual glass artwork tailor-made to their specific colour/design requirements.

Sand, Lime & Soda Glass Design Ltd trades via its website: www.sandlimeandsoda.co.uk and Emma has recently showcased her beautiful glass artworks to retailers such as Harvey Nicholls, as she hopes to sell her unique pieces in high-end retail outlets in the near future.

She said: “We’ve only been trading for three months but sales are going well, and moving forward I really went to have a strong presence in quality retail outlets to help me build the brand. I’m also planning on opening a gallery to exhibit all of my work so customers can see and touch the pieces for themselves – this should help boost sales as customers will see first hand how high quality and original my glass artworks are.”

 A typical day for Emma now involves responding to email enquiries and orders, designing and making glass artworks and arranging meetings with retailers to showcase her pieces.

She concluded: “The most challenging part about having my own business is the research and preparation that goes into arranging and meeting with a suitable retailer. I’m very conscious that I have to pick the right retailers where my customers are likely to shop, so I spend a lot of time researching and thoroughly preparing for meetings.

“The best thing about having my own business is that I’m my own boss and I can pick and choose the hours that I work, which means I have a much better work/life balance. I also have more freedom to design the glass artworks that I want to make and sell, which allows me to be creative.”