As part of our Earth Day 2021 campaign, we wanted to share a business with you that’s helping to protect the environment by taking items destined for landfill and recreating them into new unique items of furniture. From Home Decor such as Wall Organisers and Shelves, to Lapdesks and Name signs Louise Williams has an eye for turning the old into the new. It was a pleasure to meet with her to find out more about Not So Shabby a creative upcycling business.
Louise says her fledgling business was born out of her love for creativity and a passion for seeing the potential in items that may be destined for landfill. The path to creating her business came in several stages, which can often be the case, where each step is built upon. She upcycles pre-loved furniture, each piece is unique and finished in various styles. She will also work with clients to produce something they already have in mind.
After dealing with mental illness Louise joined an art group to help with her recovery and found it really helped a lot through using her creativity. She has always been interested in the creative arts and studied window dressing as a youngster at college.
Louise has upcycled furniture in the past for her own use, and during the first lockdown at the start of 2020 she started to work on some more pieces and develop her skills.
After talking to a work coach at Universal Credit about her idea, Louise was recommended for the New Enterprise Allowance scheme which was a 12-week programme run by the charity Shaw Trust. The scheme took Louise through a process leading her to starting her own business. She was assigned a start-up broker, and this broker advised Louise to sign up with City Business Library for support and advice for small businesses.*
After several meetings with her broker Louise decided to leave the programme and continue on her journey independently and is now in the process of setting up an online platform to sell from. She also recently set up an Instagram account called notsoshabby2020 and is slowly building followers, you can also find her on Facebook Marketplace.
*We strive to do our best when supporting small business and their growth. Our business databases can give you information and data that can help you with advertising, market research, company information, and industry factsheets. If you have already taken the plunge, we would love for you to join us at a seminar, our workshops cover digital marketing, business model canvas and planning, demystifying taxes and intellectual property to name a few. Visit our events page or website for more information.
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