Taking the plunge to pursue a dream
After eight years as a primary school teacher, Sarah Cowen took the plunge to pursue a dream of being a creative entrepreneur. Thanks to ongoing support through CIDA’s Creativity In Business Programme, funded through Success Doncaster, she now runs her own business, Creative Footprints which provides educational workshops and extra-curricular activities in the performing arts.
‘During my time teaching I began to specialise in the performing arts, publishing and performing scripts with school groups. I’d taken groups abroad to discover African Arts and even gained funding to bring the African township group Joint Effort on an African Arts in Schools tour of the UK.
I came to a point where I was disillusioned with teaching and wanted to become independent, exploring my creativity whilst using the skills and experience I already had. My goal was to set up a business teaching extra-curricular drama, film and scriptwriting activities to 7-11 year olds - though I lacked the business knowledge to make it a success.
CIDA’s Creativity In Business programme was excellent and I accessed a small start-up grant through Success Doncaster to set up a small office. Receiving one-to-one business mentoring has been invaluable, providing knowledge and ideas I could never have dreamt of. I really can’t state enough how amazing it has been; I’d arrive at a session with lots of ideas jumbled up in my head and by the end of the day it was as if a fog had been lifted and it was clear what I needed to do next. I learned skills such as organising finances, costing, how to build and price packages and how to write funding applications. I was even given useful exercises to aid understanding and to organise my thoughts.
I now receive a great variety of work through Creative Footprints and am currently moving on to deliver film projects. I always pass details of CIDA’s Creativity in Business programme and Success Doncaster to friends and colleagues. It’s been brilliant for clear thinking and I’d still be struggling were it not for the expert help.’
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