The entrepreneur behind the home interior consultancy business Trend Bible reveals the key turning point in her career to date.

THE Entrepreneurs’ Forum is a membership organisation aimed at helping and inspiring North East entrepreneurs to create the most successful business possible.

It brings together business people running some of the most pioneering and creative companies in the region and creates an environment where members can share knowledge and also learn from some of the most successful business minds from around the country and the world.

All entrepreneurs have a memorable “turning point” in their business, whether that is growing in size, moving into new markets or taking a completely new direction, and this is often where the more established entrepreneurs’ advice can be invaluable.

For Joanna Feeley, creative director and founder of Trend Bible, a new-generation trend-forecasting consultancy for home interiors, her biggest turning point came when she realised she had to make that inevitable transition from a creative person to a businesswoman.

Balancing new motherhood, a recession and the influx of global high-street clients, Joanna realised that she had to step the business up a gear and sought advice from other members of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, as she explains:

Q: What sort of issues did you initially discuss with forum members and what did you get out of it?

A: I knew that I had to build a new creative network in the North East following 10 years of working in London and New York. When I set up Trend Bible three years ago, I had been away from the region for so long that I didn’t have many business contacts and I was starting from scratch. The forum allowed me that informal environment to meet and learn from other entrepreneurs, and everyone was interested in what I was doing which gave me a lot more confidence.

I did a course last summer called Front Foot which was set up by the forum. There were two groups taking part in the programme and I was at the series of business workshops and seminars especially tailored for small businesses. By chatting to people like the course co-ordinator Andy Hanselman, from Andy Hanselman Consulting, and Alan Holmes from Wood Holmes Group who took a particular interest in Trend Bible, it made me a lot more ambitious and helped me to think big.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you have received through a connection of the forum?

A: The person I deal with most at the forum is probably Colum Smith. Colum was the one who suggested that I look into getting a mentor and introduced me to Julie Drummond of creative agency Drummond Central. I immediately realised this would be a really valuable working relationship. It also gave me the opportunity to test out what having a non-executive director might be like. She is the most valuable connection that I have within the forum and she helps with specific business problems where I might need external advice.

Being a working mum herself, she understood the difficulties of having to look after both of your “babies”; your child and your business. Advice from someone in the creative industry and who you respect is very insightful; it helped me have more clarity and vision.

Q: When was the major turning point for you and your business?

A: After I returned to my business from maternity leave in January 2009, I had a different mindset. I was now a mother trying to run a business and look after my son so I had to balance my personal needs as well as my business needs. The support from Julie gave me a sharper focus in what I wanted to achieve and it stopped being about fulfilling my own creative needs and started becoming more about building and growing a business.

I turned from someone who was predominantly a creative person into a businesswoman and that was a massive transition for me. I came back full of determination and I literally went out and pitched for 16 months solid to some of the biggest retailers in the country and against some of my biggest competitors globally. Everything we pitched for turned into paid work.

There was a new seriousness in the overall spend of companies with the recession and instead of taking that as bad news, we turned it into a good opportunity ensuring that future potential clients knew about us and what we did.

Q: Did the advice you receive from the forum change your attitude to business?

A: Yes, most definitely. The advice from other members of the forum has probably had the biggest impact in everything that we have done. For example, being able to hear other success stories makes you believe that you can do it and that maybe they were once like me starting out in business.

Sometimes the advice could be something as simple as just tweaking something or it could be a case of revitalising whole segments of the business. It can feel isolating when you have your own business so it’s a really good opportunity to see other people who are maybe five or 10 years ahead of me in terms of where I would like to be, and that puts my ambitions into perspective.

Q: Is there any advice that you could share with new entrepreneurs to help their business grow?

A: The main question I get asked by start-up creatives is: “How do you turn a passion or a hobby into a business?” My experiences have shown me that the boundary has to be clear. It has got to be a commercial venture and make money. You can always be taught business skills but you can’t teach talent – success is a mixture of both factors.

Always value the work you do and realise your worth as a business. I often work with well-established global brands and because we are a small company, we have to be very resilient and firm about our worth and sometimes this means saying “no”. Never lower your costs. If you’re adding proven value to other businesses, you have to charge for it. Always evidence the value you add to your clients too, this way new clients are in no doubt about what you can do for them.

Q: What is the future for Trend Bible?

A: There are lots of exciting things happening. In the last three months we have seen a huge increase in enquiries; we think due to our clients’ budgets being reinstated and also due to the exposure we’ve had in Press articles.

We are also looking to recruit a representative in New York as our audience in the US is expanding rapidly and demand for our services is greater.

The other big thing that we are planning is to offer an online trend service which will help us compete more effectively with the bigger trend forecast agencies globally.

Q: Is there any advice you can give to other forum members?

A: Book your place on the Entrepreneurs’ Forum courses or seminars when the diary of events comes out – put the dates in the diary for the whole year, that way it makes you plan to spend time out of the business. I try to attend one a month if appropriate as I find them such a valuable tool for business techniques and strategies, listening to how others overcome similar hurdles.

Also, maximising the network that the forum offers can help connect you with others as there are always people trying to help you achieve.