Who we are and what we do



Furniture with a story to tell



Each piece of furniture has a unique story hidden within. The story waits to be found by the curious and creative.

Friday 21 November 2014

So how do I make this work?


After a year of stumbling about a bit, falling in and out of love with my business and spending rather a lot of my own money, I decided that this Clever Monty malarky needed to start contributing towards the rent. When staring out of the window and sighing a lot didn’t help, I decided to face facts. My blog wasn’t particularly popular, my commissions for furniture weren’t coming in as fast as I wanted and my social media was a little sporadic at best. I read A LOT of other interiors/writing/craft blogs to try to be inspired by their seemingly endless stream of thoughts and posts. But ended up wondering how on earth they did it. I ended up pretty downbeat about the whole thing.

What I realised though, from beneath my duvet (yes I retreated to bed, it got that hopeless), was that all of these people with successful blogs, creative businesses and social media savviness all had to start somewhere. Unless you’re already famous, starting a business is hard (and actually, even if you are famous I bet it’s pretty hard; imagine having all your mistakes on show to the world, eurgh). It seems to me that the ones that make it past the three year anniversary are the ones who are doggedly determined.

So, I rolled up my sleeves. I posted more blogs, I retweeted the things which inspired me and I kept my eyes open for guest blogging opportunities which would (hopefully) encourage more people to look my way. Eyes down. Laptop on. Distractions OFF.

Then one day a dear friend and cheerleader for all things Clever Monty suggested I start a creative writing group. I made a face and told her I couldn’t possibly do that (my learned response to any suggestion which takes me outside my comfort zone), but it sowed the seed.

Before I could over-think and therefore find a million excuses why not to do it, I wrote a six week syllabus of exercises I use for my own creative practice. It ranges from suggestions I found online from other writers, to little games I do by myself to get my pen working a little harder.

I printed some flyers, handed some out to friends and fellow artists, and ran a small social media campaign about #creativewriting (see I’m getting it aren’t I?) And to my utter surprise, people signed up. So many that I had to create more sessions for next year. Who’d’ve thought it huh?

So for a small charge each week my merry band of writers and I spend two hours together, writing, doing little exercises, reading our work out loud and supplying that all important encouragement for each other. It’s given me so much food for stories, and developed my own sense of confidence in what I do. And the small charge pays for the space I rent, as well as some nice chocolate biscuits to nibble on.

I’m not saying that everyone should start their own creative writing group (well I am a bit, it’s a brilliant way to stay focused and develop as a writer), but I am saying that if you want to write and you want to succeed, listen to your cheerleaders! 


Cheerleader Image used from the305.com blog