Grad2Director updates – Alice Dixon
In February we published a blog highlighting how our Grad2Director program had helped eight recent York St John graduates turn their business ideas into viable opportunities, becoming directors of their own companies in the process.
In February we published a blog highlighting how our Grad2Director program had helped eight recent York St John graduates turn their business ideas into viable opportunities, becoming directors of their own companies in the process.
“Belief, Knowledge, Reassurance”
We recently had the chance to catch up with one our new directors, Alice Dixon, to discover more about her new company, AD Creative Limited. Alice explained to us just how our Grad2Director programme helped her take the important next steps she needed to turn her business idea into something more.
Alice knew from an early age that running her business was something she wanted to do. . She enrolled on York St John’s Product Design programme in 2014 and during her second year began to develop her ideas, working on basic business concepts including establishing a better understanding of the consumer market. “I knew that with my determination I would get to where I wanted to be eventually, but I didn’t have a lot of business knowledge at the time so didn’t know how I would do it and how long it would take”.
In 2017 Alice presented her design at True North, an exhibition celebrating the optimism, creativity and ambition of Art and Design students at York St John University. For Alice, exhibiting at the show helped her realise that she needed to apply for a patent for her design. “I had about two days before the exhibition to make a decision about how serious I was about having a career running my own business; it was a huge decision for me but one that I’m very glad I made”.
Alice’s product is a modular shelving unit which encourages the customer to ‘create their shape’. Built up of panels, joints and locking rods, the design allows for multiple shapes to be constructed and can therefore fit any space. Its adaptability means the joint itself can be used for many other applications and Alice looks to develop the product into other items of furniture and homeware products.
After completing her studies in May 2017, Alice heard about the Grad2Director programme and knew she had to find out more. “As someone who already had aspirations to run my own business, the Grad2Director programme immediately caught my eye, but I was sceptical about useful it would be. After I’d signed up, I got an e-mail from Dr John Park encouraging me to come along to the workshops. “After meeting with John and hearing more about what Grad2Director offered, Alice’s scepticism turned to excitement. “I attended a workshop and met with John one on one, and that gave me real belief in what I wanted to do. John continued to give me really useful and valuable support above and beyond the support that was already available through my undergraduate degree. The programme really helped me get to grips with areas I was less comfortable with, such as projections. John helped me to look at the business from another angle, not just the product design and manufacturing aspect, which is where my skills lie. It’s been a huge learning curve for me.”
After spending a few weeks fine tuning her business idea, Alice, along with seven other Grad2Director participants, was awarded with funding to start her company, and so AD Creative Limited was born. At the moment Alice is in the process of talking to manufacturers, looking at testing the product further, as well as exploring possibilities for further funding, such as identifying potential investors and researching using a Kickstarter or crowd funding project.
We asked Alice where she hoped the company would be in six to twelve months’ time. “Hopefully six months from now the product will have been fully tested using a new manufacturing process, and we’ll have established a plan for seeking funding. In twelve months we’ll hopefully be taking the product to market.”
Alice also had some words of advice for this year’s third year students. “Go for it! Do! And don’t be afraid to ask questions, there’s no such thing as stupid questions!” Finally, we asked Alice to describe in three words what Grad2Director has given her. “I would have to say belief, knowledge and reassurance. The belief John had in me to really give this a go and the belief I had in myself, the knowledge that I now have for running my own business and the reassurance from John that what I’m doing is good and that I’m heading in the right direction.”
If you will be graduating in 2018 and have a business idea of your own, then keep an eye out for when our Grad2Director programme opens again later this year, maybe this time next year you could be running your own company.
