Norma Vondee, 54, is an artist. She creates mosaics and mosaic sculptures and has run her own mosaics business, Norma Vondee Mosaics, for the past five years. Her biggest struggle continues to be the contrast between the business side of the work and the artistic side.
“I still find it difficult that I have to spend two days a week trying to get the work and only three days a week making the work,” comments Norma. “I’d really like to be spending five days a week making the work.”
Nonetheless, Norma has managed to move successfully from being a teacher into the world of running her own business, by finding out how to talk the language of commerce. “I was an art teacher for 18 years and did some part-time commissions, so I didn’t go into this all at once,” she explains. When her son, who is now 14, was born, Norma took time out to look after him in the pre-school years and then took an MA in Art in Architecture.
Norma, who is based in east London, has built up her business gradually, renting out a room in her flat to pay for a studio where she could work. She then realised she needed to make a greater commitment to the business. “The crunch came when I was 51,” she comments. “The business was dragging its heels. It was under-financed and under-publicised.”
Norma took action. She achieved greater publicity when she won a contest run by CIDA, the East London agency that supports local creative arts and she also went on the Forward at 50 course run by London Metropolitan University. “It was great meeting other people in a similar situation, but from very different backgrounds,” says Norma. “Some of the speakers on the course were inspirational, particularly on the topic of taking risks – risks with finances, with mortgages and with life. It’s all about that idea of taking that leap before you are ready for it.”
Norma even found inspiration in the less-good speakers. “They made me realise that I was ready to take on corporate presentations,” she says. “I’d always found it different to talk to corporate clients, but I realised it’s just about doing the corporate speak. It isn’t rocket science.”
Armed with greater confidence and knowledge about how to develop her business, Norma went about financing her next move, which was setting up a website. “That was going to be a major investment of money, but in fact, it ended up being a major investment of my time,” she explains.
Norma’s studio is in Trinity Buoy Wharf, where other creative firms are based, one of which gained a grant to provide training for artists to create their own websites. Using this funding, Norma was able to work on creating her own website (www.normavondeemosaics.com). “It has taken a large amount of time and of course in that time, I haven’t been doing other things, like selling my work, so it has had a knock-on effect,” she says. “I’m now having to catch up. My next step is to do more advertising.”
Norma has found that regular exhibitions of her work have helped promote her business and she has also done some leafleting and has listed herself in various professional publications. “But the best publicity is my website and word of mouth,” she says.
Norma already uses part-time assistants and aims to develop the business to the point where she can take on a full-time assistant and also employ an agent, to carry out more of the administrative and sales side of the business. She is continuing to develop the business, in her own way. “I don’t have a written business plan,” she says. “I know I should have one, but the plan is in my head.”
Norma finds the most challenging aspect of running a business the constant need for different skills. “I’m constantly wearing different hats,” she comments. “This is certainly not a nine-to-five job, where you go in in the morning and know exactly what you will be doing. You have to be both pro-active and reactive, and I find it exhausting.” Time management can be a challenge, in these circumstances, particularly for those, like Norma, also involved in family life. “It is not easy to find family time,” she acknowledges. “I am now trying find to be a bit more sociable, but it can be difficult. My son is away at school, which helps a lot, but when he is home, it is all pretty full on.”
Some of the key lessons Norma has discovered from the process of setting up her own business is the need to take risks. “The statistics show that women tend to under-invest in their businesses and ask for less help,” she comments. Although Norma talked to her bank about financing her business and found that encouraging – “I realised that they were willing to bend over backwards to help businesses get started,” she says – she has taken her own risks in re-mortgaging her property to invest in her business.
She has also had to do a lot of market research, to locate potential customers. She now takes on commercial commissions, as well as commissions from private customers, and her work includes commissions from clients as wide-ranging as an estate agents in Hackney, to film actresses.
As a creative person, Norma’s real passion is for her work itself and she does find it difficult to handle the more commercial aspects of the business. Initially, for instance, she found pricing the works quite a challenge, although she has overcome this barrier by taking greater control when negotiating with clients and gaining a better idea of the price of works of fellow artists. But it can still be daunting to handle these kinds of financial matters. But Norma’s determination has paid off as her business continues to build up and she is now working to achieve her goals, including her aim of being able to put greater effort into her own creative work.
Print this post
