Turning a love for art into a lockdown side hustle

Caption for top image: Louise Murray surrounded by inspiration from other artists.

Louise Murray had always fancied creating art but it was having time on her hands due to the coronavirus lockdown that led to her giving it a go. She ended up creating The Fill-In Station, which sells greetings cards that customers can colour in.

The Darlington-based entrepreneur shares her story and how tips through the Amazon Small Business Accelerator helped get her new business off the ground.

The free Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme is advice from more than 30 business experts in 218 bitesize videos.

If you're already an Enterprise Nation member, log-in to your learning dashboard to access the e-learning. If you're not an Enterprise Nation member, you can join the Amazon Small Business Accelerator for free here.

How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I'm lucky in that I already had a job I could continue doing through lockdown. I window clean with my husband Rob, so working outdoors and taking payment remotely meant we could carry on. We have two teenage boys, so they were able to be left to get on with home schooling. (although I must confess, it has been more 'home' than 'schooling' at times!) I also run a cleaning business, the Shiny Happy Cleaning Company, with my best friend but we had to scale right back to almost nothing, so that left me with time on my hands.

I've always liked the idea of art but never thought I could ever produce anything worth looking at. I'd been following an artist called Mary Price on Instagram and loved her art so much that I decided to try something along the same lines, albeit much more basic!

Eventually I created something I was happy with, but then wanted to try and develop my own style. This sounds strange, but it was my late lovely Grandma's crockery that inspired me. I'd been eating from plates of the same design my whole childhood, and I had some that used to be hers. I used the basic idea as a starting point for a design, and to my complete surprise found I not only thoroughly enjoyed doing it, but actually quite liked the result!

I drew a few different versions, coloured them in, sent them to friends and family as greetings cards and got positive feedback. I tried to find cards online I could buy and colour in, but couldn't really find any, so the idea for The Fill-In Station was born.

I contacted someone I had met briefly months before when he had done some work on our cleaning website, and by the end of the phone call I had a business partner. 'Jonathan Website', as he still is in my phone contacts, agreed to take care of the technical side of things as I'm a committed technophobe. He runs the website and takes care of all the boring spreadsheet parts of the business as well as Twitter, while I deal with the arty bits and Instagram.

I also got in touch with a few friends who I knew were amazing artists and off we went!

What challenges have you faced and how have you dealt with them?

As I've already said, I'm a committed technophobe so it's been a steep learning curve getting used to Instagram and Facebook for business.

Trying to tap into a market without being too pushy is something I've found difficult, and definitely misjudged a couple of times. Also, although the colouring in market is huge, colour-in-yourself greetings cards are not really a 'thing'.

I've found it quite difficult to come up with a way of explaining exactly what it is that we do to capture people's attention. The same goes for the website too. Trying to get higher in the Google rankings is tricky when your product isn't something people would specifically search for. Thankfully Jonathan Website has that side of things to worry about!

What have you learnt from the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme?

The videos I've watched so far have been really helpful.

The tips from Lucy Hall on how to get started on social media helped me to focus on setting up Instagram and Facebook for my business. I already had the accounts but I needed to work on the profiles of both and learn how to use them together.

The video on social media analytics was very useful too. I've been able to learn how to see which posts do well, which type get the most engagement, and which fall flat.

I didn't have to worry about setting up the website, but the tutorials by Sophie Segal on writing a blog, building an online presence and the 'About Us' page really struck a chord with me. I'd like people to get to know everyone who works with us, and feel a connection to us, and this tutorial helped me to understand how to do that. I think the business will benefit so much just from this one short video tutorial. That is my next goal, to add that personal touch to the website so people feel at home.

What are your plans for the future?

I would love to be known in the colouring world. It is a niche but large market. I would love the website to have plenty of choice and sell large amounts.

I would like to be able to source everything locally. At the moment our printer is local to my town, and all of our artists are UK based.

One of my biggest goals is to build an online community for artists, including the artists who do the colouring in. Since starting this business, I've been blown away by how talented colour-inners are! It is an art form in itself.

Ultimately, we plan to grow the website into an online marketplace where our artists can sell their own work for a reasonable commission. I know this will take time and effort, but that's where I would like us to go.

What are your tips for business success?

I'm not very far into this particular business yet, but with every single business the personal connection is key. Build up good relationships with suppliers and customers alike. Be grateful and express it when people (like in my case the printer or the envelope supplier) go the extra mile to help you. It makes everything much more enjoyable if you have that personal connection and ultimately means you will get excellent service.

You should also treat your customers well and you will get repeat business.

And last but not least, enjoy it! I've learned the hard way that if you get stressed over everything being perfect immediately, all the joy will be sucked out of what you started with such enthusiasm. A good business takes time to build up, so work hard, but be patient, and switch your phone off sometimes!

The free Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme is advice from more than 30 business experts in 218 bitesize videos.

If you're already an Enterprise Nation member, log-in to your learning dashboard to access the e-learning. If you're not an Enterprise Nation member, you can join the Amazon Small Business Accelerator for free here.