Gary Davies - Design Farm
Who are you? What do you do? Where do you do it?
Gary Davies – BA (Hons) Product & Furniture Design Cheryl-ann Taylor – 1st Class BA (Hons) Fashion Design Partners in Design Farm – Design consultancy based in Levisham, near Pickering.
Why did you start-up a business?
We have a passion for design and challenging our aspirations of being ‘designers’. We feel that we make a difference to peoples lives and businesses through our creativity. We both have strengths in different areas of design and together tackle a variation of design projects from web and graphic design to furniture and fashion design.
How (and when) did you start-up a business?
We started the business in June 2005 after over a year of planning and preparation. We moved from London to North Yorkshire because we wanted to be closer to Cheryl-ann’s family and we had the opportunity to renovate an old granary into a design studio.
What have been the biggest challenges in running your own business? How have these been overcome?
The biggest challenge is making a name for yourself and standing out amongst the competition. We feel we achieved this at an early stage which has had a huge effect on our business as we have been accepted as a design company that delivers quality services with a friendly smile.
What have been your greatest achievements in running your business?
Being able to work on so many different projects which each have their own goals to achieve makes it hard to single out any particular achievement but being short listed into the final 21 out of over 2000 entries in the Formica Design a Laminate 2005 competition was very exciting.
What would be your advice to any young aspiring entrepreneurs?
If you love what you do and feel that with it you can make a difference to people, and be happy doing it, then starting your own business is a good way of achieving your dreams. Be prepared to put in 110% and work more hours than you ever have before and don’t be swayed by doubters.