Shropshire furniture restoration business brushed with success
A campaign to boost start up entrepreneurship across Shropshire has helped a new bespoke furniture painting venture brush up on the basics of business.
Since launching her Paint It company in January, Lilleshall-based Peta Green has been tapping into the invaluable advice and guidance of the team at StartUp Shropshire, a regional project inspired by StartUp Britain, a nationwide initiative encouraging the creation of new businesses and self-employment.
Peta set up the firm with her partner Chris Hill, a qualified Master Painter and Decorator, following redundancy from a senior sales position at a leading software company.
“I’d worked in sales for most of my career, and the sales world can be a pretty cut-throat environment,” Peta Green, Director of Paint It, said. “With the difficult economic climate, it was increasingly tough to find a new job and although I took various part-time roles, it was all becoming rather stressful and something had to change. Chris and I started working on a few ideas for a business, and as I’ve always been fairly artistic and creative, and Chris, of course, is a real dab hand with a paintbrush, we thought combining these skills to offer bespoke, high quality furniture painting would prove to be a real winner.”
Paint It aims to give people the chance to bring a ‘new lease of life’ to their favourite tables, chairs, dressers, and other wooden furniture. Peta explained: “We offer a range of traditional and contemporary paint finishes, and we prepare, repair and paint all items of furniture by hand to our customers’ exact requirements. Chris is something of a perfectionist, with many items given six coats of our specialist, eco-friendly paint to ensure the highest quality finish – it really is a labour of love.”
The Paint It company has achieved immediate success, securing a range of customers from local towns in Shropshire and across the wider UK, and even orders from France. Paint It also proved popular with visitors at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show held in the NEC, Birmingham earlier in the year.
“Even though we knew we had a great idea on our hands, it was still quite daunting to take that big step and establish the company, but being able to call on the advice of StartUp Shropshire’s mentors has been a huge help. We have benefited from advice from experienced entrepreneurs who have set up companies themselves and are able and willing to offer much support and advice.”
Fay Easton, StartUp Shropshire’s Project Director, commented: “Peta and Chris are a great example of a trend in the newly self-employed world, whereby people who face redundancy use their lifetime’s skill and wisdom and launch a business. It’s been fantastic working with Peta and Chris, they have even restored and transformed a worktable at Enterprise HQ in Coalport, our busiest enterprise hub, and it’s a great advert for their amazing quality.
“Paint It’s service combines high quality products with elements of individuality and quirkiness, the eye for design is fantastic and if you will pardon the pub, the company’s early triumphs paint the picture of a very successful future.”
StartUp Shropshire has been inspired by StartUp Britain which was launched by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs in March 2011, and is designed to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise across the UK. Fay Easton is a representative on the national board of StartUp Britain and StartUp Shropshire is focused on providing young people with practical business skills, coaching, mentoring, and access to finance.
For further information on the StartUp Shropshire campaign please contact Fay Easton on 07944 189436, email fay@shropshireenterprise.co.uk, or visit the website www.startupshropshire.org.
