Well it has now been just over 5 months since our last blog post and wow has a lot happened!
In the time that we have been quiet on social media, you could say that we've been very busy bees! Here's why...

Finished University and going full-time!

NOTICE! - This is the personal part of the blog, so if you're not really interested in this, feel free to skip to the business-y stuff below!

That's right. I started Hire an Artist as a side project aside from my University studies, but now Uni is over, and Hire an Artist will continue! As of 20th April I have completely finished with my University studies and graduation day awaits!

"It's over. I've survived University" (G, Craven. 2016)

Scary right? Well probably not for you (Unless you're a competitor of mine hehe) but for me personally this will quite a scary yet exciting life transition. This will be the first time I'm stepping off the 'education train' and leaving the clever egg-heads to pursue their Master degrees while I go out into the big bad world and succeed on my own terms. - Ooorah!

I'm confident I will be successful, in whatever I strive to do, and it's incredible to consider the progress that has been made so far with Hire an Artist - Whilst juggling my University studies and the other challenges in my life, I'm pretty proud I'm still standing!

I've still got so much to work on personally to become a 'better person' and a 'smarter entrepreneur', but I am progressing. There's much I want to achieve and I'm slowly but surely developing what I deem to be a 'Successful mindset'. I'm pretty excited to see just what I can be capable of.

It's been a long, tough, tiring and amazing journey so far. But now let's get my qualification (Of whatever overall grade it is, I don't even know) and continue!

So with that said, let's get onto the company updates shall we?

Left entrepreneurial spark in January

Yes my friends, the first piece of news I'm giving you is sad news. It's okay if you cry, nothing could prepare you for this devastation. I left Entrepreneurial Spark in January and consequently spent 3 days in a dark room with nothing but 2 hardened coconuts, a football (Named 'Philson') and a small rusty spoon. - Only one of us made it out alive.

"Why? Why me?" (Heartbroken Gareth. 2016)

Yes Entrepreneurial Spark has been an incredible resource for Hire an Artist, I'm glad to say I got the most I got from it. I got 6 full months inside the big ol' business accelerator and I'm incredibly grateful for everything I got. From the lessons to the resources but especially the awesome friends I had found in there.

Hire an Artist has almost certainly been accelerated and more importantly has given me serious development to head the company. I'm now working at home and at my University's Enterprise Centre. This is wildly different to working at the E-Spark centre. When working at home there's a million distractions, from chatty people (I won't say who!) to numerous fridge exploration sessions. And if working at the Enterprise Centre it takes 3-4 hours a day total commuting to and fro, which is serious time-loss! I'm starting to fill this time in with reading to learn new things so it's not wasteful - But there's only so much reading you can do when you're not a big reader!

You know what though? I'm loving the challenge! It's somewhat of a mental learning curve that I need to take, in order to develop an adaptive productive personality trait - I need to become like those people working on a train on their tiny laptops! (Curse their tininess and amazing portability!) It's something that's almost certainly worth doing though because it is all working towards developing the company and achieving success.

No matter what gets in my way I will push on and succeed.

Now for some good news! Winning competitions! In March we competed in Leeds Trinity University's Business Masterclass competition, a competition where students with businesses and ideas compete for prize money, to invest into their ideas. After using everything I have learned about pitching, I did my pitch and won 1st place! - I even believe I left one of the judges speechless at first! Hazah!

Winner! Winner! Winner!

This awarded us an amazing £500 to put into the company, amazing feedback to work on and further confirmation that this is a business that has huge, real potential.

This has been quite a significant personal achievement for me because I did this competition a year ago and was so nervous it was hard to keep my head up and look at the judges speaking to me. So when I could do it this time and absolutely kill the pitch, it was a great feeling. So this was a personal development achievement as well as being a great achievement for the business.

Reconnecting with you, the reader! 

So now there's something I'd like to address...my social life...or more specifically my online social life (In reality I am quite social thank you very much!)

But I mean, when was the last time I posted on social media? When was the last time you heard from us?

I want to get back to reconnecting with people, with artists, WITH YOU guys who are reading. The progress we’re making is great and everything and I’m very proud of it but what is all that without actually talking to people I’m doing all this for?

I started this company to support artists and the people who want their own bespoke artwork, in a world where artists struggle and most people think bespoke art is inaccessible. So why aren't I making that known? Why aren't I talking to you guys online?

Well that's stops now, my kind fellows! Instead of some being about us, I'd like to hear about you guys, what are you doing? Is there anything I can help you with? And artists, what are you have working on? I'd love to see some of your artwork!

Drop me a message...or a tweet. I'm looking forward to hearing from you :)

Email - info@hireanartist.co
Twitter - @HireanArtist_
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Hireanartist.official/