gold nuggets — Stories from and to small businesses — Paved With Gold

It’s time for another Gold Nuggets, our opportunity to meet with and talk to other small businesses who we really admire. Hannah Clinch from Tacit-Tacit is another one of those brilliant people. We met Hannah a few years ago now and have left every conversation filled with new ideas. We love Hannah’s real focus on place and heritage. She’s always looking for opportunities for her local community, and when could that be more important than now?

Tell us about yourself and Tacit-Tacit.

I am a designer and a researcher with a background in social enterprise and community development.

I trained initially as a textile designer, but after a year working in trend prediction, I realised I couldn’t reconcile my environmentalism with the goals of the fashion industry. So, I had to rethink. After a few years of working in cafes, offices and the occasional farm, I managed to get work in community development. I set up a Green Map initiative in Glasgow in 2004 - 2006, working with volunteers from the Glasgow Electron Club and Franki Finch (of Glasgow-based Finch and Fouracre) to pull together data about reuse opportunities across the city, including charity shops and community projects. The map called Dear Green Place: a Glasgow Guide to Reuse was designed, published and distributed across the city, and this project helped me to realise the potential of using design to support community-based enterprise.

I went on to coordinate various projects, engaging people with the principles of sustainable development and material reuse. Eventually, I took up a post at Glasgow Wood Recycling; a brilliant enterprise committed to social and environmental justice.

I relocated to Dunoon in 2011, with kids. This move curtailed work opportunities, and I started to focus back on design and project management. I returned to study, specifically to research the creative industries and rural economic development at GSA’s Innovation School in 2016. I set up Tacit-Tacit in 2018 as a design and research agency on a mission to nurture positive growth.

What inspired Tacit-Tacit?

Tacit-Tacit was inspired by my research into creative enterprise support in a rural context. The area I live in is classified as a fragile rural region. Through speaking to multiple people and organisations about their enterprise challenges, I recognised that the current support infrastructure wasn’t working for freelancers and home-based workers or women with care responsibilities trying to develop work opportunities against a backdrop of unstable incomes and social isolation.

I now collaborate with clients and local partners to provide design orientated support for small and social enterprises, whilst developing side hustles informed by my research.

What’s the one thing you wish you knew in your first year of starting out?

How isolating working from home can be. I think more people are probably recognising the benefits of working from home, which is both environmental and financial (to a point), but after 10 years of the home office and no accessible or flexible childcare solutions locally, I have struggled to develop a business at a rate that is investable and I know that I am not alone.

What are your top 3 tips for working in a rural community?

Make people like you: Building a reputation after taking time out for family can be challenging, particularly if you can’t get to networking events because they take place in cities or far off places. If you have care responsibilities and are, are on a low income and can’t take the time out to travel then you are literally not ‘in the room’ for connecting to people and opportunities.

This has started to change because of the COVID effect. I hope more online events that enable remote participants to continue to be offered by national networks. I set up a local network for freelancers and home-based workers which has really helped me to meet peers. It has been a successful tactic. I have met some fantastic individuals in Dunoon and wider Cowal who are working away at a diverse range of business ideas.

Accept help from people: I need to say a big thank you to Paved with Gold, Helen Voce and Jane McDevitt from Maraid design who have generously provided me with desk space in Glasgow. This type of kindness and practical support really makes a difference, as it connects you back into work networks, bringing you into contact with opportunities and training that can be lacking in more remote places. So buddying up with people in different places is something to consider too.

Know your value: Pricing is critical if you are self-employed. Design is a hard thing to price and increasingly visual design tools are accessible to clients in a way that further disrupts the market. What I offer is more than design to clients. It is strategy and support based on years of experience. I know from talking to clients that they appreciate what I do, but it is challenging when you are starting out on a new venture to get this correct and I still don’t always manage it but am trying to improve.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

This isn’t really advice, more an approach to working when you believe environmentally sustainable development is the essential goal of your work - ‘Pessimism of the intellect, optimism in the work’.

What’s your ambition for Tacit-Tacit?

To grow a company in Dunoon that makes design accessible and is centred around the idea of #positivegrowth.

What song motivates you and why?

I don’t tend to have music on at my desk if I am writing, but when I am designing I love a bit of Laura Cantrel. If I need a cry and a smile at the same time then John Grant’s GMF; the best funeral tune ever.

Thank you, Hannah, and exciting news just in! Tacit-Tacit is opening a new design-oriented, collaboration space in Dunoon later in the year. This will be called the POP (People of Place) shop and offer desk and workshop space to freelancers and visitors to this beautiful seaside town. The online POP shop is open now featuring the work of local illustrator Walter Newton and Tacit Tacit.

Tell us about yourself and Makers Cabinet

My name is Noah Bier, I am one-third of Makers Cabinet. Makers Cabinet design beautiful analogue drawing and writing tools that last a lifetime or more. Currently, we have two products on the market, the Høvel pencil plane and Iris drawing compass. Both are inspired by age-old mechanisms and are machined from the highest quality materials.

Top 3 tips on GROWING a SMALL business?

1. Find your niche. You don’t need to necessarily make a mass-market, ultra-competitive product. Create something that you are passionate about and proud of. Customers will respond to this.

2. Consider who you’re working with and work with other small businesses. Small businesses will understand your business better and be able to grow with you. It’s much better to use suppliers who really respect and understand your business rather than larger ones who may not be as interested. They also may be more forgiving of mistakes and can teach you a thing or two along the way.

3. Try out different routes to market. You may find that certain routes will fit better than others. We spent many months trying to wholesale products whereas we could have focussed that time on online marketing sales. However, if you’re selling digitally don’t stop the non-digital interactions completely because they can give you great feedback and insights immediately.

What was the best bit of advice you’ve been given and who gave it to you?

Your brand is vitally important even from the start. This is especially important if you are trying to carve out a bit of the market and creating a long term future. This advice was given to us by an established brand strategist (Satpaul Bhamra) who helped us transition into Makers Cabinet. Sat helped us to identify our strengths, values, and dreams, It was a long process but incredibly valuable!

What’s your ambition for Makers Cabinet?

Whilst at University we went on a trip to Milan to visit factories and designers. One manufacturer created White Goods (fridges, ovens, blenders etc.). Visiting this company inspired us greatly because they had no conception of designing sustainably for the future, all that drove them was their bottom line! From that day forward we knew that our ambition is to build a company that will compete with large manufacturers by empowering customers with the choice of products that last and do away with planned obsolescence.