Creating Success around the World

Welcome to
Creating Success around the World

The worldwide blog hop tour, that introduces you to creative people from all corners of the globe.

Every Wednesday our hosts on each continent will introduce you to someone new whose creativity is inspiring!

Here's how you can take this worldwide tour with us:

You can follow all the hosts to support them and keep up to date with the fabulous posts they will share every week.  Then if you are inspired to join, just link up your own blog to make some new international friends.

Remember to leave us a comment when you follow us so we can follow you back! And of course we'd love if you added our button to your site to help spread the word!



<center><a href="http://theshinybubble.blogspot.com/search/label/creating%20success%20around%20the%20world"><img border="0" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5154/5885118262_70f75d2c7f_m.jpg"/></a></center> Here are your hosts:

Make sure you visit them all to see the inspiration and creative people every continent has to add to our community.


Australasia - Jill @ Creating my way to Success
Europe - Yaga @ The Shiny Bubble
North America - Suzy @ Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom
South America - Molly @ Marya Mariah
Asia - Janelle @ Of Pinks and Fairytales


Africa - Sadly, our African host is not able to participate in the Blog hop anymore. We are looking for somebody new to join the team - could it be you?! ;o)

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Kim is the power woman behind Finest Imaginary, where she sells jewelry, stationary and other cute things. I love her clear and unfailing sense of style, her clean-cut and still quirky designs. She also has a great and interesting blog called "HipHop side project", where you can find out more personal things about her.

Tell us a bit about your trade: What do you create, how and where do you sell your things,

how long have you been doing this?

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Under my brand, Finest Imaginary, I create a variety of things including jewellery, accessories, and printed stationery. The main focus at the moment is growing my brand and introducing different products. Finest Imaginary mainly trades online, where I sell through a website, etsy, folksy & dawanda. We also wholesale to a number of outlets across the globe. I’ve been working on Finest Imaginary for approximately 4 years, however, I recently quit my day job to concentrate on my craft full time!

Please, tell us a little bit about the place and the country that you live in.

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I live in Yorkshire, England. The town I live in is quite large, and not your typical ‘Yorkshire Countryside’ area, it has industrial & mill roots!

Do you think that your surroundings influence your creativity? How? 

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Of course! Everything should, and does, influence my creativity. It might be in quite a subconcious way, but it has to have some effect on the work I create. I can’t exactly pin down what, how, or why though!

How and why did you 'pick' your creative outlet of choice?

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It started off with my wanting to create a design that could be laser cut, that’s where the whole jewellery thing came from! Since then I’ve caught the bug of wanting to make more and more things from my own designs.

 

 Why did you decide to sell what you are creating?

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The things I create are very saleable items, and hustling my goods just comes naturally to me. I’ve always been interested in the business side of things, so it’s a great way to combine the two.

How did you start your business?

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As simple as it sounds, I just started selling. It all came quite naturally, and I didn’t really need any capital to get started - apart from around £50 to get my first lot of necklaces laser cut and buy the chains. Since then I’ve just been expanding and expanding!

What, in your opinion is your biggest strength in your creative life and how does it

influence your work?

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Versatility is key in a creative career, being able to harness a broad skillset is the only way to make a successful creative business work! The ability to switch your work to current trends is very important.

What would you regard as your greatest weakness in terms of your creativity and how do

you deal with it?

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I don’t allow myself time to develop new ideas, and actually sit and ‘make art’ enough. There’s sometimes just too much going on in other parts of my business and life to put aside the necessary time. I’ve been trying to set aside an hour or so each day to work on this, though. I’ll get there!

How do you stay motivated and inspired?

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I love what I do, and I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do it. That’s motivation and inspiration enough!

Where do you see yourself and your creative life in two years? Do you have any plans?

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Hopefully I’ll be still working on Finest Imaginary, but will have been able to ditch some of the supporting freelance work I do alongside (I do a little freelance web development, too). I’d love to have a full range of t-shirts available, and maybe one day a brick & mortar store?! Who knows!

What are your 5 hottest tips for people who want to be more successful with

creating?
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• Start selling, just set up an etsy store and test the waters. You’ll never know unless you try!
• Make sure your prices are right, don’t undercharge! Could you survive on your current retail prices?
• Get your online presence & branding sorted. I still struggle with this, I’m not perfect, but I still have packaging, a brand name, a well made website & business cards.
• Add more strings to your bow, I wrote about this on my blog here http://www.hiphopsideproject.com/working-for-yourself/adding-strings-bow/
• Remember why you make things & what you love about it, don’t let silly things like money get in the way of that, that’ll come in time. It’d suck to start resenting your creativity!!

Thank you so much for this energetic interview and your great tips, Kim!  

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Now it's your turn! Link up your posts: Inspiration, craftsy blahs, tutorials, tips or business talk: We wanna know! 
Link up your blog and you might be the next artist featured in our interviews!




New to the world tour? Check our previous tours here!